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Liturgie.
Readings: Romans 1:28-2:11 Text: Romans 2:1-11

Preek over: Romeinen 02:1-11

If you use this sermon in a service, kindly let the author know at: contact@vanbruggenpreken.nl
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Congregation of Jesus Christ, dear brothers and sisters,

At the beginning of our service we heard those well known and joyful words: ´´Grace to you and peace!´´ That´s God´s welcome to all who trust in Jesus. Through him we live in peace with God and may enter every new day in the light of his favor. Also today, Sunday.
Imagine for a moment that I began the service with entirely different words: ´´Judgment on you all!´´ Not only would that have been much more somber, likely you would have protested. Aren´t we as Christians free from judgment? Doesn´t Golgotha mean there is now no judgment for the congregation? Don´t we live after the Great Change?
You would be right to protest opening the service that way: the greeting of blessing must truly begin with grace and peace. The sacrifice of Christ gives us peace! But in this service we have also read the Scriptures: for that we came together. And in that Scripture reading we hear all at once a sentence that doesn´t seem to fit with that opening greeting and which seems totally out place in this church service. We hear Paul say: On ´´the day his righteous judgment will be revealed God will give to each person according to what he has done´´ (2:5-6).
This is now ONE of those texts in the Bible we don´t expect. If it weren´t in Romans 2:6 we would think it was a heresy: ´´God will give to each person according to what he has done.´´ Doesn´t that conflict with the belief that we are saved by grace alone and not by works? How can Paul write this? People often quick skip over this to chapter 5. Yet chapter 2 is not for nothing in this letter. Sometimes there are passages you don´t want to preach on, but you are forced to when you do a series. And so writing a sermon on this passage, you have to stop and think about it. This instruction of the Bible must also receive a place in my and your life, as it received a place in this letter to Rome.
Besides, Paul´s statement here is no exception in the Bible. There are many more such verses in the Scriptures. James says you are a fool if you don´t realize faith without works is useless (James 2:20). And the Lord himself makes the following promise at the end of the Bible: ´´Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.´´ So what Paul writes is really not so strange, even though to us it might be strange.
What is stranger is that we don´t know how to give this message of God´s judgment over all our deeds a place in our spiritual life. Why don´t we have room for it? And why in programs to reach the lost is there so little mention of God´s coming judgment? And why do so few Christians ask how they will come through the judgment? Somewhere along the line it seems our view of grace and peace has become lopsided. As if ´´grace´´ means there is no more judgment.
While our fathers in previous centuries wrote and sang of the coming judgment, many today don´t believe there is a judgment for believers. At funerals is spoken as if no judgment is coming. As if death itself is the final decisive event. And there´s also no mention of it in obituaries or on grave stones now days. Today, however, it seems people think grace cancels the final judgment. That grace means your case will no longer be reviewed, that it is dismissed.
But the apostle Paul teaches something quite different. In 2 Corinthians 5:10 he writes that each person´s case will come before the court, no case is dismissed: ´´For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.´´
And the Savior himself more than once spoke over his coming on the clouds and his judgment that then takes place over all people, goat and sheep.
Paul reminds us in Romans 2 of a-today-forgotten reality: we will all yet appear before the Judge. And God will be absolutely impartial in his judgment. It will be truly justice. Paul underlines that: God is no respecter of persons. Jews, Greeks, church people, non-Christians, all will have to give an account.
Paul writes this to his readers not to make them afraid, but so that we earnestly turn to our Savior and his atoning work. We will need it!
The message of this text is to realize before it is too late that God is an impartial judge. And that without a lawyer no one will survive the future. If a day of judgment weren´t coming, Paul would not have had to write a long letter to Rome about the great work of Christ, the huge change through the Spirit and about Christian living. But because God´s rescue operation is so wonderful, Paul underlines here the urgent need to prepare for this rescue, it doesn´t matter who you are: a pagan Greek or a believing Jew.

God is to all an impartial judge

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His judgment
1. is not based on outward differences (verses 1-3),
2. does not require what he has not first given (verses 4-6),
3. seeks good for all people (verses 7-11).

