for there is no acceptance of persons with God.
God ends His argument about the coming day of judgment with one short rule. It lands on Jew and Gentile alike. Older translations put it, "there is no respect of persons with God." The question is simple. Could anything about you tilt God's verdict in your favour?
Verses 6 to 11 lay out how God will deal with people in that day, and verse 11 is the last of the principles named. It cuts off the two excuses each side was holding.
This leads to the fourth great principle of God's judgment: in judgment "There is no respect of persons with God". God still keeps the place He has given the Jew. Yet God shows no partiality. So the Jew will not escape because he is a privileged Jew. And the Gentile will not be able to plead that he is only a poor ignorant Gentile.
We know how this works in human courts. The guilty sometimes walk free.
In some countries today respect of persons provides an escape route for the undoubted criminal. Favouritism does its work, or other influences behind the scenes, or bribery comes into play. So the offender escapes the penalty he deserves. It will never be like this with God.
Status, background and reputation are the currency people trade in.
Who can influence God on his behalf? Who can plead his personal prominence, importance, earthly position or advantage before the only true God? None of it matters to Him: "God accepts no man's person." Personalities may count for a great deal in the proud, empty judgment of man. But let no one think he can pass God's scrutiny wearing such a cloak.
Being impartial does not mean God ignores what a person was given. Light received works the opposite way from what people expect.
Such are His ways. Time, place and people make no basic difference with Him. There is one exception: having privileges brings a prior responsibility with it, and this is plainly just. If a man who enjoys religious light works out evil despite it, is he less guilty than his less favoured fellow-sinner?
The same distinction carries into the next verse, about the law.
This brings out the important principle, that, in rendering to every man his deeds, God takes into account the measure of light a man has had. We have already seen that when it is a question of the sin, God measures it by the truth of what He is. But when it is a question of measuring out punishment to the sinner, God takes into account the privileges he may have had under the law, or in some other way.
Put verse 11 beside the two earlier statements about God's judging. Every loophole is gone.
Suppose His judgment sometimes went by mere outward appearances. Suppose it now and then fell short of strict righteousness, or bent because of favouritism or other personal considerations. Then there might be some chance of escape. It is however "according to truth," and so it will drag the exact reality of things into the light of day. It is "righteous," and so absolute and inflexible justice will prevail. There is "no respect of persons." So nothing will turn God from a judgment of absolute righteousness in the light of absolute truth.
The rule that flattens everyone under judgment also flattens everyone at the point of mercy.
On the one hand sin is a great leveller in the presence of His eternal judgment. On the other hand grace levels just as much, but in the opposite direction. There it is a question of the value of Christ and His work, which brings souls into His presence in favour and in peace. Alike lost in sins, we are alike saved from them by the faith of Jesus.
Scripture applies the same rule to those who employ and those who serve. It speaks first to the one with power.
Masters are urged to remember that their Master is in heaven, and that "neither is there respect of persons with Him." He notes threats and oppression. The cry of the poor and needy comes up in His ears, and He will repay it in the coming day. I believe this verse should read, "their Master and yours is in the heavens." That adds an important point. Both master and servant answer to the one Lord, and will stand together at the same judgment seat.
- Level ground. The privileged cannot claim exemption. The ignorant cannot claim excuse. Both stand on one footing before God.
- Level standard. No fame, position or advantage carries weight with Him. What buys favour in a human court buys nothing in His.
- Level, not identical. Impartial does not mean blind. God weighs the light each person was given, and privilege raises responsibility instead of lowering it.
- Level, so no escape. God judges by truth, in righteousness, and without partiality — three walls with no gap between them.
- Level in grace too. Sin levels all under judgment. Grace levels all in Christ — alike lost, alike saved through faith in Jesus.
For as many as have sinned without law shall perish also without law; and as many as have sinned under law shall be judged by law,
Paul has just said that God shows no favouritism. So how can God judge people who never received His written law, and does that law shelter the people who had it?
The verse sets two groups side by side. The one who received more from God has more to answer for.
If first in privilege, he will be first in judgment too. Can he face the responsibility that comes with the wonderful things God has done for him? God will judge him by the very law it is his privilege to have. But the Gentile without law will be judged apart from law: God will not hold him responsible for knowledge he never had.
The verse puts two different words in play. Breaking a known command is one thing; sin is wider than that.
All breaking of the law is sin, but sin is far from being only the breaking of law. So Scripture calls the Jews "transgressors," because they in particular were under law. It calls the Gentiles "sinners," not "transgressors" — which they would have to be if all men were alike under law. But Rom. 2:12 clearly disproves that, because it separates Gentiles from Jews on that very ground… If Gentiles had no law, they had conscience, which made them feel guilty when they abandoned a natural duty, as the same passage shows.
Having no law sounds like an advantage until you read the verb attached to it. Paul does not say these people escape. He says they perish.
The Gentiles did not have the law, and so they sinned without law. They cannot escape the righteous judgment of God. They had the witness in creation, as seen from the first chapter. Besides this there is conscience, and it testifies of what sin is. They have the knowledge of good and evil, and so they are morally responsible. They turned from God, and they will be judged apart from the law. But it is more than that: they "will also perish without the law." That answers the teaching that the mercy of God somehow covers the heathen world and that the heathen are not lost.
If not the law, then what will the standard be for those outside it? And does the same sentence hang over the Christian?
The Gentiles sinned "without law"; they never received the law. God will judge them by the light He gave in creation, in natural conscience, and in His goodness shown through His providence. They shall perish, for they have been utterly unfaithful to the light granted to them. The Jews received the law, and the law will judge them. Christians are not expected to come into judgment. If they were truly what they profess to be, they would not come into judgment, for in Christ the believer is already justified from all things.
The Jew read this verse expecting his position to shelter him. It does the opposite.
In every case God will judge righteously. But greater privilege brings deeper obligation, and judgment that is strict in the same measure… So the Jew has no built-in claim of exemption in the day of judgment, as he liked to hope. Unlike the Gentiles, that people stood as God's witness on earth. That very standing makes them liable to closer scrutiny. For God is not dealing here by outward blows on the nations. He is dealing with the heart and its ways in His sight, however hidden from man.
- Light — God judges each person by the light he had. The Gentile had creation, conscience and God's goodness. The Jew had the written law.
- Level — Different measures, one result. Scripture calls the Gentile a sinner and the Jew a transgressor. Both stand guilty.
- Loophole — Ignorance is no escape hatch. The word is not "excused" but "perish." Those who never heard are not safe by default.
- Load — Privilege raises the standard; it never softens it. The greater the light, the closer the scrutiny in the day of judgment.
- Liberty — The one exit is not a lower standard but Christ. In Him the believer is already justified from all things and does not come into this judgment.