No Respect of Persons

Romans 2:11 – 16 — “For there is no respect of persons with God.

“For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”

No one has any right standing with God in and of themselves.  There is NO RESPECT OF PERSONS WITH GOD.  We are moving to find that the Jew, the children Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by birth, has no better place of standing before God in his own righteousness than the Gentile.  Before moving on to that point, however, we will discuss more on God’s judgment in dealing with mankind in general.

We read in chapter 1, verses 18 – 32, about the ungodliness of the Gentile world given up because of idolatry to all their vices and wickedness, and in chapter 2 we find that all those that click their tongue and wag their finger at the ungodly “heathen” around them are really no better.  God, the righteous Judge, does not judge based on how well we recognize the sin of others, but He will “render to every man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6).

He will render to EVERY MAN according to his deeds!

He will render to every man ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS!

Those who boast “only God can judge me” make this boast because they do not believe that He really will, or they think themselves as more righteous than others. The Holy Scriptures do not put this forward as anything but a coming doom:

Revelation 20:11 – 15 — “And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from Whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

So in the indictment, the argument has already been made that mankind in its entirety, represented as Gentiles, is unrighteous measured against the standard of the righteousness of God.  History, however, shows that even the ungodly Gentile nations (all of them, from pole to pole, and east to west) have a standard of righteousness that generally does not allow the things that the Law of God (exemplified in the “10 Commandments”) does not allow.  Yes, many cultures have become very debased, but they generally do not allow murder and stealing, they know lying is wrong, etc.

In any culture, just knowing the law of the land does not make anyone right with the law of the land.  The law must be followed, or the one not following it is a law-breaker.  Not to mention people have a conscience.  We generally know when things are wrong.  What we do with that information is another story.

The time between the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and the world wide flood of Noah’s day is known by many theologians as the dispensation of conscience, because the way that God allowed the world to manage was without any instituted government.  When Cain was found guilty of the murder of Abel, he did not own up to it immediately.  Why?  It was written on his heart, in his very being, that it was wrong.  It did not stop him from committing this first in a long line of human atrocities, but he did know it was wrong.  And when he was “cursed from the earth” and made to be a fugitive and a vagabond, the Lord strictly forbid that anyone would take vengeance on him.

Generations later, Lamech boasts of slaying a man, and commands that justice would mean he would be avenged seventy and sevenfold (Genesis 4:24).  We find out later:

Genesis 6:5 – 6 — “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.”

Genesis 6:11 – 13 — “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

“And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

So much for man being able to govern himself by his own conscience.  After Noah left the ark, there would be no more of the “no one better take vengeance on me” stuff.

Genesis 9:6 — “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man.”

So since then, God has put human governments in place to keep the evil under reins.  We will discuss this more in depth when we study chapter 13 and discuss the “powers that be”.

Romans 13:4 — “For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” 

So the Gentiles can say that they were outside of God’s law given to Moses.  They are not, however, outside of the administration of conscience, and mankind as a whole, and each and every one of us individually, is found wanting under the dictates of conscience. All have sinned (Romans 3:23).  All of us that find ourselves able to find another guilty know that we ourselves are also totally guilty.  We try to excuse each other if we like each other, or accuse if we do not, but we all know wrong.  Our conscience bears witness and our thoughts are the mean while accusing us of our evil.

We try and keep our sins a secret, but God sees them.  “[F]or there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known” (Matthew 10:26).  We do things in secret, “but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13).