The Book of Romans: Escape Tactics - Part 1 (1:18-2:11)

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Uh in the content that we've been walking through in Romans chapter one, and now as we turn the page to Romans chapter two, looking at the escape tactics that men and women make to try to get themselves, that is, intellectually, out of their knowledge that they have the wrath of God abiding on them, and that they are children of wrath, according to Ephesians chapter two.

Now, Romans chapter one plainly declared to us that the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, that is, from the faith of the law in the Old Testament or under the Old Covenant, and now to the faith and the faithfulness of Christ that we find in the New Testament.

And not only that, we also find the wrath of God revealed to us.

Romans chapter one and verse 18, it says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness.

And what Paul ends up going through is a brief summary or history of the world, and ultimately of what men do with the truth and the truth that God has manifest in them and outside of them.

And so as you look at Romans chapter one and as you turn to Romans chapter two, what you find is that there are two things that God uses to hold men accountable to their knowledge of his power.

So even that, if they don't have the gospel, and understanding that the gospel is the power of God into salvation, they do have things that are testifying of the power of God.

The first would be creation itself, but also a man's conscience testifying of the moral law that's in him, and thereby letting a man understand that there is a moral law giver, some higher truth.

And so look at with me briefly or listen here, Romans chapter one and verse 19 and 20.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed unto them.

And so no man will be able to say, Well, the truth wasn't given to me, because God was the one who says plainly that he's manifested in them.

They're going to have to take that up with God.

Romans chapter one and verse twenty, the next verse says, For the invisible things of him from creation of the world from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

And so again, two concepts you gotta lock in your thinking creation and conscience.

In other words, no matter where someone looks, they are going to have to give an account to God for the truth that they were given by general revelation in those two places.

Paul tells us why God's judgment is righteous.

Here it is.

God hath shooted unto them.

Creation bears witness to the Creator, even his eternal power and Godhead.

And his conclusion and plainness here is so that none are without excuse, or so that they are without excuse.

This is the foundation of the later plea of ignorance that we'll find in Romans chapter 2 and 3.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

Paul does go on to distinguish those who have received the written law and those who have not, but his point here is that the absence of the written law does not mean that God has left men with no witness of himself or the truth at all.

It is true, creation does not set forth all of the details of Christ's death and resurrection.

However, here Paul explains why men are accountable to God, whose power is manifest in what he has made, and what he has revealed to them, so that even if they don't have the gospel, they still have things testifying of the power of God.

Now, this is the point of Romans chapter 1, 2, and 3.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Men are condemned.

The conversation is not justification yet.

The conversation is not how men are saved, it is just Paul making an argument to those at Rome about how all men are guilty before God.

Now the conclusive matter in Romans chapter 3 is that all may become guilty and that every mouth would be stopped.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

No more excuses, no more escape tactics, no more worldviews or intellectual games to try to get yourself out of the knowledge of the truth of God that you do have in you.

Now, if you remember though, in verse 24 of Romans chapter 1, it says that God gives them up to uncleanness.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

And then verse 26, he gives them up to vile affections and over to a reprobate mind in verse 28, because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.

The sexual content described in verses 26 and 27 belongs within this account of man's departure from God.

Paul then continues into a much broader list of sins.

We must follow the whole passage instead of using one part to excuse ourselves from the rest.

And so listen carefully, because this text is abused often.

A person may look at another man's conduct and immediately recognize that it is wrong.

The next question is will he acknowledge his own unrighteousness with the same amount of honesty?

The indictment reaches sins, men commonly excuse.

Look at verses twenty-nine through thirty-two.

Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate.

You ever do that?

Deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despite, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, anybody in the room?

Without understanding, yet any more?

Covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

The list includes murder, but it also includes covetousness, envy, deceit, whispers, backbiting, pride, boasting, disobedience to parents, covenant breakers, and being unmerciful.

And this is where the heart begins comparing, and why the next few verses in Romans chapter two really begin to make sense for us.

Paul is making an argument, and he's leading people to an argument about them thinking that God's going to judge them based on their relative righteousness to others.

And so a man finds others guilty before God, but Paul is leading this man to try to make a decision on himself and whether or not he will also conclude that he's guilty before God.

