ROMANS 2
This chapter is of great importance in relation to the glad tidings: what underlies it is the necessity for repentance. This is essential for every one because there is no acceptance of persons with God; God only regards moral conditions; it would not be suitable for Him to do otherwise. Moral conditions are summed up in faith and repentance. The first chapter of this epistle brings out the indispensability of faith as being man’s moral link with God as known in grace, and as being the principle on which the righteousness and salvation of God are available to men. But another principle is equally important, and that is the absolute necessity for repentance. Any gospel that leaves that out will leave the soul weak and unestablished in its relations with God, and exposed to the power of the enemy.
Every one who has sinned is responsible to repent, and the fact is established here that he is inexcusable. In chapter 1 the fallen creature is inexcusable in the presence of the testimony of creation. But in this chapter man is inexcusable because he knows how to judge others when they do wrong, which proves that [p. 32] he has the knowledge of good and evil. No characteristic of man is more general than the ability to judge that others do evil, and that renders him inexcusable. One sinner can judge evil in another, but the Spirit of God says to every one who does it, You are just as bad yourself; you do the same things. It turns the eye of the conscience in on self.
The soul must take the ground of judging itself. Paul says, You have a judgment about such things, but you do them yourself; you do the very things you judge in others. If you can judge they are evil, you may be sure that God’s judgment is not less accurate than yours, and how are you going to escape the judgment of God?
The principle is of universal application, “O man, every one who judgest”. It applies to every one who has ability to judge the evil that another does. This chapter supposes light as to God’s goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering. Verse 7 supposes Christian light. We might use any light that we have from God in the way of judging others; this is usually done with a view to excusing ourselves; but it really renders us inexcusable. There is necessity for man to take the ground of repentance because he is the same kind of being as the one he judges. Paul does not hesitate to say, “Thou that judgest doest the same things”.
The glad tidings includes a good deal that, we are, perhaps, not disposed to put into it; for instance, part of the glad tidings is that God is going to judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. What glad tidings can there be in that? It forces on man the absolute necessity of repentance, and that is the way man can get morally right with God. For man to get right [p. 33] with God is the most blessed thing possible, so it is part of Paul’s glad tidings to insist that the secrets of men are going to be judged by Jesus Christ.
There is no true repentance without faith. Any change in a man’s course or conduct without faith would be simply reformation, or turning over a new leaf, It could only lead to a man going about to establish his own righteousness. It would not have reference to God. There must be some light from God in the soul to produce repentance. Repentance is a change of mind produced by the knowledge of God in grace, so that man takes account of his sinful course and of all the evil he has done, and takes up a new attitude in regard to it. Instead of justifying it and going on with it, he condemns it and separates himself morally from it. He judges it in presence of divine goodness, and in presence of the grace revealed in the glad tidings. We have been seeing how God in righteousness can justify men who have sinned, but this requires repentance. It would not be a righteous act on God’s part to justify an unrepentant sinner. Repentance, where it is genuine, is “towards God”; the soul begins to review its state and course in relation to God; it is not merely a question of how we have behaved before men, but like Psalm 51: 4, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in thy sight”.
But then on the ground of the death of Christ it is a righteous thing with God to exercise goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, and He waits in His goodness that men may take the ground of repentance. But if they will not, if they are hard and impenitent, they are inevitably moving on to the day of wrath. God’s goodness leads to repentance; He is so good [p. 34] that though my course and actions deserve His judgment, instead of judging me there have been riches of goodness, longsuffering, and forbearance. Do I despise them? “Despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance?” The principle is established here that God must judge evil wherever He finds it. If a man remains identified with evil he must come under the judgment of God: the only thing that morally separates a man from evil is repentance. Justification clears him judicially, but repentance clears him morally.
