Romans 2:6-11 - Judgment Under the Law - by Scott Sperling

⁶ God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” ⁷ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. ⁸ But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. ⁹ There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; ¹⁰ but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. ¹¹ For God does not show favoritism. -- Romans 2:6-11

The Universal Necessity for the Gospel

In the vast and vaulted cathedral of the Holy Scriptures, where the glory of the Almighty is inscribed in letters of celestial light and shadows of profound mystery, there exists no porch more formidable, no entrance more solemn, and no threshold more heavy with the weight of eternity than the opening chapters of the Epistle to the Romans. In these chapters, the Apostle Paul lays the axe to the root of all human vanity, pride, and self-sufficiency. As a most skillful physician of the soul, he first reveals the depth of the malady before he proffers the sweetness of the remedy; he exposes the darkness of the pit before he points to the brightness of the Day-star; he establishes the universality of the curse before he proclaims the sufficiency of the Cross.

This present study, which finds its station as a continued journey through the apostolic narrative, is seated within the second chapter, specifically upon verses six through eleven. Here, the Apostle delineates the nature of that great and terrible Day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, the masks of hypocrisy shall be stripped away, and the justice of God shall be manifested without cloud or veil. We stand upon the holy ground of Romans 2:6-11, a passage that serves as a mirror to the soul, a plumb-line to the conscience, and a beacon to the wayfarer.

Before we weigh the pure gold of these specific verses, let us behold the architecture of the entire edifice. The first three chapters of Romans constitute a single, unbroken narrative — a grand sermon, a divine oration, a celestial litigation. The Apostle’s purpose is not merely to inform the mind but to convict the heart; he seeks to prove that every mouth must be stopped and the whole world must be held accountable before God. This is the preparation for Paul’s grand statement of the Gospel, which he will give us at the end of chapter 3. Paul prepares for that grand statement, the doctrine that salvation is by the grace of God through faith, by establishing first that absolutely everyone needs the salvation offered only through faith in Christ.

In the first chapter, Paul directed the lightning of his rhetoric toward the Gentile world — those who, having the light of nature, the testimony of the stars, and the witness of creation, yet turned the glory of the incorruptible God into images made like corruptible man. He established that they are without excuse, for they disobeyed the inherent standard of right and wrong, the law written in the members, and the voice of the conscience which God has given to every living soul. Because of their sins, they deserve the wrath of God, the anger of the Almighty, and the judgment of the Righteous One.

Yet, as the narrative flow carries us into the second chapter, the Apostle turns his gaze upon the children of Israel — those who possessed the Law, were taught by the prophets, and received the revelation God’s word. The Jew, in his religious pride, thought himself a “guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness, and an instructor of the foolish” (Rom. 2:19-20). He rested in the Law and made his boast of God, believing that because he was circumcised, because he was of the seed of Abraham, and because he was a member of the covenant people, he would receive a pass for his transgressions while the Gentile was cast into the outer darkness. Paul shatters this illusion of corporate safety, declaring that the mere hearing of the Law is nothing if there be no doing of the Law; that the outward sign is a mockery if there be no inward reality; and that the circumcision of the flesh is a vanity if there be no circumcision of the heart. Paul establishes the great principle of divine impartiality, a truth that serves as the cornerstone of our present text: “For God does not show favoritism” (vs. 11).

The Law: Repayment According to Deeds (vs. 6)

⁶ God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”

In verse 6, the Apostle writes with a pen dipped in the ink of Old Testament authority: “God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’” Here we see the echoes of the Psalmist and the wisdom of the Proverbs, for Paul cites the very breath of God recorded in Psalm 62:12 and Proverbs 24:12. This is the essence of life and death under the Law: the strict, unyielding, and perfect accounting of human actions. It is a solid and profound divine truth, of great gravity, which should make the stoutest heart tremble as a leaf in the wind.

Behold the nature of this judgment! It is a judgment that is individual, personal, and particular. The Apostle does not say that God will judge the nations in a heap, or the families in a bundle, or the churches in a mass. No, he will repay “each person.” In that day, you will not stand with your relatives, nor with your companions, nor with your church congregation. You will stand alone before the Great White Throne, with the eye of the Omniscient upon you, the hand of the Just One over you, and the record of your life before you. This concept is directly opposed to the corporate security that the Jews cherished; they thought their birthright was a leg up, but Paul strips them of this robe, leaving them naked before the heavy judgments of the Almighty.

