Romans 5 - God's Principles of Judgment (Mark Lanier)
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Introduction & Legal Background
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Bernard: I am very, pumped and I'll warn you now, we are creatures. Who read things and, and we read them from our life perspective. And I try real hard to try to get out of mark and read things, uh, more authentic to the author. But sometimes I just can't get myself out of the way to some degree that may be here today, but I don't think so.
I think today it actually helps for me to be Mark, as I read this [00:01:00] passage, let me tell you why. I'm a lawyer if you don't know that. I went to law school. I teach at, at law schools periodically. I've, spent several times, uh, uh, I've been, asked to come up and to teach at Harvard Law School, and it's really kind of cool and I go up there and you see all these people walking around in these t-shirts and, and you see them coming and they've got that Harvard t-shirt on and you see them leaving and you.
Yeah, that's the back of those t-shirts that they wear up there. I don't need to wear those t-shirts 'cause I actually went to Texas Tech University School of Law and know what it is. But when you go to law school, there are certain things you learn and learning those things in law school comes in really handy.
When you're reading [00:02:00] and studying, Romans two, one through 11, law School is your best friend. So I've entitled this section of Romans, God's Principles of Judgment, and I think it's appropriate now, one of the books that is prominent in many Lawyers Library is called Blacks. Law Dictionary. It is a dictionary that has words in it with legal definitions of those words, and that's very important because in the law there are a number of words that are legal words.
Some of those words exist in the English language. They're just used in a more particular way. In a legal setting. Now I'm not [00:03:00] talking about words like tort, which if you add an E to it is a cake. If you don't, it's when you slip on the banana and you get sued. That's a tort in law, but it's spelled differently.
I'm talking about words that are even spelled the same. So you can talk about, you can go to the amusement park and and talk about motion sickness. Or you can go into a courtroom and talk about motion sickness, but you're talking about something very different. You're talking about the motions that people file all the time.
Motion in a legal setting isn't movement. It's a legal pleading where you're asking the judge to do something. It's where you say, your Honor, I move for the court to do this. But when you say, I move for the court to do this, you're not talking about calling up Mayflower, the moving ban, that's a different kind of move.
These [00:04:00] words are particular to the practice of law. Uh, we have five kids. We know what it means to complain. I can tell you my five kids. They would come to me or they would come to their mom and they would complain all the time. Sometimes, occasionally, some more than others, but in law, I file complaints all day long.
That same word is used for the lawsuit initiation process. It's a complaint, and when I file a complaint, do you know what the other side has to do? They have to file an answer. They don't say, Hey there, that's not the answer. The answer is a legal pleading. They have to file. Sometimes you file a brief and some a a a motion and someone files a reply, and it's a [00:05:00] normal word, but it's got a particular usage in a legal setting.
Uh, the word party. It is not Yeehaw. It's someone who's either getting sued or doing the suing. They are a party to the lawsuit. Um, if something is material, it's not talking in a legal setting about fabric, it's talking about something that has a legal relevance. You can talk about instruments and you're not talking about the oboe or blowing a frugal horn or something.
An instrument is a legal document that affects something. Well, here's a good one. A brief is in law, one of the longest things you got, they have to put page limitations on briefs because a brief is [00:06:00] anything but brief. It's a legal document and support. Uh, of, of something. Um, if, if someone wants to bring a lawsuit under the law, they must have standing.
What does that mean for that matter? Did you know? If you're a witness, the judge will call and will tell you, take the stand and do you know what you do? You sit down. But that's just leftover legal terminology from England where the witnesses had to stand. So all of this legal terminology is out there, and I'm just talking legal terminology that you have to learn in law school.
I haven't even covered the procedures and the processes. You have to learn. But there are standard procedures and standard processes. Now, is this an invention of the US of a? [00:07:00] No. This has been around as long as there has been courts and litigation. Oh, the words might vary. The procedures might vary, but you can go back to Rome.
Did you know in Rome they loved. A good lawsuit. Ancient Rome, I'd have been right at home. They were the most litigious people we're nothing compared to them as long as and, and, and intricate law too. Now, when we say that the Roman law changed widely over the 700 years that Rome kind of existed. And scholars try to hard you, you, you can't just say, well, this was what the law was in Rome.
You have to kind of put it in in different time eras. But Roman law is highly developed. [00:08:00] Roman law was, was uh, uh, something we know a great deal about. And Paul did too. So here's what we're gonna do today. I want to talk to you about Paul's legal background. Then after I do that, I want us to read Romans two, one through 11, thinking as a lawyer, and then we'll do our points for home.