It is very beautiful to think of the riches of the goodness of God, of His forbearance and longsuffering. God is saying, as it were, I am waiting patiently for you to think of things as I do. Then He has helped us wonderfully in the judgment of ourselves by bringing in Christ; that is the greatest possible help in the direction of repentance. God has brought in “glory and honour and incorruptibility” as things to be sought after, but as things substantiated in Christ. These things are now brought within the view of men, and we do not begin to move on the line of what is good till we come under their influence. Paul speaks about those who, “In patient continuance of good work, seek for glory and honour and incorruptibility”. God has brought in a perfect contrast to all the shame and dishonour and corruptibility of the first and fallen man: glory and honour and incorruptibility are in Christ. God has brought in these wonderful things as an attractive goal, and they are to be sought after. In the light of Christ a profound depth of self-judgment is brought about, because I find that every motive in [p. 35] my heart, every feature of my inward being, is the perfect contrast to the glory and honour that has appeared in Him. There is nothing at all in me that God could put distinction upon, but there is everything in Christ that God could put glory and honour upon. Man is God’s image and glory, but he only gets this in a moral sense by having Christ as Head.
Repentance is of the greatest importance, and it should be thought of, not as a thing done once for all, but as kept up continuously so that we judge ourselves and move on the line of good. We may repeat that God only regards moral conditions in man: there is no acceptance of persons with Him. J.N.D. said that repentance goes on deepening all through the lifetime of a saint. The older a saint gets the more humble and contrite he should be in regard to himself as a man in the flesh: but he should surely get an ever-deepening appreciation of the Man God has invested with glory and honour. God is working to bring His creature away from the line of what is evil on to the line of what is good; that is the object of the glad tidings.
At the end of this chapter Paul speak specifically to the Jew; and he shows how one might be on the ground of making one’s boast in God and in the truth, and in all the light and knowledge one has got, and yet be going on in an evil course and in a state displeasing to God. This applies in principle to the Christian: he might do the same. This chapter brings us in a very definite way to moral realities: nothing can be pleasing to God but that His creature should be going on with what is good; He has brought in the glad tidings that by His salvation we might be [p. 36] delivered from what is evil and put on the line of what is good. The only conditions are that there should be faith which gives God His place with us, and that in the light of God having His place with us we should judge ourselves. We repent in the light of the goodness of God and the moral perfection that has been disclosed to us in Christ. He is the Man of God’s pleasure — the Man of glory, and honour, and incorruptibility. I am the man of shame, dishonour, and corruptibility, and I judge myself. Christ is the Man for God, and now through grace He is the Man for me. It is very simple, but there is profound importance in it. It is a great thing to come to this in one’s soul; then one is not professing all kinds of things and yet going on inwardly with what is evil. It says at the end of the chapter, “He is a Jew who is so inwardly” — it is what we are inwardly that is important.
We find some here who are said to be contentious and disobedient to the truth, and who obey unrighteousness. That supposes the light of the gospel has come in, but instead of man submitting to it he is contentious; he is disobedient to the truth, but he obeys unrighteousness. There is no blessing for that condition, or for a man with a hard impenitent heart. Such a man moves on inevitably to the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. It is very solemn, but there is no getting away from it.
As Christ comes into the vision of our souls, what is marked by glory, and honour, and incorruptibility gets a real place with us, and we seek it. We find in Psalm 8 that God is mindful of fallen man, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” — that is, mortal man. But God visits the Son of Man, and crowns Him with glory and honour. That [p. 37] is not the man under death, but the Man on whom God can put every distinction — Christ. Which man have we before us? The man of shame, dishonour, and corruptibility, or the Man of glory, honour, and incorruptibility? We have all realised, I trust, that we cannot go on with the two. God would have us to be definitely and persistently going on with what is good and in definite separation from what is evil, so that there might be with us a patient continuance of good work (not works). That is, the Christian having God and Christ before him moves on the line of good. It is good work in contrast to all the evil that marks fallen man. The Christian moves on an entirely new line, a line on which God can put distinction. “Glory and honour and peace to every one that works good”. The object of the glad tidings is not simply to save men from judgment in the future, but to put the believer on a line where God can approve the whole course he follows, and put distinction on him, even “glory and honour and peace”. That is what God would do with every one of us. How blessed to have ability, in the light of God and Christ, to judge and part company morally with all that we were according to flesh, and to go on with all that is good, so that the whole life becomes a patient continuance in good work.
