Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, every one who judgest, for in that in which thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
Paul has just described the open corruption of the pagan world. Now the word "therefore" turns on the respectable critic who agreed with him: does a sharp eye for sin in others count for anything before God?
One writer pictures the scene as if Paul had spotted an approving listener in the crowd:
It is almost as if at this point he saw a refined and polished Greek standing nearby, quite approving of his condemnation of the terrible sins of the poor barbarians. So he swung round and charged him with doing in a refined way the very same things he condemned in the barbarian in their cruder forms. Because of this he too stands before God without excuse, for in judging others he condemned himself.
The people addressed here saw the corruption around them and named it for what it was:
Look now at a class of people who differ from the ones before: they judge those evils. Philosophers, moralists and the like saw such a state of things well enough. Were they themselves changed? Not at all. If they judged evil, it was not to avoid it; they judged it only in others.
A sharp eye for wrong looks like a mark of superiority. One writer traces it back to a different source:
Despite the terrible corruption of the pagan world, man keeps the ability to judge and condemn the evil in his fellow men. This ability, in itself, is proof that we are fallen creatures. The knowledge of good and evil came to us only by the fall... Already he has shown that the witness of creation leaves men without excuse. Now he will show that the ability to condemn evil also leaves men without excuse. The plain reason is that the ability to condemn evil gives no power to resist it. So while men condemn evil, they commit the very evils they condemn.
Conscience can detect a fault; it cannot cure one.
Natural conscience may detect evil. But it never leads a person to possess and enjoy what is good, and it never brings the soul to God. So in chapter 2 the Holy Spirit shows us man content with saying what is right and wrong — moralising for others, but nothing more. Now God must have reality in the man himself.
The judge's own words become the evidence against him. He loses his place on the bench before he ever climbs onto it:
Man already stands charged as a sinner himself, so he is not competent to judge his fellow man. In doing so he would be passing sentence upon himself... Only someone free from the stain of sin can pass a valid judgment on human sin. So man is shut out of the seat of judgment altogether. But the heart is deceitful as well as evil. So men judge their neighbour while they themselves continue in sin, and constantly bring themselves under a double condemnation — of sin and of hypocrisy.
The problem is not one man's bad character. It is the nature everyone shares:
It was the ruined heart of man exposing itself. And because this was so — because it was the common nature showing itself — the Lord takes the judgment of it away from man... All are in the same condemnation. No one can pick up the stone and throw it at another.
Does disapproving of sin in public soften the sentence? One writer says it does the opposite:
Men judge others and yet do the same things, and so condemn themselves. How can this in any way stop or even soften the sentence of God? It was and is common among thinkers, moralists and the like. In truth it makes the case far worse... Instead of openly sympathising with those who sin, they may condemn it as wrong. But if they do the same, how can such trifling with morality, or those guilty of it, stand before God?
The verse says "O man" — anyone at all. One writer turns the question on his reader:
Is it so with my reader? Do you have a stern measure for denouncing the evils of others, and a lesser one for yourself? Do you plead extenuating circumstances for yourself? Or do you persuade yourself that your refined, respectable ways of self-indulgence cancel or lessen that guilt? Does your practised skill at covering guilt with a fine veneer cancel or lessen it in the eyes of a holy and discerning God?
- Turn — Paul turns from the openly corrupt to the man who applauded his description of them. That polished critic does the very same things in a refined form.
- Ability — Knowing good from evil came by the fall, and it brings no strength. The power to condemn evil gives no power to resist it.
- Verdict — The one who judges while doing the same passes sentence on himself, and adds hypocrisy to sin.
- Disqualification — Only someone untouched by sin may sit as judge. So no one here can throw the first stone.
- Reality — Moralising for others satisfies the man, but not God. He must have the good real in the person himself.
But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth upon those who do such things.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And thinkest thou this, O man, who judgest those that do such things, and practisest them [thyself], that *thou* shalt escape the judgment of God?
One question closes the argument that began in the previous chapter. It asks the respectable man who condemns evil in others, and does the same himself, whether he expects to slip past God's judgment.
The person here is not yet the Jew of the later verses. It is any man whose conscience can spot wrong in others.
At the start of Romans 2 we have man putting on a show of righteousness. It is still "man" — not yet exactly the Jew, but man. He may have profited by whatever the Jew had, or at least by the workings of natural conscience. Natural conscience can detect evil, but it never leads anyone into owning and enjoying what is good. It never brings the soul to God. So in chapter 2 the Holy Spirit shows us man satisfying himself with pronouncing on right and wrong — moralising for others, but nothing more. Now God must have reality in the man himself. God will no doubt use such moral judgments to leave man without excuse; they can never suit or satisfy Him.
Ancient moralists are the obvious example, and the type did not die out with them.