Alright, let's start with Paul's legal background out.
Paul's Jewish Legal Background
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Bernard: Paul lived with. One foot in the Jewish world and one foot in the Roman world, he will say, I'm a Jew to Jew and a Greek to Greeks. He has no trouble quoting the Old Testament and the Jewish prophetic writings and the Jewish wisdom literature. He has no trouble quoting the philosophers, the poets, and the playwrights of the pagan [00:09:00] world.
Paul has no trouble with either one. So when we say Paul's legal background, we need to divide it up. Let's talk first about what we know about Paul's Jewish legal background. Because just as the Roman world had its court system, because Judaism was an accepted legal religion. In the Roman world, the Jews were allowed to self enforce in their own courts.
Now, they couldn't violate the Empire rules, but within their own. Land and their own people within their religion. They were allowed to handle things with their own court system. That's part of the, the Roman Empire was not like the United States of America where you've got the state of Texas down here, like they had the state of Judea over there.[00:10:00]
Uh, it, it was an empire in the sense that there were different types of cities with different types of structures, with different types of approval, with different citizenship, with different laws, with different enforcement, different religious, uh, uh, uh, backs. Uh, groups were allowed to do their own thing, so it, it was very different.
Don't have time to get into all of that, but it is important that we understand that the Jewish. Religion had its own court system.
Paul, when he's been arrested, said, I am a Jew. I'm educated at the feet of Gamal, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers. The Torah, both the written Torah and [00:11:00] what they considered an oral Torah comprised their legal code. It was their law system. It's, it's, it was what is legal and illegal.
It explained how you sue someone. Did you know if you, if, if you. If, if an ox gores someone, you, you got a lawsuit. If your ox is known to be a goer, 'cause it's gored someone before you get punitive damages. That's in the law, that's in the Jewish law. There's a good bit of our law that has evolved from the Jewish law.
Paul was educated in the law of the Jewish system.
Gamal
was a Pharisee, the Pharisee's, [00:12:00] big time law centered people. A Pharisee in the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin, I'll talk about in a moment, a Pharisee in the Sanhedrin named Gamal, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people. He is a law professor. He teaches the law, but he's more than that. That word teacher of the law here is probably Luke's effort at a rabban.
Um, we, we need to talk about the Sanhedrin
in Jerusalem was the great Sanhedrin. It's, it's the equivalent of the Jewish Supreme Court. In various other places they'd have smaller Sanhedrin, but the really big cases came to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court was presided over by what later became [00:13:00] known. As the Rabban or the Nazi. He, he, that's, that's later language, but the responsibility was there.
And you can go to the Jewish writings and read about Paul's law mentor since Rabban. And that means he's the head, he's the chief. He's the, the, the, the, the chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Gamal, the elder died. This was Paul's instructor, Gamal the elder. His name continued through offspring For several generations, there has been no more reverence for the law and purity and abstinence died out at that same time.
Rabon, the The Rabon. The Gamal was. The [00:14:00] chief justice, and that's who was Paul's mentor. Paul was Rabon, Gamal's, right hand. Paul not only learned his law from him, but he would've been carrying his briefcase everywhere. It. We can read a lot about this, but, but know that Paul is the student of the chief judge of the highest court in Israel.
He's got amazing credentials from a legal perspective. If you understand the way the courts worked, you see Paul not just holding the coat of the people who stoned Steven. But Paul was the main prosecutor behind it. Paul gets the papers from the Great Sanhedrin, their highest court to go [00:15:00] arrest people in Damascus.
He is, he is a prosecutor. He is someone who is in court making arguments. He's, he's an attorney general, if you will. In our modern equivalency, though, you can't really do modern equivalencies, but, but the Torah, the law is something that Paul was well trained in as a Jewish lawyer. Now, let's talk about Paul's Roman legal background.
Paul's Roman Legal Background
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Bernard: Syn populace, K Romanis, SPQR. That's, Latin. What it means is the citizens and the ci, well, the Senate and the citizens of Rome, the citizens of Rome, had [00:16:00] unique legal privileges under Roman law, a citizen of Rome again. Is a citizen of the city of Rome, not a citizen of the Empire. It's not like I'm a US citizen.
