When I was a young teenager, my dad took me to visit a distant relative that lived out in the county, 20-30 miles from our home. This man had never married and by that time was probably in his mid-fifties, still living on the farm with his aging parents. I did not know the meaning of the word "eccentric" at that point, but as I look back, this man fit the definition: "deviating from the norm…odd, whimsical, peculiar; unconventional." Not that he acted overly weird or unfriendly; on the contrary, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit especially because this man was so eccentric!
What I found fascinating were his collections. He amassed lots of old things; they were his treasures. Though not a wealthy man—at least to my knowledge—he possessed some of the most unusual electric and electronic gadgets that I'd seen. I still remember him showing me an original "Edison lightbulb." He actually turned it on so that I could see the bright filament burning that eventually set the stage for lighting our homes. He had old radios and phonographs to go along with his old light bulbs. For two or three hours, we wandered from one dusty spot to another checking out his treasures.
Collecting things is a common hobby. Some collect coins or stamps; others seashells or rocks; still others arrow heads or fossils. Add to that spoons, cups, hats, old photographs, vinyl records, and with enough money, even cars. Collections become personal treasures; or in some cases, one man's trash is indeed another's treasure!
Yet some people collect the strangest treasure. They do it gradually, adding a little here and a little there. They spend their lives treasuring something that will ultimately, be their eternal ruin. That's what Paul warns of in our text: some people treasure wrath for the Day of Judgment (v. 5). Odd, isn't it? Indeed, that some would spend their lives treasuring wrath only to be consumed eternally by it, defies understanding. Yet that is the position of most people on the face of the earth today. Judgment Day exposes this strange treasure. For at the Judgment, clear distinction will be made between those believing and those disbelieving the gospel of Christ. The former receive eternal life; the latter wrath and indignation. But what Paul makes clear in our text is that even before the Day of Judgment, this distinction is evident. What are you treasuring?
Paul has just asked two questions that expose the sinfulness of even moral and religious people. First, he asks, do you think that you will escape God's judgment when you're guilty of the very things you judge in others? The question is aimed at those who think that because of their religious background or their ancestral heritage or their claim as a covenant person they would be exempt from judgment. They could go ahead and point fingers at others while being shielded from judgment by their religious background. Would they escape judgment? Paul's question expects a resounding "NO" as the answer.
The second question leads to a different consideration, namely, do you think that because God has not brought judgment upon you but instead has shown you kindness, that this means you have no need for repentance? In other words, do you think that God's kind blessings toward you, implies that you have no need for justification before God? Do you not realize that His kindness is a pointer toward repentance?
Good, moral, and religious people, due to not seeing themselves as sinners and in need of repentance toward God, slowly treasure up wrath for themselves. If Paul indicated this to be the case for the recalcitrant and hostile, then we might understand. But for the religious and even those claiming to be part of the covenant, for them to be storing up wrath, how can it be? Notice how our text answers the question.
Here's the reason: "But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." He identifies a severe heart condition that leads to treasuring wrath. "Stubbornness" translates a root term that is used in the medical world to refer to hardening of the arteries, "arteriosclerosis." "Sclerosis" refers to something hardened, or morally and religiously, stubborn. It's a mind that is unmoved by the preaching of the gospel. It's a heart that lacks pliability when confronted by the fact of indwelling sin and its consequence. Such a person has perhaps been blessed with good health, a good mind, a loving family, a good career, many friends, and even material possessions. But he refuses to be moved toward repentance by these kindnesses. His heart is hardened. He sees the miracle of a child's birth; he's stubborn and unmoved. He sees God's intervention in a crisis situation or in a family or church's need; he's stubborn and unmoved. He makes excuses: it would have happened anyway; God had nothing to do with it; because God has done this I am blessed and therefore have no need to repent.
So, in that kind of stubbornness, he stores up one degree of wrath and another and another until the day that he will stand before God in judgment.
