Romans 2

English Standard Version

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.

I was told by a judge that my ignorance of the law was no excuse. He was the judge and in his court I was subject to his rulings.

The summary judgment of Romans 2:1 is that none are righteous and therefore all are guilty even if you are ignorant of the law. Romans 2:12 “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.”

What laws do you live under?

Every nation has a rule of law that defines how those citizens are expected to act in their society. It matters not whether those laws are founded under God’s immutable laws or man made, citizens are subject to those laws.

When we stand before our maker we will not be allowed to quote US code in our defense. He is the judge over all mankind according to His will, not the conscience of man. 

In the US, congress writes and amends the law and the president signs laws into effect. Those laws are arguable and rendered constitutional or not by the Supreme Court. Constitutional amendments require approval by all the states. It takes two thirds of the states to approve but cannot be invoked until all the states vote on the amendment.

Citizens of heaven don’t get a vote. In God’s court the citizen has no voice. But we can have an advocate but the court only recognizes the credentials of just one advocate.

1 John 2:1 …. if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Wait until judgment day to ask for an advocate and it will be too late. We have to choose Him now before we die. More on that tomorrow.

Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Skip every rule and law that anyone tries to bind you with and learn to love. It is the only law that counts, the law of love.

1 Corinthians 13 English Standard Version

The Way of Love

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love is the first fruit produced in us.

Galatians 5:22-23 English Standard Version

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Fruits are not produced by effort but rather by the nature of the tree because of where its roots are grounded.

Jeremiah 17:8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

The stream we tap into is the Spirit.