It's one thing now to commit sins, but Romans chapter 1 and verse 32 also includes the error of approving wrongdoing in others.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

And so maybe you're not homosexual, but you agree with the movement and you actually take pleasure or you are a motivating voice in the things that God disapproves of and he hates.

Pride, boasting, covetous, whatever it might be.

Be careful, because the text is leading us into a corner, not so that we will remain condemned, but that we will finally humble ourselves before the living God and receive the gift of everlasting life in Jesus Christ, who freely poured out his blood for us.

Now we are hopping way ahead because we have some arguments to run through based on what Paul has said in Romans chapter 2 and 3.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

What we find ultimately here is that there are escape tactics, five main areas where men and women try to escape from God, and within that ten forms of self-defense that people run to when they become aware of the wrath of God abiding upon them.

Romans chapter 2 opens by Paul confronting a man, and no, it's a specific man, you and I, individually, listening, reading the text, hearing uh the text, the truth of God.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

It is Paul opening, confronting us, or that individual who has been listening to the indictment and that long list in Romans chapter 1, and now he has imagined himself standing on the outside of that list.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

And so you, as a listener, I I read you a long list of sins, and it is possible that you thought, man, I am thankful that I don't deal with most of that list.

But do you realize that is Paul's very point?

He's trying to get us to see that we are the ones guilty, even if we are not guilty of the whole list.

Our temptation is to look at other men and condemn them rather than finding that we are the guilty ones before God.

And so a man, even without the law, begins to make a law within his heart as he goes to judge other people.

And Paul then expresses the first area or escape tactic that so many people make to try to tell themselves and ultimately God that they are not worthy of his wrath.

And that is this concept of relative righteousness, which we will be looking at in our first part of five main areas where people are trying to make a way of escape, and ten forms of self-defense that lie within those categories.

And so here the first, relative righteousness.

We'll also talk about in Romans chapter two this idea of Gentile circumstances, hereditary favor pertaining to Jews, playing dumb at the top of Romans chapter three, and then incriminating God.

It gets so bad that when people realize that they have no excuses before God, they have to tell the Lord that he is unrighteous for the way that he's judging, so that they can conclude he's not going to be able to judge them at all.

We'll get there, don't worry about it.

Okay, but back to relative righteousness.

This is one of the most common excuses that men make when confronted with their guilt before God.

It may sound something like this.

I am not as bad as some people, or I'm a pretty good person, or God knows that no one is perfect, as if to say that the manner of God's judgment is based on my life in comparison to the majority or some other person.

It also comes out this way it is not like I'm going around murdering people, again, as to say that God's standard is you being better than those individuals that are murdering everyone.

Paul's point here is that God is going to be judging us on the basis of his glory and righteousness, not our relative righteousness one to another.

Okay, it also comes out like this.

I recognize that those things that you've brought to my attention are wrong, but but surely my good deeds should count for something.

Once again, as if to say my good deeds relative to those around me are better than most, and therefore, because I live a pretty good life, God can't judge me.

This idea of relative righteousness condemns us because as we go into the world, we look around and we adjust our life according to some, I don't know, unknown, mysterious uh figure that we determine is the measuring stick for God's justice.

Not viewing justice as something that is pure and ultimately holy to its finest degree.

Uh we we think that somehow holiness is obtainable in us and that God is understanding.

And so this is the form of self-defense that we have to be very sensitive to.

And you're gonna hear over and over again when you're on the streets witnessing with people, it comes out in so many different ways.

But it's this idea of comparison and it's an appeal to somebody's personal perspective on what it means to be good enough or better than other people.

And this is found in verses one through three of Romans chapter two.

The first verse says this Romans chapter two and verse one, therefore thou art an excusable, O man.

Who is that inexcusable man?

Well, it's the person that judges, for whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.

For thou that judgest doest the same thing.

So you tell other people that they shouldn't behave a certain way, but then you behave the very way that you judge other people for, and God says, On that basis alone I can condemn you, or you at least can show that you are condemned before me.

Paul begins with the therefore, right?

Following the indictment of Romans chapter one, leading directly out of that into a warning about a man who thinks he's better than other people.

Paul does not grant an exception to the person who can recognize wrongdoing in someone else.

