Owing to the length of this epistle we purpose (D.V) making our remarks briefer and more condensed than usual. It will therefore be more than ever necessary to refer to the Scripture itself as you read this article.
THE great theme of the Epistle to the Romans is the Gospel of God, as is indicated in its opening words. It seems to fall quite naturally into three main sections, as follows: ―
1. The Gospel fully unfolded, and expounded in orderly fashion, for the instruction of believers. (chapter 1-8).
2. God’s dealings with men, in sending forth the Gospel to Gentiles, reconciled with His previous dealings, which were exclusively with Israel. (9-11).
3. Instructions and exhortations as to the conduct that befits the Gospel on the part of those who have received it. (12-16).
It is one thing to carry the Gospel as a herald to sinful men, and quite another to set it forth in detail for the establishment of saints. The former is the work of the evangelist, the latter that of the teacher. If we wish to hear Paul preaching the Gospel, whether to Jews or to the heathen, we turn to the Acts. If we wish him to instruct us in its fullness and glorious power, we read the Epistle to the Romans.
It is very fitting therefore that the opening words of the epistle should give us a brief summary of the Gospel. Jesus the Christ, who is God’s Son, and our Lord, is the great theme of it, and it particularly concerns Him as the One who is risen from the dead. He truly came here as a real Man, so that He was David’s seed on that side; yet He was not merely that, for there was another side, not what He was “according to the flesh,” but “according to the Spirit of holiness.” He was the Son of God in power, and the resurrection of the dead declared it; whether it was His own resurrection, or His wielding the power of resurrection while still on earth.
From that same powerful Son of God Paul derived his apostleship and the grace to fulfill it, for he was set apart to herald forth the glad tidings. The scope of that message was not limited as the law had been. It was for all nations; and those who received the message, by obeying it, were revealed as the called ones of Jesus Christ. Such were the Romans to whom he wrote.
The Apostle evidently knew many of the saints living in Rome, who had doubtless migrated there from the lands further to the east, but as yet he had not personally visited the great metropolis; hence what he says in verses 8 to 15. They had a good report and Paul longed and prayed that he might see them, but had hitherto been hindered. His desire was their thorough establishment in the faith by his imparting to them things of a spiritual nature. He explains what he means in verses 12; the gifts were to be in the nature of mutual upbuilding in the faith, rather than the bestowing of great abilities, miraculous powers, and the like. It is better to be godly than gifted.
From verses 15 it would appear that not all the believers in Rome had as yet heard the Gospel unfolded in all its fullness, as Paul was commissioned to set it forth. Hence, Hence the Lord had specially committed tie Gospel to him as regards the Gentiles, he felt he was in their debt. He was ready to discharge that obligation, and since he had been hindered as to bodily presence, he would do it by letter.
Now the Gospel was in reproach. It has always been so from the earliest days, yet the Apostle had not an atom of shame in regard to it because of its power. Only let a man believe it, no matter whether he be Jew or Gentile, and it proves itself to be God’s mighty force or energy to his salvation. It is exactly so today. Men may ridicule it in theory but only the willfully blind can deny its power, which is most manifest when those who believe it have been living in the depths of degradation.
And observe, it is the power of God because there is revealed in it the righteousness of God. Here we are face to face with a truth of first-rate importance—there is no salvation apart from righteousness; nor would any right-minded person wish there to be.
But let us make sure that we catch the drift of verses 17. “Righteousness of God revealed” is in contrast with the law, the leading feature of which was righteousness from man required. The Gospel’s righteousness is “from faith.” The preposition from is a little unfortunate. It is rather by. The righteousness which the law demanded from men was to be by (or, on the principle of) works. The righteousness of God which the Gospel reveals is to be reached by faith. Then again the Gospel reveals God’s righteousness to faith whereas all that the law brought it revealed to sight. The first occurrence of the word, faith, stands in contrast to works, the second to sight. In the book of Habakkuk there is a prophecy which is fulfilled in the Gospel, “The just shall live by faith.” The preposition here translated “by” is just the one translated “from” immediately before. Not by works but by faith.
The Gospel, then, reveals the righteousness of God, and proves itself to be the power of God unto salvation, but it has behind it as a dark background, the wrath of God, of which verses 18 speaks. Righteousness and power unite today for the salvation of the believer. In the coming day they will unite in adding terror to His wrath. The wrath is not yet executed, but it is revealed as coming from heaven without distinction upon all man’s evil, whether it be open subtle evil of “holding the truth in unrighteousness,” as was done; for instance, by the Jew.
From this point the Apostle proceeds to show that all men are hopelessly lost and subject to the judgment and wrath of God. First of all—verses 19 to the end of chapter 1—he deals with the Barbarians, of whom he had spoken in verse 14. They at least had the witness of creation, which testified to the eternal power and Godhead of the Creator and makes them to be without excuse.
Here we have the passage that deals with the vexed question of the responsibility of the heathen. What about the heathen? — how often is that question asked! Certain facts stand out very distinctly.
1. Those peoples that are now heathen once knew God. Man’s course has not been from polytheism to monotheism, as some dreamers would have us imagine, but the other way round. They have sunk out of light into the darkness. Once “they knew God,” (verse 21) but the fact is, “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” (verse 28).
2. The root cause of their fall was that they did not wish to yield to God the glory that was his due, for they wished to pose as wise themselves—as we see in verse 21 and 22. In short, pride was the root and God has allowed them to make fools of themselves.
