Why does God warn us about Eternal Judgment? (Rom. 2:5-11)
Here at CPBC, we believe in the doctrines of grace. This means we believe that though all humanity is lost in sin because of the first man Adam’s disobedience, yet before the foundation of the world God chose a people in Christ to save, and that every one of those so chosen will be saved. Christ died for them, and the Holy Spirit regenerates and converts them to Christ. God keeps them to the end. All the elect will be saved. And therefore the banner over all of salvation is the sovereign grace of God. It is God’s gracious choice that is the decisive factor in the salvation of any person. As the apostle Paul will go on to say later in this epistle, “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Rom. 9:16). It is neither the free will of man nor the frenetic effort of man that ultimately explains why he is saved; it is the sovereign mercy of a sovereign God that explains it.
But if this is the case, does it make sense to warn people to flee from the wrath to come, as we see Paul doing here in the text? Someone who believes in the sovereign grace of God in salvation might reason that since all the elect will be saved, it is pointless to warn them to flee from the wrath to come since election guarantees that they will be saved from it. In the case of the elect, one might argue, there is no wrath to flee from! On the other hand, the non-elect will inevitably be lost. So it is pointless to warn them to flee from the wrath to come, since they will be lost anyway.
Others may argue that since the Bible clearly does warn people to flee from the wrath to come, the doctrines of grace must be wrong, and that it is not the will of God that is finally decisive in our salvation, but the will of man. They would argue that anyone might be saved, but it comes down to the choice of each individual person as to whether or not they will be saved and whether or not they will escape the wrath to come.
Well, as I said before, I believe – we believe – in the doctrines of grace. And yet, I also believe that the Bible does warn people to flee from the wrath to come. Now I don’t think this means that the doctrines of grace are wrong. It is wrong to reject any part of Biblical teaching and the Bible teaches the doctrines of grace. Our Lord taught them: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn. 6:37-40). But the Bible also teaches that if we would be saved, we must come to Christ by faith and that if we do not we will perish eternally: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (Jn. 3:36).
We have to be careful that we don’t cancel out one part of Scripture by another. We need to embrace all that the Bible teaches, even if we don’t see how they go together. In fact, the Bible itself teaches us to expect that there will be things we don’t understand, and that we have to ultimately leave in God’s hand. As Moses put it in Deut. 29:29, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” It is a matter of humble faith to receive all that the Bible teaches.
And yet that doesn’t mean that we can’t try to understand it, as far as we can. Yes, there needs to be humility. Yes, we need to be willing to embrace tension in the Scriptures. But we also know that God is not a God of confusion, and that he is not a God of irrationality. We don’t believe that there are any ultimate contradictions in the Bible since God is its author, and that everything can be truly resolved so that all truth harmonizes and fits together. This being the case, we ought to want to see how it does harmonize, so far as we can.
So that brings me to my question this morning: why does God whose will is decisive in salvation, why does he warn men to flee from the wrath to come? How does my responsibility to flee from everlasting destruction fit in with God’s sovereignty that guarantees my salvation if I’m elect?
Now as we’ve already pointed out, the apostle is doing this very thing here. He is warning people to flee from the wrath to come in these verses. That is their function. They function to awaken people to their need for Christ. They function to help people see their need of the gospel. And yet, this is the very apostle who is chapters 8 and 9 so beautifully and articulately expounds the sovereignty of God’s grace! In other words, the very tension that we’re talking about exists here in this epistle. And so I want to help us understand it.
And I am doing this because I don’t want any of us to cancel out one set of Bible verses with another set of Bible verses. I want all of us to see and embrace and rejoice in the sovereignty of God’s grace in salvation. But I also want all of us to see and embrace and take seriously our responsibility to repent of our sins and to embrace the Savior Jesus Christ.
It is this tension that I would like to deal with today. And we’re going to think about this tension and how our text speaks to them in terms of three questions: what, how, and why? What is Paul talking about? How does this reality function in Paul’s argument? Why is Paul (and ultimately God) arguing in this way?
What Paul is talking about: the reality of future and eternal judgment
We’ve noted that in chapter 1, Paul introduces us to the revelation of God wrath upon ungodly and unrighteous men (1:18). We also noted that there is a present expression of that wrath in the very sins that men commit who have abandoned the true God for idols. But in chapter 2, the apostle points us to a future judgment. God’s wrath is not only present but future. Not merely future in the sense of decades or centuries or millennia, but future in the sense of the end of the world, in the sense of a final judgment.