That doesn't make you righteous just because you're able to judge somebody else.

It's very easy to look at other people and condemn them.

And Paul's point here is that when you do that, you are also showing that you have a moral compass inside of you that you fall short of.

Okay, so you can understand how God might judge judge someone else for their wrongdoing, but then end up doing the very things that you condemn others about.

The person knows the unrighteousness deserves judgment, and so they they with good intentions in their heart, desiring, you know, some system of justice in this world, they pursue as best as they possibly can a life that is in agreement with the truth.

But because the flesh is weak and carnal and unable to fulfill holiness in and of itself because of its corruption, because because of sin, we all end up becoming weak and broken and unable to fulfill the thing that we desire.

We, he, this individual that Paul is bringing up as a hypothetical, can identify the issue, name it, and is even willing to condemn it.

Yet Paul says that we end up practicing some of those things that we expect others to actually be judged for.

For wherein thou judgest another.

Paul is exposing the self-condemning position of a man who condemns people's conduct while suggesting that again this guy does the same thing.

And so just note this idea.

The ability to identify sin is no proof that a person is identifying that sin and righteous themselves.

A simple thought experiment for you might be to just prove out some areas in your life that you are critical of others in.

Think about this knowing what is righteous is way different than being righteous.

I can know how to play baseball, but I can still be absolutely terrible at the sport.

I can know what it means to be a godly husband or father all while failing at it often.

Or maybe I have a sense of what it means to be a good spouse or how a husband or wife should speak with one another.

As a husband, I I hear some man talking to his wife a certain way, and I'm thinking in my head, why is that guy doing that?

He should be more gracious in his words, and sure enough, the Holy Spirit reveals to me that, you know, a week ago I spoke to my wife or my kids in some belittling way.

Somebody at work, I snapped at him, or whatever it might be, and uh therein.

I'm I'm condemned by the standard that's in my own heart.

Okay, so we should be careful with the claim that we make here.

A moral judgment does not automatically prove that just because I've made the moral judgment that I'm morally correct myself, there's a difference between condemning something and also having an action that reflects the thing that I'm condemning.

Lord willing, our judgment is righteous.

The things that we are convicted about being wrong or right, we are actually living lives in agreement to, but that's not Paul's point, that the majority of your life is in agreement with those things.

His point is if you fail at one moment in any of these things, you have become guilty of the law that is set up within your own heart.

Paul's conclusion is broader, and it is ultimately that we have all sinned, and that we have to give an answer for the sin that we have committed.

And so verse two follows the judgment of God is not arbitrary, it is in accordance to the truth, but we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.

That is something that we have assurance of that God's judgment will be true, and it'll be true against those that behave unrighteously.

God judges, as the text reminds us, according to truth.

Now the truth is Jesus Christ.

John chapter 14 and verse 6.

John 14 · chapter mention

I mean, it's pretty dang clear.

Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh to the Father unto the Father but by me.

Yesh.

Struggling.

God isn't judging us according to our relative righteousness, but rather the righteousness revealed in and through the Son, Jesus Christ.

His judgment concerns what we actually are and what we have actually done, not what we know to be true.

And he does not need our carefully arranged comparison with someone else to judge us according to how we've lived.

This is about judgment according to the truth, the truth of who Jesus is in light of his holiness, but also the truth of who we are.

This exposes some imagined divine scale of justice that so many people think of when they think about God's judgment.

A man places his good deeds on one side and his bad deeds on the other.

Sometimes he compares his own good deeds with the average person, or his own good deeds in the whole of his life, and maybe some of the bad things he's done with the median range of all of human history and all everyone that's ever lived.

Okay, sometimes, though, he selects a particular wicked person and says, you know, at least my decent life is better than him.

The standard keeps moving because the man is trying to preserve a favorable verdict about himself.

The scales of justice aren't his life on one side and the holiness of God on the other.

It's his life on one side and then whatever we can set on the other to make me feel good.

God's judgment does not move with our personal preferred comparison.

It is fixed in the truth of who he is, of who God is and who we are by nature.

And as Ephesians chapter 2 says, we are children of wrath by nature.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

We are sinners by nature, we are dead in our sins and trespasses by nature, and that we need a new nature in the person of Christ.

