I

Romans 2:1-29

God Shows No Partiality

I. Introduction: In the late 1700's, the manager of Baltimore's largest hotel refused lodging to a man dressed like a farmer because he thought this fellow's appearance would discredit his inn. So the man left. Later that evening, the innkeeper discovered that he had turned away none other than Thomas Jefferson! Immediately he sent a note to the famed patriot, asking him to come back and be his guest. Jefferson replied by instructing his messenger as follows: "Tell him I have already engaged a room. I value his good intentions highly but if he has no place for a dirty American farmer, he has none for the Vice President of the United States.”[1]

Aren’t you glad that God applies different criterion in judgment of you than your appearance? By what criteria do you assess your own stand before God? What are you - through the way you live, the philosophies you embrace, and the priorities you place - insisting that God should use as criteria for your judgment? Are you insisting that God should use your own good opinion of yourself, your status, or even your religion as criteria?

Have no fear! God shows no partiality in judgment. God judges all according to the same criteria: according to truth; according to deeds, and according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

II. God’s Judges According To Truth. God’s judgment is fair. God doesn’t judge according to hearsay, gossip, or human opinions or evaluations. Our gracious God judges according to truth.

A story is told of a man who wanted to steal some potatoes from his neighbor's field. He put his little son on a fence to watch. "Is anyone coming from the north?" he asked. "No," replied his son. "From the south?" "No." "From the east?" "No." "From the west?" "No, Daddy." "Then I can go ahead and take the potatoes," said the man. "But there is one direction we forgot to look," said the boy. "Which direction is that?" asked his father. "Up," answered the boy.[2]

God calls us to look upward when developing criteria for judgment. For, the upward view gives us a glimpse of the character of God who is both the source and the embodiment of all truth. Out of his grace, God calls us to look upward, not inward to ourselves, not outward to society’s opinions and evaluations and not to science for facts. God’s truth trumps all other sources of criteria for judgment.

And it is good news that God shows no partiality in judgment. God calls us to judge ourselves on the basis of God’s truth, not on the basis of human sources.

Often when I ask others about their relationship with God, I hear such answers as this: “Well I am not a bad person. I try to be honest and fair. I don’t think that God will hold my small imperfections against me.” A man whom I knew, who is now deceased, gave that answer every time I asked about his life with God. He insisted upon applying his opinion of himself as the criteria for eternal life. Such answers evade the question. For, nothing in that answer has anything to do with a relationship with God.

People of John Calvin, children of God, brothers and sisters setting up one’s opinion of self as the criteria for a relationship with God is dangerous. It’s like saying, “I am betting eternal life that God will accept me on the basis of my perception of how good I am. God will accept me on the basis of my home-spun morality.”

It is easy to judge others as being lower than ourselves when we judge them according to our own version of morality rather than on the basis of God’s truth. When we establish ourselves as the standard for life, we usually over estimate our own goodness and underestimate the goodness of others. Indeed, in the end, we condemn ourselves. For, even when we are at our best, our righteous, our goodness is as filthy rags in the eyes of God.

God graciously judges everyone on the basis of God’s character, not on the basis of self-perception or society’s perception or science’s perception. That is fair. That is God’s way.

God graciously calls us to look upward for the criteria. For to do otherwise is to “… presume on the riches of [God’s] kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead [you] to repentance?” And by so doing, you store “…up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” God judges on the basis of truth.

III. God judges on the basis of deeds: But, someone will say, “Well I am in good shape because I know God’s truth. I possess God’s truth.” That’s what the Jews were saying in Paul’s time. But, to know God’s truth the way God intends for us to know it involves far more than mere intellectual knowledge. There is another criterion by which for God judges.

I am reminded of two secretaries who were taking a tea break. They began to talk about their respective churches. "I never knew you went to church," said the first one. "I'll bet you twenty dollars you can't even recite the Lord's Prayer." "Oh yes, I can," said the second. "Well, then, let's hear it," said the first. The second one began, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep..." The first secretary listened with astonishment. "Wow!" she said. "Here's your twenty dollars. I sure didn't think you could do it!"[3]

Neither, ignorance of God’s truth nor knowledge of God’s truth will cause God to show partiality in judgment. Verse 12: “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.”^{^[4]} And the reason is that God is not interested in what we know or don’t know. God is interested in how we live.

