As mentioned in the previous post, this passage has caused difficulty. Some see it as addressed to the Pagan moralists, others as addressed to Jews. Both make some sense. I will look at the passage form the perspective that it is written that it is describing and explaining how God works, in particular how justice, righteousness and salvation work, and we are to look at ourselves in the light of this.
The first point about God's judgement is that it is based on truth, ie it is completely reliable, and completely right in every respect. People who argue against God are very fond of saying things like "how can a God of love send people to hell", or such and such a judgement would be unfair. We can be completely sure that every judgement made will be absolutely correct and fair.
Now our natural human tendency is to judge others but excuse ourselves. In Paul's day there were Pagan moralists, like Seneca, who expressed high ideals, but whose own lifestyle was very questionable to say the least. The Jews were very proud of their heritage (as we shall see later in the chapter). Today a common pattern is for a politician or political party to get on their high horse about some issue, then some time later they too are found to be guilty of similar things. The truth is that we may be able to fool others, even ourselves, for a time, but we cannot fool God. We will all face judgement and there will be no clever tricks to enable us to escape.
There is only one route out, and that is the route of repentance. So often we seek to excuse or justify ourselves. In doing this we are showing contempt for God's kindness and patience. Man thinks "I have got away with it", so he carries on in his own no so sweet way. Instead we should realise that God's patience is designed to give us the chance to repent. Peter makes a similar point in 2 Peter 3:9. God's goal is to lead men to repent.
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