The Great Judgment Day Pt. 1

Introduction:

We must remember, as we make our way through this chapter that the apostle Paul is heading somewhere with this teaching. If we bear in mind where he is heading it will help us to rightly understand him. He is a very logical teacher and he builds step upon step, and may the Lord help us to follow him step by step.

Where this is heading, of course, is to show the universal guilt of mankind. He is showing that all men are sinners and deserving of God’s wrath, both Jews and Gentiles.

In chapter 1 he emphasized the sins of the pagan world, sins against the revelation that God has given in nature, natural revelation.

He has emphasized the guilt of the Gentile.

In chapter 2 he is showing that the Jew is equally guilty. He is showing that Jew is no less guilty than the Gentile and no less in need of the Savior.

The apostle states his theme very plainly.

ESV Romans 3:9 What then? Are we Jews1 any better off?2 No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both aJews and bGreeks, are cunder sin,

ESV Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever athe law says it speaks to those who are under the law, bso that every mouth may be stopped, and cthe whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For aby works of the law no human being1 will be justified in his sight, since bthrough the law comes knowledge of sin.

So that right away, if we pay attention to his purpose, we will know what he is NOT saying in the verses that we have before us. He is NOT teaching salvation by works, he is NOT teaching justification by keeping the law. He would not destroy his own argument or interrupt his own train of thought and line of evidence.

**We must also pay attention to how he is building this message. After bringing forth evidence against the Gentile world in chapter 1, he anticipates the false confidence of the Jew in chapter 2. And so, step-by-step he shows the deception of the confidence that the unbelieving Jew has in his heart toward God.

1. A false confidence in your knowledge of the wrongness of the things he has spoken of. (vs.1-5)
2. A false confidence in God being partial to Jews. (Vs.6-11)

When we come to verses 12-24 we see another false confidence. The Jew felt safe because of his possession of the law of God.

Paul is looking to the Day of Judgment here. He is looking to the final day when God will divide those who are His children from those who are not. He is looking at the great day of the wrath of God and again wants us to understand God’s judgment accurately. And so, he is going to destroy this false confidence that the Jew had in his possession of the Law of Moses by looking at that Day of Judgment.

Now, I must tell you that viewpoints on what these verses teach, in terms of specifics, are all over the map.

Just a sampling of faithful Bible teachers, Lloyd-Jones, MacArthur, Calvin, Spurgeon, Thomas Schreiner, Everett Harrison, James Boice, revealed no two approaches to these verses that were exactly alike.

And after looking at it carefully, again and again, I have to say that I think the good doctor Martin Lloyd-Jones comes closest to capturing what is at work here.

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