August 7, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Romans? Here’s today’s reading:
Romans 2 (NIV)
God’s Righteous Judgment
1You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? ........Continue Reading
You without sin cast the first stone…
This is what I thought of when I read this chapter. We can not judge others for their sin unless we are without sin and we are definitely NOT! The love and grace God shows us as sinners we are to then share with and show others.
We are not to think that because we live a “good life” or “follow the rules” we are in any position to tell someone else that their sin is worse than ours. Sin is sin is sin! I tell my kids that all the time and one man’s sin is between him and God.
Of course it doesn’t mean acceptance of sin or agreement that something is an “acceptable sin” but when we show God’s grace, love, and forgiveness toward others we show them the redemptive power of God to cleanse us from our sins and walk away from them instead of repeat them in our own lives and the lives of others.
God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” – This verse is comforting. There are many times when I find myself taking revenge against those who have done me wrong. But knowing this verse gives me the assurance that in the end, everything will be settled. Message for me is to let go and just let God.
Romans 2
All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. – Romans 2:12
And how do we come to the acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and savior? Through the realization that we are all insufficient, both Jew and gentile.
Romans 2 we have to be careful about passing judgment that is not up to us that is God’s doing and we are only condemning ourselves when we pass judgment.
The law is not inadequate to save because of what it is but because of who we are. If we could follow the law perfectly then we could be saved by it. But for Jew and Gentile we cannot do it. Even if we place ourselves in judgement over others, we find ourselves also guilty of sin…and sometimes of the same sins we judge others of. And wether we are under the law or not under the law we find ourselves under judgment ourselves. The Jews have an advantage in part, but a disadvantage on another because having the law makes them accountable, and sometimes Gentiles do better than them following standards of conscience yet outside the Jewish law. The point therefore is not to be a Jew in name only, but to be one who is obedient to the law. But then as a Jew you find you can’t obey and therefore not be a very good Jew, what leg do you have to stand on?
Well to answer that we must read on…..
We are all under the law and none can escape God’s judgment. Even a Jew who views himself as under the law will find himself failing to completely obey it.
It’s time to dig even deeper, beyond outward obedience, the heart: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.”