He has an "unrepentant heart." The word indicates a negation of due repentance. Why do we need to repent? Repentance (metanoia) means a change of mind or seeing things differently. It implies a turning from one point of view toward God's; turning from one lifestyle to follow after Christ. Put the words "turn" and "change" in mind when trying to understand repentance. It means that we realize our way is leading to destruction, that it is rebellion against God and His will. So we change the way that we've thought about who is truly Lord in life. We change the way we've thought about our sin; rather than ignoring it or excusing it, we own up to it as an offense against God. We're so gripped by it's wickedness that we change the way we think about life and the way we think about God, therefore turning from sin to righteousness and from our way to God's way.
Yet to be "unrepentant" indicates that such a person has reason to repent but doesn't. He has heard the gospel. He has seen the countless evidences of God's mercy and kindness. But he sits in stubborn silence instead of confessing his sin to God and calling upon Him for mercy in Christ. With pride and arrogance, he hides behind a religious façade, refusing to humble himself before God. None can live with stubborn and unrepentant hearts without consequence.
I use the word "treasure" because the Greek term translated as "storing up" literally means to treasure. Most of the time it's used positively of one storing up a treasure of value but here it takes an interesting twist. It's the word thesaurizeis from which we get the term thesaurus which is a treasury of words. But the treasure that is stored up due to stubbornness and unrepentance is not words but "wrath." We've already encountered that word in 1:18: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." So, the strange treasure is God's wrath—the settled, determined, and certain retribution of God against every lawbreaker. Wrath is no flying off the handle but the deliberate, righteous response of God to sin.
The treasury of wrath is held individually ("for yourself") until "the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Paul insists that God's wrath is a display of His "righteous judgment" [dikaiokrisias]. John Murray was right, "There is no wrath of God except as the reaction of his justice and truth against sin" [NICNT: Romans, 61]. Judgment is necessary because God is righteous and we're not; His Law has been broken time and again so that the moral demand upon the Eternal Judge calls for justice. No sin escapes; no sinner escapes "the righteous judgment of God." No fickleness will be present in the Judge nor partiality or prejudice. Every decision against sinners will be perfectly deserved and perfectly executed. None will suffer more for his sin than is just; nor less than he deserves.
Dare we trifle with wrath? Are you treasuring up wrath for yourself as we all draw nearer to that great Day of Judgment?
Fuzzy views of God do not include a God that judges all men. "Well, I don't like to think of God as judging us," someone might say. It matters not what you or I think God should or should not do. We're not God; He is. And He does as He pleases, and that always with perfect justice and righteousness. Because God is righteous and just, the cross was necessary for Him to grant pardon to sinners. He could not declare any of us righteous apart from the righteousness of God through the gospel!
Many of the Jews thought that God would judge the Gentiles but not them. They were safe. They were "covenant children." God would not dare judge covenant children! Or so they thought. While Paul aims for the religious and moral sinners in chapter 2, after exposing the wickedness of sin in the Gentile world in chapter 1, he especially drives his point home to the Jew comfortable in his Jewishness.
So often in the Old Testament narratives, the Israelites had the idea that God was for them and against the Gentiles. So they were safe from wrath. Even the godly Joshua slipped into this frame of mind. Just before the conquest of Jericho, Joshua stood opposite the city and saw a man with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua asked, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" The answer stunned him but became pivotal in his understanding of the Lord God. "No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord." Joshua fell down and worshiped! (Joshua 5:13-15) God is not interested in picking sides. He doesn't need us for victory! He is Sovereign Lord! He is Lord of the universe! All men will give an accounting to Him.
That's the testimony of Scripture. "Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God; and lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord, for You recompense a man according to his work" (Psa. 62:12). "I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds" (Jer. 17:10). "Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?" (Prov. 24:12). "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds" (Matt. 16:27). "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31). "For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God…so then each one of us will give an account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:10, 12). Notice how verses 6 and 11 summarize the teaching of Scripture concerning judgment.
Judgment refers to God's righteous response to every sin. He "will render to each person according to his deeds." No favoritism will be shown. No one can pull national advantage at judgment. "For there is no partiality with God." Jews don't have an edge over Gentiles. Americans don't have an edge over the Chinese.
'But we're very religious, Lord. Don't You know how fortunate You are to have us? Don't You know all of the good things that we've done? We're good Baptists! We're good evangelicals. We're from a family of very good Christians.' None of that will keep anyone from facing God's judgment. Its universality is unquestioned in Scripture.
