The Unchanging Truth

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Unchanging Truth, the verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jerod Gilcher, lead pastor of Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. Through the living and active Word of God, the Unchanging Truth exists to encourage your soul, transform your life, and help you trust and treasure Christ as Redeemer, Savior, and King. Now, opening the Scriptures and proclaiming the truth that never changes, here is Dr. Jerod Gilcher.

Dr. Jerod Gilcher: We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. Logic is cold as steel, but the opponent could not disagree. That’s why Paul says, “We know. Let’s not kid each other, friend. Can we just be honest with one another? You and I both know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.” That is true and that cannot be denied. And you see the judgment of God, by that Paul means both now and in the future.

They were under the wrath of God at this moment, and unless something radical and supernatural happened to them, like they get regenerated and born again and awakened and repent and believe and saved, they would face the wrath of God in the future. Because notice carefully the word Paul uses, and this is key for us. He says the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you hear that word, the significance of that word? He doesn’t mean the occasional moral lapse, the occasional failure.

He’s not talking about the faith-filled battle of an unbeliever in the trenches of life, desiring to be sanctified, fighting sin, sometimes losing, repenting, and changing. That’s not who he’s talking about. Rather, Paul means the practice of an unbeliever. The habits and patterns of sin that they knowingly tolerate and secretly justify. He means, beloved—and this is important for us—he means that the habits of life truly reveal who they are and what they love, and at the end of the day, what they do with the truth tells the truth.

And that’s what the Jews failed to see. Just because you profess salvation doesn't mean you possess salvation. If God will condemn the pagan nations for their lives of sin and indifference to God’s glory, why would he give the Jews a pass simply by being Jews? Because the proof of our faith is in the facts of our works. If that sounds crazy, then I would point you to James 2:17. Remember that? He says, "So also faith, if it has no works, is what? It is dead, being by itself."

And he goes on, "Are you willing to acknowledge, foolish man, that faith without works is useless?" That’s exactly what Paul is saying here. They lived like the pagans they condemned, and they thought they’d get a pass because they were Israel. Which means they forgot the rules of the game and that God doesn’t play like that. So, I think the question you have to ask is, is that the kind of faith that you possess? Do you or someone you love have a faith that’s dead because it has no works?

Not to earn salvation, but to verify salvation. Do you understand, beloved, that true faith in salvation is tangible? It is visible. And again, Paul—I'm not talking about sinless perfection, and neither is Paul. It’s just that if you’re not breathing, eating, and you don’t feel pain, you have no assurance that you are physically alive. In the same way, if you’re not fighting sin, hungering for holiness, and feeling no pains of repentance when you don’t obey, you have no proof that you are spiritually alive.

So the question is, however slow and painful it is—and it is always slow and it is always painful for all of us—however slow and painful it is, do you see the truth of God’s Word carving and shaping you little by little into the image of Christ? Do you see desires and passions in your life for which the only explanation is the work of God and sovereign grace?

Notice in verses 3 and 4, Paul turns up the heat. He moves from accusation to interrogation. He’s got his opponent in the corner, finger in his face, trying to awaken him to the danger that he’s in. Notice there in verse 3: "But do you suppose this, O man, who judges those who practice such things and does the same things yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?" That’s exactly what they assumed. That they could do the very same sins as the people they despised and somehow escape the judgment of God. And that’s crazy.

And yet here we get to the heart of the Jewish problem, don't we? In fact, do we not get to the heart of the human problem? That we can feel outraged by and angered by real sins and yet in some twisted way have a version of that sin in our own lives. And yet the Jews, because they were chosen by God, because they had the law, because they had the truth, they felt that they were above any sort of scrutiny or evaluation.

They thought token allegiance and surface-level lip service to the Word of God somehow made them acceptable and righteous, and that the way they lived their lives really didn’t matter in the end. One writer said they were inconsistent because they ended up doing the very same things they condemned in the Gentiles. The correct moral judgments they uttered against the nations ironically turned out to be indictments against themselves. They were utterly self-deceived because even though they practiced evil, they harbored the hopes that they would escape the judgment of God. And the clear implication of the question is: you will not escape.

Except through faith in Christ, of course. And I’m sad to say that the same is true for many people in the church today. There’s a weak and false teaching that just pervades the church in America. There’s this easy-believe-ism, this cheap grace that has led people to believe that they can have all of the benefits of salvation in Christ, but the way they live their lives is irrelevant. As if authentic salvation doesn't bear fruit. As if authentic salvation doesn’t yield itself in slow and steady, ever-increasing conformity and joy in Christ through his Word.

As if believers don’t need to yield their life to Jesus as his slaves. Because we absolutely do. That’s what it means to be a Christian. And any other version of Christianity out there that says you can have Christ as Savior but not as Lord is a perverted, false gospel that results in millions of people thinking that they are saved when nothing could be further from the truth.

