Apart from Christ, this degenerative moral progression of 1:18-25 would be the course of my life. The Word of God is judge enough to condemn me along with the ones described in the second half of Romans 1. The judgment of God rightly falls on all who practice such things, and none is righteous, so to hell with my self-righteousness! This list at the end of Romans 1, according to Romans 2:1-5, is meant to goad us into crucifying our self-righteousness and to remove the bitter root of pride a la Deuteronomy 29:18-19. In reading the opening verses of chapter 2 on the heels of the closing verses of chapter 1, we are to find ourselves in agreement with the rightness of God's judgment falling on us, else we too would be guilty of the hard and unrepentant heart (ἀμετανόητον καρδίαν) described in 2:5, which stores up wrath for itself in blessing itself in its condemnation of others, and refusing to relinquish its self-righteousness and receive the justification of God in Christ, to be clothed in His righteousness.
God will render to each according to his works (whether those produced by the righteousness of Christ in the elect or those produced by pride and unbelief in the wicked).
To those who seek God, endeavoring in good work and patience to attain glory, honor, and imperishability:
- eternal life.
To those who seek self, disobeying the truth while obeying unrighteousness:
- wrath and fury.
God shows no partiality to Jew over Greek (old covenant separation) nor to Greek over Jew (who spilled the blood of the Lamb of the new covenant). All are equally damnable for their sin, and all who are righteous are so on the same level ground before the foot of the cross.
Everyone who does evil, Jew and Greek, will be rendered punishment, tribulation, and distress. Everyone who does righteousness, who does good, both Jew and Greek, will be rendered glory and honor (which they sought 2:7) and peace. The righteous seek glory and honor and immortality in doing good, and obtain these as well as the peace of God. The wicked (being blind fools) seek wrath and fury in doing evil, and obtain these things as well as tribulation and distress. God shows no partiality in that all who have sinned, without the law or under it, will be judged for their sin, by the law or apart from it. For the hearing of the law or the lack thereof has no bearing on being righteous before God, but rather it is the doers of the law who will be justified.
If you, a Gentile, do not have the law but by nature do what it requires, you are a law to yourself because the work of the law is apparent to your conscience apart from knowing the law; it is written on your heart, your conscience bearing witness, so that on the day of judgement your thoughts may conflict, some evil, some approving what is good, but God will still judge the secrets of men's hearts by Christ Jesus.
If you, a Jew, rely on the law, boast in God, know His will and approve what is excellent, having been instructed from the law, being sure that you are a guide to the blind and a light to those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish and a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth; you who teach others, do you teach yourself? How can you boast in the law and yet also be a law-breaker? You boast in circumcision, but are rendered a hypocrite because you do not keep that which circumcision signifies. Physical circumcision is a sign of law-keeping, the outward sign of an inward reality, but if you are a law-breaker not a law-keeper, your circumcision becomes hypocrisy, and is of no merit or worth; it avails nothing. He who is uncircumcised in the flesh but keeps the law will condemn him who is uncircumcised in heart.
The true Jews are the circumcised in heart, this cutting of the covenant being done by the Spirit, not a given by mere possessing of the law. Gentiles are still Gentiles, still grafted in (11:17), but a Jew in name only is a pagan, an apostate, ethnically a Hebrew, but having nothing of the set-apartness that was to characterize the hearts of the Jews as distinct from the other nations. Circumcision of the flesh is nothing without circumcision of the heart, and circumcision of the flesh will condemn for hypocrisy if there is no righteousness, no law-keeping to accompany it. A sign pointing to nothing is of no use or value, is nothing; it is rather an indictment against the person who trusts in it. The Jew whose circumcision is of the heart seeks not the praise of men but of God, for only God can see the condition of the heart.