His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: So, you think you're a good person, relatively speaking? At least in comparison to most people you know? But the truth is we all fall short of the glory of God, and we need Jesus in order to obtain a right standing with the Lord. His perfect love is next.

Guest (Male): Maybe you've noticed, we're pretty good at making excuses to justify our bad behavior. But we're all too quick to come down hard on others who do the very same thing. This sort of self-deception and self-righteousness was present in the heart of the people we'll read about today in Romans chapter two.

Welcome to His Perfect Love. Pastor Matt VanderVen is in the early stages of a new series in Romans, and it's been emphasizing that we're made right with God by faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

Matt VanderVen: Now, in verse five, he told us, as I went in, he explains why does it happen when the self-righteous or unrighteous, for that matter, doesn't respond in repentance—metanoia or metanoia, depending on how you want to say it. Well, he tells us it's because of the hardness of the impenitent heart that way. So he's telling us the motivation is, as most of us know this, it's a heart issue.

Specifically, Paul tells us it's a hard heart. Now, this word for impenitent there in the Greek, this word is "a-". Whenever you put "a-" in front, you negate metanoia. You're saying ametanoetos, to be specific in the Greek. It means admitting no change of mind. It means unrepented. So the unrepented individual is the one that has the hardness of heart because they won't acknowledge the work of Christ.

Now, you might say, "Wait a minute, how do they know?" Well, because even back in chapter one, when we were reading, he said back in verse 20, or even 19: "Because what may be known by God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes," that paradoxical statement, "are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."

So not only creation testifies, that's why we see people that worship the creation instead of the Creator. Intelligence, I mean, we could take the swamp, right? You could take it and electrify it; intelligent life doesn't come from that. Intelligent life comes from an intelligent designer, the God of the universe, who in six literal days created everything we understand and see around us today. That's the God we serve. His hand isn't slack. And on a day He rested, and He gave rest for you and I—a Shabbat, a Sabbath, a time of rest.

Now, it's because of this that Paul then says, if you're reading on in verse five: "You are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath." This is heavy. This is not to be taken lightly. It's because what were they doing? The unrighteous and self-righteous and moralists, they're making presumption upon themselves. They're presuming on God's graciousness, and what are they doing with it? They're doing it with an ill heart.

So Paul says you're treasuring wrath upon wrath. Now, it also says, "in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." What is that talking about? It's almost like he's talking about two separate epochs or two separate activities or events here. And you'd be correct to discern that, because the first day is "in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Well, this contrasts in the language in the Greek—it contrasts the first coming.

What did He come the first time when Jesus came physically manifest on earth? He came to tell us, "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and ye be baptized." But it wasn't the baptizing that saved; He said, "Repent." Repent and turn to God. The very same thing that Paul's writing about because Paul had direct revelation from Jesus Christ Himself in this. But then we also see that there's this wrath and revelation.

Well, what's that speaking to? Well, we've read the Book of Revelation here as a church. If you weren't with us at the time, I'd encourage you to go up to the website or to the church app and I'd encourage you to read it there. But what it was talking about is that, again, there's a judgment coming. And Paul doesn't shy away from that. There's a judgment coming for those that are not in Christ.

It's called the Great White Throne Judgment, and it's in chapter 20. And everyone else that's not born again in Christ, everyone else will be part of that judgment. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord. Verse six: "Who will render to each one according to his deeds." Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, on the Jew first and also on the Greek.

But glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. God's very inclusive here. So we see that God will judge the self-righteous because the works fall short of God's perfect glory. It says in verse six: "Will render to each one according to his deeds." Now, this can be a fearful thought for some, especially if you're self-righteous or a moralist, because if you believe you're a good person, God's telling you there's condemnation for good people—good people without Christ.

We need Jesus Christ. It condemns the good people as the obvious sinner. Why can He say this? Well, we're going to get down to verse 15, and he's going to make the point that it has everything to do with the conscience. God already made the first point in chapter one where he said creation testifies, and everyone's been told in their hearts about God and the Godhead, and the power God has, and creation bears witness to that. You can't miss it.

So that answers the question of what do you do for that individual that happens to be on the island, and what else do you do for the individual that happens to be off in Africa somewhere that no people have ever reached with the Gospel? Well, God gives us the answer, because He would not be a just God if He allowed condemnation to come for somebody that had not heard the word of God.