In the heathen world there were those who spoke out against the immoral conditions and the various vices. There were moralists, reformers and philosophers like Socrates, Seneca and others. They judged and condemned certain evils. But God declares that they were not one bit better than the rest. The very things they condemned they were guilty of themselves. They practised evil because the same evil heart was in them. And this is not limited to the moralists of the past. The same is true of others in this age, who judged the evils around them and condemned them, and were later found doing the very things they condemned.
after
People treat their moral opinions as credit against a bad record. The opposite holds.
Men judge others and yet do the same things, and so condemn themselves. How can this in any way stop or even soften God's sentence? In truth it is no small aggravation. To say "we see" exposes us, who nonetheless practise wrongdoing, to hear from the just Judge of all that "our sin remains."
The verse rests on the statement just before it. God's measure is not the one the moralist uses.
The standard by which God measures evil is not the standard of philosophy, but the "truth" as to God made known in Christianity. All that God is has been made known in Christ. "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." God has now revealed the full truth of all that He is, in His holy nature. That truth is the standard by which He judges all evil. Men measure evil by standards they set up themselves.
The delay is not acquittal.
Doing these things and judging others was not the way to escape God's judgment. Or were they despising God's mercy, which leads them to repentance? Were they heaping up wrath for the day of judgment, the day when God reveals His righteous judgment? God always judges evil morally. But there is a day when He will reveal that judgment. Then He will deal with evil openly, according to His own nature. Judgment will be executed.
Pridham weighs what this habit does, and what keeps it alive.
This fault-finding spirit is doubly offensive to God. First, it pushes a poor sinful creature into the place of God. That creature is himself under the sentence of death, and God is ready to call him to account. Second, it is a flat denial of God's truth, which concludes that all are under sin. Meanwhile, man thinks that he will escape the judgment of God. It is the lurking presence of this thought at the bottom of his heart that supports and sustains him in his evil way. But, sadly for self-deceiving man, the thought is empty. By trusting his own heart this way, he becomes a fool in the end.
The instinct that condemns others also concedes God's right to judge.
The consciences of all men everywhere admit that wrongdoing must be punished, and they act on this in their dealings with each other. They make laws, and they inflict penalties when those laws are broken. Yet some would deny to God the right they feel they must exercise themselves.
The certainty of judgment carries one exception.
If God passes judgment according to the truth of His holy nature, one thing is certain. Those who practise what they condemn in others will not escape the execution of His judgment — unless they repent.
- Conscience — judging others proves the conscience works. It never produces good in the judge; it only leaves him without excuse.
- Aggravation — knowing better and doing the same is no defence. It deepens the guilt.
- Truth — the standard is not human philosophy. It is all that God is, revealed in Christ.
- Delay — God's verdict on evil already stands. The day He carries it out is still ahead, and His patience now is mercy leading to repentance.
- Escape — the quiet thought "I will get away with it" keeps people in sin. The one way out is repentance.
or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance?
Paul turns from open sinners to the man who condemns them. This verse strips that man of his last defence. It asks what he is doing with the kindness he has been living on all along. Where the ESV says he "presumes on" that kindness, older wording says he despises "the riches of his goodness" — that is the phrasing the writers below use.
The verse follows a chain of questions aimed at someone who feels safe because he disapproves of other people's sins. One writer traces the shift from the previous verse:
In verse 3 his thoughts tell him he is safe from the judgment of God. In verse 4 his thoughts despise the goodness of God. How contemptible the pride of man!
Learning is no shield here. Kelly presses the same charge against philosophy:
The truth is that philosophy does not know God. So it easily forgets His judgment, and it can never grasp His love. It is self-satisfied and has man for its object, not God. So it despises His lavish goodness and His patience, and it never learns the lesson of His purpose in it all.
Three words stack up here: kindness, forbearance, patience. All three describe a God who holds back. The delay has a purpose:
God's judgment will most surely come, though in His goodness it may be long delayed. In His goodness God holds back from judging and bears with evil for a long time. It was so in the days of Noah, when God waited one hundred and twenty years before He sent the judgment of the flood... Because He holds back, men think God will never judge. Because He bears with them so long, men think God does not care about evil. So men despise the goodness of God. They do not see why He holds back and bears with them: it is to give men space to repent.
The same patience can harden a man instead:
With Pharaoh, what hardened his heart was simply God's patient mercy (Ex. 8:15; Ex. 9:34); so what should have done good turns to evil again and again, because man's will rebels against his Maker. Treasures of mercy are stored up for the future as treasures of wrath.
The verse sets the order: kindness comes first and repentance follows. Reverse that order and the gospel is lost:
Many preach repentance as works for salvation, as something that comes before faith in the riches of God's goodness. But it is when we know and believe the goodness of God in sending His beloved Son to die for our sins that this leads us to repentance and produces it in us. Indeed, we can only know how deep our sin and guilt go when we know the depths He had to go down into to save us... it is not our repentance that leads to, or causes, God's goodness to us. It is God's goodness that leads to, and causes, repentance in us.