We need to stress this, because this too has been denied. Some folks are willing to say that sin is its own punishment, but they are not willing to say that there is a cosmic judgment coming when all the world will appear before God and give an account. And yet this is precisely what the Scriptures teach. It is what our Lord teaches in Matthew 25, and it is what we see taught in the book of Revelation in chapter 20.
But Paul teaches it here as well. I want you to see and to be convinced that he is talking about a future judgment here. In verse 5 he writes, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom. 2:5). So here it’s not that their sins are the wrath of God, but that by their sins they are treasuring up, storing up, judgment and wrath for themselves. The Bible talks about the books by which the deeds of men are recorded, and by which they will be judged according to their works (Rev. 20:12). Paul seems to be saying that each time a person sins, that sin gets recorded. And unless between now and the final judgment that sin is erased by the blood of Christ, it will be another witness against them at the day of judgment. That’s the idea here in treasuring up wrath in the day of wrath.
And this wrath and this judgment will be meted out upon them “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” This day of which Paul is speaking here is the same “day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel” (16). It is that which our Lord himself envisions in the Olivet Discourse: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left” (Mt. 25:31-33). Then comes the judgment, with the sheep entering into eternal life and the goats into eternal destruction: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (46).
In verse 6, the apostle explains, that in this judgment God “will render to every man according to his deeds.” Now this does not always happen now. The wicked get away with a lot. There is a lot of injustice that goes unjudged in this world. Even when the law is fairly enforced the wicked still often get away with things. Many moral monsters have died without ever being called to account for their crimes. But Paul is saying, and it is the entire testimony of the Bible from beginning to end, that there is coming a day when the wicked will no longer get away with it. God will render to them according to their deeds. That day is coming. It is now future, yes, but the future will one day be present.
Now in the following verses (7-10) the apostle explains how in the final judgment, the righteous and the wicked will meet with very different ends. The righteous, the ones who “by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,” will receive “eternal life” (7), and “glory, honor, and peace” (10). This is clearly – especially in light of the words “immortality” and “eternal life” – something that will be received in the age to come. This is not something that is being meted out in the present. This is future judgment and future reward.
On the other hand, the wicked, those who “are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness,” they will receive “indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile” (8-9). I want you to hear the universality of that. “Every soul of man that doeth evil.” No one will get away. No one will slip through the nets. No one will be able to escape or hide.
If you want to know what hell is like, this is it. Paul describes it in terms of God’s attitude towards the wicked and then in terms of the punishment of the wicked. His attitude towards the wicked in hell is one of “indignation and wrath.” No more mercy and no more grace. No more forbearance and no more patience. And the effect of this will be “tribulation and anguish.” Awful! Sometimes you hear people talk about partying in hell. Listen, I don’t know where anyone gets that kind of idea, but that is certainly not what the Lord teaches us about it. No parties, only tribulation and anguish. Only the unrelenting pressure of eternal judgment from God. But it will be just, perfectly just. God will render to every man according to his deeds (6). Nothing will be undeserved. God will be perfectly right and holy and blameless in his judgment of the wicked.
The wrath of God! Is God loving? Yes, he is. But, my friends, the Bible which teaches us about the love of God teaches us also about the wrath of God. We must believe both: his love is holy love, and his wrath is holy wrath. God cannot have holy love if he does not hate and punish sin. And because we are all sinners, God is under no obligation to show mercy or grace or love to anyone. Paul’s point in these chapters is to show that there is none righteous, no, not one (3:10). We are all justly exposed to the wrath of God. Unless the grace of God intervenes in our life through Jesus Christ, that is exactly what we will get forever: indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish.
How does this reality function in Paul’s argument?
We must remember what the apostle is up to here. Remember that the thesis statement of this epistle is 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Thus, this letter is an exposition of the gospel of Christ. But the first thing he is going to do is to show why we need the gospel, why the good news is in fact good news. That begins in 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” And that begins an argument that runs through 3:20 which his that the revelation of the righteousness of God is good news because of the revelation of God’s wrath against the unrighteous. We need righteousness to save us, but we have no righteousness of our own that will save us from God’s wrath. We need the righteousness of God.
