Romans Chapter 2Depravity - Nobody's Exempt, Not Even You

God’s Judgment on those who think they will escape His wrath

Romans 2:1-3 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who do such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man––you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself––that you will escape the judgment of God?


In verse 1 of this chapter we encounter one of those Biblical prepositions that so meaningfully link to something that has gone before. So we read, "Therefore, you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are…." Ask yourself, “What’s the ‘therefore’ there for?” In this case it clearly implies that all men without exception are included in the litany of depravity that has just been given at the end of Chapter 1.

But apart from the gracious work of God’s Spirit, man is in denial – he is self-deceived. He will deny that he is even capable of such wickedness, let alone guilty of it. Under the pretentious flag of self-righteousness he will cling to self and sin, fooling himself in the process into believing that he is not so bad after all. He will grasp at any excuse, knowing that there is wickedness all about, but thinking himself above it, or not a part of it, or at least that he is better than those who commit the more obvious outward depravities. We would rather judge others than look at ourselves, though God says:

…if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged. {1Corinthians 11:31}

Again, though, apart from the gracious operation of God’s Spirit men will do no such thing. This verse is actually for believers. Unless God shows it to him, the unregenerate person can never comprehend and apply to himself these truths, spoken by our Lord:

And he (Jesus) said, "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man." {Mark 7:20-23}

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. {Matthew 7:17-18}

It is a part of man's deceitful nature to puff himself up in judgment against his fellow man - as if by proving himself "better" than others, according to some standard of his own invention, he would be able to justify himself to God, and thereby to prove that the awful depravities listed in Chapter 1 surely could not apply to him. God's firm rebuttal of such woeful and false hypocrisies is laid out in seven principles designed to put the lie to them all. We shall examine these principles in the following posts. Don't forget to download the chart for this section from the next post in this thread.