The point in this chapter is that if we are going on with evil we are going on with that which God must judge, for He cannot go on with evil. But God is active in His grace to put us on another line altogether, and He does it by the glad tidings. If we judge ourselves we shall not be judged; that is an important principle. Justification clears the ungodly sinner who believes from every charge under [p. 38] the eye of God, but then there is also repentance by which the one who has believed is cleared morally, because he judges for himself all that God judges. Then the believer’s thoughts and affections are identified with what God approves; he seeks glory, honour, and incorruptibility as seen in Christ; he has “changed his man”. If we move on that line we shall have glory, honour, and peace, but if we go on with evil we shall meet with wrath and indignation, tribulation and distress.
A certain quietness and consciousness of integrity with God come about by repentance even when the soul may not have full peace. A man who judges himself has the inward consciousness that he is now with God, and that he is on the line of righteousness, and there is a relief of soul in this. One has the consciousness of uprightness with God. If I am going on with something evil I cannot be thus with God, but when I judge my evil-doing and separate myself from it I have the consciousness that I am so far in correspondence with God.
Man glories in his shame, but it is only the features of Christ that have true glory. Peter never forgot what he saw on the Mount; he says, “He received from God the Father honour and glory”. There was a Man who could be distinguished by God, for His every feature was delightful to God; He could be saluted as the beloved Son of God in whom the Father had found His delight. He has gone to God now in resurrection, in incorruptibility, to be eternally with God beyond death. We see the glory and honour of Christ in Psalm 8: 5 and incorruptibility in Psalm 16: 10. The man of shame and dishonour decays, and goes down to the dust of death. But Man [p. 39] as marked by glory and honour is invested with incorruptibility. Christ risen lives to God in eternal and undecaying conditions. He is set before God’s face for ever; Psalm 41: 12.
The glad tidings in power in our souls would completely separate us morally from corrupt and fallen man, and set us on the line of pursuing all that belongs to the Man of glory, and honour, and incorruptibility, and on that line we have the consciousness that we are approved of God.
The Jew by possession of superior light was brought under special condemnation, and that is very solemn because in principle it applies to any who have special light. If we have the oracles of God, so much the worse for us if moral conditions are not there. The secrets of men will all be judged. There are certain things which men naturally like to hide — motives and reasons for conduct, the deep inwardness of things! There is a whole world of things which men like to hide, but it is just those things which God is going to judge. It is most important for us as saints to cultivate a secret history that can be approved of God, so that there may be no hidden motives or movements that will not bear the light. One would not care to be conscious of allowing, or consenting to harbour, a motive that would not stand the light of Gods presence. It is not that innumerable evils are not there in one’s flesh, but their true character is detected and judged in secret, so that the secrets of the believer’s heart are that he mourns and judges what is of the flesh, and delights in what is of Christ. This secures inward purity and righteousness and holiness. A soul having the knowledge of God in the light of the glad tidings is glad to have all investigated.
[p. 40] He desires, like the man in Psalm 139, to be searched. How many could say that they have been more distressed about what they have found in secret within than by anything they have ever done? The blessed thing is that we can be with God about it, and in judging it be morally separate from it, and free to pursue the line of what is good. Grace entitles us to do this.
“Grief according to God works repentance to salvation, never to be regretted”. In repentance we take up a definite attitude in regard to things that, we have been going on with, so that we are in moral separation from them. That works out in the way of salvation, and we never regret that. The Jew had the light that God had been pleased to give in Old Testament times; he rested in the law, and made his boast in God; he knew God’s will, and was well able to teach others what was right. But he did not teach himself; he was not a model or pattern of the things that he taught, but was a discredit to them.
James warns us not to be many teachers, for we shall receive the greater judgment. It is a serious thing to take the place of having light from God, and of bringing it before others; one feels more and more that we have no right to bring the truth before others, if it has not in some measure taken effect in our own souls.
