◄ Romans 2 Devotional Commentary ►

Romans 2:1

Step by step, the book of Romans takes us from the depths of man's sin to the heights of man's salvation. Little by little, Paul guides us from recognising the serious nature of our depravity, our rebellion against God, and the shocking consequences of our estrangement from Him, to the glorious truth that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We read that we are justified by grace through faith in the only begotten Son of God, and that we read more...

Romans 2:2

The book of Romans presents the gospel message in clear, logical, structured steps, and the theme for the entire book is found in chapter 1, verse 17: "For in it (in the gospel), the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to more faith, as it is written, 'the righteous man shall live by faith.'"

Romans makes it clear from the start, that the very nature of man is at enmity with God and read more...

Romans 2:3

God is a God of love, but He is also a God of judgement and a God of truth. As Judge of the world, His judgment is based on the truth of Who He is; perfect in character, holy in nature, gracious in disposition, and all His ways are righteous and trustworthy.

Irrespective of what self-righteous sinners think of their own moral conduct in comparison with others, God makes it plain that there is no distinction between sinners. read more...

Romans 2:4

It was man who brought sin into the world and the wages of sin is death. But sin in all its guises and disguises must be judged, for a holy God cannot look on sin. Sin must be punished, and the ultimate consequence of sin is eternal separation from God. Sin inflicts a never-ending divorce from all that is good, and clean, and lovely, and pure, and honourable, and righteous, and holy. And in the final analysis, the verdict is that read more...

Romans 2:5

The amazing truth of the glorious gospel of grace is that repentant sinners who have fled for refuge to the Cross of Calvary for the forgiveness of sins: "Do not come into judgment, but have passed out of death and into life."

Believers in Christ will never have to face the great day of God's wrath, nor stand before the Great White Judgement Throne of God, because Christ took the punishment for our sin in our read more...

Romans 2:6

The clear teaching of many passages in Scripture is that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ's sacrificial death and glorious Resurrection, and not on the basis of works or any human merit that we may carry out in our flesh, lest any man should boast. And yet, this verse seems to contradict the clear testimony of the Bible that salvation is solely by believing faith. It seems to imply that salvation depends on the meritorious works and good read more...

Romans 2:11

Paul is stressing the serious consequences that will befall all those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, for the lives of all who are not positioned in Christ are rooted and grounded in sin, Satan, lies, and deceit.

Paul is clearly warning of the unavoidable judgement that is waiting for those who do evil and obey unrighteousness. Such men and women have rejected God's free gift of salvation by faith and have lives read more...

Romans 2:12

In the most systematic way, Paul lays out the depravity of man and the grace of God in the early chapters of Romans. All humanity is depraved. None do right and all are under God's condemnation. None are disadvantaged by race, parentage, place of birth, or colour of skin, and no-one benefits from their nationality, bank balance, talents, qualifications, or education. All have fallen short of God's glory, but all have equal access to the riches of God's kindness read more...

Romans 2:13

Many interpret this verse to insist that being 'doers of the law' equates to keeping specific commandments or obeying certain rules, without understanding the shocking context of this verse. It is the general principle of 'law' and not a reference to specific commandments that is referred to here, for the Bible, tells us: "By works of the law shall no man living be justified." And yet those that are trapped in legalism insist that this verse requires us to read more...

Romans 2:14

In the first few chapters of Romans, Paul shows that God will judge people in accordance with light they have received. The Jews, who were given the Law and the Prophets, will be judged by the light of God's Word. They will be judged by the holy scriptures which were given to them by the holy prophets, but the bottom line for every Jew is that all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God. All are under condemnation, all are charged as guilty read more...

Romans 2:15

In the earlier verses of Romans chapter 2, Paul explained that although the Law of Moses was not given to Gentiles, nevertheless they have been endowed with an innate knowledge of what is good and evil. Because man was made in the image and likeness of God, they have a God-given conscience by which they instinctively know what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, what is moral and what is immoral. Although Gentiles do not have the Law, they read more...

Romans 2:16

In a day when a sugar-coated gospel is proclaimed by so many, the fundamental truth of the pure gospel that Paul lays out so systematically in his epistle to the Romans is rejected, ignored, ridiculed and disregarded by many in Christendom today. But Romans is the seedbed of our faith, giving the fullest presentation of the good news of Christ from the pen of Paul, God's great apostle who was chosen to deliver much of the Church-age doctrine which had been hidden read more...

Romans 2:21

As Paul teaches about the depravity of all men, he places humanity into three categories: the immoral man, the moral man, and the religious man; for all have sinned and all fall short of God's glory. All are in need of salvation, all need a Saviour, and all have the opportunity to be saved by grace through faith in Christ. But there is one category that receives Paul's particular attention: unfaithful, hypocritical, religious Jews of his day who considered read more...

Romans 2:23

Having carefully constructed his watertight argument that all Gentiles, both evil and moral, are sinners and under God's righteous condemnation, Paul turns His attention to Israel; God's chosen people; the sanctified nation who received the Law, the prophets, and the promises of God.

Paul had to show that they too were equally under God's righteous condemnation. They too had to understand that Jewish rites, rituals, merit, read more...

Romans 2:29

Israel were called by God to be His witnesses to a lost world, but instead of being a light to the Gentiles they sinned against the Lord. Together with the rest of humanity, Israel were guilty of sin and stood condemned before a holy God. Although love is an essential quality of God, He is also a God of justice Who must punish all who fall short of His own perfect standard of righteousness.

It is not simply the read more...