Condemned with and without God’s law
Warm-up: When growing up as a kid, did you feel you were raised with too many or with too few rules how to behave? Why?
Read: Romans 2
1) vv1-4: Of all vices, why did Paul now zoom on the vice of judging others?
- v5: What has judging to do with a hardened heart? cf Mt 7:3
- v1 & v3 address the reader with the words “O man, you who…”. Why such emphasis? Hint: What sentiment do you think moved Paul when he wrote these words? cf Mt 23:37
2) vv3-11 and v16 speak of God’s righteous judgment. Where did Paul derive his certainty that one day a final judgment of all unrighteousness will be ‘revealed’ (v5)? cf e.g. Mt 24-25, especially 25:31.
- Even before Jesus, where and when did the prophets predict a final day of judgment? cf e.g. Deu 18:18-19; Isa 63:1-4; 66:6; Dan 7:9-10; Zch 14:5
- Did Paul think that God will delay all judgment until that last day? Why not? cf Ro 1:18
- v4: Why then is God’s final judgment not yet revealed? Why is it only foretold by ‘prophets’ who were regarded as lunatics already in their life time?
3) vv12-16: How did Paul tackle universal objections against this biblical notion of a final judgment on a day of reckoning?
- What objection against the idea of a final judgment is addressed in v12? =>
- How does v15 answer this objection?
- If man’s conscience suffices to prove everyone’s guilt, what is that guilt? Was Paul concerned about offenses against Jewish ceremonial laws? [v15 proves that Paul’s case throughout Romans is that man is guilty of breaking a moral code ‘written on the heart’ also in tribes that never even heard of the Bible].
- v16: What did Paul mean by the ‘secrets of man’ that God will judge only on the final judgment day? cf Ro 7:7; 1Tim 5:24
4) vv17-24: What did Paul mean by ‘instruction of the law’ (v18)?
- v21: How much good does it do?
- Did the law improve anything at all? Or did it make matters even worse? How so, v24?
5) Where do vv25-29 locate the root problem as to why man does not respond to the written law or his conscience to submit to God and obey him?
- What does this root problem have to do with the heart, and with its ‘circumcision’, v29?
- Outward circumcision was always a sign for something meant to happen to the heart. What could that be, and how is it supposed to happen? cf Deu 10:16; 30:6; Heb 4:12-13
6) Personal & application
- Why do you think vv17-24 address the reader personally (2nd person singular)?
- What is your own reaction to being addressed that way?
- Do you believe in a final judgment? Do you agree with Paul that even those who do not know the written law of Moses are rightly held accountable for breaking it? Why or why not?
- How does this work in human society: Does ignorance of the law absolve you from the guilt of transgressions? Why not?
- How do you explain the fact that faith in a just judgment of God has gone out of fashion in our culture? What makes this apparently so difficult to believe (or easy to disbelieve), and how do you deal with these difficulties?
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