So you see why this is relevant, right? Why a diatribe against this hypothetical Jew, why this is relevant to the argument? The reason why is because it clarifies the gospel. It clarifies the gospel, and the gospel is: God is holy, we are not. Christ has come, Christ has died, Christ has risen. Repent and believe and not only get your sins forgiven, but get your life transformed from the inside out. If the gospel is anything—and it is many things—it is a gospel of transformation. We put our faith in a Savior who really changes people’s lives.

And the Jews didn’t understand this. And to prove how deceived they were, look at verse 4. He asks the second question. First, do you think you’re going to escape the judgment of God? They did, that was crazy. Question two: "Or do you take lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" And guess what? That is exactly what they did. They took little, they thought lightly of, they belittled, they despised the kindness of God.

In fact, there are three perfections of God that Paul says that they treated with contempt in their presumptuous faith. It’s notice his kindness, his forbearance, and his patience. What does he mean by this? He means, listen carefully, because had God hadn’t struck them dead, they assumed that God approved. Because God hadn’t killed them yet, surely it must mean that God felt about them the way they felt about themselves, which means they mistook his kindness for his approval, his patience for his pleasure, his silence surely was the evidence of his acceptance.

And nothing could be further from the truth. Paul sets the record straight. The only reason why you’re not in hell right now, he says, is because of the sovereign kindness and patience of God. That’s it. And beloved, this is where we were, isn’t it? This is where you and I were. We didn’t even know we were doing it, but we were doing it. We belittled, we took lightly, we thought little of the kindness and patience and forbearance and mercy of God, did we not?

For 20 straight years, God endured my rebellion, my hard-hearted unbelief, my blasphemy. That’s 240 months, 7,300 days, 175,000 hours, 10 million minutes. My soul hung by a slender thread over the gaping jaws of eternal hell, and the only thing that kept the thread intact was the sovereign kindness and mercy of God. That’s it.

This is where all lost people are without Christ, and yet they need to know, they need to know that the longer they delay and the longer they resist and the harder they resist, that there is more wrath coming in the future. Look at what he says in verse 5. "Do you not know that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" Here it is. "But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up anger for yourself in the day of anger and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God."

Have you ever had a doctor ask you, on a scale of one to ten, how severe is the pain? One being the least, ten being the most. There are different levels of pain, we get that. And what we have to understand is that in the end of the age, there are different levels of pain in judgment. Levels of pain, degrees of torment, and the longer one delays, the more it increases. That’s what Paul means in verse 5 when he says, "You are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of anger and the righteous judgment of God." The flood of the waters of the wrath of God are building, and they are building, and they are building, and soon the dam will break.

And notice the words Paul says. Notice what it is that will bring this wrath upon his unbelieving, hypothetical Jewish opponent here. He says you’re stubborn. He says you have an unrepentant heart, and those are scary words. The word stubborn there literally is the word that refers to a gnarled branch. A gnarled, stiff, unbending branch, fit only to be burned. An unrepentant heart, you see that? You know what that is? That is a heart that no longer feels remorse for sin. Not moved by the threats of God, no longer moved by the beauty of God.

They do not know, they do not care that there is a day coming on the calendar. It is certain, just as real as a birthday, just as real as Labor Day, just as real as Christmas, just as real as New Year’s Day. A day is coming in the future, and the name of the day is the day of anger and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. That is the name of the day, and there is but one and one escape from that day: humble repentance and joyful faith in Jesus Christ alone.

So the question is—we've got to ask, we follow the lead of the text—if there are themes in the text that are hard and difficult, we've got to follow the lead and we've got to talk about these things. And so the question is—I'm not accusing, I’m not assuming, but we have to ask—do you see anything like this in your life? Any sort of glaring hypocrisy? Can you follow a pattern in your life where you condemn in others the very things you do yourself?

Do you have habits and patterns of sin that you knowingly tolerate and secretly justify? And I talk to you as a man who repents every single day. None of us, not one of us, lives out the theology we know. We get that. And in Christ, there is grace because he died—he died for hypocrites like us. But the question is, does how you live tell another tale about who you actually are? Because at the end of the day, beloved, imperfect though it is, authentic saving faith reveals itself in highly imperfect but ever-increasing patterns of joyful trust and allegiance to Jesus Christ. Do you see that in your life?

That brings us to reality number two. Number two: the uncompromising impartiality of God. The uncompromising impartiality of God. And this really is the point of the text. That God is unbiased, that God is impartial, that at the end of the age, God—it doesn't matter what we claim or what we say—but that God will look at the facts.

And what Paul’s about to do here in verses 6 through 11 is the essence of what I call no-frills, no-gimmicks theology. He is clear and blunt and honest and bold and deliberately repetitive, and it’s all to make a point. And his point is: God is unbiased, he plays no favorites, he shows no partiality, and at the end of the day, all people will be judged according to their works because, as you’re about to see, what we truly believe is revealed in how we live.

Look at verses 6 through 11. Paul says, "God, God will repay to each one according to his works. To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality, eternal life. But to those who are selfishly ambitious and disobedient to the truth and obeying unrighteousness, anger and wrath. Tribulation and distress upon every soul of man who does evil, for the Jew first and also to the Greek. But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, both to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Why? For there is no partiality with God."