The exercise of this chapter comes home to us all. We were speaking of the readiness to judge evil in others without being really any better ourselves. I suppose we have all found ourselves out as to this, when the eye of the conscience was turned inward, and it has led us to begin at home and judge ourselves [p. 41] in true repentance. The first section of this chapter emphasises the necessity for repentance; it is most important for every one of us to take account of it; it brings about a chastened and subdued spirit. A man with a broken and contrite heart will prosper spiritually; he will never give trouble to his brethren.
The Jew could teach what was right; he was sound in doctrine; but he was no pattern or model of what he taught. The consideration of this suggests Christ to us by way of contrast. God has brought in a Teacher who was everything that He taught; there is in Christ a standard of excellence that we may well thank God for. When they said of Him, “Who art Thou?” He answered, “Altogether that which I also say unto you”, John 8: 25. This chapter touches on different kinds of mistakes into which men fall; and there is no greater mistake than to think that because we know the terms of truth we are all right. There may be a good deal of such knowledge without any answer to it in the man who has it. “The scribes and the Pharisees have set themselves down in Moses’ seat: all things therefore, whatever they may tell you, do and keep. But do not after their works, for they say and do not”, Matthew 23: 2, 3. In contrast to that, Paul could say, “Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life”. He was after the model of the excellent standard. God would have us to learn how to judge what is evil in ourselves by knowing the excellence of Christ. There was no disparity between the Lord Jesus and what He taught; there is often great disparity with us. The consciousness of that in one who taught would keep him very chastened in spirit; there would be a subduedness [p. 42] about teaching that came through a self-judged vessel.
God deals with moral realities; He is concerned about what we are much more than about what we say. We have to remember in prayer that God deals with moral realities. “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God”, etc. (Ecclesiastes 5: 1 - 3). One secret, of our weakness in prayer is that, our expressions often go beyond our true desires. The glad tidings in power in our souls would liberate us from everything unreal, so that we should be real before God; every desire expressed in prayer thoroughly real out of a pure heart; and every word spoken in teaching to one another real and genuine: according to the excellence of the model seen so perfectly in Christ.
God is going to judge the secrets of men, and we have to face it; it is part of the gospel. If the glad tidings is in power in our souls it will put the secrets right. Then we shall have a man not only doing and saying right, but thinking and feeling right; all the motives down to the root of his moral being such as will bear the light of God. If we have not come to that we have more to learn about the power of the glad tidings. By the renewing of the Holy Spirit the believer has a renewed mind — a new way of thinking about everything. My thoughts are my secrets. What natural man would like to disclose his thoughts? He would not do it to his nearest friend. But if by the renewing of the Holy Spirit a man gets a renewed mind, it transforms him into correspondence to the will of God. He becomes assimilated to the excellent standard as seen in Jesus. One fears sometimes that we get our minds occupied with what we regard as [p. 43] advanced truth, and neglect the moral realities which the glad tidings would bring about. One might have sensations of mental pleasure in accepting truth and yet the conscience not be touched. Nothing is more important, than to be exercised in conscience, and to keep a good conscience.
Only one kind of man will do for God. If we learn in these chapters, and in our own exercises, the character of the other man, it is only to turn us to the Man after God’s own heart — the One who was everything that He taught. It is a comfort to know that we can see what the Lord Jesus was in what He said: it was perfectly set forth there; He was what He said. Paul in his measure was after that Pattern, and Timothy too. Paul said, Timothy will “put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ; according as I teach everywhere”. When he comes you will see it also in him; he will remind you of me! Timothy’s ways were in Christ as well as Paul’s; he was like Paul. The truest and most genuine self-judgment is not brought about by seeing one’s wrong acts in the past, or even by the law, but by the soul coming into the presence of the perfections of Jesus.
