Romans — Chapter 2

Authorship & Background

Deep Dive

Setting: Paul writes from Corinth in about AD 57, near the end of his third journey, to a church he has never visited. The Roman church was a mix of Jewish and Gentile believers, and the mix had been strained: Emperor Claudius expelled Jews from Rome around AD 49 (Acts 18:2), and when they came back after his death in AD 54, Gentile believers had been running the house churches for years. Chapter 1 ended with a dark list of pagan sins: idolatry, sexual disorder, and a whole catalog of cruelty (1:18–32). A Jewish reader would have nodded along, because Jewish writings of the day said much the same about the Gentile world (Wisdom of Solomon 13–15). Romans 2 turns the spotlight around. The person who agrees most loudly with chapter 1 is the next one in the dock. The whole movement from 1:18 to 3:20 builds to one verdict: "all have sinned" (3:23).

God's Righteous Judgment (vv1–16)

• "Therefore you have no excuse, O man" (v1). "No excuse" (anapologētos) is a courtroom word, "without a defense." It is the same word used of the pagans in 1:20. The person who stood in judgment over chapter 1 now stands where the pagans stood. The "you" is singular. Paul is using the diatribe, a popular teaching style of the day in which a speaker debates an imaginary opponent, firing questions straight at him. Paul does not name the man as a Jew until v17, so vv1–16 catch any moral person who thinks himself above the crowd, Jew or Gentile. Most scholars think Paul has the Jewish critic chiefly in mind from the start.
• "You, the judge, practice the very same things" (v1). Paul does not mean every critic is secretly an idol-worshiper or sexually immoral. Chapter 1's list includes envy, deceit, gossip, slander, arrogance and boasting (1:29–30). No one escapes those. And the deeper sin of chapter 1 is turning from the God one knows (1:21). The critic who knows God's standard well enough to apply it to others, and then excuses himself, does the same thing with more light. Jesus said it first: "with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged" (Matt 7:1–2).
• "The judgment of God rightly falls" (v2). Literally "according to truth." God judges by what is actually there, not by reputation, religious background or a person's opinion of himself.
• "Do you presume on the riches of his kindness?" (v4). Three words pile up: kindness, forbearance (holding back), and patience. The man reads God's delay as approval: nothing bad has happened, so all must be well. Paul says the delay has a purpose: "God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance." The Tyndale notes point to a common attitude of the day, that God's covenant people would be treated more gently than the nations. The prophets had already attacked that false security (Jer 7:1–11; Amos 5:18–20).
• "Storing up wrath for yourself" (v5). The verb is thēsaurizō, "to treasure up," the word Jesus uses for storing up treasures on earth or in heaven (Matt 6:19–20). Paul turns it into a grim irony. The man thinks he is banking credit with God, but each day of hardened refusal adds to a store of wrath. "Hard and impenitent" (ametanoētos, "unrepentant," used only here in the New Testament) describes a heart that has heard God's kindness and will not turn. "The day of wrath" is the prophets' "day of the LORD" (Zeph 1:14–18).
• "He will render to each one according to his works" (v6). Nearly word for word from Psalm 62:12 and Proverbs 24:12. Judgment by works is taught all through Scripture (Matt 16:27; 2 Cor 5:10; Rev 20:12). Paul is not inventing a new standard. He is reminding a religious man of one he already believed.
• The shape of vv6–11. The Tyndale notes point out a chiasm, a mirror-shaped pattern: God judges all alike (v6), life for those who do good (v7), wrath for evil (v8), trouble for evil (v9), glory for good (v10), God shows no partiality (v11). The point at the center and the edges is the same: one standard for everyone.
• "Eternal life" for those who persist in doing good (v7). This is the hardest verse in the chapter, because Paul will soon say that "by works of the law no human being will be justified" (3:20). There are three main readings. (1) Hypothetical: Paul states God's standard honestly, and no one actually meets it, which is where 3:9–20 lands. (2) Real believers: Paul describes Christians, whose faith shows itself in patient good works produced by the Spirit, and those works are the evidence at the judgment, not the ground of salvation (compare vv14–15, 26–29). (3) Some combine the two: the standard is real, and only those made new in Christ ever begin to meet it. All three keep Paul consistent with himself. Note what these people seek: "glory and honor and immortality," which are God's gifts, not things they can earn.