It'd be the equivalent of me saying, I'm a citizen of Houston. I have citizenship in this city now because Rome is, was what Rome was and because the Roman Empire was owned or controlled by Rome, by the Senate and the citizens of Rome. Then the rights of Roman citizens had to be recognized throughout the empire, but Paul's citizenship was in Rome.
So the law in Rome started out hundreds of years before Paul, with the publication of these 12 tables that codified the law for the city of [00:17:00] Rome and its citizens and others. And over time, this obviously changed quite a bit and the legal process changed quite a bit. And it's highly developed by the time of Paul.
One of the most, uh, well, no, no. Strike that. The most well known today Roman lawyer in the first century was Cicero. And we've got a lot of his speeches and we've got a lot of his writings. And Cicero, was an orator, a lawyer. Of first rate, and here's a statue of it, and he's got his right hand extended because that was the form you took when you made a legal argument.
He's got scrolls in his left hand because that [00:18:00] represents the law, and he's got his right hand extended. That is a lawyer pose in his sculpture. We don't know how much Paul's legal training was, and I'm not sure that he had a lot of formal legal training. But one of the interesting things about litigation and and law in the Roman world is it was a spectator sport.
They didn't really have the courtrooms that much. They would often do this out in the open. And I mean, people don't have Matlock to watch Perry Mason, LA Law. What are some of the other legal shows? what's the one with Jimmy Crane? Denny Crane. Denny Crane what? Boston. What? Boston. [00:19:00] Boston Legal. A Lincoln lawyer.
They didn't have that, but they loved it. They just went and watched it live. It was a spectator sport. I mean, what are you gonna do today? Hey, I hear there's gonna be a trial. I'm gonna go straight. See, it might be blood sport. We don't know. Those things could devolve rapidly, but I will tell you this. Paul had incredible rights as a Roman citizen in the Roman Court.
It's so fascinating to read the intricacies. The Roman society was stratified by class, and Paul's class was that of a citizen. You couldn't go to court in any case, against anybody that was higher up the class ladder than you. You could only go to court against people on your level or below. Now, Paul is a [00:20:00] citizen that gives him incredible rights, but the interesting thing about it is, even in the citizen class, it was subdivided.
If you'd bought your citizenship, you're at the lower end of the citizen class. If you came by it not having to buy it like Paul, like second generation or third generation citizen. You're higher on the citizen class and it's, it's very intricate. Paul had incredible rights. These would often be not only taught to people who had Roman citizenship, it's something they needed and had to know if they were gonna venture out beyond the confines of their immediate community, because that's what gave Paul the rights not to be beaten.
And he would exercise his rights. He would've no trouble. Look, let me throw a couple of scriptures up here to illustrate that. While we don't know what the legal training was, it's so obvious [00:21:00] Paul had it here. Agrippa said to Paul, this is when Paul's on trial. Paul doesn't hire a lawyer to represent him.
Paul represented himself. Agri said to Paul, you have permission to speak for yourself. Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense. You see that Paul stretched out his hand. That's the lawyer pose. Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense and this word made his defense.
Th this word comes from, uh, uh, it's, it's aai. Um, but it, it is the idea of, uh, apo means from, and it's the root ultimately of speak, [00:22:00] but it, it's, it's, he's speaking away from, this is a legal term. He's giving a legal defense here. He's, it's, it's the legal term for the person who stands up to give the defense argument.
Paul knew what he was doing, or look at Acts 16 and the Philippian jailer Paul said to him, they've beaten us publicly. Uncon damned, whoops. Lemme go back. They've beaten us publicly. Uncondemned. Ah, which means un condemned. We have not been that. That word means nobody declared us guilty. We didn't get a verdict rendered against us.
We didn't have a magistrate finding that we had done anything wrong. We are uncondemned, but we're [00:23:00] Roman citizens, so you can't do that to us. That violates the law. All, you can't throw us into prison when we have not had a formal trial in sentence, we're Roman citizens. By golly, you can't do that to us.
And now you want us to just leave? No, you come take us out. And so, another time. They stretch Paul out for whips, and at that point, Paul says to the centurion, is it lawful for you to flog a man who's a Roman citizen? Who's uncondemned Again, retos is, is this, I, there's not been a formal pronouncement that I'm guilty. There's not been a finding by a magistrate. I haven't even been tried.