[1. His judgment is not based on outward differences (2:1-3)]

When we think of God´s judgment over all we do and do not do, we all know we´re not perfect. Still we are inclined to think that our case is quite different from that of a murderer or a king like Manasseh or terrorists that blow people up in market places.
And when we look around in society, we stand usually on the right side of things. We disapprove of stealing and violence, we don´t want anything to do with all kinds of lawlessness and immorality. We sharply condemn all kinds of activities and people in our society. Don´t imagine for one second that we make common cause with that sort activity! .
On earth there is indeed a big difference between law-abiding and lawless people, between responsible and irresponsible citizens. And we are quick to think that this difference is going to be important in God´s judgment. It is going to be different for us, we think, than for those kinds of people.
Paul is familiar with this tendency of self-justification. How people excuse themselves by condemning others. It began already in paradise. Adam condemned Eve who gave him the forbidden fruit and in that judgment appeared himself less guilty. Eve condemned the serpent who had lied and in that judgment appeared herself innocent. Human history is one long history of self-justification: That´s not me. People play the innocent victim.
When we condemn others we ourselves feel already thereby somewhat justified, better. We aren´t like that. We´re a better citizen or a better neighbor, we feel in comparison a decent man or a responsible woman. ´´I thank you that I am not like that tax collector´´ said the Pharisee. We might not say it, but we think it. The outer differences of people in this human world are huge. There is a big difference, and this leads to judgment and condemnation and also self-confidence.
The apostle refers to this in 2:1. He writes: ´´You rightly condemn all this wickedness.´´ But that may not at all lead you to become confident before God. Paul continues, writing: ´´You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.´´
Is that really so? We aren´t all guilty, are we, of the criminality and lawlessness we condemn? No, we´re not. But where does that criminality and lawlessness come from? What is its root? That´s what Paul explained in chapter 1:18-32. The root out of which all evil comes is ignoring the Creator and lacking thankfulness and respect before him. The consequences of that are spectacular and make the headlines, but the silent cause is much more serious and abominable: refusing to recognize our Maker.
Keeping God out of our life. And you can do that in different ways. With violence and brutality, criminality, and other openly condemnable things. But you can also do so in idleness and self-satisfaction. The latter makes you look decent and gets you goodwill, but you are doing the exact same thing: disregarding God in what you do and don´t do.
The question is not how much you differ in outward behavior from other people, but how much you differ in your gratitude and in your honoring God in all your deeds. The Lord in his judgment is not going to base it on outer differences. Those differences are important in our society and in earthly courts, but they mean nothing when you come to stand before God. Then it is about deeper things. Not how you judged others, not if you were better than others, but if you were good to God in your deeds and your thoughts. That is what will count.
Brothers and sisters, let us test ourselves in this. Before God this alone is decisive. Not the outer differences will be determinative in his judgment. You will will not be able to excuse or justify yourself because your behavior was better than many of your contemporaries. That might give you standing in the human tribunal of public opinion. But not before God. For him the question is not how you were different from other people, but if in all things you were devoted to him.
God is no respecter of persons. God´s judgment is not based on the outer differences between people. That´s true not only negatively but also positively. When the murderer on the cross begs for mercy, paradise opens for that criminal. Then you see very clearly. The decisive difference is not whether you wear the robes of a high priest or hang on a cross as a criminal. The decisive difference is whether you seek God with your whole heart and out of the depths of your guilt beg for his mercy. That alone makes the great difference in the coming judgment.
So, brothers and sisters, when we consider God´s judgment don´t look to your left or right, look only up. Don´t compare yourself to other people but plead that you may conform to God´s image. That´s what the judgment will be about and that will be clear on the last day. And it´s good to know this in time, so that we are prepared.