• "Self-seeking" (v8). The Greek word eritheia first meant working for hire, and then canvassing for office and the selfish ambition of party politics. Paul uses it again for "rivalries" in the church (Gal 5:20; Phil 2:3). Its opposite is in v7. One kind of person seeks God's glory; the other seeks his own advantage. "Wrath and fury" pairs orgē, God's settled opposition to evil, with thumos, "hot anger" or passion.
• "The Jew first and also the Greek" (vv9–10). The same phrase as 1:16, where the gospel comes "to the Jew first." Privilege cuts both ways. The Jew is first in line for blessing and first in line for judgment, because he was given the most light (Amos 3:2; Luke 12:48).
• "God shows no partiality" (v11). The Greek word (prosōpolēmpsia) is built from "face" and "receive," meaning to judge by the face, by appearances. Deuteronomy 10:17 says it of God, and Peter learned it in Cornelius's house (Acts 10:34).
• "Without the law… under the law" (v12). Here "the law" means the law of Moses. Gentiles never had it; Jews did. Paul says both groups will be judged fairly, each by the light they actually had. No one is condemned for failing to keep a law they never received, but no one is excused either.
• "Not the hearers of the law… but the doers" (v13). In the synagogue, the law was heard read aloud every Sabbath. Hearing it was not the same as keeping it. James says the same thing in nearly the same words (Jas 1:22). This is the first use of "justified" (dikaioō, "declared righteous") in Romans, the word that will carry the letter's argument. Here Paul states the principle. In chapter 3 he shows that no one meets it, and then he shows how God justifies the ungodly by faith (3:21–26; 4:5).
• Gentiles who "by nature do what the law requires" (v14). Readers take this two ways. Many think Paul means ordinary pagans, who keep some of God's law without ever having read it: they honor parents, punish murder and value honesty. That shows they know right from wrong, and so they are accountable. Others (the Tyndale notes give both options) think he means Gentile Christians, in whom God has written his law on the heart as the new covenant promised (Jer 31:33). The first reading fits the flow of vv12–16. The second fits vv26–29. "A law to themselves" does not mean they make up their own rules. It means the law's demands are present within them.
• "Their conscience also bears witness" (v15). Syneidēsis, literally "knowing with," a co-knowledge with oneself. It is a common word in the Stoic philosophers of Paul's day, and Paul uses it more than any other New Testament writer. Conscience is an inner witness, not a perfect one: it can be weak (1 Cor 8:7) or seared (1 Tim 4:2). Paul pictures a courtroom inside the person, thoughts arguing back and forth, "accuse or even excuse." Notice which comes first. Conscience mostly accuses.
• "God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus" (v16). Verse 16 completes the thought of vv12–13, so vv14–15 work like a long aside. Two things stand out. First, God judges the secrets, the hidden things (1 Sam 16:7; Jer 17:10; 1 Cor 4:5). That is bad news for the polished hypocrite. Second, the Judge is Jesus (John 5:22; Acts 17:31). "According to my gospel" means judgment is part of the good news Paul preaches. The one who will judge is the one who died for sinners.
• Commentators: All three see the target as a self-righteous religious person, and JFB's introduction says Paul turns from the outsiders to the insiders, the Jews "who looked down upon the uncovenanted heathen," adding that the same false confidence lives on in the church. Henry on v4: "Low and mean thoughts of the divine goodness are at the bottom of a great deal of sin." JFB says God's goodness is "designed and adapted" to bring repentance, and on v5 that the boaster is building up wrath like hoarded treasure, a warning aimed at those proud of their purity, not at the openly reckless. Guzik notes the difference between being led to repentance by kindness and being driven to it, and observes that true repentance is a turn toward new life, not just regret. On v7 JFB says the final judgment "will turn upon character alone," and Guzik reads vv6–10 as a standard no one fully meets, since everyone is self-seeking in some way. Henry on v15: "Conscience is that candle of the Lord which was not quite put out, no, not in the Gentile world." On v16: "Secret services shall be then rewarded, secret sins shall be then punished, hidden things shall be brought to light."

