Inner Spirituality

Many sections of the Book of Romans are in a literary style called diatribe, where Paul contends with an imaginary theological opponent. Romans chapter 2 begins this way. At the start, his adversary is no one in particular: he bears the name, ‘O man!’ (v. 3). Nevertheless, it becomes increasingly clear that Paul is bearing down on the Jew. By verse 17, Paul’s target is in the open: “but if you bear the name Jew . . .” By the end of the chapter, Paul’s opponent is in open defeat: “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly . . . but he is a Jew who is one inwardly” (vv. 28-29).

Paul aims at Jews because they thought God treated their sins differently than everyone else. They thought that because they received the Law (“you who boast in the Law” v. 23), because they were the physical descendants of Abraham (“He is not a Jew who is one outwardly” v. 28) and because they attested their relationship to Abraham through circumcision (“if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision” v. 25) that they were exempt from judgment. Their teachers actually wrote things such as: “God will judge the Gentiles with one measure and the Jews with another” and “circumcision saves from hell.”

Therefore, Paul contends with the Jews because they are in grave danger. He contends with them out of great love and concern. Of all people, the Jews were in grave peril because they held the horribly erroneous and impossible view that a holy God, whom they called The Holy One of Israel (25 times in the Book of Isaiah alone), would relent and compromise concerning their sin.

Paul’s representation of the Jewish view comes out most clearly in v. 3: ‘Do you suppose when you pass judgment . . . and do the same yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?” The Jew would answer emphatically, ‘yes!’

Paul’s counter to the Jew starts with the character of God. If God rightly punishes sin (v. 2), then He must punish all sin. If Jewish sin is no better than Gentile sin (v. 3), then a holy God must punish the Jew as well as the Gentile (v. 6). If the Law and circumcision only benefit when there is obedience (vv. 13, 25), then the Law and circumcision cannot avert the judgment of God when a Jew sins. Although a holy God can be selective when it comes to His undeserved grace, when it comes to something deserved like punishment for personal sin, God cannot and will not compromise.

By the time Paul is done leveling the Jew, one rightly asks, “Then what advantage has the Jew?” (3:1).