Romans 2:1-2 - Without Excuse

Romans 2:1-2 - 1 Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. 2 And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.

Message:  Man is judged by his works (though salvation is by faith alone);

Time: Written sometime in AD 57-58, probably from Corinth, at the end of Paul's third missionary journey. Chapter 2 seems to be written to the Jew though the Jew is not addressed till verse 17.

What the Lord is Saying:

This passage of scripture is written to the Jews; the Jews are not that different from the church today.

1. They are a people that stood before God and felt like because of their association with somebody or something or a promise, that they are accepted by God. For the Jew, this acceptance came about from the promise God made to Abraham and his descendants. God promised to be their God. And so the Jews simply felt like they must keep their connection with God by observing the Law and practicing circumcision.
2. There is always a temptation to judge others. As I learned recently, the verse "judge not, let you be judged" doesn't mean that we can't judge. But, we must first look inward to our own lives, examining our own sin before we can put the spotlight on another. Religious people and non-religious people often begin to take on a prideful attitude toward others thinking that they don't sin like others or they call out certain sins without clearly examining their own.
3. As Christians, I think we need to be quick to examine the evil first in ourselves, recognizing that all sin is disobedience. More so than the non-religious, I believe the Christian needs to be very careful about how quickly we call out the sin in others without first admitting we sin. And this is the idea of these verses in Romans 2. That we are so quick to judge and yet don't realize that what we are calling out as wrong is something we are also doing. How often to call out sin in my kids and then turn around and do the same thing.
4. The other problem we have, maybe more so in society is labeling sins in degrees of offensiveness and consequence associated with the sin. Many of our sins are hidden from others. They are internal or they are so common place that they don't stand out. And so certain sins have clear consequences versus all sin having a consequence. Man grades sins. Murder and Rape and Cheating deserve punishments, but telling white lies or gossiping about a co-worker or neighbor, undressing a woman with our eyes and stealing a piece of gum are not viewed as excessive sins, namely because it is clear that everyone does it and there are no laws broken when these acts occur. So people think they can escape God simply by staying free from the "serious" sins. 
5. People have also been trained in the idea that man is a sinner and God is a forgiver and sin can be quickly excused by asking for forgiveness because God forgives. Man is known to be a creature of sin. It is his trade, but the trade of God is to forgive that sin. How often in sharing the gospel with people do they quickly say, "well, God has forgiven my sin." 

Romans 2 then is the simple declaration of the reality of God's judgment. What we have just left is the turning away from God by the Gentile in chapter 1 or the rejection of God and His revelation. (Gentile) man decides that he has life figured out and so what God does is allows him to carry his thinking to his lifestyle of idolatry or setting other things or himself up as God. But in verse 32 there appears to be a transition. Verse 32 is in a way a summation of the Gentile's denial, but the person that recognizes God is also called out as person that does the same thing or does the same sins. And the person approves of the same sin that he had just called the sin of others. Again, as in Romans 2:1, a person is quick to call out fault in others.

Verse 32 was having the knowledge that God is real, and then practicing sin and approving sin. And verse 1 is also against those that judge others as sinners and then practice the same sin. We are to call out sin in others but in so doing we must be clear that there is still sin in us. 

A hypocrite is someone who complains there is too much sex & violence in his DVD collection! (PreceptAustin.org).

The verse 32 person knows the consequences of sin and continues to do it. Verse 1 and 2 of chapter 2 also call out the person that judges and then does the same thing.

My take is in verse 32 of chapter 1 the Gentile and the Jew are exposed and so in Romans 2 these individuals are reminded that God's judgment is not just for a select few, but it falls on all men. No one can stand before God and say, "I have an excused absence from hell" because no person's life makes him excusable. Everyone deserves it. Romans 2:1-16 is a picture of God's judgment.

How foolish I am. Lord, help me to never forget that I am a sinner in need of a Savior. Help me to never forget the filthiness of my sin. Help me to admit that sin before others. I never want to appear higher and mightier than anyone. You are the high One because You have saved me. I need you. 

Wayne Barber makes an interesting note about how Romans 1 was addressing the Gentiles and Romans 2 is to the Jews. In Romans 1, the pronouns that Paul uses are "them, those, their and they" to denote the Gentile. And now in Romans 2, he changes the pronoun to "you and yours." Interesting.

Promise: The judgment of God falls upon the godly and ungodly.