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understanding will be furthered by devoting our attention to the introductory and
concluding members :
A 2: 1. a. Krino. Inexcusable, whoever judges.
b. Krino. Judging another condemns self.
100: Krino. The one judging practices same things.
B 2: 2. Krima. Judgment of God according to truth.
C 2: 3-25 (Details omitted until next paper).
C ii.25- 3: 1 (Details omitted until next paper).
A 3: 4-7 a. Krino. God will overcome when judged.
b. Krino. God is not unrighteous when judging the world.
100: Krino God judges sin, though He overrules it for good.
B 3: 8, 9 Krima Judgment of God is just.
The summary of this outline is as follows:
A When man judges he sets a standard whereby he himself shall be judged.
B God's judgment is according to truth, and not appearance or privilege.
C No respect of persons with God. Jew and Gentile.
C No advantage or disadvantage. Circumcision or uncircumcision.
A When God judges He is found to be above all suspicion.
B God's judgment is just.
We are told that the visitor to the labyrinths of the catacombs retained hold of a
silken thread by which he could retrace his steps without fear of becoming lost. In the
chapter before us there are almost endless opportunities for getting" lost." The apostle
touches upon a sphere that is removed from our responsibility, and while certain passages
will prevent us from coming to an adverse conclusion concerning the heathen world
which has never known either the law of Moses or the gospel of Christ, the silken thread
attached to Rom. 3: 9 and 19 will keep us to the reason for the teaching of Rom. 2: so far
as this epistle is concerned, and prevent us from overturning the definite teaching of
Rom. 3: 20 for the less definite suggestions of Rom. 2: 12-16. It is evident from Rom. 1:
18-32 that nothing more was necessary to bring in the Gentile guilty before God. The
apostle's problem, however, was to bring about the same conviction in the breast of the
Jew. We are not left to our own conjectures to discover Israel's great impediment, for the
apostle has spoken most clearly on the subject.
" I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of
God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth" (Rom. 10: 1-4).
Israel's boast in Rom. 2: is that they" knew His will"; that they" approved the things
that were more excellent."
They esteemed themselves as' guides to the blind, and lights to them which are in
darkness." They had a "form of knowledge and of the truth in the law," but they were in
fatal ignorance! When we see this, what is there to choose between the Gentiles who
" Became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened, who, professing themselves to be
WISE, became FOOLS. . . . . and did not like to retain God in their KNOWLEDGE" (Rom. 1: 21-28),
and the Jews whose vain-glorious boasting ended equally in death? The deadly enemy of
Paul's message before Acts 28: was Judaism, or the false claims of the law. After Acts
28: Judaism passes, and a "vain deceitful philosophy" challenged the high glories of
the prison epistles. In both cases the apostle shows its utter vanity, and sets Christ
crucified, risen, and ascended over against it as "the end" and" the fullness."