02.06. II. The Guilt of the; Jews (2:1-29).
II. The Guilt of the; Jews (Rom 2:1-29).
1. Therefore thou art inexcusable (Rom 2:1). In Rom 1:1-32 the Gentiles were shown to be without excuse, and here the same indictment is brought against the Jew—”thou art without excuse” (R.V.). The address, says Alford, passes gradually to the Jews. They were the people who judged—who pronounced all Gentiles to be born in sin and under condemnation: doubtless there were also proud and censorious men among the Gentiles, to whom the rebuke might apply, but these are hardly in the apostle’s mind. This is evident by comparing the charge, ‘thou that judgest doest the same things,’ with Rom 2:21-23, where the same charge is implied in a direct address to the Jew. In depicting the sin of the Gentile in the first chapter, says Dr. Stifler,
Paul did not name him. It was not necessary. The picture was so true to life that no one could fail to see who sat for it. The author has been assured more than once by returned missionaries from China and India that when this first chapter was read to intelligent natives of these heathen lands they have hesitated to believe that it was from the missionary’s sacred Book, suspecting that the missionary had written it himself as a description of what he had seen since he came among them. In this second chapter Paul has no one but the Jew in view. He does not mention his name until the discussion has advanced some distance. It was easy to prove the Gentile a sinner. He claimed nothing for himself, and his immorality was patent to every eye; Paul had only to point to the facts. But in the case of the Jew all was different. He had a divinely-given system of religion. In the letter it was never better observed than when Paul wrote. The Jew as a son of Abraham considered himself righteous by the law. To convince him of sin was no easier than it is to-day to convince a hollow Christianity of its fatal error. Paul has still his statement in view, that the gospel is the only power of God for salvation, and nothing to be ashamed of. If Judaism can save men, the gospel is an impertinence; hence the radical failure of the Jew must be shown.
2. The judgment of God is according to truth (Rom 2:2). This is the first of four principles here laid down as to the judgment of God. The Jew must not suppose that merely because he knew the will of God he therefore was safe from judgment. If he knew the Word of God, he must know that by that Word he should be judged (compare John 12:47-48).
3. To every man according to his deeds This is the second principle of judgment: it shall not be according to how much a man may know, but according to what he has done about it —according to his deeds. Of course, this is not the gospel: that is to come later; here the point is that the Jew, as well as the Gentile, is in sore need of the gospel.
4. For there is no respect of persons with God (Rom 2:11). This is the third principle of judgment: it will be strictly impartial (compare Deu 10:17; Eze 18:4; Acts 10:34; Rom 3:29-30; Rom 10:12-13) The Gentiles who have sinned without the law must perish, for the wages of sin is death; and the Jews who have sinned under the law must likewise perish, for the wages of sin is death. Do not make the mistake here of reading gospel for law. This is to miss the point entirely. What the Spirit by the apostle is showing is that apart from the gospel there could no flesh be saved, either Gentile or Jew. He is paving the way for the gospel.
5. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel (Rom 2:16). This is the fourth principle of (judgment: according to my gospel. Not according to the law, thank God! for then no flesh could be saved. As for the Jews—”the hearers of the law” (Rom 2:13)—they could not be justified, for they had not done the law; and as for the Gentiles, who had not the law (Rom 2:14), they were nevertheless condemned, for all had sinned without law. This will all be brought out in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men. Ah, who can stand in such a day as that?—”the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God!” Only righteousness will pass muster in that day—real righteousness, righteousness of the heart, righteousness even as to the secrets of men!• Because He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him from the dead (Acts 17:31). Except for the gospel, not a man could stand in that day. And we have not yet come to the gospel. Let us first see the great need for it.
6. Behold, thou art called a Jew (Rom 2:17). The implication here is that one might be called a Jew without being a Jew. Paul is proving that the so-called Jew is a helpless sinner in spite of all his boastings. He rested in the law, utterly failing to recognize it as an instruction in righteousness (2Ti 3:16); and made his boast of God, forgetting that God is a just God; he knew His will (Rom 2:18), and it never occurred to him that he ought to be obeying that will; he was a student of the Scriptures, able to distinguish the things that differ (Rom 2:18, R. V., margin), being instructed out of the law; he was therefore confident that he was a guide of the blind, a light of them (the Gentiles) which were in darkness (Rom 2:19), an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law (Rom 2:20). Here is a complete picture of what the Jew thought of himself. What God thought of him was another matter: the Holy Spirit is here proving him a lost sinner. Let us see.
7. Teachest thou not thyself? (Rom 2:21). Evidently the Jews had not thought of that. For the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles through them (Rom 2:24), as had been written of them beforehand (Isa 52:5; Eze 36:20).
8. For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law (Rom 2:25). A big and important if, surely! The Jew must learn that circumcision in itself could not save; it was after all only the sign of the covenant. ‘But,’ says the replier, ‘circumcision is a great fact’ ‘I confess it’ rejoins the apostle, ‘but when? When a man has that which is inward in the heart. And see here the apostle’s wisdom, how fittingly he has introduced his argument about it. He did not begin with it at once, since it was held in such great estimation: but when he has shown that they were offenders in a still greater matter, and were guilty of blasphemy towards God, then at length, having secured his readers’ condemnation of them, and having lowered them from their pre-eminence, he introduces his argument about circumcision, confident that no one ever will be found as its unlimited apologist (Chrysostom).
9. For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly (Rom 2:28-29). This summing up should be connected with Rom 2:17. Behold, thou art called a Jew. Well, he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. This goes to the core of the matter. Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts (Psa 51:6). The circumcision which is merely outward is in God’s sight only the concision. The true circumcision consists of those which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (Php 3:2-3).