Romans 2

Romans 2:1-29 . THE JEW UNDER LIKE CONDEMNATION WITH THE GENTILE.

From those without, the apostle now turns to those within the pale of revealed religion, the self-righteous Jews, who looked down upon the uncovenanted heathen as beyond the pale of God's mercies, within which they deemed themselves secure, however inconsistent their life may be. Alas! what multitudes wrap themselves up in like fatal confidence, who occupy the corresponding position in the Christian Church!

4. the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance--that is, is designed and adapted to do so.

5. treasurest up unto thyself wrath against--rather "in."
the day of wrath--that is wrath to come on thee in the day of wrath. What an awful idea is here expressed--that the sinner himself is amassing, like hoarded treasure, an ever accumulating stock of divine wrath, to burst upon him in "the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God!" And this is said not of the reckless, but of those who boasted of their purity of faith and life.

7-10. To them who, &c.--The substance of these verses is that the final judgment will turn upon character alone.
by patient continuance in well-doing, &c.--Compare Luke 8:15 : "That on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience"; denoting the enduring and progressive character of the new life.

8. But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, &c.--referring to such keen and determined resistance to the Gospel as he himself had too painfully witnessed on the part of his own countrymen. (See Acts 13:44-46 , Acts 17:5 Acts 17:13 , Acts 18:6 Acts 18:12 ; and compare 1 Thessalonians 2:15 1 Thessalonians 2:16 ).
indignation and wrath--in the bosom of a sin-avenging God.

9. Tribulation and anguish--the effect of these in the sinner himself.

10. to the Jew first--first in perdition if unfaithful; but if obedient to the truth, first in salvation ( Romans 2:10 ).

12. For as many as have sinned--not "as many as have sinned at all," but, "as many as are found in sin" at the judgment of the great day (as the whole context shows).
without law--that is, without the advantage of a positive Revelation.
shall also perish without law--exempt from the charge of rejecting or disregarding it.
and as many as have sinned in the law--within the pale of a positive, written Revelation.
shall be judged by the law--tried and condemned by the higher standard of that written Revelation.

13-15. For not the hearers, &c.--As touching the Jews, in whose ears the written law is continually resounding, the condemnation of as many of them as are found sinners at the last involves no difficulty; but even as respects the heathen, who are strangers to the law in its positive and written form--since they show how deeply it is engraven on their moral nature, which witnesses within them for righteousness and against iniquity, accusing or condemning them according as they violate or obey its stern dictates--their condemnation also for all the sin in which they live and die will carry its dreadful echo in their own breasts.

15. their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing--that is, perhaps by turns doing both.

16. In the day, &c.--Here the unfinished statement of Romans 2:12 is resumed and closed.
shall judge the secrets of men--here specially referring to the unfathomed depths of hypocrisy in the self-righteous whom the apostle had to deal with. (See Ecclesiastes 12:14 , 1 Corinthians 4:5 ).
according to my gospel--to my teaching as a preacher of the Gospel.

17-24. Behold--"But if" is, beyond doubt, the true reading here. (It differs but in a single letter from the received reading, and the sense is the same).

18. approvest the things that are excellent--"triest the things that differ" (Margin). Both senses are good, and indeed the former is but the result of the latter action.

20. hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law--not being left, as the heathen are, to vague conjecture on divine things, but favored with definite and precise information from heaven.