But what God is saying, and God is building, and Paul's building the case here, is he's saying everyone's without excuse because God, in our conscience, is a representation of God there. Everyone was given a measure of faith. No one can say, "I've not heard about God," because even God testified. Don Richardson wrote a great book about that, Peace Child. I'd encourage some of you to go read it—Kindle it or however you get it.

It goes through and he talks about an island that he had gone to, and they had never been reached by another people. And as he went to this island and he spoke with them, obviously he had to first learn their language, and he began telling them—well, first they got caught up in the works of Satan because they said he's a trickster. And they knew that right away. And they said, "Oh, we like that," because they would trick each other from the tribe, and that was kind of lauded over.

It was thought of a good thing for them, as tribal people, that they could get one over on a brother like that; it was allowed. But then as he began describing the Gospel and reading about the blood of Christ, they stopped him right away and said, "We've heard this." And he says, "How could you have heard this? You've never had a people group come to you. I'm the first person ever to come to you to share this to you. You've never had anybody outside."

And he says, "No, in our dreams, in our visions. We've had it. Our chief knew about this. Our chief told us that blood—life is in the blood." Now, they didn't understand it; they practiced it in a pagan way, but they understood life was in the blood. So as he began to tell them about Jesus Christ and how His shed blood covered the sin—or excuse me, removed the sin for a repentant heart—many of them came right to Christ because the work of the Gospel had already been planted in their hearts.

God says He gives everyone a measure of faith. Isn't that amazing? That's beautiful. Again, Don Richardson, Peace Child. He wrote one or two different books. He was an interpreter, or a better word, someone that would practice dialects that would go into places people had never been. It's been amazing. But he says here specifically that He'll render to each one according to their deeds.

Eternal life to those—now, here's the big thing: If. And I would encourage you, write "if" in your margin. If someone—and this is very true—if someone genuinely did good all the times, he could merit eternal life on his own accord. There's nothing in the Bible that says that couldn't happen. God didn't trick people by producing the law. The law was a tutor to draw them to what would be Jesus Christ when He would come. But at the end of the day, is it possible? Theoretically.

The reality is, and Romans tells us, that none have done it. That all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So while God has made it possible, the only one to ever do that was the God-man, Jesus Christ. He who was without sin became sin that we may become the righteousness of God. The only one that could do it, right? So if someone genuinely did good all the times, he could technically merit eternal life.

But there's no one. Because in some way or another, we've all been self-seeking, right? We don't obey all truth. We obey unrighteousness. And I think if we're being real, that's the reality. We're given off to our own will, our flesh, our own pleasures at times. We wrestle with the flesh and the spirit. For even born-again believers, obviously, people that aren't born-again don't wrestle with a whole lot more than that and an original nature from Adam, the sin nature.

But the point is he's saying this is what we're dealing with. But there's not one. And he says for those that are given unto this, he says, here's real truth. He says, this is what you're going to get rendered: indignation, verse eight; wrath; verse nine, tribulation; anguish on every soul of a man who does evil. Because of the Fall, we all fall short of God's standard.

See, it's God's goodness. It's His constant goodness. Why do I bring that up? Because it's not as though my sin just looks good on you or you or you, and I can see that. And I measure and say, "Well, according to Matt, man, I'm great according to that guy." And you'd be right. I'm the chief of sinners. You'd be right, all of you are way better than anything I could ever be.

And praise the Lord for that. Praise God for that. I'm filthy rags. I know where I stand. But I have a God in Jesus who loves me, who's redeemed me. But what I learn here is because of that, I realize that it's not a comparison between the person on my left or the person on my right. The comparison is to a holy God. It's to a holy God that genuinely has done everything perfectly according to His standard.

There is no unrighteousness. It's constant goodness. Remember that? His riches are constant goodness, he told us. Goodness, forbearance, right? What else? Long-suffering, constant goodness in ways we didn't have. He says what? Because of that constant goodness, when I measure to Him, or any of us are, what do we do? Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

That's the measurement. And because we all fail in that measurement, Paul effectively did exactly what Christ was showing, and he unified all of humanity in sin. Only to say that now I want to give you the good news. And chapters three and four are going to move into that. He had to take us from a starting point of: Hey, where are you at? Unrighteous, self-righteous—wherever you hail in there. He says it's all sin.

