Before showing the guilt of moral and religious people before God (vv. 17-29), Paul set forth the principles by which God will judge everyone (vv. 1-16). By so doing, he warned the self-righteous.
2:1-4 "Therefore"seems more logically to relate back to 1:18-19 than to 1:21-32. Paul addressed those people who might think they were free from God's wrath because they had not "practiced"the things to which Paul had just referred (1:29-32). The apostle now warned them that they had indeed "practiced"the same things (v. 1). He seems to have been thinking as Jesus did when our Lord corrected His hearers' superficial view of sin (e.g., Matt. 5-7). Evil desires constitute sin as well as evil actions.
The first principle by which God judges is that He judges righteously (v 2). He judges on the basis of what really exists, not what merely appears to be. Consequently those who have practiced the same sin, though perhaps not in the same way, should not think they will escape judgment (v. 3). Rather than acting like judges of the immoral they should view themselves as sinners subject to God's judgment. They should not misinterpret God's failure to judge them already as an indication that they are blameless. They should realize that God is simply giving them time to repent (v. 4; cf. 2 Pet. 3:9).
"Repentance plays a surprisingly small part in Paul's teaching, considering its importance in contemporary Judaism. Probably this is because the coming of Christ had revealed to Paul that acceptance with God requires a stronger action than the word repentance' often connoted at the time."62
2:5-11 God's wrath is increasing against sinners while He waits (v. 5). Each day that the self-righteous person persists in his self-righteousness God adds more guilt to his record. God will judge him one day (cf. Rev. 20:11-15). That day will be the day when God pours out His wrath on every sinner and the day when people will perceive His judgment as righteous. This judgment is in contrast to the judgment that the self-righteous person passes on himself when he considers himself guiltless (v. 1).
The second principle of God's judgment is that it will deal with what every person really did (v. 6). It will not deal with what we intended or hoped or wanted to do (cf. Ps. 62:12; Matt. 16:27; et al.).
"A man's destiny on Judgment Day will depend not on whether he has known God's will but on whether he has done it."63
Paul probably meant that if a person obeys God perfectly, he or she will receive eternal life. Those who do not receive wrath. Later he would clarify that no one can obey God perfectly, and so all are under His wrath (3:23-24).64
Another view is that eternal life is not only a free gift, but it is also a reward for good deeds. On the one hand we obtain eternal life as a gift only by faith (3:20; 4:5; cf. John 3:16; 5:24; 6:40; Eph. 2:8; Titus 3:5). However in another sense as Christians we experience eternal life to the extent that we do good deeds (cf. 6:22; Matt. 19:29; Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30; John 10:10; 12:25-26; 17:3; Gal. 6:8). Paul's point was this. Those who are self-righteous and unbelieving store up something that will come on them in the future, namely condemnation (v. 5). Likewise those who are humble and believing store up something that will come on them in the future, namely glory, honor, and immortality. Paul was speaking of the believer's rewards here.65
Other interpreters believe Paul meant that a person's perseverance demonstrates that his heart is regenerate.66However that is not what Paul said here. He said those who persevere will receive eternal life. One must not import a certain doctrine of perseverance into the text rather than letting the text speak for itself.
Verse 8 restates the reward of the self-righteous (cf. 1:18). The point of verses 9 and 10 is that the true basis of judgment is not whether one is a Jew or a Greek, whether he was outwardly moral or immoral. It is rather what he really does, whether he is truly moral or immoral. God will deal with the Jew first because his privilege was greater. He received special revelation as well as natural revelation.
The third principle of God's judgment is that He will treat everyone evenhandedly (v. 11). There is equal justice for all in God's court.67
2:12-16 The Gentiles do not have the Mosaic Law in the sense that God did not give it to them. Therefore He will not judge them by that law. The Jews in Paul's day did have it, and God would judge them by it (v. 12).68
It is not hearing the law that makes a person acceptable to God, but doing what it commands (v. 13). "Justified"is a legal term that is suitable in this discussion of law observance. Justification is a legal verdict. It reflects a person's position under the law. The justified person is one whom God sees as righteous in relation to His law (cf. Deut. 25:1). The justified person is not necessarily blameless; he may have done things that are wrong. Nevertheless in the eyes of the law he is not culpable. He does not have to pay for his crimes. Paul said in verse 13 that God would declare righteous the person who did not just listen to the Mosaic Law but did what it required. The Law warned that anything short of perfect obedience to it, even reading or studying it or hearing it preached and taught, which Jews relied on, made a person guilty before God (Deut. 27:26; cf. Gal. 3:10). Moses therefore urged the Israelites to accept and believe in the promised Messiah (e.g., Deut. 18:15).
Even Gentiles who do not have the Mosaic Law know that they should do things that are right and not do things that are wrong (v. 14). Right and wrong are the basic elements of the Mosaic Law. Paul did not mean that Gentiles are indifferent to any law except what they invent in their own self-interest. He meant that they have a law that is instinctive, namely an intuitive perception of what is right and what is wrong. All people have this.
In addition to this innate sense of morality, Gentiles also have consciences (v. 15). The New Testament presents the human conscience as a computer-like faculty. It has no preprogramed data in it, but whatever a person experiences programs his conscience. If he learns that lying is wrong, for example, his conscience will from then on bring that information to his mind in appropriate situations. Therefore some individuals who grow up in cultures that value a particular practice that other cultures abhor, such as deception or treachery, have no conscience about being deceptive or practicing treachery. All people grow up learning that some things that are truly bad are bad and other things that are truly good are good. Thus our conscience, while not a completely reliable guide, is a help as we seek to live life morally.69
Verse 16 completes Paul's earlier statement that God will judge impartially (vv. 11-13) and forms the end of an inclusiodealing with judgment that began with verses 1-5. Verses 14-15 are somewhat parenthetical in the flow of his argument. They qualify his statement that the Gentiles have no law (v. 12). In verse 16 his point is that God's impartial judgment will include people's secret thoughts as well as their overt acts. Both thoughts and actions constitute deeds (v. 6). Christ Jesus will be God's agent of judgment (cf. Acts 17:31). "According to my gospel"means that the gospel Paul preached included the prospect of judgment. Throughout this section (vv. 1-16) the judgment of unbelievers (i.e., the great white throne judgment, Rev. 20:11-15) is in view.
In summary, to convict any self-righteous person of his guilt before God Paul reminded his readers of three principles by which God will evaluate all people. He will judge righteously, in terms of reality, not appearance (v. 2). He will judge people because of their deeds, both covert and overt (v. 6). Moreover He will judge impartially, not because of how much or how little privilege they enjoyed but how they responded to the truth they had (v. 11).
This last principle has raised a question for many people. Will God condemn someone who has never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ if he or she responds appropriately to the limited truth that he or she has? Paul later showed that no one responds appropriately to the truth that he or she has (3:23). All fail so all stand condemned. He also made it very clear that it is impossible to enjoy salvation without trusting in Jesus Christ (1:16-17; 10:9; cf. John 14:6). That is why Jesus gave the Great Commission and why the gospel is so important (1:16-17).
". . . Paul agreed with the Jewish belief that justification could, in theory, be secured through works. Where Paul disagreed with Judaism was in his belief that the power of sin prevents any person, even the Jew who depends on his or her covenant status, from actually achieving justification in that manner. While, therefore, one could be justified by doing the law in theory, in practice it is impossible . . ."70
