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Summary of Romans 2:1-5

For this reason every one who judges another is without excuse. He really condemns himself too, for he does the very same sins!

Paul asks if such a one who judges others and does the same himself hopes to escape the judgment of God? Or does he disregard the rich kindness and patience and long-suffering of God? That patience of God is aimed at leading him to repentance. But instead, in his hard and unrepentant heart he is accumulating for himself anger on the day of God's anger, when the just judgment of God will be revealed.

Comments on 2:1-5

There are two key expressions here: "For this reason," which explicitly ties what he now says to the terrible litany of the vices of the gentiles -- and the fact that Paul says that one who judges another is guilty of "the very same sins" himself.

The commentators do not do well here. First, most of them try to wipe out the force of that connector, "for this reason," since they cannot see how to make sense of it. Instead they say it is a weak particle which we can ignore. Now Greek does have such weak particles, often ignored in translation. But this word is not one. It is dio which always means "for which reason." Cranfield thinks he has solved the problem if, contrary to most commentators, he makes the charges of chapter 1 refer to Jews as well as gentiles. But even if that would be so, he does not solve the problem of "the very same sins." He merely thinks they sin in general.

The trouble is increased since some commentators think that 2:1 begins Paul's charges against the Jews. Then of course there is added reason for trying to make dio almost meaningless, for if 2:1 speaks of Jews, there could be no such connection to chapter 1 since in it, clearly, Paul did not speak of the Jews.

When the commentators come to the words "the very same sins," they soften the saying to mean that in general people are sinners. Fitzmyer simply ignores the problem. Althaus says that even if the man does not do the same sins, he basically contradicts God. Cranfield similarly says that the words the very same sins "need not imply that [the one who judges] sins in precisely the same ways." Kuss does better in saying that Paul is describing "the sad state of humanity before Christ and without Christ." If he means that historically all were lost before the time of Christ, that would be a sad error. If he means something like our focused picture, it would be much better.

We do, of course, solve both problems by the use of our distinction of focused view vs. factual view. If we take the focused view of chapter 1 -- which is needed since otherwise Paul's picture is greatly exaggerated, as he himself shows he knows in 1 Corinthians 6:11 -- we can say here in chapter 2: Not only the law as a whole, but each major command in the law is a heavy demand. To be under a heavy demand without any help, is to fall. Hence all fall into all sins. This of course is true only in a focused view, not in the factual picture. This is a drastic solution, we admit. But the commentators in general just give up, as our samples show. As to the opening word "for this reason" we do tie it to the litany of chapter 1, in which, in the focused view, all are guilty of all sins.

Summary of Romans 2:6-13

God will repay each one according to his works. So there is glory and honor and freedom from corruption for those who try to reach eternal life by patience in good works, but anger and God's fury to those who disobey the truth and obey unrighteousness. Every soul that does evil will find affliction and anguish: first the Jew, then the Greek. But there is glory, honor, peace to those who do good: first to the Jews, then the Greeks. God plays no favorites. For all who have sinned without knowing the law will perish without the law. Those who have sinned with the law will be condemned through the law. It is not those who merely hear the law who are just in God's eyes: those who do the law are just.

Comments on 2:6-13

This passage has caused much difficulty to many, especially to Protestants. The problem is this: Paul so insistently, over and over, stresses that justification comes by faith, not by good works. Yet here in this passage he does nothing but say several times over that God does reward good works! In the volume which we cited above, Justification by Faith: Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue VII, Joseph Burgess, one of the three editors, has a chapter on this question, "Rewards, But in a Very Different Sense." He reviews ten Protestant attempts to solve the problem, but rejects them all. He himself does not manage to solve it either. Some Catholics have done little more than rejoice to see Paul preaching the need of good works. But they have not solved the problem.