That's real truth. And it didn't matter whether you were a Jew or Gentile. That's what he says there, Jew and Gentile. But I love this because the Gospel, the reward, and the judgment comes to the Jew first, right? We saw that the Gospel came to the Jew first. Romans chapter 1, verse 16, told us that. And then what? Then they get the reward first. Romans chapter 2, we just read it, verse 10, tells us that.

And then also for judgment. Romans chapter 2, verse 9, tells us that the Jew receives those things first. So the Jew does receive those things first: the Gospel, the reward, and the judgment first. Now, let's look at God's principles for impartiality as we look at verse 11: "For there is no partiality with God. For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law."

"For not the hearers," circle that, "of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers," circle that, "of the law will be justified." This isn't a works-based mentality scripture or passage here. What has God told us already in chapter one? What is the thing He's called us to do? What is the only thing that we can do in our capacity? He's given us one thing that we can do: we can believe. Right?

Because if we go back and look at verse 16 of chapter one: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God." It's not the man speaking the word; it's the power of God that's the power. It doesn't matter who stands up here. It matters what we're reading, line by line and verse by verse. The word of God is the power, right? God says that so that pastors and teachers don't get puffed up and think they're somebody.

I'm nobody. It's God. The power of God to what? Salvation. There it is. For everyone, not for someone, not for a few, but he says for everyone. God's not grammatically challenged. For everyone who does what? For everyone that does all these things? It's Jesus plus something? No, what does he say? For everyone who believes. That's the only requirement we see. It's right there in verse 16. You can't eisegete that.

If you take it literally in the Greek, even if you parse each word individually, you can't come to a different conclusion. Now, you either have a choice. You either have to come back to this and go, "Well, now the Bible contradicts itself." Oh, be careful there. That's a blasphemous statement. The word of God never contradicts itself. You either accept that it's for everyone, and you either accept that it's by faith.

But yet we see people around us not respond. Because what else did He give us? Free will. But then God responds to that free will by giving them over to a debased or reprobate mind. And when He does that, what does He hope they do? Repent. Does it make sense? He does that so that they would repent and come back. Or come to. Why do I say come back? Because the Father God's the ultimate prodigal.

Everyone in creation is His child. It says in Revelation chapter 13, everyone's name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life. It's when in chapters two and three it says when you don't adhere to God or you reject God that your name is—done what? Is removed. But to have your name removed, it had to be added; it had to be there. Please don't trust me. Please don't trust me. Go back and study the scripture, Revelation chapter 13.

It's what God says; it's His word. Please don't trust another man or woman for that matter. Please trust the word of God entirely. Go back and test these things. Well, let me continue on reading: "For the Gentiles who do not have law by nature"—and that's important, circle that, because he's going to tell us that's inherently important—"do the things in the law, these, although they not having the law, are a law unto themselves."

Now again, God's not turning around and coming back and saying they can create their own law. That's not what he's saying here either, and we'll go through that in a minute. Verse 15: "Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness." How can your conscience bear witness if it wasn't already there? "And between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing."

It is possible. It says you can be excused. It is possible if you kept the law perfectly. Which no one has done. But it is possible. In the day, verse 16: "In the day when God will judge"—and this might make the hair on your neck stand up—"the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel," the Gospel of God. So let's go through this. There's a lot packed in this, and this is as far as we'll get today, and then we'll have our time of communion.

It says, "For there is no partiality with God." It means that God does not judge the things based on externals or based on preconceived notions. We don't see that here. Some rabbis in the rabbinical law had taught that God showed partiality towards the Jews or the Jewish people, and they said God will judge the Jew differently than He will judge the Gentile. One measure for the Jew, one measure for the Gentile.

That's not what we see in scripture. That was an addition. That was something that was added onto. But that was not—that's not found in your holy scripture, the canon that you have in front of you today, Old Testament and New Testament. Verse 12: "As many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law." So we learn here that the judgment of sin can come with or without the law.

So just let that—I know this is heavy, right? This is heavy. Just think about that for a minute. How is that possible? If it's possible, then that means that there has to be a way that each person by God has been given to know if God is who He says He was, is. And we read about two ways, didn't we? The first way in chapter one was what? Creation. The second way in chapter two was what? The conscience.

So God has told us everyone's given a measure of faith that everyone may know. It's interesting. And that's why we don't think God is an unrighteous judge or a partial judge. There is no partiality with God, is what I want to say. So he says that even those without the law here can perish. Verse 13: "For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified."