God's Judgment and the Law (vv17–29)

• "But if you call yourself a Jew" (v17). Now Paul names his imagined partner. The name "Jew" comes from Judah, and Genesis links Judah's name to the Hebrew for "praise" (Gen 29:35; 49:8). Paul will return to that at the very end of the chapter.
• The list of privileges (vv17–20). Rely on the law, boast in God, know his will, approve what is excellent, a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children. Every one of these is true. Israel really was given the law, and its calling really was to be "a light for the nations" (Isa 42:6; 49:6). Paul does not mock these gifts. Later he lists Israel's privileges with tears (9:4–5). The problem is resting in them. "The embodiment of knowledge and truth" (v20) is the word morphōsis, an outward form. Paul uses it again in 2 Timothy 3:5 of those "having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power."
• "You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?" (v21). Four sharp questions follow, the diatribe at its most direct. Stealing, adultery, idols. These are the commandments the teacher would quote at a pagan. Paul is not saying every Jew is a thief or adulterer. He is saying that knowing and teaching the commandments does not protect anyone from breaking them, and that it doesn't take many cases to undo the boast. Jesus' words on lust and anger (Matt 5:21–28) show how near the line comes to every heart.
• "You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?" (v22). Since the exile, Jews had detested idols. But the verb hierosyleō means "to rob a temple" or "commit sacrilege." Many think Paul means Jews who profited from pagan temples, stealing or dealing in idols' precious metals, which Deuteronomy 7:25–26 forbade. Josephus records a scandal in Rome itself, in AD 19, in which Jewish swindlers took a wealthy convert's gifts meant for the Jerusalem temple and kept them, and the Jews were expelled from the city. Others read it more broadly as profaning what is holy, including cheating God's own temple (Mal 3:8). Either way, the man who hates idols has found another way to treat holy things as money.
• "You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law" (v23). The boast of v17 ("boast in God") has become a boast in the law, and the law it boasts in is the very thing that condemns.
• "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you" (v24). Paul quotes Isaiah 52:5 (in its Greek form). In Isaiah, God's name was mocked because Israel lay in exile, beaten by the nations. Ezekiel goes further: the exile itself profaned God's name, because the nations said "these are the people of the LORD, yet they had to go out of his land" (Ezek 36:20–23). Paul applies it to God's people living badly in front of watching pagans. The people meant to be a light have become a reason to scoff.
• "Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law" (v25). Circumcision was the sign of God's covenant with Abraham (Gen 17:9–14). After the Syrian king Antiochus IV banned it around 167 BC, and Jewish mothers died rather than obey, it became the badge of loyalty to God. Paul does not call it worthless. He says the sign means something only where the covenant is kept. "Your circumcision becomes uncircumcision" would have stung. A covenant-breaker with the sign is, before God, no different from a pagan without it.
• "Will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?" (v26). As with v14, readers divide. Some take it as hypothetical: if a Gentile ever kept the law, God would count him as one of his people. Others think Paul means Gentile Christians, who by the Spirit fulfill "the righteous requirement of the law" (8:4). The second reading fits vv28–29, where "by the Spirit" points forward to chapters 7–8. "Regarded" (logizomai, "credited, counted") is the word Paul will use eleven times in chapter 4 of righteousness counted to Abraham by faith.
• "Will condemn you" (v27). A sharp reversal. The uncircumcised Gentile who keeps the law will stand as a witness against the Jew who has "the written code and circumcision" and breaks it. Jesus said the men of Nineveh and the queen of the South would rise at the judgment and condemn his own generation (Matt 12:41–42).
• "A Jew is one inwardly" (vv28–29). This was not a new idea. Moses commanded, "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart" (Deut 10:16), and promised that God himself would do it (Deut 30:6). Jeremiah called Judah "uncircumcised in heart" (Jer 9:25–26). "By the Spirit, not by the letter" anticipates the new covenant Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 3:6: "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." The "letter" is the law as written code alone, telling us what to do but unable to change us. The Spirit writes it on the heart (Jer 31:33; Ezek 36:26–27).
• "His praise is not from man but from God" (v29). Paul ends with a wordplay a Jewish reader would catch: "Jew" comes from "Judah," and Judah means "praise." The true Jew, the true "praise-one," gets his praise from God, not from the people watching. Jesus said the same of those who pray to be seen (Matt 6:1–6). This verse does not erase ethnic Israel. Paul asks in the very next breath, "Then what advantage has the Jew?" and answers, "Much in every way" (3:1–2). He returns to Israel's future in chapters 9–11. His point here is that no outward mark, by itself, makes anyone right with God, and that holds for Christian baptism as much as for circumcision.
• Commentators: Henry warns that "it is a dangerous thing to rest in external privileges, and not to improve them," and calls spiritual pride "of all kinds of pride the most dangerous." On v24: "The great evil of the sins of professors is the dishonour done to God and religion by their profession." On v22, Henry and JFB both lean toward the broader reading. Henry calls it "sacrilege-robbing in holy things" and "almost equivalent to idolatry," and JFB prefers "dost thou profane holy things?", pointing to the money-changers Jesus drove from the temple (Matt 21:12–13). Guzik cites the view that some Jews thought it fair to profit from idol-related dealings and leaves it as a suggestion. The lexicon supports "rob a temple" or "commit sacrilege," so both readings are open. JFB says the name of Jew and circumcision were given "but as outward symbols" of inner holiness, and profit only where the reality matches the sign. Guzik makes the same point with a homely picture: a label on a can does not change what is inside, but new birth changes the contents, and then the label fits. JFB adds no note on vv19, 21, 23 or 27. Henry ends: "It is the heart that God looks at."

