Romans 2:12-29 "Is God Really Impartial?"

1:13And most importantly, people do not have access to the Bible, to God's law, to his written word. And yet, the Bible teaches that God is going to judge all. People by his law, his perfect standard of righteousness, which is found in God's Word. Every person will stand before him one day to be judged by that law. So let me ask an uncomfortable question. Is that fair? Last week we covered Romans 2, 1 through 11, and we saw that God's judgment is inescapable and it's impartial.

2:04And in the final verse of that section, verse 11, Paul wrote this, For God shows no partiality. We talked about the fact that partiality is when you show favoritism. It's when you unjustly treat one person or one group of people better than you treat another person or another group of people. It's showing favoritism. And Paul says here in verse 11, for God shows no partiality. But it does not seem that way, does it? It seems like God does show partiality because, as we've already noted, there are people who have access to the Bible, to God's Word, to His law, and people who do not, and who will never have access to it in their entire life. That does not seem impartial.

3:00That does not seem fair. So, in today's text, Paul is going to show his work, as we might say. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul is going to prove to us that God is impartial, that he does not show favoritism, but that he justly judges all people on earth. And so, this morning, I want to walk through this text and answer three important questions: Is God fair to those who don't have his word? Is God fair to those who do have his word?

3:42And finally, what does God want from us? So, before we answer those questions, we've got to lay the foundation for this whole section, which is what Paul does in verses 12 and 13. So, let's take a look there at verse 12: For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

4:18And these verses are critically important for understanding the rest of this section. So, I don't want you to allow the section headings, the divisions that are in your modern Bible, throw you off. Those were added later on and generally provide clarity, but sometimes they muddy the waters. And I think that happens here because you probably have a section heading between verse 11 and verse 12. Mine says, God's judgment and the law. Okay? That's a helpful summary of what is to come, but it breaks up the text. So look back at verse 11 again. For God shows no partiality. Okay, God shows no favoritism. Paul, how do we know that? How do we know that it's true that God shows no favoritism?

5:03Verse 12. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. Paul says, if you sin without the law, that is, without the knowledge of God's word, then you're going to die without the law. You will not be judged by the law. But if you sin under the law, if you have access to it, if you know it, read it, have heard it, then you are going to be judged by the law. So what Paul is saying, friends, is that God does not judge people unfairly by what they don't know. Paul is saying that God judges all people fairly based on what they do know.

5:51Look at verse 13. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law. The law who will be justified. So here's Paul expanding on that question from last week: Who is counted righteous before God? Who's justified? Is it just people who hear the law, who know it, who have access to it? No, it's the people who do what the law requires. That is what the previous section is all about.

6:20Those who are righteous in God's sight, those who will be justified, are those who do what God requires. God is all about action. The whole Bible affirms that message. It's not about what you know, it's not about what you think, it's not about how you feel, it is about what you do. God is about doing what He commands. And what are God's commands? We just highlighted some of them in our confession a few moments ago. We are called by God to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

6:55We're called to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We're called to do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with God. Those are his commands. This is what God requires. And either you do those things or you don't do those things. If you do what God requires, you'll be counted righteous. If you don't do what God requires, you will not. Friends, those are God's terms. Those are the foundation. That is the foundation of his impartial judgment. God does not judge people based on what they don't know.

7:30He judges people based on what they do know. And doers of the law will be justified. So that is the foundation for the text. So now let's get into that first question. Is God fair to those who don't have his word? Look at verse 14 with me. For when Gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

8:28Now, many people believe that moral values come exclusively from social conditioning. In other words, the reason that you think something is right or wrong is because your family thinks that thing is right or wrong. Your neighbors think that thing is right or wrong. Americans think that thing is right or wrong. Many people think that that's where moral values come from, is social conditioning. But friends, if that were true, then we would have found many people groups at This point, who have vastly different moral values than every other people group on the earth.

9:08But that is not the case. For centuries, anthropologists have noted that people all over the world share many of the same moral values, values that look suspiciously like the Ten Commandments. All people seem to agree that things like murder, adultery, stealing, and lying are wrong. Now, to be sure, some people think that it is justifiable to murder the family of a rival warrior who killed your brother. But the whole point is you're upset that he killed your brother.

9:48You think murder is wrong. And some people may think that a man should only have one wife, or three wives, or 25 wives. But nobody thinks that a man can have another man's wife. And nobody thinks that a man can have any woman that he wants. You might try to argue that you don't think stealing or lying is wrong, but you do not want your stuff stolen and you don't want to be lied to. These are universal moral values. And so look at verse 15.

10:28They show that the work Of the law is written on their hearts. God has put his law into all hearts, every single one. And not only that, look at what he says next in verse 15. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness. See, that word conscience means with knowledge, con science, with knowledge. We do everything that we do in life with the knowledge that it is either right or it's wrong. That is what the conscience is.

