2:5).  This judgment of God is administered by the Lord Jesus Christ: 'In the

day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my

gospel' (Rom. 2:16).  Jew and Gentile are in view in this passage, but there

is appended the statement that 'there is no respect of persons with God'

(Rom. 2:11).

The parallel passage of Romans 15:12,13 brings Jew and Gentile together

in hope.  The force of this passage is blunted in the Authorized Version by

the rendering of the word 'hope' in verse 12 by the word 'trust'.  The

passage should read:

'There shall be a Root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over

the Gentiles: in Him shall the Gentiles Hope (elpizo); now the God of

the Hope (elpis) fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye

may abound in the Hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost'.

The argument of chapter 2 is that the Jew, equally with the Gentile,

shall be judged; the argument of chapter 15 is that the Gentile, equally with

the Jew, shares in the hope brought in by the 'Root of Jesse'.

Here we leave Jew and Gentile, and deal with the

creature as such.  In

Romans 5:12 Adam is introduced, and from that verse to

the end of chapter 8

we are dealing with deeper issues than those connected

with either Gentile

or Jew, considered separately.  Here we find suffering

endured in view of

'The glory that shall be revealed in us.  For the earnest expectation

of the creature waiteth for the revelation (apokalupsis) of the sons of

God' (Rom. 8:18,19 author's translation).

This revelation of the sons of God awaits resurrection, when:

'the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of

corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God ...

waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body' (Rom. 8:21 -23

author's translation).

This 'salvation by hope' that looks forward to the complete

emancipation of 'the creature' and the 'redemption of the body', demands such

intimate acquaintance with the arguments of chapters 5, 6 and 7 that we leave

this passage also for closer study in due course.  For the moment the one

thing that concerns us is the gathering up of the varied items in Romans that

illuminate the doctrine of the Lord's Coming.

With this passage that goes back to Adam and Eden, it is only natural

we should take Romans 16:20, that likewise goes back to the same occasion:

'The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly' (Rom.

'I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and

her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel'

(Gen. 3:15).