Jesus told it like this: "No everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, You who practice lawlessness" (Matt. 7:21-23).
Notice the phrase "each person." That speaks of individuality not group judgment. God will single out every person who has ever lived. We're not told how long judgment will take; just that it will happen; and it will be done individually. There's no one to hide behind. The Omniscient God knows every person and every detail of every moment in our lives. Our "deeds" will come to the surface. Those things that we do in secret, thinking that no one will find out, will have their day of revelation at judgment.
Does that not shout to us our need for Christ and the gospel?
There's not a judgment for Jews and a separate judgment for Gentiles. Nor is there a judgment for the really wicked and a separate judgment for the good, moral, and religious people. Instead, God "will render to each person according to his deeds." There's no separate judgment for the different races or for the different religious preferences. There's no separate judgment for different nationalities or political affiliations.
The future tense of verse six forebodes the great Day of Judgment. To render is to give back or recompense what is owed to one due to his deeds. There's a positive side to that, as we'll see in a moment. But the negative brings us to our senses! Some think that their good deeds will outweigh their bad; so everything will be just lovely at judgment. But such an idea overestimates our good deeds and underestimates our bad. It also belittles the infinite righteousness of God and denies God's standard of perfection.
Obviously, some think that they will take their chances if God will render to each of us according to our deeds. They think that such a statement infers that their eternal destiny will be determined by a certain level of behavior and good deeds. Yet, the major point that Paul is building in this context is that no one is justified or declared righteous before God by the works of the Law. It is for that very reason that God sent Christ, so that He might become sin for us, though He knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in union with Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). The necessity of the righteousness of God revealed only in the gospel for sinners implies that good deeds never qualify us for right standing with God (Rom. 1:17). When Paul reaches the apex of his argument in Romans 3:21-30, he prefaces it by declaring, "Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight." Then why do we need the Law? What purpose does it serve? Paul answers, "For through the Law comes the knowledge of sin" (3:20). Then he trumpets, "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe" (3:21-22). It is only as we have that righteousness that we can stand with hope and peace before God; it is only when that righteousness belongs to us by faith that judgment offers favor instead of eternal curse, reward instead of wrath.
These verses present some interpretation trouble for us. We believe in salvation by grace alone through faith in Christ alone. Works add nothing to what Christ has already accomplished through His all-sufficient death and resurrection. Yet, if we lift verses 7-10 out of context, we're presented with the idea that God is analyzing the level of our works before casting the decision on our eternal destiny. There are basically three choices of interpretation of these verses. First, we can interpret these verses to mean that if our good works outweigh our bad, then we will receive eternal life; but if the bad deeds carry more weight than the good, then we will face "wrath and indignation." On the surface, that seems to be the case. Many have taken these verses to indicate works righteousness, i.e. that if it's to be it's up to me! Yet such an interpretation contradicts 1:3-5, 1:16-17, 2:28-29, 3:21-30, 4:1-25, 5:1, etc. In other words, Paul's whole message is one of salvation by grace alone. Yet, as a good point of clarification: grace is not alone; it carries works with it as fruit or evidence of grace at work.
Second, Paul was simply dealing with a hypothetical situation, posing the hypothetical possibility that if someone could live without sin, then this is what it would take for him to be right before God. Yet that defies the point Paul is making. He's reminding us that we'll all stand before God in judgment. Some will receive rewards at judgment; others eternal punishment. There's nothing hypothetical about his use of words.
Third, Paul describes the condition and practice of both those justified before God and those condemned before God. In other words, he states the reality of universal judgment but wants us to understand the distinction that will take place on that Day: not because of our works but because of the sufficiency of the gospel of Christ. Paul answers the critics that would say that grace is cheap and fluffy. Gospel grace transforms! Judgment Day will show this; but so also will the condition and practice of believers in contrast with unbelievers in the here and now. That's his message. Let's consider these verses in three parts.