And so our question must therefore be larger than have I done some good things?

Brothers and sisters, in our lost state before Christ, are we righteous before God?

Are we holy?

Can we stand before Him without sin?

We cannot.

The question isn't, have I done some good things?

It's ha it is, have I been given a completely new identity?

You know, now the the question that also follows is can a person be decent, helpful, generous, and useful in society?

Well, certainly, and we should desire to be as righteous as possible and holy as possible and live without sin as much as possible.

But those good actions do not forgive or ease or erase the sins that we have committed.

And so Paul brings the hidden reasoning to light.

Romans chapter 2 and verse 3, and thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

And I just want to call to your attention again this phrase, and thinkest thou this.

Paul is addressing what goes on in a man's mind when he hears about judgment.

He asks the man whether this man And actively thinks he will actually escape the judgment of God when he goes to condemn other people.

The reasoning again may be familiar.

I can see God's wrath being on people who have committed horrible acts, but I'm not as bad as they are.

I recognize that they do wrong, but but I'm a fairly good person, and that should count for something, shouldn't it, Lord?

Am I really that bad?

Do I really need to go to hell because of some something that I've committed?

See, this man separates himself from others by any means possible to convince himself he is better off.

And we do this, y'all, in so many different areas.

Economics, our social standing, culture, politics.

Remember, this individual must do whatever he or she possibly can do to get themselves comfortable, to believe that they are actually going to be justified by their good works.

And so the best way to feel like a good person is to condemn everyone around you.

And for real, y'all, if you just pay attention, this comes through everything economic, social standing, culture, politics.

I mean, just think about the person.

Well, at least I'm not liberal.

Or thank God, I didn't vote for Trump.

You know, praise God, I'm not poor and a broken thief.

Or the per poor person looking at the rich saying, Well, the rich are wicked and selfish, and they only think so-and-so about themselves.

Well, it's it's like no matter where you're at in life, if you can just find a worldview that allows you to be in the position that's better off, and everyone else around you is evil or wicked in some way, then that can make you stand on the moral high ground, listen carefully, verse three, in your mind, in the way that you think about yourself in comparison to those that are around you.

Everyone else is wicked.

There's something wrong with every group that I'm not a part of, and so that means, therefore, that my life is pretty decent and God can't judge me.

Or it's unlikely that God will judge so many people that are just like me.

But I think we ought to be very careful with that thinking because heaven will be a place without sin, without tears except for laughter, without, you know, the pain and struggles of the life that we know today.

And I'm just, I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the day where there is a kingdom and a city whose maker is God that that does not look like the cities that we live in.

I mean, St.

Louis, y'all, is messed up like so many places in the world.

I'm not looking for a place to live, a place that God's designed that still has sin in it.

I want God's justice to be brought in its fullness.

And I'm not scared of that because I believe that my righteousness is found in Jesus Christ, not my own.

If righteousness came in its fullness against my life, I would be found guilty, not of everything, but at least of something, and I'm gonna be just vulnerable and say so many things.

And I feel guilty before holy God, and I'm so thankful for the righteousness and the gift of Jesus Christ to my account, paying off a sin debt that I could not pay in and of myself.

The pride of life in men and women is to escape the knowledge of the wrath of God.

Maybe because they hate God and his righteousness, but maybe because they haven't heard that God's made a way for them to escape that wrath through the death of his son.

We create worldviews to explain why people on the other side are horrible and why our position is better.

It all gets summed up in some general phrase like, Well, at least I'm not that bad.

Even the moderate position, if we come back to that illustration of, you know, two political parties and the Democrats on one side looking at the other, and Republicans on one side looking at the other thinking, man, I'm just so thankful I'm not like them.

Well, the the moderate position can step away from all of that and say, Well, at least I'm not like them.

We are the balanced ones.

We're maintaining peace and seeking humility in the midst of difficult details.

It's like the question is, is seeking peace and exercising sound judgment a good thing?

Yes.

Certainly.

Like it's probably best in this age to live a moderate life in a moderate position, understanding that each side probably has issues that they're right on.

But the danger comes when the heart uses the appearance of modesty to claim that we are better than others.

