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Pastor Lud Golz
Pastor Lud Golz

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  Home | Transcript Archive | March | March 10, 2011

Thursday, March 10, 2011

“God does not show favoritism” (Romans 2:11). 

If you were to select a key verse for Romans 2 it likely would be verse 11: “For God does not show favoritism.” 
 
Paul leads up to this verse by making it clear, if you received special revelation found in the law and yet have a stubborn, unrepentant heart, “you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’” 
 
If you don’t read the whole section on the universal need of salvation carefully you might think Paul is presenting a gospel of good works. Paul says that those exposed to natural or special revelation, if they do good they will receive eternal life, verse 7. On the other hand, if you “are self-seeking…reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger,” verse 8. 
 
If you sin without knowing the law, that doesn’t exempt you. Nor are you exempt if you have been privileged to receive special revelation in the law. There are some who have not received special revelation who live better lives than many who have received it. In verse 14 Paul says, “they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.” 
 
God has put a moral compass, the conscience, into everyone’s heart. It will either accuse or defend our actions. Everyone, therefore, is without excuse. Reflect long on this section of Romans. It is foundational to all that follows.
 
Paul affirms what is said in Jeremiah 33:3: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it.”
 

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