I haven't [00:24:00] been brought to court. Is it lawful for you to do this to me? I'm a Roman citizen, and he asserts those citizenship rights. And the, the, the centurion says, stop guys. Look at Acts 25. Paul says, I'm standing before Caesar's Tribunal where I ought to be tried. I appeal to Caesar. Again, the word credos here, I, it's a word for a trial.
He's using the word for a trial and then he knows his rights of appeal because a Roman citizen had a right to to a trial in front of Caesar if they chose. So he says, I wanna go to Caesar. Paul clearly had a solid legal background. In both Jewish law and Roman law. So why does that solid legal background matter?[00:25:00]
Because Paul is gonna use law words all up and down this section of Romans we're looking at today. And I think we only give a greater measure of fairness to Paul if we read the law words in a legal sense. That's what he was. So let's do that now. Romans two, one through 11 doesn't exist all by itself.
It's part of a chain of events and it will best understand Romans two if we remember where Paul has written thus far in Romans one. So I can't go back and review all of Romans one, but there are three relevant points I wanna make sure are fresh in your brain. One. How did the church in Rome get to where it was?
When Paul wrote it started out as his Jewish church with Roman visitors at Pentecost in [00:26:00] Jerusalem, who took the faith back, those Jews. Over time, you see the Gentiles starting to come into this Jewish church. If I can use, uh, anachronistic word in a sense fellowship. So you've got gentiles joining the Jews, and then the Jews get expelled from Rome.
The emperor kicks 'em out, and what you've got left is a gentile church until that emperor dies and Nero takes the throne and the Jews are welcome to come back. So you've got a church that's had to go through some interesting social dynamics, Jews welcoming Gentiles, and then all of a sudden the Jews that started the church and ran the church are gone.
So the Gentiles are running the church and then the Jews show back [00:27:00] up and say, can we take over again? Or, and I, maybe it was more diplomatic. We don't know the, the, the depth of it, but people are people and the church is full of them. And so, so Louis mere statement and it's very true. So that's one relevant context point for what we're about to read.
A second one is don't forget in. The rhetoric that Paul writes, the rhetorical form in which he writes, he's got a pro Presidio and it's Romans one 16 and 17. He's already put it out there. It's already been read by the congregation, by the people who get this letter. They've already heard it. Paul's already set forth a fundamental princip fundamental principle that covers his entire letter.
That fundamental principle is I'm not ashamed of the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. [00:28:00] That's the gospel for Paul. I'm not ashamed of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus because that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
So Paul's already set out the, the, the power of God to salvation. Is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ applied to those of faith. It's the power of God for salvation in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. We have the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith or from faith for faith.
Either one's legit as it's written, and then the Habakkuk quote, the righteous will live by faith. So. That's 0.2 of context. Context 0.1, it's a church where they're trying to wrestle with the geo gentile harmony [00:29:00] in a, in a unique way, context point number two, he's already explained in broad over stroke what his whole letter's about and what we're doing now is seeing him flesh that out.
And if we don't get that in our brain, we're not gonna understand. We're gonna take out a context where he starts fleshing it out. And then the next thing he does after that is he starts in on the Gentiles and he spends the rest of Romans chapter one, talking about how sin has been a, an anchor. But that judgment and darkness has come upon the Gentiles.
And so as Paul's trying to explain to the Jew and the Gentiles together, how this whole church thing works, he takes a step back and he starts with the Gentiles. [00:30:00] He says, look, guys, you, you, you, you, you know how you were you, you know the darkness. You know the sin. Now we reach Romans two, and in Romans two one, he turns and starts, says, but let me talk to you, Jews as well.
And in the gentile section he's saying, they, they, they, in this section, all of a sudden he starts saying, you, you, you. But I would suggest these first 11 verses of chapter two. Are actually expounding upon God's legal principles, the principles of God as judge, which is an Old Testament theme of who God is.
So we start out this way.
Romans 2:1-11 - God's Principles of Judgment
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Bernard: Paul says, therefore you have no excuse. Oh man, [00:31:00] in, in, uh, Greek, oh man, is. Oh man. Um, it's letter O and then Anthropo is man, but oh man, the anthropo is man in a, in, in a more enveloping sense. So this applies to women too. It is just the common word for people in some ways.