Pointing to Christ

Romans 2 shuts the door the religious person thought was open. Having God's law, God's sign and God's name is a real gift, but none of it makes a person right with God, and the one who judges others best is often judged by his own words. Paul leaves the reader with one standard and no one meeting it, so that "every mouth may be stopped" (3:19). Then he turns to the only way through: a righteousness from God that comes "through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe" (3:22). The Judge of v16 is that same Jesus, and the circumcised heart of v29 is his work by his Spirit (Col 2:11).

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik examines the moralist's guilt, God's patience, the Jew's privilege and responsibility, and true circumcision of the heart.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org A verse that appears to promise eternal life for doing good, read alongside the rest of the letter.
• Crossway: crossway.org On the whole letter: why Romans has carried the weight it has in church history.
• Crossway: crossway.org Why Paul's own story of being overtaken by grace is the right way into the letter.
• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Romans -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

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Reflection

• The Hypocrisy of Judging Others (v.1) — Paul warns that condemning others for sins we secretly share only condemns ourselves. Where are you judging someone for a fault you also carry, just in a more respectable form?
• God's Kindness Is Meant to Lead to Repentance (v.4) — Paul says it is God's goodness, not His threats, that draws people toward turning from sin. Are you responding to God's patience with gratitude and change, or treating it as permission to keep coasting?
• Doers of the Law, Not Just Hearers (v.13) — Knowing what's right doesn't justify anyone before God; only actually doing it does. What's something you know you should do but haven't put into practice?
• God Judges What's Hidden (v.16) — Paul reminds his readers that God will judge the secret thoughts and motives behind people's actions, not just their visible behavior. If God examined your private thoughts today, what would He find?
• Living What You Teach (vv.21-23) — Paul confronts those who instruct others in God's law while breaking it themselves. Where is there a gap between what you tell others to do and how you actually live?
• True Circumcision Is of the Heart (v.29) — Paul closes by locating real faith not in outward religious markers but in inward transformation. Is your faith mostly a matter of appearances, or has it genuinely reshaped your heart?