The believer will be evident in this life by "perseverance in doing good." That term, "perseverance," is critical in understanding biblical Christianity, especially in light of the decisionism popularized in the last 50 years. Jesus declared, "But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved" (Matt. 24:13). Some try to wiggle out of this verse by positing it only for a certain eschatological timeframe; but that betrays the big picture of Matthew 24. He said, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine" (John 8:31); and "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me" (John 10:27). Paul wrote to the Colossian believers, "Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel" (Col. 1:22-23). Perseverance means that you bear up under the demands of life as a Christian; you keep pressing on. You may falter and even fall but you do not fall with finality. You persevere "in doing good," that is, focusing on doing the things that are pleasing to Christ. If one does not persevere in the faith then he has no reason to think himself to be a Christian.
By contrast, unbelievers are "those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth." To be "selfishly ambitious" is a word that was used originally to refer to people hired by ancient politicians to do things out of self interest and not out of genuine desire. They were moved by money rather than virtue [Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans, 118]. Paul's use of it implies that such a person has no interest in the honor and glory of God but rather, lives life for self alone. That is further evident by his devotion and loyalty. Paul says, they "do not obey the truth." Truth refers to the gospel specifically, and God's revelation generally. Unbelievers disobey or disbelieve the gospel, since the ultimate disobedience is that of not believing the gospel revelation of God in His Son. "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life" (John 6:40). Unbelievers are marked by their living for self and disobeying the gospel. A day of reckoning will come.
Believers' perseverance is indicated by regularly seeking after things that please God: "to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality." To seek means to eagerly pursue. The present tense of the verb indicates this as the believer's lifestyle or life-focus. Notice the object of seeking: glory, honor, and immortality. It's not self-glorying that is sought, but "glory" as found in the Lord (e.g. Col. 1:27). That word capsules the outshining radiance of God's character. To say that the believer seeks for glory is another way of saying that he seeks after God in all of His glory. It's what Paul said of his own desires, "That I may know Him!" (Phil. 3:10). It's the ultimate aim in eternal life; as Jesus said, "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3).
To seek honor is not some kind of personal aggrandizement or desiring the applause of men. That would be selfish ambition! Instead, to seek honor is to seek after the pleasure of the Lord. Paul told the Thessalonian believers "to walk and please God." He told the Corinthians, that in light of the judgment seat of Christ, "We also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him [Christ]" (2 Cor. 5:9).
Seeking immortality is desiring to live with the Immortal One; it's that desire to be absent from the body and be present with the Lord! It's the desire to put off sin, to mortify the flesh, and live in total faithfulness to Christ. While we don't arrive at that point in the present, the aim of our perseverance and seeking is to be more and more like Christ.
By contrast, Paul writes of the unbelievers as those that "obey unrighteousness… [and] does evil" (v. 9). It's a life set on following the way of the world, pursuing one's own pleasures, and unconcerned about God's righteousness. Yet at judgment, the one thing that matters will be righteousness which is the one thing that the unbeliever has cast aside. A day of reckoning will come!
The believer does not receive eternal life because he was good or better than others. Rather "eternal life" or a life of "glory and honor and peace" is commensurate with the work of the gospel. It is the reward of the gospel at work in his life! Rather than being presumptuous because he has made a decision, the believer perseveres until he stands before the Lord of life. He does experience glory and honor along the way—and ultimately in the Lord's presence. But the thing that characterizes him in this life is "peace," which is the peace of reconciliation with God.
The unbeliever, in sharp contrast faces "wrath and indignation"—God's certain, just repayment for a life of unbelief and rejection of the gospel. Life without Christ through the gospel is a life of "tribulation and distress." The words imply pressure, squeezing, "tormenting confinement," and being "hemmed in with no way out" [Cleon Rogers, ELKGNT, 319]. Squeezed by the world—yes; hemmed in by sin and its consequences—yes; tormented by a conscience at enmity with God—yes; hemmed in to a life on the way to eternal destruction—yes.
Yet the reality is that God's warning is also His kindness and mercy shown to any who are unbelieving. Be stubborn and unrepentant no longer! Turn from your sin to the gracious Redeemer; cast yourself upon Him; look to Him and live.
Are you a believer? Then you are persevering in Christ because of His sufficient work in the gospel that now works in you. Keep pressing on; do not despair at your weakness but look to Christ for His strength. Die to your sin. Live as one that longs for glory, honor, and immortality through Christ.
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