NOTES for Rom 2:11

There is a notion in the religious psychology such as: the religious anthropomorphism - it is when we judge about God in ourselves, thinking that He is as us and forgetting His own words: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" (Is 55 8). We think, especially in such dazzle that God chooses and distinguishes those who for of some reasons please Him more. But He says Himself that "he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust". No secondary circumstances make us be closer or farther of God, except our personal will and acts. And it is still important for us to remember the context, in which Holy Scriptures pronounce this idea: "every nation on earth that fears God is a delight to Him". What we consider as our merits and advantages: membership in a defined ethnic group, in a defined confession or whatever else - all this also has less importance, quite as the color of eyes and hair. Because there is no respect with God, and a scoundrel is better in nothing than another.

It is not the existence of the law or formal adherence to it that justifies, but its fulfillment; the deeds of those under the authority of the law will be judged by that same law. But why must those who sinned without having the law perish without the law? Is the legal principle “ignorance of the law is no excuse” consistent with the highest mercy?

Paul also answers this question and another one that is constantly asked: what will happen to those who did good deeds without knowing the commandments? They did not know them intellectually, indeed, but the law of conscience lived in their hearts, intelligible to everyone who has not stifled it within themselves. In practice, such people may fulfill the unwritten law more fully than some experts in the written law. It is not said of such people that they do not come into judgment; it is those who have believed who do not come into judgment (Jn 3:18). But at the judgment they will be able to present the good deeds they performed at the prompting of conscience. We do not know what the verdict will be in each individual case, but we believe that the verdict of the One who shows no partiality cannot fail to be just.

Returning to the image of the two ways, the way of righteousness and the way of ungodliness, the apostle further develops the theme of universalism that he began in his reflections on natural knowledge of God and on the "natural Torah." He speaks of things that would appear self-evident, reminding his readers that one should not condemn others for sins from which one is not free oneself (vv. 1-2). In the letter, as we can see, he is speaking about people who test God's patience in precisely this way (vv. 3-8). And from the context it becomes clear that this condemnation had formally religious grounds: those who condemned others set themselves against others on the basis of belonging either to the Jewish people or to the Church. The first is more plausible, judging by the apostle's equalizing in righteousness "Jews" and "Greeks" (vv. 9-11), that is, Jews and Gentiles. Of course, such religious pride in no way justified before God those who gave themselves over to it; it only added one more sin to the sins they were already committing.

But the issue was not only hypocrisy and the vain hope that belonging to the Jewish people would in itself prove to be a kind of indulgence. The issue was the very understanding of righteousness held by those who took this position. For them, evidently, righteousness was inseparable from belonging to a particular national and religious community, so that those who belonged to it should by definition be judged by God according to some special, perhaps gentler, laws. Paul, however, from the very beginning sees righteousness exclusively in the context of a person's relationship with God. For him the Torah is universal; it is given to everyone regardless of national or religious belonging and is not the exclusive property of any religious community.

A Gentile can follow the Torah, and then he will find Christ and enter the Kingdom, although of course it is easier for a Jew to do this, since he studies the Torah from childhood. But if a Jew violates the Torah, the demand made of him will not be less than that made of a Gentile, but greater, although a Gentile who has had the experience of natural revelation will also answer for the evil deeds he committed, deeds he knew were evil. Paul has no doubt that the Kingdom Christ brought into the world is one for all. But then righteousness too must be one for all. And so must the Torah.