Romans 2

After establishing the main themes of his book-length essay, in chapter 2 Paul begins to dig into the implications of how God deals with people. Of course God will dispense judgment, but it falls on everyone equally. God has no favorites and so we are all in the same boat. The good news is that, throughout the Bible, both in the Hebrew scriptures and in the New Testament, the purpose of God is redemption.

The opening of this section can well be translated: So you have no excuse, all you people who judge; by judging others you condemn yourselves because you practice what you condemn. The exclamation often rendered "... o man" is o ánthrope. Anthropos is the word for human being, not a male person. That word is aner. One clear implication is that we men are not any better off nor less culpable because we are male. Paul repeats the word in verse 3. How seldom we stop to think about it in this light!

Verse 4 sums up what Paul is getting at: "Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" (NRSV). Repentance is a key New Testament word. Both John the Baptist and Jesus opened their preaching by saying "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand." Accordingly, it is important to understand clearly what repentance means. Our cultural concept (being sorry for what one has done) is inadequate. In Hebrew, the word for repentance (shuv) means to realize that you are on the wrong road and to turn aside or back to join the right road, the one that leads to God. It calls for changing your lifestyle. The Greek word (metanoia) implies to change your way of thinking, your intentions, your goals and aspirations. Taken together, this means that to repent, in the Biblical sense, is to change your way of life and your world view. This is huge. It's what Jesus meant when he said that if we want to be his disciples, we are to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow him. I take it to mean, obey Jesus, wherever he leads and whatever it costs. I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, our usual religiousness just doesn't cut it.

Paul means that we all, in our disbelief, hardness of heart, and assurance of our own rightness of purpose, condemn ourselves. He says several times that the principle applies to the Jew first and then to the Gentile (literally "the Greek"). God shows favor first to the Jew and then to the Greek and condemns disobedience, first that of the Jew and then that of the Greek. In dealing with time-bound humanity, God started dealing with us at a certain point in time with a specific individual (Abraham). So the Jew is first in chronological order because God, in entering into our world, had to start somewhere. But since God has been dealing with the Jew for so much longer in human terms, the Jew has more responsibility and is more liable for disobeying God. The Gentile, if doing what is right because of what nature (God's creation) reveals and follows, then God honors that. However, the fact is that we are all disobedient and rebellious (sinners) and all equally in need of redemption.

Paul's discussion here is important to what he expounds in the following sections. We are all in need of Jesus, because "God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all (v. 16, NRSV). In the remainder of what we know as chapter 2, Paul reworks the preceding theme. The Jewish law and circumcision are really secondary. The last two verses read: "A person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart -- it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives praise not from others but from God." There is a lot there. These verses should be read and reread carefully and their implication completely thought through.

I don't claim to deal with every verse, because this is not a detailed Bible commentary. I hope to highlight the main teaching of Paul and to explore the themes he sets out, interpreting them by what Jesus did and thought. Next up: Chapter 3 of Romans.