Paul then goes on to show how that everyone in every part of the world, in every age, is threatened by the wrath of God because of sin. This includes the world at large, as he shows in chapter 1, but it also includes people who think they are immune to God’s judgments, who condemn the sins of others while concealing their own sin. These are the people Paul is dealing with here in chapter 2. And Paul is wanting them to see that they are not in fact immune to God’s judgments. They too need to be saved from the wrath of God.
In other words, you won’t see the goodness of the good news if you don’t see why you need to be saved. And you won’t understand why you need to be saved if you don’t think that your sins don’t merit the wrath of God against you. So that’s what Paul is doing. He is trying to convince us that we stand under the judgment of God because of sin, and he is going to show that the only way to be rescued from the wrath of God is to be justified by the grace of God in Christ.
And this needs to be personal, or we will never personally embrace Christ by faith as our Savior from sin. We need to personally understand that we need a Savior. We need to personally understand that we need to be saved from the wrath of God.
And so notice how Paul addresses himself here. He is very personal. He is speaking to us as individuals: he calls us out in terms of “O man” (2:1, 3). He addresses us with singular pronouns (“thou” in verses 1,3,4,5). He doesn’t just speak in terms of hypotheticals, but concretely. He says that hypocritical moralizers are actually treasuring up wrath for themselves for the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. This is Paul’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon.
The question is, have your heard God’s word like that? We talked last time about the danger of hypocrisy, but the reason why we ever act in a hypocritical way when it comes to the truths of the Bible is because we don’t apply them to ourselves. We are happy to apply the Bible to others, but not to ourselves!
I will never forget one night when the Lord was beginning to deal with me about my sins, when I was awakened to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to ride my parent’s faith into heaven. Suddenly, I felt as if I had been stripped totally naked before the holiness of God. Frankly, it scared me, and I was right to be scared! I had been taking refuge in the faith of others. But it is not the faith of others that saves us: it is our own faith in Christ by which we are saved. I began to have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as the comfort that I had been resting in was whisked away. However, I thank God for that, and I believe it was the mercy of God to me that helped me to see that. It took away my false sense of confidence and made me take seriously my need for salvation in Christ. Do you know what I am talking about? When God gives us eyes to see, the first thing we need to see is our sins and the danger we are in from our sins! And then the Holy Spirit will take us and lead us by the hand to Christ whom we can embrace, and genuinely so, as our only hope in life and death.
So Paul is helping us to see through false confidence and false assurance here by reminding us of the coming judgment of God and that all of us will have to stand before God and give an account. This is universal, Jew and Gentile, “every soul of man” (9). We all need some good news!
However, this needs to be balanced by something else. Sometimes people will look at this passage and say that it teaches that we are saved by works after all. After all, doesn’t Paul say that those who do good works go to heaven (7, 10) and those who disobey God go to hell (8-9)?
Yes, he does, but once again we need to remember the danger of taking a text out of context. Paul’s whole point is to show and convince us that we need to be saved by the grace of God and that there is no other way to be saved. Good works, not even works of God’s law, can save us: we must be saved by Christ and by Christ alone. Here is what the apostle is driving toward: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (3:20-24). We are not justified by law keeping; we are justified by the grace of God through Christ. Since that is the conclusion, we cannot argue that somewhere in the middle of his argument, Paul forgot about that, and is now teaching that we are saved by works!
Paul does not say here how it is that people persevere in good works (7), but he will later make it clear that all who do so have already been saved by Christ. Good works are not the basis of our salvation, but they are the necessary concomitant of being saved. Good works are the evidence of our salvation, not that by which we merit God’s favor. Good works don’t put us in the covenant people of God, and they don’t keep us in, either. They are the fruit of grace, and it is grace that keeps us in God’s favor, and it is grace that makes us more and more like Christ in our life and conduct.
Hence, though it is true that in the end it is the righteous who will be saved from eternal destruction and the wicked who will perish eternally, we must never forget that the righteous are righteous because of the work of grace in their lives. No, Paul is not teaching that good works save us.