And yet, the solution is not at all difficult. We start by noticing that St. Paul, when he says God will repay each one according to his works, is merely quoting from Psalm 62:13. We need to read the line in the Hebrew -- Paul would of course have that in mind. For the usual English translations hardly make sense at all. They are apt to say: "You, Lord, have mercy (or: love) for you repay each one according to his works." But it is not mercy to repay according to works. It is justice. But the Hebrew, instead of mercy or love, has hesed, the word for the covenant relationship. So the line means then: "You, Lord, do observe the covenant, for you repay. . . ." We need then to ask a question on two levels, on the fundamental level, and on the secondary level. On the fundamental level, no creature can by its own power establish a claim on God. So there is no repayment at all, there is only unmerited, unmeritable generosity on the part of God. This corresponds to justification by faith, not works. But on the secondary level, namely, when God has once freely entered into a covenant, then, if the humans do what He calls for, then He owes it to Himself to carry out His commitment: If they do good, He promised to reward, to repay. He will do that.

Paul continues, in verses 7-11 saying the same as he said in verse 6, and the explanation is the same for all.

Twice Paul says: "First to the Jew, then to the Greek." And he even adds once: "God does not play favorites." This at first sight seems strange. We need a distinction: God does not play favorites in repayment -- all are repaid according to what they do. But on the time scale, God first began to deal with the Jews by explicit revelation; then with the Greeks. And Paul himself regularly went first to the synagogues in each new town, then to the gentiles.

Summary of Romans 2:14-16

The pagans do not have the revealed law, yet when with nature as their guide, they do what the law requires, they are a law for themselves. They show the work of the law written on their hearts. According to how they respond, their conscience will either accuse or defend them on the day when God will judge hearts through Paul's Gospel, through Jesus Christ.

Comments on 2:14-16

There are two problems in these lines: 1) Paul has been accusing all of all sins, but now he says that some gentiles keep the law. 2) Further, he seems to say those who keep it are saved by so doing, a contradiction of justification by faith.

Barrett says "to suggest that the Gentiles kept the moral law would make nonsense of Paul's thought as a whole." He says this since, as we have brought out, Paul's chief argument in the first chapters of Romans is that all are hopeless if they try for salvation through law -- so they must turn to justification by faith. Leenhardt says we must "avoid supposing that the Apostle wished to show 'how the Gentiles can be saved in spite of their not having received the law.'" His thought is much like that of Barrett. Dodd wants to rearrange the verses, and say this is a "possible exception." Kuss thinks it clashes with Romans 5:13 but says Paul is "concerned with arguing on the problem at hand, not with Systematics." Some, like Cranfield, not knowing that this is a factual picture in contrast to the focused picture Paul has just been using, repeat the same ancient mistake of St. Augustine, in thinking Paul must be speaking of converted gentiles, not of unconverted gentiles: Paul, Augustine thought, could not say such things of gentiles who were still unconverted. St. Augustine worried that verse 14 says they keep the law by nature -- he thought that had to mean: without grace. But it means the law is the guide, not their strength. Cranfield prefers the view of Augustine, without making clear if it is for the same reason.

We fear these attempts do not solve the problems. But, about the first problem, namely that Paul has been trying to show all gentiles guilty of all sins, yet now seems to say some gentiles are saved, we can use our helpful approach by way of two ways of looking at things -- the focused and the factual pictures. Thus far in Romans Paul has used strongly the focused view, as we have seen. But now he shifts to the factual picture -- we recall he did that in 1 Corinthians 6:11 -- within which grace is available through Christ, even to gentiles. If they use it, they will be saved.

This is like the thought of Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 16: "For they who without their own fault do not know of the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but yet seek God with sincere heart, and try, under the influence of grace, to carry out His will in practice, known to them through the dictate of conscience, can attain eternal salvation." This grace is, of course, offered abundantly to all, since (1 Tim 2:4): "God wills all to be saved." John Paul II, in his Encylical Mission of the Redeemer says the same in §10: "The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all. . . . For such people, salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church, but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation." We note especially that the Pope says they are not formally members of the Church. We will return to that point: they can be substantially members, even if not members by formal adherence.

