Pages

Thursday 14 January 2016

Romans 2:9-11 - God does not show favouritism

These verses sum up how the judgement will work. The Jew would accept that everyone who does evil will receive tribulation from God. What he tended to forget was that this would apply first of all to the Jews, then the Gentiles (Greeks being used a synonym for Gentiles). There is a key lesson here to understanding the grace of God. God had shown His grace to Israel in choosing them, but this did not absolve them from responsibility. If anything it increased it. The reality of this can be seen throughout Israel's history where she repeatedly experienced God's wrath because of her sins. Yet the Jews failed to see this. We need to be wary of making the same mistake. Peter says that judgement begins with the church (1 Peter 4:7). Likewise we should not presume that the grace of God shown to us in Christ means we can sin with impunity for He will forgives us. To have such an attitude is a grave mistake.

Conversely there will be glory for those who do good. Again, this applies to the Jews and the Gentiles, Verse 11 indicates what the point of all this is. Paul's thrust is that God shows no partiality, no favouritism. All of us are subject to the same judgement. So, as he will go on to say later, all of us are in need of the same saviour.

No comments:

Post a Comment