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Romans 2 – Sins of the Jews (The Religious) – The Discomforting
The Jews (who might have been blushing in embarrassment at the depravity of the Gentiles as Paul lifted the garbage-can lid on their sins in Romans 1) now come under Paul’s stinging indictment in Romans 2:1-3:8. This passage contains some very surprising, and discomforting insights into the nature of sin.
A. Sin inflicts on us a judgmental view of the sins of others and a peculiar blindness about our own (Rom.2:1-3)
1. What a blind spot sin gives us! We somehow think that by loudly announcing the sins of others, our own will go unnoticed, even though they may be the very same sins. The reality is that our underlining someone else’s sin, underlines our own at the same time. It does even more. It makes us especially contemptible when we are found out. And it has us defying God’s justice, as if our sins will go unpunished because we tipped Him off about someone’s else’s. Is that distorted thinking, or what?
B. Sin discounts the justice of God (Rom.2:4-16)
1. Speaking of blind spots, here’s another one. God doesn’t zap us every time we sin. Instead, he exercises patience, not because we deserve it, but because He believes in us, that we will turn from sin. But sin is so blinding that somehow we come to believe that God is not ever going to get around to balancing the scales. Thus we sin on blithely, tipping the scales more and more against ourselves. But justice is God’s character. It will be meted out, both to blatant sinners and to bland. We who have had the special privilege of knowing God’s will firsthand (from the bible), will experience God’s justice first because of our privilege. Now that’s quite a different view than sin and Satan give us!
C. Sin makes the sinner arrogant (Rom.2:17-3:2)
1. The Jews continue being our model of the blinding deceit of sin. They felt superior to others because of their special covenant relationship with God, and resting in that feeling they fell victim to the same sins as everyone else. Their arrogance was the ladder from which they toppled. This is precisely how sin attacks decent people and professing Christians today. Whatever special benefits we have only have meaning if we live up the expectations of the Benefactor. Otherwise those benefits condemn us. We Christians have the sacred scriptures. We know them and quote them. But they will condemn us if we don’t live up to them.
D. Sin is not some grand theological game (Rom.3:5-8)
1. This has to be the ultimate insult aimed at God. It has to come from the pits of hell and the mind of Satan. That God deserves the ultimate blame for sin. That He somehow comes out the better for our sinning. Follow this convoluted reasoning: the ugliness of our sins makes the righteousness of God shine all the more brightly; therefore we should sin more so He shines more brightly; and we can feel free to do this because, after all, God is just and He will not condemn us for doing what glorifies Him. Sin become a move in a cosmic chess game. We are pawns, moved at his will, sometimes sacrificed, whatever it takes to win the game and gain the glory. Surely no more elaborate fantasy has ever been concocted to attempt to legitimize our choice to disobey God!
E. Sin can hardly be hyperbolized (Rom.3:9-18)
1. This collage of Old Testament passages obviously exaggerates the sinfulness of humanity. But not by a lot. Sin is pandemic, especially when you realize that there is a whole category of sins committed by righteous people who are loathe to admit them (Rom.2:1-3:9). Satan is indeed the “prince of this world” (John 12:31) and “the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 Jn.5:19).
(Based and borrowed and quoted from William Pile, “The Problem of Sin,” What the Bible Says About Grace, pp.17-26.)
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