A man could be honest and modest and godly, but they could also be modest and dishonest and ungodly because the thing that's driving their modesty is actually apathy, or it's indifference to issues that really do matter.

The point is that the human heart longs to prove itself better than those around it so that it can't be judged by God.

Another example might be painful circumstances.

They can become a part of the defense as well.

The same desire to justify ourselves can appeal to what we have suffered.

I did it, see, but I am not guilty because if you understood what happened to me, you would understand why I chose that sin.

See, you would have done the same thing if you were in my shoes as to say, I am not worse than anyone else.

See, we are all alike.

If I am going to be judged, then we are all going to be judged, and God wouldn't do that, would he?

Yes, he would.

And in fact, that's Paul's whole point is that we are all guilty.

Have you heard it yet?

Everyone is diverting the blame.

Everyone is trying to weasel out of judgment, everyone deceiving themselves into thinking too highly of their goodness.

Moreover, the suffering itself can be terrible, and it must be treated with compassion.

But choosing to remain a victim to the past, hurt or trauma that you face that is legitimate, that needs healing and compassion and patience and counseling maybe, as an attempt to alleviate yourself of the responsibility to respond righteously, is an excuse still that will leave you condemned before God.

We are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth.

Yes, that's according to the truth of Jesus Christ.

It's also according to the truth of us and everything that goes on in our heart.

The judgment of God will chase down every secret, every intention, every motive.

And yes, we may live generally good lives, but we will end up failing at some point in our life, and God is trying to extend us mercy if we're willing to receive it rather than buck against him.

So at one level, it should comfort you to know that God's judgment is according to the truth if you've done right.

But if you've done wrong, it shouldn't make you sweat.

God knows the whole truth of everything that you and I have suffered in this life.

And some people I know have suffered a great deal of things.

But what is also true is that while God knows the whole truth of everything we've suffered, he also knows the whole truth of a person's response.

And the passage is telling us he will judge accordingly.

Furthermore, the vain plea of the sinner becomes, okay, yeah, I did commit wrong, but the circumstances made it justified in the sight of God.

God understands, doesn't he?

Yes.

God understands, he understands that our tendency is to think more favorably of ourselves than the truth permits.

His judgment is according to the truth and his righteousness, including truths that we may overlook when presenting ourselves and our own defense before him.

And so the second form of defense here is not comparison under the banner of relative righteousness righteousness, but presumption.

It is an appeal to God's assumed approval because of his delay.

This is Romans chapter two and verses four and five.

It sounds something like this God has been good to me, so I must be okay, or he hasn't judged me yet, and so therefore he won't judge me at all.

The goodness of God should lead us to repentance, not cause us to double down and pursue a life of sin.

Romans chapter two and verse four.

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance The phrase here despisest thou one error that I see people making is misunderstanding the judgment of God as something that isn't good.

But the irony is that while the human heart longs for perfect justice to be brought to those that are oppressed, they also don't want perfect justice to be brought because they understand that perfect justice must track down every wrongdoing, including their own.

And so what do people do in this situation?

Well, they write off the idea of God as legitimate because it intellectually comforts them.

And there's just an additional irony here because a critique that's often made towards those that believe in God sounds something like, oh, you just believe in that because it brings you peace or fills some gap of uncertainty in your mind.

But this is actually what the unbeliever does or the person who's trying to get out of the judgment of God because it comforts them to not believe in God.

See, they they have had the truth of God manifest in them.

They just don't like to retain it.

And secondly, what do people do when they realize that there's perfect justice that's needed?

They want it, but they know that it would come to them if it actually happened.

Well, they become passionate about bringing perfect justice through social means or through themselves.

Their heart still longs for that justice, and so to satisfy that reasonable burden that they now have to fill because they've removed the perfect solution for it, God, they now become God themselves trying to fix the problem and whether or not they are actively involved in social justice measures or movements, uh, they will at least blame groups that aren't.

Okay, but always remember the judgment of God is according to truth, and therefore good if you presuppose that truth is the thing that we ought to pursue at all cost.

Okay, but to be clear, those are not points directly from the text, they are tangential and things that I've personally experienced as I've attempted to witness.

What Alan Shelby might refer to as experiential exegesis.

