Paul continues his message to the Roman believers by completely knocking down any delusions of self-sufficiency or self-righteousness. In Christ, there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free; we are all one in Christ Jes...us. There is no partiality with God (vs. 11) and He renders to each one according to his deeds (vs. 6). A frequent source of friction in the early church (and the source of much denunciation from non-believing Jews) was the active inclusion of Gentiles into the body of Christ. For a righteous Jew, Gentiles as a whole were unclean, depraved, and generally considered to be given over to the “debased mind” Paul described in the previous chapter. They would have been smirking their approval when Paul suddenly flipped the tables around with a stunning rebuke in the first verse of chapter two: “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.”
Jew and Gentile, Paul argued, are both equally guilty in the sight of the holy God. How could the Jews claim superior righteousness when they, who had the Law, had never perfectly kept it? Only one human has ever met God’s standard: Jesus Christ. So who were the real people of God and keepers of the law – the ones who bore the outward sign of circumcision and yet were inwardly unclean and depraved, or the ones who may or may not have borne the outward signs, yet whose hearts had been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ and who possessed the transforming Spirit of the Living God?
The Lord is not a respecter of persons. He could care less about your pedigree, your resume, your references, or your worldly assets and successes. He could care less about your excuses, self-justifications, or so-called righteousness. All those things make no difference to Him. Likewise, your failures, your sinful past, and your utter depravity are also irrelevant. There is only one choice that matters, one choice that can either condemn you or save you: your choice about Jesus. Accept Him personally as your Lord and Savior, and you are immutably His child forever; reject Him, and you will spend eternity suffering the consequences.
“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, who ‘will render to each one according to his deeds’: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignatio
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done, or what your heritage might be or what blood flows through your veins. You might be considered the most respectable person on planet Earth, but if you do not have Christ, you are still guilty. You might be the most monstrous criminal on planet Earth, but if you have Christ, He will present you spotless before His Father in heaven. It’s not about who we are or what we can do; it’s about who the Lord is and what He has done. Jesus paid my debt and has imputed His righteousness to my account. And His Spirit works in me, I’m changing. He gives me fruit. He’s put His law on my heart. He gives me the grace and the desire to do His will. Each day He conforms me more into the image of His Son, and I know, with absolute certainty, that none of the credit belongs to me. It’s all Him, His power, His Spirit, and His grace. And it’s all there for the asking. Give Him your heart, and He will do something with it that is exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think.
1 John 3:1-2, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
Jew and Gentile, Paul argued, are both equally guilty in the sight of the holy God. How could the Jews claim superior righteousness when they, who had the Law, had never perfectly kept it? Only one human has ever met God’s standard: Jesus Christ. So who were the real people of God and keepers of the law – the ones who bore the outward sign of circumcision and yet were inwardly unclean and depraved, or the ones who may or may not have borne the outward signs, yet whose hearts had been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ and who possessed the transforming Spirit of the Living God?
The Lord is not a respecter of persons. He could care less about your pedigree, your resume, your references, or your worldly assets and successes. He could care less about your excuses, self-justifications, or so-called righteousness. All those things make no difference to Him. Likewise, your failures, your sinful past, and your utter depravity are also irrelevant. There is only one choice that matters, one choice that can either condemn you or save you: your choice about Jesus. Accept Him personally as your Lord and Savior, and you are immutably His child forever; reject Him, and you will spend eternity suffering the consequences.
“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, who ‘will render to each one according to his deeds’: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignatio
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done, or what your heritage might be or what blood flows through your veins. You might be considered the most respectable person on planet Earth, but if you do not have Christ, you are still guilty. You might be the most monstrous criminal on planet Earth, but if you have Christ, He will present you spotless before His Father in heaven. It’s not about who we are or what we can do; it’s about who the Lord is and what He has done. Jesus paid my debt and has imputed His righteousness to my account. And His Spirit works in me, I’m changing. He gives me fruit. He’s put His law on my heart. He gives me the grace and the desire to do His will. Each day He conforms me more into the image of His Son, and I know, with absolute certainty, that none of the credit belongs to me. It’s all Him, His power, His Spirit, and His grace. And it’s all there for the asking. Give Him your heart, and He will do something with it that is exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think.
1 John 3:1-2, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
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