At the end of the chapter Paul dwells much on what is inward or secret. “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly”. I remember F. E. R. beginning an address by saying, “I take it for granted that I am addressing a company of good Jews”. He had this scripture in his mind. We ought to aspire to be good Jews inwardly and spiritually, persons truly circumcised, not in the flesh, but circumcised in heart and spirit, so that things are right inwardly or in secret. One loves to think how perfect everything was in the inward life of Jesus. “The hidden manna” is just [p. 44] that; it was that in Jesus which was hidden from every eye but the eye of God. The manna suggests what is suitable to God in wilderness conditions and circumstances, a perfection that comes out of heaven and can manifest itself in relation to every detail in the wilderness, so that every grain of sand in the wilderness has its grain of manna upon it. The hidden manna speaks of Christ, not in His public life, but in what was secret under the eye of God. We read here, “Whose praise is not of men but of God”. Think of the perfection of the secret exercises of Jesus! We can gather from the prophetic word — particularly from some of, the Psalms — intimations of what came under the eye of God in the inward exercises of the Lord Jesus in relation to His pathway in this world. I have been told that in icebergs, for every ton of ice above the surface, there are eight tons beneath the surface. What ballast we should have to steady our souls if our secret exercises with God exceeded everything that was public! It was like that in the life of Jesus; how much was there that never came under the eye of men! Upon His mother’s breasts He was made to trust; Psalm 22: 9. Who saw the trust of the infant Jesus but the eye of God? And that was but the earliest manifestation of His inward perfection.
The overcomer in Pergamos has the hidden manna. When the church began to make a public appearance in the world, the Lord drew the attention of the overcomer to what was hidden; “the hidden manna”, and the “white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he that receives it”. Manna refers to the responsible path; it ceased soon after they crossed the Jordan, it stood in relation to [p. 45] the wilderness. We should all be more exercised about what is secret than what is public. If God is going to judge the secrets of men, that is where I must begin; that is the thing to be exercised about. What is outside will be all right if all is right within. If I want to see the excellent standard I must look at Jesus; I see there a life where every secret influence, motive, sympathy, feeling, and thought were in perfect correspondence with God. What God values is the inside of a man, His primary concern is not the outside: “Behold, thou wilt have truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou wilt make me to know wisdom”, Psalm 51: 6. God is working to reproduce the features of Christ in the hidden man of the heart; 1 Peter 3: 4. We should be concerned about things being genuine under the eye of God. In this epistle we get down to bedrock — to the reality of things; we are apt to be living a kind of external Christian life, and holding things in terms and phrases. A Jew could tell you what the Scriptures said about things, and he boasted in circumcision, which did indeed give him a privileged place outwardly. In the same way people sometimes boast in their baptism and even in the fact that they break bread. But unless there is moral correspondence with these things, they have no value under the eye of God. It is not that the external is unimportant, but to have value under the eye of God it must flow from what is internal. In the Lord Jesus everything flowed out from what was within. Think of all the inward perfection which was in Him! And even what was outward was comparatively hidden for thirty years; it was entirely out of sight as far as the public world was concerned. But how choice was its value under [p. 46] the eye of God! The allusions to Christ in this chapter are veiled, but the veiled allusions to Christ in Scripture are a very precious heritage of faith.
We are apt to ignore moral realities; to keep them in view is a constant exercise. It is not in vain that the judging of the secrets of men is part of the gospel: it secures that everything shall be taken up as before God who knows all. It would bring about deep exercise in every upright soul, and lead to one saying, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me and know my thoughts”. Have I any object but Christ?
The human heart is ever ready to rest in ordinances. The Jew rested in the fact of circumcision, and that he was numbered among the people of God. To be outwardly amongst the people of God is truly a privilege, but without obedience it is of no spiritual value, God had said by the prophet Jeremiah that “all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart”, Jeremiah 9: 26. God looks for subjection to Him, and the practical setting aside of the will of the flesh by obedience. This is the true circumcision, and the one who has it is accounted circumcised. So that the uncircumcised Gentile who does what is pleasing to God judges the Jew who transgresses. Ordinances and outward privileges can never make up for the lack of submission and obedience. Everything is tested, not by what is held and taught, or by any outward privilege that one might have, but by the one standard of obedience. The power of Christianity is known in secret; the place God has in the heart is the hidden spring of everything. Obedience is the test of everything; the Lord insists in John 14 that it is the test of love.