To the one who claims ignorance of truth, God says, “You have the twin witnesses of conscience and nature. Therefore, you will be judged by these and not by the written law.” Romans 1:19 says, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.”^{^[5]}

During a business meeting in a small country church, one of the deacons said, "Pastor, I think we need a chandelier for the church." Another deacon stood up and said, "No, I'm against it!" "Why don't we need a chandelier, brother deacon?" asked the pastor. The deacon answered, "Well first, nobody in the church can spell it. Second, nobody in the church can play it. And third, what this church needs more than anything else is more light!"[6]

Dan Crawford, veteran missionary to Africa, says that ignorance of the light of God is no excuse for failure to acknowledge and to worship God. Dr. Roy Laurin writes, “It is most evident from Scripture, that [humans] will be judged according to the knowledge of God which they possess and never according to any higher standard they do not possess.” Those who hear and thus have the truth of God, such as you and me, and refuse to live it will be judged more severely.^{^[7]}

Jesus’ half-brother, James, tells us, “Do not merely listen to the word. Do what it says.” That is the criteria God applies in judgment: the truth of God and what one chooses to do with God’s truth. It is those who obey the law who are declared righteous, not those who only hear it. Now, I am not proclaiming salvation by works. This is salvation by faith that works. For no other form of faith is true faith. Again, James says, “Faith by itself; if it is not accompanied by action is dead.” Humans are declared righteous only by a faith that overflows in service to God and God’s people.

God graciously and justly judges on the basis of truth and on the basis of truth enacted. God judges on the basis of deeds.

IV. God judges according to the Gospel of Christ: A Chicago bank once asked for a letter of recommendation on a young Bostonian being considered for employment. The Boston investment house could not say enough about the young man. His father, they wrote, was a Cabot; his mother was a Lowell. Further back was a happy blend of …other of Boston's first families. The Boston firm gave the recommendation without hesitation. Several days later, the Chicago bank sent a note saying the information supplied was altogether inadequate. It read: "We are not contemplating using the young man for breeding purposes. Just for work."[8]

God is not swayed by how well bred we are or even that we are here this morning or that we are Presbyterian or that we have a wonderful heritage of faithful theologians and churchmen or that our parents were godly saints or that we have knowledge of truth or that we do good deeds. In other words, God is not swayed by our religiosity.

The final criterion by which God judges is the genuineness of one’s relationship to Jesus Christ. God judges justly by truth and by deeds. This final criterion validates our knowledge of truth and our good deeds: God judges according to the Gospel.

By grace God calls us to, not just outward change, but also inward change. Verses 28 and 29: ^“For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.”

In some meetings of the Salvation Army in Birmingham England one of the worst men in that city was converted. It was not long before some of his associates began to make fun of him, and a conversation like the following ensued: "You say you are a Christian; who was the father of Jesus Christ?" "I don't know." "Who was his mother?" "I don't know." "When did he live?" "I don't know." "How old was he when he died?" "I don't know." "How did he die?" "I don't know." "Well, you are some Christian; you don't know who was the father of Jesus, or who was his mother or when he lived or when he died or how he died; what do you know?" Then the rough but genuine Christian man lifted his head, and looking those who were taunting him in the face replied, "I know that he saved me."[9]

John 3:7, “You must be born again.” God’s criteria for judgment are not intellectual knowledge of God’s truth or rote obedience to a religious system. The only thing that will ensure the integrity of our knowledge and our deeds is the gospel of Christ. For, as Romans 1:16 says, the Gospel of Christ is God’s power for salvation of all who believe.

V. Conclusion: If a person has never believed the Gospel and received Christ, then he or she stands condemned no matter how much they know or how great their good deeds. The Jews, with all their religion and legalism, were just as much under sin as the Gentiles - and more so actually, because to them were given greater privileges and opportunities to know the truth of God and to live by it.

Some vainly insist that God is going to judge them according to their own good opinion of themselves, according to their status, or according to their religiosity? But, God does not judge according to these principles. God graciously judges according a judgment standard for all: according to truth, according to deeds, and according to the Gospel of Christ. Amen.

[1]“In the late 1700's, the manager of Baltimore's largest hotel ...” – Credited to “Daily Bread” at http://elbourne.org/sermons/ index.mv?illustration+4347

[2]“ The story is told of a man who wanted to steal some potatoes …” - http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+1520

^{^[4]}The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ro 2:12.

^{^[5]}The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Ro 1:18-19). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[6]“During a business meeting in a small country church, ……” – Credited to “Unknown” at http://elbourne.org/sermons/ index.mv?illustration+1924

^{^[7]}“Those who hear and thus have the truth of God and refuse to live it will be judged more severely.” - Wiersbe, W. W. (1997, c1992). Wiersbe's expository outlines on the New Testament (367). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.

[8]“A Chicago bank once asked for a letter …” - Credited to “Kathleen Peterson” under Illustrations at eSermons.com.

[9] “...I know that he saved me." – Credited to “R. W. Dale” at http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv? illustration +3998