Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Romans 2
God’s Impartial Judgment
Therefore you are without excuse, whoever you are who judges. For in judging someone else, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things. We know that God’s judgment on those who practice such things is according to truth. Do you suppose, then—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is leading you to repentance? But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. God “will repay each person according to their works”: eternal life to those who, through endurance in doing good, seek glory, honor, and incorruptibility; but wrath and fury for those who are self-seeking, disobey the truth, and obey unrighteousness. There will be affliction and distress for every person who does evil, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For God does not show partiality.
Hearers and Doers of the Law
All who sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law. For it is not the hearers of the Law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the Law who will be set right. When Gentiles who do not have the Law do by nature the things of the Law, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the Law. They show the work of the Law written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their thoughts accuse or even defend them. This will be on the day when God judges people’s hidden things through Christ Jesus, according to my good news.
Possessing the Law Is Not Enough
But if you call yourself a Jew, rely on the Law, boast in God, know his will, and approve what is excellent because you are instructed from the Law; if you are confident that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who proclaim, “Do not steal,” do you steal? You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law? For as it is written, “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
Circumcision of the Heart
Circumcision is indeed valuable if you practice the Law, but if you break the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So if an uncircumcised person keeps the Law’s righteous requirements, will not that uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? The one who is physically uncircumcised yet fulfills the Law will judge you who, despite having the written code and circumcision, break the Law. For a person is not a Jew merely by what is outward, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. Rather, a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise comes not from people but from God.