Okay, so here now with more carefulness, the point that Paul is actually making in Romans chapter two and verse four, and that is that a man might have another misunderstanding, and that is because God has been good and not immediately brought judgment, he or she may suppose that God accepts their internal defense of judging other people.

Paul then goes on to speak of the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering.

See, God has certainly showed kindness.

He has suffered with sinners and withheld immediate judgment.

These are the riches that a man should recognize and be grateful on a daily basis.

They should be the very things that lead us to repentance.

Someone blessing you with riches should lead you to be thankful, not despise them.

But Paul's point here is that this person despises the goodness of God and hardens their heart and uses it as permission to continue defending him or herself against the truth.

Look at Romans chapter two and verse five.

It says, But after the hardness, an impotent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

Now Paul again describes hardness and an impotent heart.

The man keeps resisting the truth of his guiltiness before God, and he may imagine that he is accumulating evidence in his favor while he is actually treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.

And so the man thinks as he judges other people, man, I am a pretty good person.

And every single day as he goes about his life, he continues to affirm to himself, man, I I have some some decent hope that I'm gonna make it.

And God is saying that very way of thinking is proud, and it is causing you to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath.

It makes me think of those vain imaginations referred to in Romans chapter one and verse twenty-one as it concludes their foolish heart was darkened.

Every new excuse seems to strengthen his case in his own mind, the way he thinks.

Yet self-justification cannot remove the sin.

And the continued refusal to repent adds to his guiltiness for resisting the truth and the goodness and the forbearance and the mercy of God.

The coming judgment is called, as it's described, the righteous judgment of God.

It will reveal the justice of God's verdict, including the truth about the excuses the man had made and relied on his whole life.

For all of us who have come under the blood of Jesus Christ for cleansing, all of our sin will be judged according to the work of Jesus Christ and his life and death.

But for all those that reject it, God renders to every man according to his deeds.

The third form of self-defense now is not comparison and it is not presumption, but it is good works, or it is a man's deeds.

A man telling himself ultimately as he compares himself with other men that it will be his personal ability that will make him righteous.

That's his appeal.

Romans chapter two and verse six who will render to every man according to his deeds.

Verse 7 To them listen carefully who by patient continuance and well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.

The things named in verse seven are what men ought to desire glory, honor, immortality, eternal life.

Paul connects the favorable verdict with patient continuance and well doing.

Now read that standard seriously.

It does not mean occasional kindness, selected good deeds often, or being more respectable than your average neighbor.

The man who appeals to his performance is appealing to a judgment that will consider what he actually does over time, consistently, and as the text says, continually, and therein lies the evidence for his eviction.

This brings the plea of works face to face with the requirement of righteousness, with the requirement of righteousness.

If I insist on being justified by righteousness, or that is to say, my self righteousness and obedience, I cannot excuse the disobedience in my record.

Paul's conclusion of Romans chapter three and verse twenty rules out the hope that has fallen upon men to obtain justification by the deeds of the law.

Romans chapter three and verse twenty.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in this sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Now we'll get into this here in a moment, but just hear my point briefly in passing.

You might say in your heart, Well, I wasn't given the law, or what about that individual who never received the law?

Y'all, that's the very point of Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

Even if you haven't received the law, the righteous standard of God, you know what you have received?

A law that you've set up in your heart via your conscience as you go judging other people, accusing or excuse excusing men of sin.

The words continuance, patient continuance and well-doing describe preserving in well-doing always.

And if this is the man's standard, justification by good works, then the only way around failure is perfect obedience to a perfect standard all the time without failing.

Or a standard of righteousness has to be lowered and made obtainable.

And Paul will address that.

But now as I share some cross-references, I want you to consider the comprehensive demand of what it means for a man to keep the law.

Galatians chapter three and verse ten, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of the law to do them.

There's the word again, continueth not in all things.

James chapter two and verse ten, for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

Now notice those phrases again.

Continueth not in all things, and offend in one point.

A man cannot choose parts of obedience that favor him and dismiss the places where he has transgressed.

He has broken the same law that he is appealing to for justification.

And so if a man says, and his claim is righteousness on the basis of the whole law, then his life must answer the whole demand of the law.

One good period does not undo a sinful period, and one good deed does not make the guilty deed cease to be guilty.

