Romans 2:3-4 - The first characteristic of a self-righteous moralizer is arrogance. The guilty verdict that God has just declared upon the human race, do you think that you are going to escape that guilty verdict? Do you think for one moment that God is going to give you a non-wrath-worthy pass: that Christ need not have died for your sins; that your sins are of such a non-serious nature that you have no need of a Savior in the first place?
God is going to see you as having no need of the saving work of his son. God’s attitude toward ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness of people is being revealed in scripture. People are guilty before God, he has decreed it. NO excuse will suffice to pardon it. It is such a shame that so many people today are trusting in their goodness to get them to heaven. Paul wants us to understand that there is no refuge in human goodness. Judgment based on a righteousness people can produce for themselves can only lead to one verdict, GUILTY.
When we put our human hearts under the microscope of God’s truthful judgment, we are going to find out that we need much more than human righteousness to have a perfectly just standing before God. We need a Savior and Jesus Christ became that Savior. Do all people need to change their minds about the seriousness of sin and God’s answer to that serious dilemma people found themselves in? All people should change their minds about the way that God has provided and what his son accomplished where their sins are concerned, because not all people believe that those sins were done away with Christ’s payment.
God has held back the wrath you so justly deserve. God has been good to you in holding back that wrath. God has not held back his wrath because he is happy with who you think you are, or because he is satisfied with who you are trying to become. God has been long-suffering in holding back his wrath, because he hopes that you will consider his goodness through his son, his goodness on your behalf and flee to his grace, God wants you to change your mind about who you are from fleshly perspective apart from Christ.
Romans 2:5 - This is a chilling and sobering thought, when self-righteous moralizers harden their hearts and remain impenitent concerning their goodness, they are storing up to themselves wrath to be visited upon them in the day of wrath. They will one day stand at the Great White Throne Judgment where the merited righteousness they think they have will be put on display. It will be open for inspection. They will be standing at the Great White Throne Judgment having only their own righteousness to show for themselves.
Paul has taken on the role of prosecuting attorney seated at the plaintiff’s table. To illustrate just how bad things really are, Paul wants us to understand that all the human race are sitting at the table of the defense. The point that Paul makes as prosecuting attorney is to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt, the reality that every person is worthy of the wrath of God. Making all of us wrath conscious is the point in Paul’s presentation. We have to understand the charges against us and that is precisely what Paul set out to do.
Paul as a wise prosecutor has pointed the finger at the entire human race and he has accused us of being guilty of the crimes of being ungodly and unrighteous. We need to be justified, because our own performance and our own production, even when accompanied by our most sincere promises and pledges to God is insufficient to accomplish for us a just standing in the eyes of a perfectly just God. Paul wants us first and foremost to come to a full assurance of understanding that when judged according to truth, we are all in the same boat. Each and everyone of us had a need for a justification to be provided for us; a justification that would come totally apart from anything we could merit through our own performance.
Romans 2:6-11 - God completely took works out of the equation, when it came to gaining or maintaining salvation! Paul has fenced us all in and it is a closed-in pen, in a manner of speaking of wrath worthiness, therefore, the human race is in need of a Savior, simple as that! All of the saving work that God could possibly do, he has already done through Jesus Christ. God now holds forth the reconciliation that Christ has accomplished, offering people the choice to either accept or reject that gift of salvation. Our good works must be done solely out of appreciation for what God has already accomplished, we place our faith in Christ’s faithfulness, and that alone.
The Pastors roll is to prepare his people for the Bema, that is what teaching and pastoring is all about. The Bema has to do with the building project. The building is the Body of Christ. We as members of the Body of Christ, are co-labors with God in the building project. The blueprint for the proper construction of this building has been given to apostle Paul for the work crew of which we are apart. At the Judgment Seat of Christ, Christ will be able to judge, not only what is seen by the eye, but also the motivations of the heart, not only what was done, but why it was done in connection with each believer’s work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope. But understand, it is the value of the work itself that will be judged at the Bema, not the believer.
God has given the human race a God consciousness, the conscious perception that we could say that there is a God somewhere and that ultimately the human race is accountable to that God. God knows whether there is a hidden motivation even to ourselves, hidden by our pride nature to look good before others; to appear knowledgeable before others; to somehow elevate self in relation to others to gain the praise of others, God knows the motivations of the human heart. The issue at the Great White Throne Judgment will be those standing there in their own righteousness, and not in God’s righteousness.
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