Fear alone does not produce repentance. Another writer explains why:
But repentance is far from the natural heart. There may well be fear of punishment. But being broken and sorry for sin is foreign to the proud will of man. Nothing will, or can lead him to it but the goodness of God — goodness that has melted and subdued many a proud, stubborn heart.
People have drawn wrong conclusions from this verse about what repentance is. Kelly answers two of them:
Different schools of doctrine have drawn a wrong conclusion, one from Romans 2:4, the other from 2 Corinthians 7:10. One side thinks that seeing God's goodness is repentance. The other side thinks it is godly sorrow for sin. Scripture says nothing of the sort in either case. It shows that repentance always involves a change of mind, but goes much further. It is a matter of conscience in the light of God, not just a work of the mind.
Everything hangs on what a man does with this kindness. He either lets it lead him, or he refuses it:
But this very chapter says that if men will not let the goodness of God take them by the hand and lead them to repentance, the severity of God will seize them and drag them to judgment.
- Aimed — The verse targets the man who judges others and thinks he is safe. He despises the very kindness he lives on.
- Delayed — God holds back to give space to repent. His patience is not proof that judgment will never come.
- Led — Goodness comes first and produces repentance; repentance does not earn the goodness.
- Melted — A man can fear punishment and still not be broken. Only kindness subdues a proud will.
- Or Judged — Kindness either takes a man by the hand to repentance, or he despises it and stores up wrath instead.
but, according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up to thyself wrath, in [the] day of wrath and revelation of [the] righteous judgment of God,
Paul has just spoken of God's kindness leading people to repentance. Here he shows what a hard heart does with that kindness. Instead of softening, the sinner collects. He builds a store that God will open on a fixed day.
The verse names the cause: a hard heart. Commentators point to a reversal here. The same mercy that should soften a man can harden him instead.
When judgment against an evil deed is not carried out quickly, people become fully set on doing evil (Ecclesiastes 8:11). With Pharaoh, what hardened his heart was exactly God's forbearing mercy (Exodus 8:15; 9:34). So what should be for good is turned again and again into evil through the revolt of man's will against his Maker. Treasures of mercy stored up for the future become treasures of wrath. A day of wrath must come for those on whom all His goodness has had no good effect.
The man in view here is respectable, not openly immoral. He judges others and assumes his own standards will get him through. Commentators answer whether they do.
There is, then, no way of escape for the refined sinner or the mere moralist. Indeed, it seems he will come in for a more severe condemnation. His very knowledge increases his guilt. God's goodness would lead him to repentance, but he despises that goodness in the hardness of his heart. So he treasures up wrath for himself.
"Treasuring up" pictures a deposit that grows. One writer names a second way it fills: refusing a warning God has already given.
The very fact of speaking about wrath beforehand is grace. It has not come, but it is plainly "revealed" that it will come. Are you then despising the warning of what is coming? Do you not know that you are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath? You do it not only by committing sins, but by rejecting the testimony of God's Son.
"The day of wrath" is a real point in time, not a figure of speech. One writer also explains why it is taking so long.
Refusing to repent, man treasures up wrath for the day of wrath. Man calls down wrath by his evil. He also calls it down by despising the goodness of God that would deal with that evil. All this will become clear to the unrepentant in the day of wrath. In the goodness of God that day may be long delayed. Still, it is surely coming. It is an actual day when God's judgment, not man's, will be revealed and carried out.
The word "revelation" points to something already true but unseen. God does not form His verdict on that day. He makes it public and acts on it.
God always judges evil morally. But there is a day when that judgment will be revealed. Then He will deal with evil openly, according to His own nature. Judgment will be carried out.
The verse adds one more word: "righteous." A trial can uncover the facts and still go wrong.
A wretched criminal may have the truth of his crime dragged into the light. Yet if the judge is incompetent or unrighteous, he may still escape. The divine judgments are righteous as well as according to truth.
Does this day touch believers? One writer draws a line between two kinds of judgment.
A child of God who sins must come under God's governmental chastening in this life. But he cannot come into God's penal judgment when the world is condemned. 1 Corinthians 11:32 makes the difference clear: "But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world." But John 5:24, Romans 2:5 and Revelation 20:11-15 refer to God's eternal judgment of wicked unbelievers.
- Treasure — the cause. Hardness is not neutral. God's patience, when despised, turns treasures of mercy into treasures of wrath.
- Treasure — the depositor. Paul addresses the moralist who judges others. His knowledge increases his guilt instead of reducing it.
- Treasure — the deposits. The store grows two ways: by sins committed, and by refusing the testimony of God's Son.
- Treasure — the opening day. The day of wrath is a real day. God's goodness delays it. Then God reveals His judgment and carries it out.
- Treasure — the escape. God's verdict is righteous, so no one slips through on a technicality. But commentators separate this judgment from the discipline God gives His own children.