Romans 2:16

{7} In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to {m} my gospel. (7) God defers many judgments, which he will nonetheless execute at their convenient time by Jesus Christ, with a most candid examination, not only of words and deeds, but of thoughts also, be they ever so hidden or secret. (m) As my doctrine witnesses, which I am appointed to preach.

These words may be referred to Romans 2:12 , and so they express the time when Jews and Gentiles shall be judged. Though some annex them to the words immediately preceding: q.d. Now the consciences of men do testify for or against them, and their thoughts accuse or excuse them; but in the day of judgment they will do it more especially. Shall judge the secrets of men; so that the most secret sins shall not escape the notice and censure of the Judge: see Ecclesiastes 12:14 1 Corinthians 4:5 . My gospel; i.e. the gospel which I preach. So, John 12:48 , our Saviour calls his word, his disciples word. He calls it his gospel, not as the author, but as the publisher of it; it was not his in respect of revelation, but in regard of dispensation, Romans 16:25 1 Corinthians 9:17 2 Corinthians 5:18,19 2 Timothy 2:8 . As for the fiction of a Gospel written by Paul, as was by Matthew, Mark, &c., the papists themselves begin to be ashamed of it.

(16) This verse takes up the main thread of the subject. “God will judge Jew and Gentile alike at the last day.” It cannot refer (as some would make it) to what immediately precedes, because there the Apostle is referring to the daily process that goes on whenever doubtful actions are submitted to the law of conscience, here he is speaking expressly of the final judgment held by God and not by man. By Jesus Christ.—As the Son of God is the Mediator of salvation, so also is He the Mediator of judgment. The function of judgment is specially committed to Him. This is the consistent teaching of Scripture. (Comp. John 5:27, “the Father hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man”; Acts 17:31, “He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world . . . by that Man whom He hath ordained”; 1Corinthians 4:5; 2Corinthians 5:10, et. al.) According to my gospel.—How is this to be taken? To what is it that the gospel, as preached by St. Paul, testifies? It may be either to the simple fact that God will judge the secrets of men, or to the particular law or standard by which He will judge them. Probably, on the whole, the former is the preferable explanation. “In the day when, as I teach, God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.”

Romans 2:16 . In the day, &c. — This relates to Romans 2:12 , the intermediate verses, from the 13th, being a parenthesis; when God shall judge the secrets of men — Not only their outward actions, good and evil, which are manifest to all men, but their most secret and hidden ones, with their internal desires and designs, their intentions, purposes, schemes, contrivances, with the various workings of their passions, imaginations, and thoughts; for he will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil, Ecclesiastes 12:14 ; will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart, 1 Corinthians 4:5 . On secret circumstances depends the real quality of actions, frequently unknown to the actors themselves, Romans 2:29 . Men generally form their judgments, even of themselves, merely from what is apparent. By Jesus Christ — To whom the Father hath committed all judgment; according to my gospel — According to the tenor of that gospel which is committed to my trust, and is preached by me: or as I testify in my preaching the gospel, Acts 17:31 ; 2 Timothy 2:8 . For it is not the apostle’s intention to signify that all men shall be judged by the gospel, but only that the gospel teaches such a judgment.

Romans 2:16 . The day meant here is the same as that in Romans 2:5 . Westcott and Hort only put a comma after ἀπολογουμένων , but a longer pause is necessary, unless we are to suppose that only the day of judgment wakes the conscience and the thoughts of man into the moral activity described in Romans 2:15 . This supposition may have some truth in it, but it is not what the Apostle’s argument requires. The proof he gives that Gentiles are “a law to themselves” must be capable of verification now, not only at the last day. Hence Romans 2:16 is really to be taken with the main verbs of the whole paragraph, ἀπολοῦνται , κριθήσονται , δικαιωθήσονται : the great principle of Romans 2:6 — ἀποδώσει ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ —will be exhibited in action on the day on which God judges the secret things of men through Christ Jesus. A final judgment belonged to Jewish theology, and perhaps, though this is open to question, one in which the Messiah acted as God’s representative; but what Paul teaches here does not rest merely on the transference of a Jewish Messianic function to Jesus. If there is anything certain in the N.T. it is that this representation of Jesus as judge of the world rests on the words of our Lord Himself ( Matthew 7:22 f., Matthew 25:31 ff.). To assert it was an essential part of the Gospel as preached by Paul: cf.