The “repayment” spoken of here is not a capricious whim but a sacred and profound law of the spiritual universe. Just as the earth yields thorns to the slothful and wheat to the diligent, so the field of human life yields a harvest of either glory or grief, honor or horror, peace or perdition. The Lord “will repay,” for He is a debtor to no one, and His justice cannot be bribed by the paltry murmurings of human excuses nor the railing of the ungodly. The Lord will always “repay” according to His perfect standard of justice.

Note that it is the “doing” of the person that is the matter under judgment. “What they have done” (vs. 6) is the fruit and evidence of the hidden heart, the clear and vivid manifestation of the soul’s allegiance. Actions are important, and God’s judgment is just. This is life under the Law. And to appreciate the great gift of the Gospel, we need to understand the serious and unbending judgment according to the Law. If a person chooses to stand upon his own works, let him know that the scales are even, the weights are true, and the repayment is certain.

Table: The Nature of Judgment Under the Law

The Nature of Judgment	Description	Scriptural Basis
Individual	To “each person,” not corporate groups.	Romans 2:6, 14:12
Based on Actions	“According to what they have done.”	Psalm 62:12, Prov 24:12
Exhaustive	Covering the “good or bad” done in the body.	2 Cor 5:10
Impartial	No “favoritism” to Jew nor Gentile.	Romans 2:11

The Two Paths (vs. 7-10)

⁷ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. ⁸ But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. ⁹ There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; ¹⁰ but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

In verses 7 and 8, the Apostle presents the two paths of human conduct under the Law, depicting the stark contrast between the destiny of heirs of life and the vessels of wrath. He enumerates three patterns of behavior that determine that destiny: persistence in good versus following evil, seeking God’s glory versus self-seeking, pursuing truth versus rejecting truth.

In verse 7, Paul states: “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.” The righteous are those who “persist in doing good.” They do not have a fitful and flickering goodness, but a steady and shining persistence. Moreover, they “seek” things that the pleasure-seeking person of the world cannot perceive. They seek:

• “Glory” — which is the splendor and shine of God’s presence.
• “Honor” — which is the approval and applause of the Almighty.
• “Immortality” — which is the freedom and fullness from the corruption and decay of this transitory world.

To those who persistently seek these things, God “will give eternal life.” Note that in the framework of the Old Testament Law, Paul indicates that this “eternal life” was possible to the faithful, even before the manifestation of Christ in the flesh.

Paul continues with the other side of the coin: “But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger” (vs. 8). Here is the thick mist and the lowest pit of the human soul. The “self-seeking” heart is a tossed wave of the sea, finding no place for rest because it has “rejected the truth.”

They “reject the truth” as a person rejects a bitter medicine, though it be the only cure for his cares. They “follow evil” with the eagerness and appetite of a starving wolf. And the repayment is “wrath and anger” — the thunder and wind of the Almighty’s indignation. This “wrath” is not an erratic and uncontrolled human passion but a holy and heavenly necessity, the settled and solemn opposition of the Light of the world against the works of darkness.

In verses 9 and 10, the Apostle repeats the dual destinies with an emphasis upon the order of judgment: “There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”

The phrase “first for the Jew” is a sacred and solemn reminder that privilege is a double-edged sword. Because the Jew was the “first” -born in the family of God, the “first” to receive the oracles and the Law, he is the “first” in the line of accounting. If he “does evil,” he receives the “trouble and distress” as the “first” and the sorest. If he “does good,” he receives the “glory and honor” as the elder brother of the faith.

The “trouble and distress” mentioned here are not merely temporal and transitory afflictions, but the turbulence of a conscience that will find rest nowhere. Conversely, the “peace” promised to the righteous is the quiet and calm of a soul anchored in the harbor of God, the tranquility of one who sees the Invisible.

Divine Impartiality (vs. 11)

¹¹ For God does not show favoritism.

We come now to the golden and glorious summary of the entire section, the eleventh verse: “For God does not show favoritism.” This is the plain and powerful truth that sweeps away the cobwebs of religious pride and the fortresses of national arrogance.