Therefore, you have no excuse. Oh person. This is a, a form of speech that that linguistic people call diatribe. It's, it's a one where Paul is, he's personalizing this in a way which makes everyone who's reading it or hearing it take it personally. He's directing this to everyone you owe person. Have no excuse.[00:32:00]
Every one of you who judges, you have no excuse. Every one of you who judges. So this idea of no excuse, let's pause for a moment. It is. On which means no. And then alo,
do you know what that is? That's a legal word. That's a word that's used in courts. It means defense. When we looked at that passage earlier from Paul. Where Paul defends himself. Look, this is Aloia. It's a courtroom defense. You don't have in the courtroom a [00:33:00] defense. You can't stand up and make a defensive argument.
You got none. Every one of you who judges. Remember when we looked at this earlier, Griffith said to Paul, you have permission to speak for yourself. So Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense. It's the same word. He stretched out his hand and made his defense same root. He made his defense. Paul is saying, you don't have a defense you can make.
That's courtroom talk. Yeah, you don't have any, you have no defense here. You have no defense. I like Michael Bird. Uh, Larry showed me Michael Bird's translation of this. He uses the word defense instead of excuse. It's more than an excuse. You have no defense. That's the legal terminology there. Okay? You [00:34:00] have no excuse.
Oh man. Every one of you who judges. For, uh, stop that. I already did that. I'm going backwards. There we go. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Ah, there we go. Oh man, I've covered that. Blah, blah, blah. Every one of you who judges that word, judges, it's a legal word. That's law. Again, this is a judge. Everyone who judges.
You've got no excuse. If you sit as a judge, that word credo is a courtroom decision. When you make a declaration, you don't have any excuse. Say, well, wait a minute. What does it mean for them to make judges and courtroom decisions? Oh man. Well, let me explain it to you by the way, that word credo as a courtroom word.
Lemme show you another place it's used in the text so you can find it. John 18 Pilate said to the Jews, take Jesus and judge him. [00:35:00] Same word by your own law. You take him to your court. Y'all are a legit religion. I don't have to mess with him. Y'all go do it. Send him to the Jewish court system. Um, you go back to the Paul on trial before Agrippa.
Paul says, I'm standing before Caesar's Tribunal where I ought to be tried. Same word. It's a trial, it's a courtroom decision. So when Paul says, you have no excuse, no defense argument for every one of you who makes a courtroom decision, because when you pass judgment, when you render a courtroom decision, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
And I say, but what's this judge stuff that's a particularity of Roman law. So in Roman law. The Roman courts used [00:36:00] often what was called an uex. Um, English versions will often translate it as J-U-D-E-X, but in Latin it's UEX comes from two Latin words use, which is law and DeRay, which is to speak. What would happen in in Roman court is oftentimes the magistrate would make an initial finding, but then he would set up an uex and that was just an ordinary citizen.
And the ordinary citizen got to make the decision of guilt. It'd be like the magistrate set forward the law the way a moron judge does, and the uex became the Yuri. The jury and they decided the facts. So when he's using these words with Romans, they certainly know. They are very familiar. By the way, if you got asked to be, or you didn't get asked, you got told you're gonna be the uex in this case.
And it was illegal to say no. [00:37:00] It's like jury duty. You're supposed to do it. And so what Paul is saying is you, you wanna be the uex. You wanna say that, that these gentiles are sinful or that they're bad, or that they're a second class citizen or something like that. You just better be careful because this is the pot calling the cattle black.
The judgment that you are rendering is one that condemns you. People who live in glass houses put down the rocks. We know the judgment. Again, that's a judicial word. The judgment of God rightly falls on anybody who practices those things. We've got another judicial word. It is the word for judgment, cno.
It's the courtroom decision. It's the same word that we've been seeing. So the judgment of God rightly falls on the people who do these things. And, and look at that word rightly [00:38:00] falls. It's actually two words. This is the word for truth. It comes down according to truth. What Paul's saying here is God's judgment is not a kangaroo court.
It's one that's based on truth. So you gotta be real careful 'cause you're gonna, you're gonna do something, but God's principles of judgment says. That it's coming on. Those who practice such things. Toyota means not just the list of things that Paul's itemized, but it's all such things. The judgment of God rightly falls on the people who do these or he says, do you suppose?
Oh man. Huh? Same thing. You who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you'll escape the judgment of God. [00:39:00] This word AMI is in the main, an accounting word, like, uh, calculations, but it was also used in a courtroom. It was used in a courtroom. To, to do a variety of things, but we can just look at it like calculating this.