Now Romans chapter two and verse eight, but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also the Gentile, but glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile, for there is no respect of persons with God.

Paul's point here is if a man can live perfect, great.

Glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good.

But if a man is not continuous in all things, being obedient with his whole life to the whole truth of the law, and he becomes contentious not obeying the truth, and he is unrighteous, this is the promise, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of a man that doeth evil.

For there is no respect of persons with God.

See, the righteous standard of God is serious, and so if a man's going to claim I'm going to be right with God based on my good works, he better sober up, because he will be testifying of his life on that scale against the life of Christ.

The righteousness of God has been revealed from faith to faith, from the law into the fulfilled law in the person of Christ through the gospel.

But now also the wrath of God has been revealed upon all men, and the truth of creation and the truth of a man's conscience.

So under this banner of relative righteousness and these three first forms of how people create an escape tactic, you must be asking the question, why does this tactic fail?

It's ultimately because another man's badness cannot become my standard of righteousness.

God's judgment, as declared by Paul, is according to truth, according to the deeds of the law, and is without respect of persons.

Be perfect, be saved.

Fail at any point, be guilty of the whole law and in need of God's justice and judgment against your life.

The whole goal of answering this excuse is to bring a person to change their mind about being guilty before God.

And as we move through these other escape tactics, that is our goal.

We're not trying to trip people up or be fanciful with our words.

We're not trying to create mental gymnastics for anyone.

We're just trying to help an individual say, Dang, I think I'm actually guilty before God, and I don't know what I'm going to do to be saved.

There is our opportunity to share the solution that Jesus Christ became sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

We aren't trying to condemn the world.

We need people to see that they are guilty before God so that they can understand why the gospel is necessary and what was actually accommodated.

For them.

As long as an individual relies on his comparative goodness for acceptance, or he or she continues trusting in what they have done and what they have not done, they will always remain in their sin, treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.

He, she needs to acknowledge the failure of the defense and the truth of trusting the Savior.

Now that is a wrap on our first part of looking at five windows and ten forms of escape tactics that people make.

And I hope that this has been insightful and a challenge to you.

I apologize about the audio issues.

I hope to get them solved more than you, I promise.

Uh I am uh hopeful, though, that this content becomes clear, not so that you can put some intellectual feather behind your ear and know a new thing about the Bible, but ultimately so that this drives you to have more effective conversations with people.

Can I encourage you?

Be patient.

Listen to the statements and the worldviews that people have actually made and try to hear why they don't want to receive the truth that has already been manifest in them.

Are they afraid of the wrath of God?

Do they hate the wrath of God?

Are they trying to weasel out with some creative worldview so that they can't be judged by God?

Are they placing themselves with an escape route by showing that God's judgment is going to be on them because of their relative righteousness to others?

I mean, what is it?

How are they describing why God shouldn't judge them?

Is it as bad as saying that God's actually a criminal for judging, even though he is the God who's created them?

Pay attention.

Listen, most people are not evil.

Most people desire to have a relationship with God, they just don't think it's possible.

And the dread of knowing that a God exists, deep down in their heart, keeps them from actually having conversations.

Break down those walls.

You and I, that are believers who have received Christ, we're at some point dead in our sins and trespasses.

We needed someone to love us.

We needed someone to be kind to us, to listen.

And uh, y'all, I fail at it all the time.

I'm looking for the argument, I'm looking for the conversation.

I view evangelism as a transaction.

You know, here's the gospel, do you receive it?

No, okay, bye.

And I think God really just wants us to care for people, be patient, and try to listen to the excuses people make for why they should be out of the judgment of God.

Pay attention closely.

The human heart longs for perfect justice, but the human heart also knows that if perfect justice enters this world, they can't escape.

But maybe a man can begin thinking a certain way to comfort themselves if they don't have the answer that Jesus Christ is the only way to life, and that he gave his life as a free gift, and that if we simply believe that by faith and ultimately the grace of God accomplished through that work, we can be saved.

I love you all.

God bless you.

Go win a soul this week, or at least try.

Once again, thank you so much for listening in.

We pray that these words were a challenge to you, but also a great encouragement in your walk with God.

May the Lord bless you and lead you further into His will as you're conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

God bless.