What a text. That’s a gnarly text, that’s a difficult text. And yet you probably noticed what Paul says kind of sounds repetitive. Did you notice that? There was a lot of repetitions there. He just kind of repeats himself, and yet that’s all on purpose. Because look very carefully. This is really profound stuff here. You’ll notice, look at verses 8 and 9. Do you see that? Same themes, same content, they sound a lot alike, they’re almost exactly the same. Do you see that? See what I'm seeing? Verses 8 and 9.

But then notice verses 7 and 10 are also alike and sound the same. Do you see that? Talking about future rewards, glory, peace, immortality in the age to come. 8 and 9 sound alike, 7 through 10 sound alike and are the same. And then verses 6 and 11 virtually say the exact same thing.

So do you see the pattern that Paul’s creating here? Which means what he has done for us is created a chiasm. A chiasm. Do you know what a chiasm is? A chiasm is a device in which a series of ideas are presented and then repeated again in reverse order. That’s what a chiasm is, and that’s what Paul does. And again, this is kind of crunchy here, it’s kind of technical to think about, but we have to understand the point of this chiasm. The point of this arrangement is verses 6 and 11. That is the point of the chiasm.

That God will judge all according to their works. That there is no partiality with God. That is the message these Jews and others need to hear. And that sounds crazy, right? That God will judge people according to their works? Does that sound weird to you? It sounds kind of strange. That’s exactly what he said, though, in verse 6. "God will judge all according to their works." But I don’t want you to misunderstand. Listen very carefully. Hang with me here.

To be judged according to your works and to be saved by your works are completely different things. One is true, the other is heresy. Salvation is only by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and never by works. You cannot earn or merit salvation. That is absolutely out of the question. But to be judged according to your works—now, that’s a real thing. That’s true.

And it doesn’t mean salvation by works. Listen carefully. It means at the end of the age, God will examine the reality of your faith or of your unbelief by the works and deeds that you did in this life, because what we do reveals who we are. So don’t be freaked out by Paul’s statements here in verses 6 through 11. He’s being perfectly theological, he’s not saying anything weird. And so let’s look at the chiasm. Let’s start at the innermost ring of the chiasm, verses 8 and 9, and then we’ll work our way to the edges. Start in verses 8 and 9. Look at the text.

Paul says, "To those who are selfishly ambitious and disobedient to the truth but obey unrighteousness, for them is anger and wrath. Tribulation and distress on every soul of man who does evil to the Jew first and also to the Greek." And you can see the parallels, can't you? Those are mutually reinforcing. The same thing said in two different ways. And what you have to understand, verses 8 and 9 is a picture of unbelief and its consequences at the end of the age. Does that make sense?

Look at verse 8 again. "To those who are selfishly ambitious and disobey the truth but obey unrighteousness," the end for them, what does Paul say? Is anger and wrath. What's the point? What is Paul doing here? The point is, beloved, these are the facts. It doesn’t matter what people say, it doesn’t matter what people claim. Their heritage, their history, their legacy, their lineage, their bloodline, or anything else—none of that matters. Because you have to understand, Paul points out here that selfish people who do just what they want to do, if they obey unrighteousness, it’s because they love unrighteousness.

And what you do with the truth tells the truth. And notice verse 9, speaking of the anger and wrath of God. Look at the parallel verse. He ends verse 8 with anger and wrath, he begins verse 9 with distress and tribulation. Do you see that? Tribulation and distress on every soul of man who does evil to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Do you see his point there? Anger and wrath is the penalty, tribulation and distress is the pain. One is the sentence, the other one is the suffering.

And by the way, verses 8 and 9 rule out the possibility of what some call annihilationism. You know what that is? The belief that people simply cease to exist after they die. That’s not true. Hell is a real place, and people go there. And there are people there right now. And we should be there right now. And we’re not there, and by God’s sovereign grace alone, we will never go there. But it is real, it is conscious, it is literal, it is eternal, it is unbearable, which is why the work of Christ is so absolutely necessary. But notice, notice very carefully, beloved. Notice for whom is tribulation and distress reserved? What does he say? Notice. Every soul of man. Every single individual person who does evil. And Israel, are you listening? To the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for the Unchanging Truth, the verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jerod Gilcher and Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. At Christ Community Bible Church, we exist to prize, portray, and proclaim the supremacy of Christ as we trust in his Word and wait for his return. We hope today’s teaching has encouraged your soul and helped you trust and treasure Christ as your Redeemer, Savior, and King. If you’re in the DFW area and looking for a church home, join us for worship Sunday mornings at 10:30. To learn more about the mission of the church, meet the pastoral staff, or plan a visit, go to ccbiblechurch.com. You’ll find ministry services and additional teachings there as well. Just click on the resources tab to get started. That’s ccbiblechurch.com. Join us again next time as we open the Scriptures together and proclaim the truth that never changes. This has been the Unchanging Truth.