So, calculating this, oh man. And by the way, Paul starts the sentence with it because it's, that's a power position in the sentence. Just put that right there in the beginning. Calculating this,
do you really think that someone who's gonna judge you. When you judge those credo, same word judgment. When you give a judicial decision, do you honestly think that the righteousness of this righteous God is going to allow you to escape the judgment of God? [00:40:00] This, this is two more legal terms. The first one, a brand new one.
Xue is the Greek, the Latin would be X fuo. Um, same thing, but almost. But it means generally to flee. So do you think you'll escape the judgment of God, but it was used in the courtroom extensively and here's how it gets used in courts back in that day. Do you think you're gonna be able to get away from the court?
Can you flee the jurisdiction or do you think you can avoid prosecution because you've got some inside with the court? You might get some kind of legal immunity. Get the court to put it off or get the court to wink, wink, nod, nod. Those are the legal terms for this. Do you think that you're gonna [00:41:00] escape the judgment of God?
Do you think you've got an ability to get out from under what God is gonna rightly rule as the judge or, and this word translated, or a actually has a, it's got more punch than just the English R. It's like, Hey, come on, get real. It introduces a rhetorical question. Get real, the riches of his kindness. And Paul actually goes through three words here.
He talks about the, the riches of his kindness, his forbearance, and his patience. That's called a trilon in, in language, where you put things together as a three. To kind of be all encompassing. Do you presume upon the riches of his kindness, his forbearance, his patience, not knowing his kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
This word right here, [00:42:00] whoops. What'd I do? Go back. This word right here, an O case for the word forbearance. It's a legal word. An okay is. It's forbearance or patience or tolerance. But in a courtroom it's got a much more specific meaning in a courtroom. With legal proceedings, it, it means, do you think the legal proceedings are gonna get suspended?
Think the judge is just gonna say, time out. Let's take a break. We'll come back another day. Or it can be used for a legal punishment that's been withheld. Say, okay, well we know the punishment, but we're just not gonna give it. Or within prosecutor's discretion, maybe the prosecutor's just gonna delay. Do you think God's gonna do anything like this?
Do you think If so, you have severely miscalculated, [00:43:00] you don't have a defense. You are a hypocrite under the judgment rules of a righteous judge. You stand condemned and don't think for a moment that you're gonna get favor treatment.
Uh, the wisdom of Solomon is a book. It's in the Catholic Bible. It's not in the, in the Protestant Bible. But Paul clearly is also leaning on that heavily for some of this because there was a Jewish thought that, hey, you know, it doesn't really matter. Ultimately, we'll get special treatment, and Paul's saying that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.
Even that, by the way, a as basic a word as repentance. While we can read that as churchgoers. Meno and we can read that as churchgoers and say, well, I know what that means. That's, that means to change your mind. It's also got a legal [00:44:00] usage. It was used in the court system in a variety of situations, but mainly it was used when you changed your legal position.
It was used if you wanted to change your plea from not guilty to guilty. It was used if you wanted to try and negotiate some lesser sentence.
And Paul's saying, do you honestly think, because if so, you've severely miscalculated because of your heart and imp penitent heart, you're storing up wrath for yourself when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Are you shocked to find out that storing up is a legal word? He's got another one here.
Now, storing up can mean the sense of putting away in treasures, but in a court [00:45:00] storing up was referencing your legal accumulation of debts. You're just getting more and more. It, it, it's all of the debt you've accumulated. Or it could also be used to reference the penalties that are compounding because you didn't stop.
And a third way it's used is, is in terms of the evidence. It's just piling the evidence up. And so Paul says, because of your hardened impendent heart, you're just piling up the evidence. You're falling by it. You're not even remotely paying for it. It's just building and building the wrath on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
Righteous judgment, again, legal terminology, it means a just verdict in a courtroom. Now get a load of [00:46:00] this. Paul says, on that day, God will render to each one. According to his works, and he's quoting there, Psalm 62 in the SEP two agenda at Psalm 61, 13. But even within that Psalm, this works for Paul because there are legal terms that are being used that term.
ACE is a used in courtrooms as well, but Paul's just saying that God's going to dispense justice to each one according to what they've earned. He's going to render great legal context. I mean, you, you can go back and read this. It means to pay what is due. God's gonna pay what is due. God's gonna render a verdict, he's going to announce his verdict, he's gonna fulfill the obligations.
This is what God's gonna do. So Paul's just really inundating with this legal terminology and explaining you, [00:47:00] God no defense. Don't go judging anybody else because every one of you have no defense. Oh, look at this. Here's God's principles of judgment to those who by patience and well-doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality, he'll give eternal life.