We began above to show how this works out. The Spirit of Christ writes the law on their hearts (cf. Jeremiah 31:33: "I will write my law on their hearts"), that is, He makes known to them interiorly what is required of them. Those who follow it, are, without realizing it, following the Spirit of Christ. But, according to Romans 8:9, those who have and follow the Spirit of Christ, belong to Christ. In Paul's terms, to belong to Christ is the same as being members of Christ, the same as being members of the Church. 8:14 adds: "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, are sons of God." As sons, they have a claim to inherit along with Christ, for they are members of Christ and sons of God. To repeat: in Paul's language, to belong to Christ is the same as to be a member of Christ. And that in turn is the same as to be a member of the Church! Their membership will be less full, in that they do not explicitly adhere to the Church. Yet it is substantial, and sufficient for salvation, as Lumen Gentium 16 indicates. And we are offering a fill-in on what John Paul II said about not being formally members, yet being saved. Thus the old problem of the defined doctrine "no salvation outside the Church" is readily solved. In fact, Vatican II, in Lumen Gentium 49 says: "All who belong to Christ, having His Spirit, coalesce into one Church."⁶

The second part of the problem of these lines is that Paul seems to say they are saved by keeping the law -- in contrast to being free from the law and having justification by faith. To solve this we notice Paul makes two kinds of statements. On the one hand, he says we are free from the law; on the other hand he says (e.g., in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10) that those who commit the great sins "will not inherit the kingdom." To reconcile these we notice that Paul was fighting against Judaizers who thought they earned salvation by keeping the law. So that is what Paul is denying, that salvation is earned by keeping the law. But he also makes clear in 1 Cor 6:9-10 that we can earn eternal loss by not keeping the law. A student in a discussion class summed it up neatly: "As to salvation, you can't earn it, but you can blow it." This is really the same as what Paul says in Romans 6:23: "The wages [what we earn] of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life." Again, when St. Paul says those who commit the great sins will not "inherit the kingdom," we recall that when we inherit from our parents, we do not say we earned it. But we could have earned to lose our inheritance, by being bad enough long enough. So they are saved not by earning it by keeping the law, but by avoiding earning punishment by breaking the law.

Paul's verb kleronomein at times means merely to get, not to inherit. But we must remember how often Paul speaks of us as sons of God, especially in Romans 8:17: "If we are children, we are heirs, heirs indeed of God, fellow-heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him, so we may also be glorified with Him." The proviso that we must suffer with Him reflects Paul's vision of the whole Christian regime: We are saved and made holy if and to the extent that we are members of Christ, and like Him. We can be said to merit or to get a claim, not by our own power, nor individually, but in as much as we are members of Christ and like Him, we come to share in the claim He established.

Let us apply this to Socrates, whom St. Justin mentioned. The Spirit of Christ wrote the law on the heart of Socrates. Socrates believed what he read there, he had confidence in it, and he obeyed it. So, since Socrates followed the Spirit of Christ, even without knowing what he was following, yet he did follow that Spirit, therefore Justin was right in saying Socrates was Christian (for he followed the divine Word, the Spirit of Christ). Further, in Romans 8:9 as we know, Paul says if one does not have and follow that Spirit, he does not belong to Christ. But then, if one does follow that Spirit he does belong to Christ. To belong to Christ is the same as being a member of Christ, as we said. And that, in turn, is the same as being a member of the Church, not by formal adherence, but substantially. (We note in passing this would serve to fill in what Pope John Paul II said about a mysterious grace that does not make them formally members of the Church -- but it does make them substantially members.)

Please notice in passing the three things in Socrates that add up to Paul's definition of faith, and note too that in Romans 3:29 Paul will say that God showed He was the God of the gentiles as well as of the Jews, since He made provision for them to be saved by faith.

