Sermon: “Justice Must Be Satisfied”

TEXT:  Romans 2:1-10 (page 758 of pew Bibles)

REVIEW

1.  Revelation of God’s wrath displayed, in part, now: The wrath of God has been revealed already in this amazing way – God hands us over to our own depravity.  We would rather not glorify Him.  We would rather not be thankful to Him in all things.  We prefer the creature to the Creator.  Therefore God gives us up to ourselves, and we see the revelation of His wrath against us in our own depraved passions.

2.  All under sin and all deserve death: While the Apostle uses the specific example of homosexual behavior to show our depravity, his point is not that some of us have the problem of depravity, and others do not.  His point is that all of us have this massive and heinous disease of sin, and that our sin deserves death.

 

TODAY’S PASSAGE:

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge,

for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself;

for you who judge practice the same things. 

2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. 

3 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same,

that you will escape the judgment of God? 

4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering,

not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 

5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day

  of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who "will render to each one according to his deeds": 

7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; 

8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness –

  indignation and wrath, 

9 tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; 

10 but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

 

 

1. The one who judges condemns himself.

            The one who judges someone for what he himself does is without excuse before God.  When he makes the case against another, it is as if he is prosecuting himself in the courtroom of God, and serving as a witness against himself.  In the courtrooms of this world, people can get away with much hypocrisy and injustice, and I am sure that many people do get away with many things – for a time.  But in God’s courtroom, we are brought before a Judge who knows all.  He cannot be fooled.  He knows what we do.  He knows how we judge others for the same things that we do.  He cannot be distracted.  He does not get confused.  He does not miss the key points of evidence.  He demands justice.  When we do the very things that we accuse others of doing, we are without excuse.  We testify against ourselves before God.

 

2. You do the same things.

            Paul is making the point in these first three chapters of this letter that all have sinned.  This is an essential point to make, so he is sparing no evidence in his efforts to bring about a conviction upon all.  He has made the point well in chapter one in talking about the whole world.  But there may be some who would think that he has only been talking about those who are outside of the covenant people – those who do not belong to the Jews, the people of God.  Now he must bring these words of conviction upon the “insiders” who might have thought themselves to be without guilt before God.  Paul must force them to face up to the facts.  If they remain without guilt, then they remain without the power of the gospel.  The gospel is for guilty people, not for innocent people.  Paul must pull out the stops, and he does so by asking three penetrating questions to those who are willing to admit that they do they very things that they judge other people for.

            First: Do you suppose that you will escape the judgment of God?  God is aware of your hypocrisy, and He is not so incompetent in the matters of justice that he would let someone go free, who judges others for offenses against God’s law, and then does the very things that he judges other people for.

            Second: Do you despise the riches of His goodness?  God is so rich to you who are called by His name.  He gives you such great blessings.  You get to hear His word.  You are marked with His signs.  You sing to Him.  You worship Him.  But when you judge another harshly, and then go ahead and do the very same thing could it be that you don’t think very much of the riches of God’s goodness toward you?

            Third: Do you not know that His goodness is to lead you to repentance?  Somehow it may seem like a normal thought to you that since you have God’s forgiveness, you do not need to be led by that great news into repentance.  This is not a normal thought.  It is a very disrespectful thought toward God.  God has been at work for your redemption for centuries.  He gave His Son up as a sacrifice for your sins.  He sent His Holy Spirit to call you to life.  Having heard of the forgiveness that you have through God’s good provision for His people, could it even remotely seem right that you would keep on going in what you know to be wrong, and then condemn others who sin, while you continue to do the same things?

            These are powerfully convicting questions.  They are convicting for us today.  They would have been convicting particularly for those in the Roman church who were Jewish, who might have been tempted to see themselves as a cut above the Gentiles.  It was absolutely essential that the Jews would hear these words, that they be cut to the heart, and that they would run to Christ in full repentance. 

Paul knew what he was talking about on this matter.  Some years before he wrote this letter, he watched coats for a group of knowledgeable people who put a man named Stephen to death.  Stephen was telling them the truth about their sin, but the Scriptures say that “they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.”  This is what we do when we condemn others and then do the very same things ourselves.  We stop our ears.  Paul was there that day.  He was one of them.  He approved of their murderous actions.  The answer for Paul came not when he was able to judge others for their sins.  The answer for Paul came when he was able to say that he was the chief of sinners.

 

3. God is just.

            In the last five verses of our passage today, Paul simply reminds those who have ears to hear that God is just.  This means that the guilty must be punished.  Guilty hypocrites that are so quick to judge others but end up doing the same things themselves are thereby twice guilty and self-condemned.  Paul says to those who may think of themselves as safe merely because they are Jews that they will be first in facing the justice of God’s wrath because of their hypocrisy, and that they are treasuring up evidence against themselves, storing it up for the day of final judgment.  While, as he said in the first chapter, there is a revelation of the wrath of God all around us even now in the foolishness of sin, there is a day of fuller wrath yet to come, and we need to remember that God will not be mocked.  Those who hear of God’s mercy must respond in faith and repentance, rather than in censorious presumption and hypocrisy.

            To make his point here, Paul quotes Psalm 62:12 that God “will render to each one according to his deeds.”  Read Psalm 62 to get the whole context.  Here is what it says.  God is the One who has power.  God is the one who has mercy.  God is the salvation of His people.  God is the rock of their strength.  His people will wait for Him, and turn toward Him, and they will turn away from sin, for He will render to each one according to his deeds.  I have been focusing on the sin and punishment side of justice, but it is just as important for us to see the righteousness and reward side of justice that Paul speaks of in verses 7 and 10.  Christ has done what is good for us, just as surely as he died for our self-seeking disobedience.  Both of these things were necessary that the requirements of God’s good justice would be met.

 

APPLICATION:

            It should be abundantly clear that however the mercy of God is going to come to us through the gospel, it must come with full satisfaction of the requirements of His justice.  Any so-called “gospel” where there is no justice is not a gospel that has anything to do with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Any so-called “gospel” that confirms us in our complacency as harsh critics of others who are slow to hear God’s truth and unwilling to repent is a “gospel” that has nothing to do with the good news that God brings through the cross and the Spirit.  Jesus Christ has met the full requirements of the justice of God for us through his perfect goodness and through the cross of God’s substitutionary justice, and God the Holy Spirit leads us to true faith, rigorous repentance, and startling forgiveness and gentleness toward others.

            We have been quick to judge others, as Paul himself was, and we are self-condemned in our own hypocrisy.  We must see the grace of God that leads us to repentance.  We must find joy and obedience because of the way that Jesus Christ has fulfilled not only the full mercy of God for the elect, but also the full justice of God for the elect.