11:09You murder and you know what you've done is wrong. You commit adultery, you know it's wrong. You lie or you steal and your conscience will bear witness against you. Friends, where does that come from? Where does that come from for an American or a person who lives on a remote island in Southeast Asia or a person in the heart of Africa? Where does that come from? It comes from God. He put his law into all hearts, your heart, my heart, every single heart in the world.

11:48And he's given every single person that he has ever created a conscience, a sensor inside of us that says, you shouldn't do that. Or after we've done so, You shouldn't have done that. But here's the problem. If we go back to the end of chapter 1, verse 28, Paul says that God has given us over to a debased mind. So God has written His Word on our hearts. He's given us a conscience so that we know that whatever we do is right or wrong. But then a battle erupts in our minds over what we know to be true and over what our consciences are saying. Look at verse 15 again.

12:36They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. Have you been in that battle before? Every one of us has been in this battle. You're thinking about doing something that you know in your heart is wrong, and your conscience tells you, don't do that. It's wrong. But then in your mind, you're thinking, but it's not that big of a deal.

13:19But they'll never know what's missing. But I deserve this. I work so hard. I give so many hours. But we love each other in our hearts. We're married in our hearts. Your thoughts excuse you. And then you do that thing. You commit adultery. You lie. You steal. You know it was wrong. Your conscience tells you it's wrong. And now you're thinking to yourself, what you did was wrong. Your thoughts accuse you. So back and forth we go. Your conscience... Tells you something's wrong, and your thoughts accuse you, and then they excuse you. They excuse you, and then they accuse you. That is the battle. So, friends, think about all that we've learned in our study of Romans so far. Nobody can stand before God on the day of judgment and say, I did not know you existed. Why?

14:20Because, as we saw in chapter 1, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived through what has been made so that everyone is without excuse. We all know that God exists. And nobody can stand before God on the day of judgment and say, I didn't know what you required. Why? Because God has written his law on our hearts. And he's given us a conscience that tells us that what we have done or what we are about to do is right or wrong.

14:58So is God fair to God? Those who do not have his word? Yes. Yes, he is. On the day of judgment, no one will have an excuse. God has revealed himself through what he has made, and he has revealed his requirements by writing his law on our hearts. So, as Paul said in verse 12, these people who do not have the law, they will perish without the law. God does not judge them based on what they don't know. He's going to judge them based on what they do know. And because of creation, because of their conscience, because of the word written on their hearts, they know enough to be condemned.

15:45They know God's word, but they have not obeyed it. They've sinned against God, and they know it from their consciences and their waffling thoughts which excuse or accuse them. So God is fair to those who do not have his word. And that brings us to the next question. Is God fair to those who do have his word? Let's pick up in verse 17. But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed. From the law, and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth. Let me pause there.

16:50In the previous section, we saw that God has put his law into all hearts, he has written his law on every heart. But the Jews were different. You and I are different. God hasn't just put his law on our hearts, he's put his law in our hands. The Jews were the descendants of Abraham, a pagan man who was living his life and minding his own business when God appeared to him and promised to bless him and make a great nation out of him and bless all of the families of the earth through him. Abraham's descendants multiplied and became known as Jews, a shortened form of the word Judah, which means to praise. They were enslaved for 400 years, and God used a man named Moses to lead them out of slavery in Egypt. And after Moses led them out of slavery, God revealed his law to Moses. 613. Commands that would set the Jewish people apart from every other nation on earth and mark them off as God's special people.

18:10So, by the time that Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, the Jews had been studying God's law for about 1,500 years. They'd been hearing it, reading it, studying it for a millennium and a half. As a result, how did the Jewish people think of themselves? Well, Paul outlines that here starting in verse 17. They called themselves Jews. In other words, they were proud of who they were. They owned their identity. They weren't pagans. They weren't Gentiles. They were God's special people.

18:47They relied on the law. Every part of their lives were governed by those 613 commands. They relied on the law in the sense that they believed God when He said, if you keep my commandments, you will live. So they relied on the law. They boasted in God. They didn't worship or serve a wooden statue or a stone carving or a metal image. No, they served the one true God of heaven and earth, and they were proud of that.

19:23They knew his will and approved what is excellent. This is similar language to what we heard at the end of the day. End of chapter 1, verse 32. The Jews knew God's will because he had revealed it to them, and they approved what is good because they knew the will of God. They had been instructed in the law. They had it in their hearts, and they had it in their hands. And friends, they knew that they were supposed to point every other nation on the earth, all the other people, to God.

19:56They were supposed to be people who were guides and lights. That's what God told Abraham, the father of the Jews, that his descendants would bless all the people on the earth. And look at what the prophet Isaiah says. I think Paul is picking up on this in this text. Isaiah 42, I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison, those who sit in darkness.