[2. God´s judgment does not require what he has not first given (2:4-6)]
Many people, however, protest: what gives God the right to judge us in this way? For many people God is a stranger: why should he then be allowed to judge their deeds?
It´s like what we hear in the parable of the talents. There the disinterested servant who did nothing with his talent says: ´´Master, I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed´´ (Matthew 25:24).
That servant was wrong. The Lord had given him a talent to use. The Master had sown and the Master had planted. But the servant did nothing with it and on top of that denies the reality of the Master´s sowing and planting. We find it completely just for that servant to be condemned. He lies about his Lord.
But isn´t that man in Jesus´ parable a picture of the reality of people on earth? Paul says in verse 4: ´´do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God´s kindness leads you toward repentance?´´
The apostle reminds his readers that God is not a judge who suddenly appears out of nowhere at the end of time. God is always there and he is first of all goodness in person, a God of centuries long patience and far-going tolerance.
Imagine that you showed hospitality to people, welcoming them into your home, and that they then tied you up and went on to eat your fridge empty, smash your furniture, break your lamps, and then sit on your sofa drinking and talking with each other without paying the least attention to you, as if you weren´t there. As if it wasn´t your house, as if you didn´t even exist? Wouldn´t that be terrible?
Now imagine the same scenario but this time you aren´t tied up. And your guests do the exact same things. Of course, you protest, but you you don´t stop it. While they do as if you don´t exist, you stand there and don´t call the police. Would that not be the epitome of patience?
What would be the use of such goodness? It would only make sense if it were so people come to their senses and begin to be ashamed of themselves. So that they bring themselves under control and try to fix the damage and offer their apologies for abusing your home.
What´s the use of God´s tolerance? It´s only has meaning in order to move people to repentance. But if that repentance and sorrow don´t come, like in the years before the flood, a time comes when God´s measure is full. God´s patience is great but not without limit. His goodness is vast, but it´s not foolishness. A moment comes when God´s patience ends. Though he may be patient for a long time, God will not give up his creation to the foolishness of man.
Judgment comes over all who ´´who reject the truth,´´ who do not respect the reality of God in this world. Because the truth of this world is God himself, the Eternal, Creator and Father, to be praised forever.
In the judgment no one will be able to say that God harvests where he did not sow. Today is the time of his sowing. Now that he gives us all life and sunlight and many gifts of mind and body. Soon it will be harvest: what have you done with all that for me?
Paul writes: ´´Don´t you realize his kindness is to lead you to repentance?´´ (2:4). The apostle doesn´t write this only for those people we rightly condemn. He writes it for us all. Do you and I live every day in the consciousness that we are guests in the house of the Creator? Israel was not allowed to permanently sell land. The Lord says: ´´The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants´´ (Lev. 25:23). For that reason the poet of Psalm 119 says: ´´I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me.´´
But many people live on as if there is no God and as if they may do with and in this world as they please: in that way they are storing up wrath. They are challenging God: He doesn´t see it. Instead of being ashamed, they unabashedly exploit the earth standing on human rights. God sees it, but for the time being is patiently quiet.
Also as Christians you and I can do things in our life that do not fit with our Creator. In secret we take the attitude that it is our right: I do what I want. And because God for the time being says nothing, we think we can. But what is really happening is that we are storing up God´s wrath.
Paul uses a very peculiar expression in verse 5. The King James says: ´´after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath.´´ The NIV says: ´´you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God´s wrath.´´ That means: ´´You are only making your punishment worse.´´
The verb Paul uses is very descriptive: save, treasure up, store up, invest. Life is often focused on that: making yourself safe with your own house, a good wage, a comfortable life. But in fact you are investing in wrath by not recognizing God and loving him with your whole heart. God in his goodness remains still, but one day you will be asked what you did with his patience. If it appears then that you abused his goodness, then you will receive the postponed punishment with interest.
Precisely because God sows every day in our lives, is every day the good Creator, precisely for that reason it does not go well with man when he or she pays little attention to this goodness and patience.
God stands in his rights when when he comes to judge according to our works. And then by those works what matters is not what we managed to accomplish but wether or not we ignored or reverently acknowledged his goodness in thanksgiving and prayer and piety. In those works it´s about our attitude towards God.
That´s what matters. That you respond to God´s patience and don´t keep yourself quiet or without works or undecided or stiff-necked.