God's righteous judgment is not withheld because someone has heard the law. I mean, if everyone—everybody might be justified because God already said what? It was written in our hearts. So if it was just hearing, every single person alive would have been justified. But that's not the reality. They have to be a doer. And what did we read back in 1:16? That it says: What do you do? You believe. By faith in Jesus Christ.

That's how we do it. Again, look back at verse 16. It says there, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." What is the Gospel? It's the good news of Christ. The power of God to salvation. It's the good news for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. But you have to believe. If you reject Jesus Christ, then you're going it alone, and you're going to have the wages of sin is death, 6:23 in Romans.

And you'll be found without one that will stand up and take your sin. Because the great accuser, the enemy—and he's not great, I shouldn't call him a great accuser—but the enemy who's still going to and fro from heaven. Remember, he doesn't get kicked out until Revelation 19 in that area. He doesn't get kicked out of heaven until that point, until the great war, the battle that happens in heaven, Revelation.

Up until that point, what's he doing right now? He's going to God and saying, "You see that guy, Matt? He's a knucklehead." God's like, "Yes, but I do love him. He's got my what? My righteousness. I see him as my son, Christ, in His righteousness, not as Jesus. Please don't—I don't want to be accused of blasphemy—but His righteousness, the righteousness of Christ here."

He says not just hearers of the law in the sight of God, but doers. Someone actually has to do the law. That's why Jesus Christ, who came as the God-man, when He was able to do the law, He did what? He fulfilled it. And because He fulfilled it, He was able to usher in a new covenant that was greater than the previous one. Jesus gave us the example of that of the wine skin, when He says if you try to take an old wine skin and put new wine in it, a new covenant, what will it do? It'll burst.

He says: But no, if you take a new wine skin and you put that in. But the only way you could do that is if you what? Had a new wine skin. And the only one that could get a new wine skin or usher a new covenant in is the one that's fulfilled the existing covenant. Which is why in Revelation chapter 6, when He says who is worthy to take the scroll, and John begins crying and weeping because no one was found worthy.

And he said, "Oh, there's the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world," right? And He turns around and He comes in and He says, "He's worthy." And He unleashed the scroll, right? He's able to open it. It was His blood. It was His blood that did it all. He was the doer of the law. So Paul is saying that the Jewish person or the religious person may think they're saved because of the law, but have they kept it? That's the measurement of God.

Have you kept the law? The Gentile may think that he's saved because he doesn't have a law, right? But has he kept the dictates of his own conscience, what God has given him? The morality that was ascribed to him? Has he kept it perfectly? Remember, according to God's perfection or kindness. And the answer is no. As Henry Morris said, people will be condemned not because they have the law or do not have law, but it's quite simple: because they've sinned. I don't think we could say it any simpler than that.

Guest (Male): We'll stop here for just a moment. Pastor Matt VanderVen will be right back. This is His Perfect Love. We've been in Romans chapter two today. You can hear this study from Pastor Matt VanderVen again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. Catch up on what you may have missed in Romans at hisperfectlove.org.

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Now back to our study in Romans chapter two.

Matt VanderVen: In verse 14, although not having the law, are a law unto themselves. Paul's explaining that the Gentile can be condemned even without the law. Why? We've been talking about that, verse 15: their conscience. The work of the law was written in their hearts. It's enough to condemn them or, theoretically, he says it's also enough to what? Justify them, theoretically, right?

In the language, "written in their hearts," that's Christianese. We say that. Sometimes you'll hear me pray and I'll say, "Oh, this is written on the tablet of my heart," right? Or I pray to God this is written on the tablet of your heart. That's Christianese. But where does that come from? Well, we get this idea from Colossians chapter 3, verse 16. Allow me to read it to you: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with the grace in your hearts to the Lord."

And 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 2 says: "You are an epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men." And that's why sometimes I say to you, I said, you know, the most beautiful thing that could happen in our lives is that someone will read your life because they may never pick up the Bible and turn a page. But you're a living epistle, God says, as you just read in 2 Corinthians. Your lives, by the way you live, do your audio and video match?

And they can learn more about your life because more is caught than taught. And I think that's a beautiful thing. It's a constant testimony to Christ's love and His grace. We'll come back to our study of Romans next time on His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt. See you then, and God bless.