THE TRIUMPH OF TRUTH
Opening Prayer
Loving Lord, help me to find my identity in You first of all. I want to center my life on You and Your will for me each day.
Read ROMANS 2:1–16
God’s Righteous Judgment
2 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”[a] 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
Footnotes
- Romans 2:6 Psalm 62:12; Prov. 24:12
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed.’1
How we think of God is crucial. In the Garden of Eden things began to go wrong once the goodness of God was questioned in human imagination.2 Paul has no doubt about the rich ‘kindness, forbearance, and patience’ of God (v 4), but we are tempted to view divine judgment in negative terms. Actually we should do the opposite. We should welcome it. A good and faithful judge presides over a process in which the truth emerges; so it is with the ultimate Judge. In God’s final resolution of the human project the truth of all things will emerge, justice will be perfectly delivered, and, through it all, God’s goodness will be displayed. God’s judgment is something to celebrate, to hope and to work for. Even when God judges us, God loves us. The sign of God’s love is that God does not overlook what is wrong but works to remedy it.
In the light of this confident hope there are certain ways we should live. One way is to avoid standing in superior judgment on others, because we all stand under judgment (v 3). Human beings, irrespective of ethnicity, race, temperament, class, or religious background, share a fundamental equality in this respect: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’.3 To recognize this humbles and softens us in approaching other people. Jews and Gentiles are all the same in this regard (vs 9,10); this eliminates room for ethnic or religious arrogance. God alone knows how to judge people: how to take account of things done (v 6) and thoughts written in the conscience or the heart (vs 13,15). God will make no mistakes.
Supremely, God’s judgment is intended to lead us to repentance (v 4), to the kind of living that will lead to ‘glory, honor and peace’ (v 10). What’s not to like?
Apply
Where in your life is God leading you to repentance?
Closing prayer
Lord, You dwell in the heart that longs for You, and in the mind that humbly seeks You. Show me the sins in my life that I may truly repent.
1 Acts 17:31 2 Gen 3:1–5 3 Rom 3:10
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