Romans 2:5-16 God's Judgment

“But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.” Rom. 2:5

Romans 1 states “The wrath of God is being revealed…” and in Romans 2 God’s wrath is being stored up for the day it “will be revealed.” OK, this is another easy one for us engineers…chapter 1 is talking about the wrath of God being present and continuous, and in chapter 2, it is talking about God’s wrath revealed in a single day in the future. In chapter 1, God’s wrath is being revealed by God stepping out of the way and allowing sin to run amuck. In chapter 2, God’s wrath is going to be revealed in a single day in the future “when his righteous judgment will be revealed.”

Romans teaches and clarifies for us something very important about God. It teaches that God judges.

Here is what can be observed in Romans 1 and 2 about God’s judgment:

1. Its reality is sensed apart from a written revelation. 1:32
2. It involves wrath against evil deeds. 1:32
3. Based on truth. Rules of justice (i.e. rightness) are not bent. 2:2
4. It’s inescapable for those who do evil. 2:3
5. It’s always right. 2:5
6. It is a judgment as to the rightness and wrongness of deeds 2:6
7. It includes a sentence. Those who do good…eternal life. 2:7 Those who do evil…wrath and anger. 2:8
8. It’s impartial. Jews and Gentiles alike will be subject to it. 2:10-11
9. It will be fair. If you were privileged and had the written revelation of God, that will be the basis of judgment. If your only source of truth is nature and in-born knowledge, that will be the basis of judgment. 2: 12-16

My own conversion was born out of a terrible sense of God’s impending judgment on me and a sentence of eternity spent in hell. Lord, these are frightful truths we are pondering…we stand in awe of who You are!