August 4, 2020
Don't Waste Time!
Romans 2:1-16
Greg MacNeill
Central Truth
Every day that we have here on earth is by God's grace and patience so that perhaps one more of His children might turn from sin and be saved.
Key Verse | Romans 2:4
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Romans 2:1-16
God's Righteous Judgment
1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking 1 2:8 Or contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.
God's Judgment and the Law
12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
Dive Deeper | Romans 2:1-16
I grew up in a Christian home, but my walk with God was a terrible rollercoaster ride with few highs and many more lows. I let my desire to fit in and be accepted become an idol and choke out my walk with God. I was an enemy of God throughout much of my college years and the epitome of a hypocrite as I still would have claimed to be a Christian (Titus 1:16).
Yet through His immense grace, God never let me go and used friends and prayer to bring me into a true saving relationship with Him. I picked up the Bible and chose to begin to read in Romans. I was clearly someone that God had given over to the desires of his heart (Romans 1:24), but God in His kindness wasn't content to leave me that way and showed restraint in holding back the punishment I deserved in order to lead me into repentance (Romans 2:4). This truth broke me as I realized that I could have been killed doing things I've done in my depravity and been eternally lost. But God was so patient with me not only to spare me from that fate, but instead to give me eternal life with Him!
Romans 2:4, in the context of Romans 1:18-32 and 2 Peter 3:9, is an excellent answer to why God sometimes doesn't deal with evil in the here and now. To eliminate all pain and sin would mean eliminating all sinners, which would include everyone on earth except for a few (Matthew 7:14). With that knowledge it follows that we who have been led to repentance have a great responsibility. We are to share the good news of life change and joy that comes with living in an abiding relationship with Christ before God's patience runs out. For though He is slow to anger, there is a day of judgment coming (Exodus 34:6-7). Though sharing the good news is something that we as believers are expected to do, it is also something that we, through the grace of God, GET to do (Isaiah 52:7).
Discussion Questions
1. Are you appreciating each day as a gracious gift from God?
2. Do you share your faith more than you share your favorite TV show or restaurant?
3. If Christ comes tomorrow, will you have any regrets about someone you didn't share the gospel with?