[3. God´s judgment seeks good for all people (7-11)]
God will judge each according to what they have done during the time of his patience. Now with judgment we often think only on condemnation. In a civil court, a judge sentences you to a punishment or he acquits you. But he never rewards you. The judgment of God is different. His judgment is not that of an outsider, of someone who only steps in to punish excesses. God´s judgment is the judgment of the Creator and Father who settles the account with his Creatures, his children. Because of his goodness and his patience, God himself is personally involved in everything that happens. And he will either punish in his wrath or reward those who sought him.
Verse 8 speaks once more about God´s coming judgment and punishment for all those who do not acknowledge him in this life. It more or less repeats verse 4 and 5.
But verse 7 is a surprising addition. There Paul says the judgment is also the handing out of eternal life. The judgment is also a celebration, the handing out of an award, bestowing eternal life.
Who will get eternal life, to whom is it given? Verse 7 says: ´´To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality,´´ Notice the apostle doesn´t say we have to earn glory and honor and immortality, but that we seek it.
What are you seeking in and with your life? What is your aim? Are you really seeking glory, honor, and immortality? Are you seeking the light of God and the holiness of the Creator and that world where death is conquered? Whoever seeks that will find it. Whoever knocks, will find a door opening. That´s why the great question is whether we in this world of our Creator are seekers, desiring his divine world. Are we treasure seekers of eternity?
And a seeking attitude asks for God´s commandments. That stamps all your deeds. Those deeds themselves will not be strong enough to keep you alive, but God can reward it, the reward of eternal life whom all will find who seek it, aim for it, desire it and daily pray for it.
But is that not the difference between church people and unbelievers? And doesn´t that bring us back to where we started at the beginning of the sermon when we asked why still preach the judgment for people who live under grace?
Paul goes into this in verses 9 and 10. He emphasizes in no uncertain terms that the future of judgment and reward applies equally for Jew and Gentile. These verses 9 and 10 repeat to a large degree what has already been said, but they contain one new element and that new element is the express assurance that you can´t divide judgment and reward between Greeks on the one hand and Jews on the other. As if judgment is for the Greeks and reward for the Jews. It´s also not so that judgment is only for unbelievers and acquittal for church people. Both must appear before the judgment throne. Both fall under the judgment of God. We must all be ready for the coming judgment, when the trumpet sounds and the judgment throne is established.
For Jews these are shocking words. Like the shock John the Baptist caused by calling of-all-people believing Israelites to repentance and preparation. Do they need that? But John makes clear that also Jews, also chosen people, must prepare themselves for the coming of the Judge who comes with the winnowing fork in hand and his reward with him. And Paul connects to that here.
With this serious message the Lord wants to move us all to repentance so that we all convert, all expect the Judge, all seek him with a sincere heart. The the Messiah will come to gather his wheat into the barn and burn the chaff.
You aren´t wheat because you wear the label Christian. You are wheat if you bear kernels of grain. For all who seek the Lord this is joyful news: your Judge will reward you and give you the glory, honor and peace you seek.

So coming to the end of the sermon I return to the beginning. We came into church under the blessing of grace and peace. And we asked what we are to do with a text like this one about God who rewards all according to their deeds. The answer we find at the end of our passage in verse 11 is that God is no respecter of persons.
It is a privilege to come to church, but is not privilege that gives you right of way. Also for you and me, for all of us is the message: Prepare, get ready, seek first the kingdom of God. Then there is promise and future. Don´t be taken in by outward appearances and don´t rest on your status as church member. Grace and peace to you! That means: hurry to take hold of it and to seek it.
Because soon there will be no more comparing, no more chance to justify ourselves by comparing ourselves to others. Soon there will only be John Price, Kathy Johnson, Peter Fisher, and Josh Brink. Names like they will soon appear on grave stones. On gravestones it won´t say which church you were a member of or which country you belonged or your nationality or what kind of family you had or what your criminal record was. The gravestones in the cemetery stand like people will stand in the final judgment. Just names in one field with out respect of persons. All names without any difference.
And when the trumpets sound and the graves open, then what he says over you and me will be decisive. He knows if I sought life or if I lived off my own good name. He knows what is in a person. And his judgment decides over nations and people, men and women, boys and girls.
So be humble in your judgments over other people and seek before God´s face glory, honor and eternal life. God today is so patient precisely so that all seekers can find the way on time. That is his grace and peace. Not a sleeping pill, but a timely shelter.
Amen.

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