Acts 17:31 . (Baldensperger, Das Selbstbewusstsein Jesu , . 85 f., thinks that in the circles of Jewish Pietism, in the century before Christ, the Messiah was already spoken of as the Divine judge, and as sharing the titles and attributes of Jehovah.) In Romans 2:17-24 the Apostle brings to a point the argument for which he has been clearing the way in Romans 2:1-16 . The Jew makes much of the possession of the law, but when we pass from possession to practice, he is not a whit better than the “lawless” Gentile. The construction is not quite regular, but the meaning is clear. The natural order would be: If thou bearest the name of Jew, and restest upon the law, and yet in thy conduct settest the law at nought , art not thou equally under condemnation with sinners of the Gentiles? But the construction is interrupted at the end of Romans 2:20 , and what ought in logic to be part of the protasis— if in thy conduct thou settest the law at nought —is made a sort of apodosis, at least grammatically and rhetorically: dost thou, in spite of all these privileges, nevertheless set the law at nought? The real conclusion, which Paul needs for his argument, Art not thou then in the same condemnation with the Gentiles? is left for conscience to supply.

Verse 16. - In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ . About this verse the main question is, what previous assertion the "when" refers to. The time denoted by "when" (whether we suppose κρίνει or κρινεῖ - i.e. the present or future tense - to have been intended by the writer) is certainly the ἡμέρα of 1 Corinthians 3:13 , and ether passages - the day of doom, when "every man's work shall be made manifest." Hence immediate connection of this verse with the preceding one, which would otherwise have been the natural one, seems to be precluded; for in ver. 15 the present operation of conscience, during this present life, was described. One way of making the connection obvious is by understanding ver. 15 as itself denoting the manifestation reserved for the day of judgment, when all will stand self-convicted. But not only the verb ἐκδείκνυντααι in the present tense, but also the fact of the whole verse being so obvious a description of present human consciousness, seems to preclude this view. Some would connect ver. 16 with ver. 12, of which it is in itself a natural sequence; and this connection is intimated in the Authorized Version, which includes the three verses that come between in a parenthesis. The objection to it is the length of the parenthesis.

Probably the apostle, in his characteristic way, paid little regard to precise logical sequence; he only desired to express, in this concluding verse, that in the great day full justice would be done, and all that he had been speaking of would be made plain. My gospel means "the gospel committed unto me to preach" (cf. Romans 16:25 ; 2 Corinthians 4:3 ; 2 Thessalonians 2:14 ; 2 Timothy 2:8 ). The idea that it means "the Gospel according to St. Luke," said to have been written under St. Paul's superintendence, is too improbable to call for serious notice. Romans 2:16

16. In the day, &c.—Here the unfinished statement of Ro 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 Ec 12:14; 1Co 4:5). according to my gospel—to my teaching as a preacher of the Gospel.

Romans 2:16 . Ἐν ἡμέρᾳ , in the day ) It is construed with show , for the present tense is no objection; Romans 2:5 employs the present in the same general way. And Paul often says, in the day of the Lord , which implies more than against [or unto the day ] 1 Corinthians 5:5 —comp. before , or in the presence of 1 Timothy 5:21 , note. Such as each thing was, such it shall then be seen, be determined, and remain. In that day, that writing of the law on the hearts of men will be manifest, having also joined with it some defence of upright acts, although the man be condemned [fall] in the judgment , himself being his own accuser, on account of other offences. And that circumstance implies, as a consequence, [infers] (reasoning, from the greater to the less, i.e. , from the final judgment, to the judgments of conscience in the present life), accusation, or even defence, exercised in this life also, as often as either the future judgment itself is vividly presented before a man, or its anticipations, without the man’s own privity (consciousness), are at work in the conscience.—Comp. 1 John 4:17 . And Scripture often speaks so of the future, especially of the last things, as that it presupposes those which precede them. The Jews at Romans 2:5 , as the Gentiles in this passage, are threatened with the future judgment.— τὰ κρυπτὰ , the secrets ) the conscience , and the thoughts .—Comp. 1 Corinthians 4:5 . This confirms the connection of this verse with the preceding.

The true quality of actions, generally unknown even to the agents themselves, depends on the secrets.—See Romans 2:29 . Men judge by outward manifestations, even concerning themselves. Outward manifestations of good or evil will also be judged, but not then for the first time; for they are judged, even from the time in which they are wrought; deeds, that are secret, are then at length brought to judgment.— τῶν ἀνθρώπων , of men ) even of the Gentiles.— κατὰ , according to ) i.e. as my Gospel teaches. Paul adds this short clause, because he is here dealing with a man, who does not yet know Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the whole preaching as to Christ; and Christ will be the Judge; and the judgment in regard to the Gentiles, is not so expressly declared in the Old, as in the New Testament. And it is called the Gospel of Paul, as it was preached by Paul, even to the Gentiles.— Acts 17:31 . All the articles of evangelical doctrine, and the article concerning the final judgment, greatly illustrate one another; and moreover, this very article, even in respect of believers, is altogether evangelical.— Acts 10:42 ; 1 Peter 4:5 .