20:39And so the Jews thought of themselves as God's witnesses, his missionaries on the earth. They thought of themselves as guides to the blind, a light in the darkness, an instructor of the foolish, an instructor and teacher of children. And that is because God gave them his law. He calls it in verse 20 the embodiment. Of knowledge and truth. The Jewish people had the truth. They had God's law. They knew His will. They understood themselves to be God's representatives and ambassadors here on the earth.

21:16But don't miss this. That meant that God also held them to a higher standard. Because the Jews didn't just have God's law in their hearts, they had it in their hands, just like you and me. So Paul asks a series of questions, and these questions don't just apply to first-century Jewish Christians living in Rome. They apply to you and me today, to anyone who has access to God's word. Look at verse 21. You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, dishonor God by breaking the law. For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

22:27Now, much like he did in verses 1 through 11, Paul. Paul is reminding the Jews that they are not going to escape judgment just because they know God's law or because they know God's gracious character. In fact, they're going to be held to a higher standard, a stricter standard, because of all that they know. Sadly, many of them were not going to be able to stand in the judgment because they did not practice what they taught. They knew God's will and they boasted in the law, but they didn't do what it said. Like we talked about last week, they were hypocrites. Their hypocrisy dishonored God. Paul says in verse 23, when we boast in the law, when we boast in our identity as believers, and then we break God's law, we dishonor him. Hypocrisy is sin that dishonors the Lord.

23:17And as every one of us knows, hypocrisy has a devastating effect on other people. Saying one thing and doing something else makes people lose trust in everything you say, everything you do, and everything you stand for. And that's just what Paul says. Verse 24 again: for as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. When people who have God's word in their hands dishonor God with their lives, people who do not have God's word in their hands, Dishonor him with their lips.

24:05Think about that. God has revealed himself to everyone through what he has made and through writing his law on our hearts. And we, God's people, are supposed to be guides to the blind, a light in the darkness. We're supposed to be God's missionaries, his ambassadors, his representatives here on earth. We should be adding to what others already know about God from creation and from their own hearts. But instead, many people who have God's law, who are part of God's people, who are supposed to teach and reinforce the truth, lead others astray by their hypocrisy.

24:45So what happens if people who don't actually have the law do what it says and people who do actually have the law don't do what it says? This is the question Paul answers in verse 25. Look there. For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law. But if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law Will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision, but break the law.

25:40Now, you may know that after God made his covenant with Abraham, he gave him the sign of circumcision. This sign that God would keep every promise that he made to Abraham to bless him and make a great nation of him and bless all of the families of the earth through him. Circumcision was the sign of that covenant. And so every Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day of his life as a reminder of God's covenant with Abraham. Now, kids, if you don't know what circumcision is, ask your parents. I ain't doing all that this morning.

26:20Now, remember, we are trying to answer the question: is God fair to those who do have his word? We just saw that the Jews, the people who do have God's word, are disobeying it. They're not doing what God commands. Now, I do not like math, but sometimes there is math in the Bible, and believe it or not, there is math in this passage here. You may have picked up on that. So, let me put the equations up here on the screen. I don't actually know if these are equations. I'm just using that word.

26:54I think that's what it means when you have an equal sign, so we'll go with that. All right. Circumcision minus obedience equals uncircumcision. Uncircumcision plus obedience equals circumcision. So look at that first equation. In verse 25, Paul says, if you are circumcised, which is shorthand for saying if you're part of the Jewish people, if you profess to be one of God's people, if you are circumcised, but you disobey God's word, then your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. It is as though you are not part of God's people because you aren't living like one of God's people.

27:46Circumcision minus obedience equals uncircumcision. But now look at that second equation. In verse 26, Paul says, if you aren't circumcised, but you obey God's law, your uncircumcision will be counted as circumcision. It is as if you are one of God's people. Why? Because you are actually living like one of God's people, keeping his word. Uncircumcision plus obedience equals circumcision. So in verse 27, Paul says, the person who is physically uncircumcised, that's a very important phrase, physically uncircumcised, but keeps the law, will condemn the one who is. Circumcised physically, but who breaks the law?

28:36Is God fair to those who do have the law? Absolutely. He doesn't show partiality to them, he doesn't show favoritism to them. There is no favoritism shown to people who do have God's law, but don't keep it. God will treat them as though they are not his people because they are not living like his people. So, where does that leave us? What does God want from us? Verse 28: For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man, but from God.

29:33Friends, Paul is saying that those who are truly God's people do not just have the outward appearance of belonging to God. For Jews, it was not merely being circumcised and knowing God's law. For us, it is not merely being baptized and going to church and taking the Lord's Supper. And wearing Christian jewelry and praying before meals and knowing Bible verses, God's people don't just have the outward appearance of belonging to God. They belong to God on the inside, from the heart. That is what Paul is saying here. And that's because true circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter. Why would Paul use that language?