Anthropology shows it is true that even primitives show a remarkably good knowledge of the moral law. So Paul is right in saying the gentiles do by nature the things of the law -- law is not their strength, but their guide. (Of course, it is one thing to know the law, another thing to follow it. Some primitives do follow, some do not).⁷

In saying that "they show the work of the law written on their hearts," Paul is clearly echoing Jeremiah 31:33 (the prophecy of the new covenant), in which God says: "I will write my law on their hearts." So God, the Logos, or the Spirit of Christ -- really, all are the same, since everything the Three Persons do outside the divine nature is common to all Three -- the Spirit of Christ writes the law on their hearts, that is, He makes known to them interiorly what they ought to do, what morality requires.

Summary of Romans 2:17-29

Paul charges a Jew, who has the name of being a Jew, and who has such confidence in the law, who boasts of his relationship to God, and claims to know the will of God, to know how to choose the better things by following the law, and who claims to be the leader of the blind, the light of those in darkness, the instructor of those who do not understand, the teacher of little ones, having the embodiment of knowledge and truth in the law -- Paul charges: You teach others. But you do not teach yourself. You preach we should not steal, but you steal. You say we should not commit adultery, but you do commit adultery. You abominate idols, but you steal from the temple. You boast over having the law, yet by violations of the law you dishonor God. For the name of God is blasphemed because of you among the gentiles, as Scripture says.

The Jew says: "Circumcision is beneficial." But if he violates the law, he might as well be uncircumcised. So if the uncircumcised gentiles keep the things the law demands for justification, will not they be as good as circumcised? And the uncircumcised gentile who by nature keeps the law condemns Jews who do have the law and circumcision, but violate the law. For the real Jew is not the one who is such in outward appearance. Nor is the real circumcision what appears outwardly. But the one who is interiorly a Jew is the real Jew. And circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, not in the flesh, is the real circumcision. Praise for it is not just from men but from God.

Comments on 2:17-29

In chapter 1 Paul showed -- in a heavily focused form -- that all gentiles are hopeless if they try to get salvation by keeping the law. Now in 2.17 he turns on the Jews, for he wants to be able to say that all -- both Jews and gentiles -- are hopeless, so that all must turn to justification by faith. Naturally he will use a focused picture of the Jews too. And that is obvious, for Jews in general were not nearly so bad as Paul paints them here.

Modern editors, not knowing how to use our focused vs. factual picture approach, try to soften the charges against the Jews by adding several question marks (for there was no punctuation in Paul's day), e.g., "You teach others. Do you teach yourself? You say we should not steal. Do you steal?" But in our approach there is no need to add question marks. In fact, Paul really wants to make it very strong, so as to show both Jew and gentile are hopeless if they try for justification by law, as we have said before. So we do not need to try to soften by adding question marks. Taking the text as statements is actually stronger, and that is what Paul wants.

Paul spoke of the pride and love of the Jews for the law. This was very true. Psalm 118 (119) is a long litany of praise of the law. It was thought to contain divine wisdom. In fact, in the Babylonian Talmud, Aboda Zarah 3b and in the Palestinian Targum on Deuteronomy 32:4 we read that God Himself divides the day into four parts, and spends three hours daily in studying the law!

When Paul says that because of the Jews the name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles, he seems to be adapting Isaiah 52:5 (following the Septuagint): "Because of you, my name is continually blasphemed among the gentiles." In the original setting it referred to the contempt felt by conquering Babylonia for the weakness of the God of Israel, who had to let His people suffer defeat. For in the thought of the ancient Near East, the strength of a god was measured by the defeats or victories of his city. Actually God sent the defeat as a punishment, but the Babylonian would not understand that, and instead thought the god of Israel was weak.

When Paul says "circumcision is beneficial" we best understand it as a quote he is giving from the Jews trying to defend themselves. Paul follows up on their claim: even if you would be right in that, since you violate the law, you might as well be uncircumcised. While the gentile who -- as in 2:14-16 does keep the law -- does as well as if he were circumcised.

In 2:17 Paul remarkably slides from the factual picture in the first half (factual picture of the gentiles who do keep the law, as in 2:14-16) to the focused picture (the Jews who violate it as in 2:17ff.).