Nor is he teaching that mere morality is a sign of grace. The “patient continuance in well doing” of those who “seek for glory, honor, and immortality” is not a description of gospel-less and Christless morality. Paul is not describing a noble atheist, as some might like to think. Some folks think that as long as someone isn’t too bad of a character, they must be a child of God. They think that a moral person, even if they reject the gospel, can be saved. But this isn’t what the apostle is teaching, either. Again, to say that would be to wrench this statement out of context. The apostle will later make it very clear that those who reject the gospel, no matter how externally moral they seem to be, are not submitting themselves to the righteousness of God and therefore are not saved (cf. Rom. 10:1-3). Many of Paul’s own countrymen were exceedingly moral, and yet Paul says of them, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved” (10:1)!
Rather, the whole point of these verses is to help hypocrites to see that their delusions will not shield them from the judgment of God. These verses are meant to function to jar such people out of their complacency by warning them of the coming judgment of God.
Why can Paul argue in this way?
The last question I want to ask circles back to the question we started with: why can Paul tell people that he hopes will embrace the gospel by faith (and therefore elect!) that they are in danger of the coming judgment? I hope that we can see now that Paul is in fact warning people of the judgment to come. But how can he do this, especially given what the apostle will later have to say about election and predestination? The answer is that there are several reasons why it is right to tell unbelieving and unrepentant people, even those who may be elect, to flee from the wrath of God. First, it is the truth about salvation; second, it is necessary for conversion; third, it is consistent with election.
First, it is the truth about salvation. It is important to note who Paul is talking about and talking to: he is talking about people and to people who are impenitent and whose hearts have hardened against the word of God (2:4-5). To say to that person that if they remain in their impenitence that they will be on the eternally receiving end of God’s wrath in hell is just the truth. This is what God’s word teaches. The elect will be saved, but part of that salvation is God granting them repentance unto life (cf. Acts 11:18). Those who continue in their unbelief and sin will perish. That is the unambiguous teaching of all of Scripture. Moreover, to warn people to flee from the wrath of God is not the same thing as saying that the elect will perish. To warn people to flee from the wrath of God is to tell them what the elect will do when they are drawn by the Spirit of God. They flee from the wrath of God and to Christ.
Second, it is necessary for conversion. We need to remember that I cannot embrace the gospel in any meaningful way if I am not convinced, as we sing in the Isaac Watts’ hymn, “That if my soul were sent to hell, thy righteous law approves it well.” I need to understand that my sins merit the wrath of God and that apart from Christ I will and must perish. And to help us to see that, the Scriptures warn us of the end of the wicked. They are there to remind us that this is our end if we do not repent. They are there to help us see our need. The elect will see their need and come to Christ for salvation. But it is this truth that God uses to open our eyes to our need of salvation and to see our own insufficiency to save ourselves. It closes our options, so to speak, and shuts us up to the grace of God in Christ.
Finally, it is consistent with election and sovereign grace. Even though warning people of the coming judgment of God is an appeal to the will of man – “Flee from the wrath to come!” – that does not mean that the human will is what is ultimately decisive in salvation. The will of man is engaged and must be in salvation. You can’t believe and repent without engaging your will! But we know that it is the effectual grace of God that enables us to engage our wills. We work out our own salvation with fear and trembling – why? Because it is God who works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13). Our will works because God is already at work in us.
So I hope you hear what Paul is saying here and to hear it the way he wanted it to be heard. Let me therefore close this morning with some direct and personal application. My friend, where are you this morning? Have you lived your life condemning others but overlooking your own sin? Are you contentious and self-willed and do not obey the truth? Do you think that you do not need to be saved from the wrath of God? Do you scoff at the idea of hell? Are you hardening your heart to the gospel and remaining unrepentant in your sins? Then what the apostle says to you is this: you are treasuring up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. There will be no escape for you in that day if you persist in your sin and rebellion. You need to awaken to this danger and to flee from God’s wrath into the embrace of Christ. You can’t save yourself; only Christ can save you. And he can save to the uttermost those who come unto God by him (Heb. 7:25). Praise God for that! Thank God that this warning doesn’t end here; that what comes in the later chapters and what we are meant to keep reading is that the righteousness of God which saves us from God’s wrath is given to all who believe on Christ, who embrace him as their Lord and Savior. And if you come to Christ, you know it is the grace of God, electing grace, redeeming grace, regenerating grace, which brought you there.
The God of grace gets all the glory from sinners who are delivered from the wrath to come:
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