3. Their descent has been gradual. First vain thinkings: then, darkened understandings, gross idolatry, to be followed by outrageous sins in which they fell below the level of the beasts. Each generation went beyond the follies of their predecessors, thus ratifying for themselves the previous departure.
4. Their plight has been reached under the government of God. Three times over do we get the phrase (with slight variations) “God gave them up to...” If men object to thinking of God and give Him up, they have no ground of complaint when He gives them up. And if they give up God, and consequently good, they naturally find themselves given up to everything that is evil and degrading. There is an ironic justice about God’s government.
5. The final item in this dreadful tragedy is that they know their practices are wrong and worthy of death, and yet they not only go on with them but are utterly fascinated by them. They delight in them to such an extent that they find pleasure in others sinning even as they do themselves.
If we really allow this fearful picture of human depravity to imprint itself on our minds we shall have no difficulty in acquiescing in the Divine verdict that all such are “without excuse.” (verse 20).
The heathen world of nineteen centuries ago had however in its midst a number of peoples who were highly civilized. The apostle Paul knew that he was as regards the Gospel as much a debtor to the Greek who was wise, as to the Barbarian who was unwise. As we open chapter 2, we find him turning from the one to the other. His style becomes very graphic. It is almost as if at this point he saw a highly refined and polished Greek standing by, and quite approving of his denunciation of the enormities of the poor Barbarians. So he wheeled round and boldly charged him with doing in a refined way the very same things as in their grosser forms he condemned in the Barbarian. Thereby he too stands before God without excuse, for in judging others he condemned himself.
Under the term, Greek, the Apostle included all those peoples who at that time had been educated and refined under the influence of Grecian culture. The Roman himself would come under the term. They were fine fellows externally, brainy, intelligent and fond of reasoning. In the first eleven verses of this chapter Paul reasons with them as to righteousness and judgment to come, and where can you match these verses for pungency and brevity and power.
The Greeks had a certain code of outward morality. They loved beauty and strength and cultivated their bodies to these ends. This alone preserved them from the deadly excesses of the barbarians. Yet they knew how to indulge themselves discreetly, how to sin scientifically. The same feature marks our age. A present day slogan in the world might be, “Don’t sin coarsely and clumsily, sin scientifically.” Under such circumstances it is very easy for men to deceive themselves; very easy to imagine that, if only one approves good things in theory, and avoids the grosser manifestations of evil, one is secure oneself from the judgment of God.
Take note of three steps in Paul’s argument: —
1. “The judgment of God is according to truth.” (verse 2). Truth means reality. No unreality will stand in the presence of God, but everything be manifested as it is. A poor prospect for the Greek, whose virtues were only skin deep.
2. There is to the “revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” (verse 5). A wretched criminal may have the truth of his crime dragged into the light, yet if the presiding judge be incompetent or unrighteous he may escape. The Divine judgments are righteous as well as according to truth.
3. “There is no respect of persons with God.” (verse 11). In some countries today respect of persons provides the undoubted criminal with an avenue of escape. Favoritism does its work, or other influences behind the scenes, or even bribery is set in motion, and the offender escapes the penalty he deserves. It will never be thus with God.
There is, then, no avenue of escape for the refined sinner or mere moralist. Indeed, it would appear that he will come in for severer condemnation. His very knowledge heightens his guilt, for repentance is the goal to which the goodness of God would lead him, but he despises God’s goodness in the hardness of his heart and so treasures up wrath to himself.
The statements of verse 6 to 11 present a difficulty to some minds inasmuch as in them no mention is made of faith in Christ. Some read verse 7, for instance, and say, “There! So after all you have only got to keep on doing good and seeking good, and eternal life will be yours at the end.”
We have only to read on a little further however, and we discover that no one does good or seeks good, except he believes in Christ.
The ground of judgment before God is our works. If anyone does truly believe in the Saviour he experiences salvation, and hence has power to do what is good and to continue in it. Moreover the whole object of his life is changed, and he begins to seek glory and honor and that state of incorruptibility which is to be ours at the coming of the Lord. On the other hand there are all too many who, instead of obeying the truth by believing the Gospel, remain slaves of sin. The works of these will receive well-merited condemnation in the day of judgment.
At this point in the argument someone might wish to say, “Well, but all these people had never had the advantage of knowing God’s holy law, as the Jew had. Is it right to condemn them like this?” Paul felt this, and so added verse 12 to 16. He stated that those who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law in the day when God judges by Jesus Christ. Whereas those who have sinned without having the light of the law will not be held responsible for that light: — nevertheless they will perish. Verses 13 to 15 are a parenthesis, you notice. To get the sense you read on from verse 12 to verse 16.
The parenthesis shows us that many things which the law demanded were of such a nature that men knew they were wrong in their hearts without any law being given. And further men had the warning voice of conscience as to these things even when they had no knowledge of the law of Moses. Go where you will you find that men, even the most degraded, have a certain amount of natural light or instinct as to things that are right or wrong. Also they have conscience, and thoughts which either accuse or excuse. Hence there is a ground of judgment against them apart from the law.
When God judges men by Jesus Christ there will be a third ground of judgment. Not only natural conscience, and the law, but also “according to my Gospel.” Judgment will not be set until the fullness of gospel testimony has gone forth. Those who are judged and condemned as having been in the light of the Gospel will fare far worse than those condemned as in the light of the law or of conscience. And in that day the secrets of men are to be judged, though their condemnation will be on the ground of works.
Oh, what a day will the day of judgment be! May we have a deep sense of its impending terrors. May we earnestly labor to save at least some from ever having to face it.
F. B. Hole.