You still reign and you are still God, you are mighty, you are strong, yet you hold me like a song.
”You are so precious to Me that I will always hold you as if you are a small bird, being careful not to squeeze, lest I hurt you. Yet my grip on you is as strong as the mightiest tempest, nothing, but nothing can ever tear you loose from my tender clasp. You are the only one who can separate yourself from fellowship with me by turning away from Me. Yet even then, though our fellowship may be damaged, My love will never let you go and I will ultimately fetch you even from the furthest shore. So be still and know that I am the most powerful God yet filled with tender covenant love for you”.
We continue with Romans in ch 2. We will read up to vs 16, but will deal with this section in two bites. Let us first remind ourselves where we are in the letter. The central issue is God’s righteousness and flowing from that the problem that all people are totally unrighteous and separated by a gulf which is caused by God’s wrath against all such unrighteousness. The gospel is the hope of the world to restore the harmonious relationship of man to God, which He originally intended.
After His introductory statement on the importance of the gospel, Paul has set out to prove to the reader that everyone on earth is equally unrighteous and therefore under God’s wrath and desperately needs this message. Last time he showed the progression from denying God, despite His revelation of Himself in His creation down to the deepest depths of sin. He ended with describing the onlooker to this sinful behaviour and declared that by approving of this behaviour they are equally guilty.
He starts today’s passage as if he is carrying on a discussion with an invisible person. The original sounds more like: “You, oh man…” He addresses the other people who are looking on at this deepening evil. You who look on at this sin and feel personally affronted because you aren’t like that at all! Is it not easy? No, even natural to view other people’s falling into sin and judging them and feeling good that you are not like that? You are better than that. This section addresses exactly those who live fairly moral lives and look at the “sinners” with revulsion or contempt, while patting themselves on the back that they are not like that. I am afraid many church goers fall into this category.
However Paul wants the reader to understand there is only One who is totally righteous and qualified to judge. When we pass judgement we are actually condemning the very actions and attitudes we ourselves have, because we are all equally guilty of unrighteousness.By doing this we show contempt towards God, because we are misunderstanding His attitude of patience towards all sinners and desire for them to repent and turn to Him. If it weren’t for that He could judge them immediately.
So by having this superior moral attitude, we are demonstrating our own sinfulness in our stubbornness and unrepentance and will have to face God’s wrath equally to all the other sinners. Paul then sets out the basis according to which God will judge.(vv 6 – 9). Now we have to be careful here because he is speaking about judgment and not salvation. This passage is not saying we will be judged according to these standards and that some will then be good enough to be saved. On the contrary he is at pains to show that all people Jew and Gentile will be equally subject to judgement. He is building a case for the need of the Gospel and Jesus’ work in salvation by everyone.
As we listen to Jesus, we have a very powerful message here for all of us today. It is almost inevitable that we subtly and subconsciously compare ourselves to others. God will not have that. He is the one who will Judge. He is calling on us to show loving kindness and compassion towards all others, otherwise we will be the people who will be judged. It so easy to be a little like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable who stood in the temple and said thank God I am not like that sinner there at the back.
Time for some deep reflection and maybe repentance today. May God bless you all till next week.