But for those who are self-seeking and don't obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. Greg emailed me and said, be sure you link that stuff up to what's coming up in chapter three, and, and he's right and we don't have enough time to do it in great detail. But I got news for you.
If you're reading this and thinking, whew, I feel so much better because impatience and well-doing, I seek for the glory and honor and immortality, so I'm okay. Fortunately, I'm not self-seeking and I always obey the truth. I don't disobey it. I [00:48:00] don't obey unrighteousness, so I'm okay if you're thinking that you're haughty and you're vain and you're going down because there's nobody who's that way, not a soul.
And Paul will make that point, and our next week will look at it. He says There's not, there's not only no one who does good, there's not someone who does a good deed. Martin Luther said it this way. The best human deed is tainted with at least a little bit of selfishness. Right,
and Paul says, there will be tribulation flips us tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil. Jew first and also the Greek. Oh, there'll be glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good. But he's about to lower the boom and say, but that ain't any of y'all. And then he ends it with, for God shows no partiality.
Now, has Paul [00:49:00] stubbed his toe here and all of a sudden become a legalist? Has he all of a sudden decided that we're gonna go to heaven based upon what we do? No, absolutely not. What Paul is doing here, and why we've gotta read this in context, is he's saying these are God's principles of judgment. This is two plus two equals four.
Now, if we had time to go through all of this and get to Romans 3 21, at Romans 3 21, all of you would start you. First of all, you'd be in tears on the floor saying, God have mercy upon me as sinner because I'm clearly going to hell. Like, do not pass. Go. Do not collect $200. Just take me to the basement.
Put me in the chute. I'm gone. And it's the reason Galatia, uh, Romans 3 21 is so refreshing when he says, but now there's another righteousness outside of [00:50:00] God's standard of judgment. And it's the righteousness that is the good news. Jesus Christ die. If, if any of us could have made it by God's principles of judgment, Jesus didn't need to die.
But Jesus', death and resurrection is the salvation for everyone. And that's why we've gotta read this in context. It's so interesting to read commentators. 'cause commentators take things in chunks often, and a lot of commentators take this and they say, well, you know, we just have to supply in this, um, uh, Paul's concepts that you find in Ephesians or Galatians that just supply the verb that says, this is not applying to people who are saved or people No, no, no.
That misses it. Paul didn't send Ephesians and say, read that first. Paul hadn't ridden Ephesians [00:51:00] yet. Paul's sending this and, and, but he's already told them the good news, the death bear and resurrection of Christ is salvation. That's God's power to save everyone who has faith. And so he's already told them that, which allows him to say, but these are his principles of judgment.
Because he wants everyone to say, help. I'm in trouble on my own. I got no shot. And that's when he's able to say, alright, now you're ready for the good news and let's talk about it. We've gotta stop here just because of time, but I can't stop without the points for home. And they start out with,
Key Takeaways & Conclusion
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Bernard: I can't judge the Gentiles.
I can't judge any of those sins. I can't sit there in judgment and say, well, look, that's what they do. I've never had that problem. I don't do that and think that I am better than anyone [00:52:00] else. Every human being can reach up as far as your goodness will let you to reach God's hand. And some of you are so good, you may reach up even further than you can imagine, but I promise you, at the end of the day, God still has to reach down all the way.
There are none of us who deserve his love. There are none of us who have earned his love. There are none of us who endear ourselves to him because of our value and worth that we have generated. As opposed to what he generates in us. Second point for home, the gospel is the power of God to save. There is some great news.
And third point for home, I'd love to say we're at the great news part, but Paul's about to make this even [00:53:00] worse. He, he's gonna paint this picture so bleak and so dark that when we get to the good news, we are screaming with resurrection joy. That means you gotta come back next week. 'cause we gotta end class here.
Let me say a blessing over you. Father, in the name of Jesus, I do pray for conviction. I pray that your Holy Spirit will convict us of sin and righteousness and judgment.
Because, Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit will also exalt Jesus, the crucified and resurrected savior in our hearts and in our minds, that we can learn what it means to to live and to thrive in this new life that we have. Walking by faith. That you have set us free from this law that we've been reading about of sin and [00:54:00] death
into one that's in your spirit of life, in Christ I pray everybody who hears this message, Lord won't walk away in defeat, but will walk away in gracious appreciation for the love you've shown us in Jesus. Through whom we pray. Amen.