30:30Look at what God promised in Ezekiel. He says through the prophets, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. Think about all Paul talked about in chapter 1. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you. Listen to this, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

31:10God promised to wash away his people's sins, to give them new hearts, to put a new spirit within us, his Holy Spirit. He promised to cause us to walk in his statutes and obey his rules. And friends, we need that because we cannot do it on our own. It is impossible apart from God. God. You see, many Jews did all of the right things on the outside. They were circumcised, they kept the Sabbath, they kept the feasts. Outwardly, they obeyed the law. And so many professing Christians are in the same boat. We've been baptized, we attend church regularly, we have quiet times, we read the Bible. All of these things on the outside say that we are part of God's people, but on the inside, it's a different story. And we might be able to fool one another, but we cannot fool God. Look at what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? In other words, did we not look the part on the outside? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

32:47Oh, friends, what terrifying words to hear. I never knew you. One day God is going to judge all of the secrets of men. One day we will stand before Him as We really are, not as who we have pretended to be. And on that day, if your faith is merely outward, if it is nothing more than going through the motions for the sake of appearances, then Jesus will say, I never knew you. Remember Paul's words in verse 13: it is not the hearers of the law who will be justified, it is the doers of the law who will be justified. Those who are righteous in God's sight, those who truly belong to Him, have been circumcised in the heart by the Spirit. And as a result, they obey from the heart. They do the right things from the right motivation, with the right attitude and the right intention, and as a result, they receive praise from God.

33:51Now, if you have heard this passage and everything that Paul has taught to this point in the book of Romans, and you're thinking to yourself, who has done that? Who has always obeyed God's law from the heart? You have understood the assignment. The whole point of Romans 1 through 3 is to show that nobody lives up to God's perfect standard. People that don't have God's law don't live up to God. To his perfect standard. They know what they're doing is right or wrong, and they don't do it. People who do have God's law do not live up to God's standard. We know both from our hearts and our consciences and from the written word that what we're doing is right or wrong, and we don't do what we're supposed to do. There is nobody that can stand before God with an excuse.

34:53But, friends, the good news of the gospel is that God sent his only begotten Son, Jesus, to save us from our law-breaking, from the laws that we have broken that we know in our hearts, and from the laws that we have broken that we have written down in front of us in his word. God sent Jesus to save us, and when he began his ministry, he said, Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them. I have come to fulfill them. And every day of his life, he obeyed God's law perfectly. He was born to a Jewish family, and on the eighth day he was circumcised according to the law. Every day of his life, he did exactly what he was supposed to do, and he did nothing that he was not supposed to do. He was tempted in every way, just like you and me are, but he was without sin.

35:50And so when he went to offer his life in your place and mine, he was able to offer his life as a perfect sacrifice, the perfect spotless. Lamb that we needed. No one can atone for their own sins, but Jesus can atone for your sins because he obeyed God's law perfectly from the heart with the right attitudes and motivations every single day of his life on earth. He died, was buried, and rose again from the grave, proving that God accepted his sacrifice on your behalf and mine.

36:26And so, this morning, whether for the first time or just for the first time today, look to Jesus Christ. Do not look to your own righteousness. Do not look to your own efforts at lawkeeping. They will not be good enough. It doesn't matter how many commands you obey or partially obey. If you break one of God's commands, the word says you are guilty of breaking all of it because the same God gave all of the commands.

36:57And so look to Jesus Christ. You cannot be saved by anyone else or by anything else. Everyone who looks to Jesus will never be put to shame because God, the impartial judge, will receive you by faith through Jesus Christ, the perfect lawkeeper. Let's pray. Father, I pray right now for those among us who maybe it's their first day in church, maybe they've been going to church their whole life, but their consciences are pricked this morning. They know that what they've been doing, how they've been living, the thoughts they've been thinking, the things that they've been looking at, the things they've been participating in, that those things are wrong.

38:14And you're showing that to them afresh this morning. I pray that every one of them, man, woman, and child, would turn from their sin and receive Jesus this morning, would cry out to him to save them from their sins. And God, I pray for every one of us who are part of your people, who do believe and who do follow Christ, but who see so much failure, so much disobedience, so much sin in our lives. I pray that we wouldn't gloss over it, that we wouldn't excuse it, that we wouldn't try to cover it up, but that we would confess it. Confess it to you, confess it to others, and turn from it.

39:18We do not want to be hypocrites who lead people astray. We certainly do not want to be among those who fought and professed to know you, but you never knew us. And so, Lord, I pray that we would look to Jesus. Your promises are sure. And you say that when we look to Christ, when our faith is in Him, that we will be counted righteous, we will be forgiven. Help us to hope in Jesus and not in our performance.

39:56Thank you, God, for your word, your word that is written on our hearts, and especially your word that you have put into our hands. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.