The Jew of Paul’s day thought that God was his God in a way that granted him a license for laxity. He thought the non-Jew was automatically condemned simply for being a Gentile, and himself automatically saved for being a Jew. Paul declares this is a false comfort and a deadly delusion. God is perfectly righteous, perfectly just, and perfectly fair. He does not have one scale for the circumcised and another for the uncircumcised. He judges the secrets of men by a single and sovereign standard: good versus evil.

Table: The Fairness of Judgment

Dimension of Impartiality	Human Assumption	Divine Reality
Lineage	Saved by Abraham’s seed.	Judged by personal deeds.
Ritual	Safe through circumcision.	Evaluated by obedience to the Spirit.
Knowledge	Exempted by having the Law.	Responsible for acting on the Law.
Nationality	Gentile rejection is automatic.	Reward is for everyone who does good.

This impartiality of divine judgment reveals that God is no respecter of persons (as it is often put). Whether you are a bishop in his festival state or a humble seeker in the shadows, the eye of the Sovereign pierces through the outward appearance to the inward aim. Unfortunately, though human judges claim the same impartiality, this standard all too often falls short in human courts. There is as much agreement between God’s judgment and human’s demonstrated standard of fairness as there is between the light that comes down from heaven and that thick mist which arises from the lowest pit.

Excursus: Anticipating Christ in the Shadows

A most subtle and serious question arises from the examining of the text of this chapter. In this chapter, Paul is speaking of judgment under the Law (he will present Gospel salvation in the next chapter). Under this standard, Paul states that eternal life is available to those under the Law: “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life” (vs. 7). Thus one might ask, If eternal life is only through Christ, as our Lord Himself proclaimed in John 14:6 — “No one comes to the Father except through me” — how then can Paul speak of “eternal life” being given to those who lived before the time of Christ? How could the faithful Old Testament Jews and the earnest seekers among the Gentiles achieve what only comes through Christ?

To reconcile these things, we must look to the faith of the fathers and the testimony of the shadows. The Old Testament saints were not saved by their works of the Law, for no person could keep the Law with perfect precision. They were saved by faith — a faith that anticipated Christ even as the dawn anticipates the sun.

For insight into this, let us consider what is called the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11, a beautifully written chapter that describes the great faith of those who saw Him who was invisible to them. We have catalogued there (among others):

• Abel, who offered “a more excellent sacrifice” by faith (see Heb. 11:4).
• Noah, who built an ark in holy “fear” of the unseen (see Heb. 11:7).
• Abraham, who journeyed to a place he “would later receive” without knowing where he was going (see Heb. 11:8).
• Moses, who “regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt” (Heb. 11:26), and who “persevered because he saw him who is invisible” (see Heb. 11:27).

How could Moses suffer for “the sake of Christ” when Christ had not yet suffered in the flesh? The answer: Moses anticipated the work of Christ, within the shadow of his knowledge. Moses had faith that if he led a Godly life (to the best extent that he could, in human weakness), if he obeyed God’s principles, and if he forsook the fleeting pleasures of the world, then his obedience would be rewarded. Moses and the other Old Testament saints believed that God would provide a way, that God would forgive sins through a mercy yet unrevealed, and that their obedience would be rewarded in a kingdom yet unseen. This is a saving faith in Christ for those who had never even heard the name of Christ spoken, nor the Gospel of Christ preached. Note well, theirs was a faith decidedly more difficult than ours, for they had to believe in the unseen and the unknown, while we have the clear testimony of the Cross and the Resurrection. And yet, even so, Moses “saw Him who was invisible” (see Heb. 11:27).

The author of Hebrews teaches us, in the conclusion of that great chapter, that the faith of the Old Testament saints was a faith that clings to the same promises that our faith does: “These [speaking of the Old Testament saints] were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect” (Heb. 11:39-40). They are saved “together with us” , with the same faith and salvation that will make us “perfect.” We will all, those after the time of Christ, and those great saints of faith before the time of Christ, enter into glory at the same time, armed with the same faith, and clothed with the righteousness of the same Savior, our Lord and Messiah Jesus Christ.