The Word Made Fresh
1They have no excuse, then. When they judge others they condemn themselves because they themselves are guilty of the same things. 2We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in keeping with truth. 3Do you imagine, whoever you may be, that you will escape God’s judgment when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself? 4Or do you hate the richness of his kindness and mercy and patience? Don’t you see, God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. 5But if you remain impenitent and hard-hearted, you are only piling up punishment for yourself on the day of God’s anger, when God’s righteous judgment will be made known. 6God will repay each of us according to our deeds. 7To those who patiently do good and thus gain glory and honor for themselves, God will give eternal life. 8But those who are selfish and obey sinfulness rather than truth will receive the fury of God’s anger. 9Those who do evil will suffer anguish and distress – the Jew first and also the Greek, 10But glory and honor and peace will be given to all who do good – the Jew first and also the Greek, 11because God shows no partiality.
12Those who sin and fail to keep the law will perish without the support of the law. And all who know the law and yet have sinned will be judged by the law. 13God does not judge those who only hear the law as being righteous, but rather those who obey the law will be justified. 14When Gentiles instinctively do what the law requires without knowing the law, they are a law unto themselves. 15They have demonstrated that the law is written on their hearts. Their own conscience knows them, and if they have conflicting ideas about what is right their thoughts will accuse them, or perhaps excuse them 16when, according to the gospel, God judges everyone’s secret thoughts through Jesus Christ.
17However, if you call yourself a Jew and lean on the law, and are proud of your relationship with God, 18and know God’s will and therefore decide what is best because you are guided by the law, 19and if you are certain that you have been a guide to those who are spiritually blind, and are a light to those who dwell in darkness, 20and are someone who corrects the foolish and teaches the children because you have in the law a body of knowledge and truth, 21then you that teach others, do you live what you teach? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22While you forbid adultery do you commit adultery? If you hate idols, do you steal them from their temples? 23If you boast of keeping the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24After all, it is written that the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you!
25Circumcision is valuable if you obey the law, but if you break the law your circumcision is undone. 26So, if those who have not been circumcised obey the law, won’t their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27Then those who are uncircumcised physically, but keep the law, will condemn you who know the law and have been circumcised physically but break the law!
28A man is not Jewish because he pretends to be Jewish, nor is true circumcision something that is external and physical. 29No! A Jew is Jewish on the inside, and true circumcision is spiritual, not literal, and such a person is praised not by others, but by God!
Commentary
It is important to remember to whom Paul is writing and about whom he is writing. He is writing to Gentile believers (1:13) about Gentile unbelievers who form the culture in which believers must live. These unbelievers are those who worship idols (1:23), engage in all kinds of debased behaviors — sexual, financial, selfishness, antiauthoritarian, etc. Hmm…sounds strangely familiar. These people have no excuse because everyone should know something about God from the things God created (1:20).
1-11: He addresses these unbelievers as “whoever you may be,” and says that they also have no integrity by which to judge others. In other words, their entire system of laws and their understanding of ethical behavior are flawed from the core, and they will suffer God’s wrath because of the evil they do. Notice that Paul does not claim eternal life only for Christians, but for all those who do good, both “Jew and Greek” (a common phrase intended to include everybody). Eternal life, it would seem, depends on one’s behavior, not on one’s knowledge or belief. There will be much remaining in Paul’s and others’ letters that will call that interpretation into question — such as the insistence on faith in Christ (like 3:22-24 for instance) – but we’ll worry about those when we get there.
12-16: There will be a day of judgment, Paul says, when God will judge not only the deeds but also the secret thoughts of everyone. Jews have the benefit of God’s law to guide them, but Gentiles also instinctively know the difference between right and wrong, and when they follow their inclination to do right, they are justified just as Jews who keep the law. In verse 15 Paul is probably remembering what Jeremiah had written centuries before: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
17-24: Practice what you preach.
25-29: The prevailing public opinion among Jews of Paul’s day was that circumcision (combined with an Abrahamic ancestry) made one part of God’s people. Paul says that keeping God’s law — doing the right thing — is what makes one part of God’s people. After the resurrection, therefore, God’s people are known by faith and practice.
Takeaway
The soul’s security is grounded in faith, not in earthly affiliations.