We're doing Romans at church over summer. I'm preaching on Sunday on Romans 2. Included in the text are these (controversial) words:He [God] will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.Some classic questions that you can help me with:
- So will God save me if I 'seek for glory and honor and immortality'? Will God 'render to me according to my works'? And how does that fit in with Romans 3?
- What is the point of Romans 2? (I ask because for many Christians, Romans 2 is functionally redundant. Romans 1 says we have a big problem to which Romans 3 gives an answer in Jesus. And Romans 2 appears unnecessary in that schema.
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2 comments:
I actually find Wright fairly convincing on this:
http://heraldsandperegrines.wordpress.com/
www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Law_Romans2.pdf
I think it becomes difficult once we split Romans 1 and 2 apart. If we read them together, 2 just seems to be a practical unfolding and emphatic restating of what we have in Romans 1. I don't believe it's redundant anymore than an application part of a Bible Study is redundant.
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