Romans 2:9–11

The unrighteousness of moralists

There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.

Good works are not necessary for salvation, but they are an important indicator as to the presence or absence of saving faith. Works are the standard evidence of living faith that an impartial God applies to every individual, regardless of status or nationality. Hence Paul can say, “There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.”

Throughout the Old Testament, God dealt with the Israelites in a unique way, beginning with his choice of Abraham as the father of the special nation from which the Savior was to be born. Jesus was born a Jew, and in his ministry, which was carried out almost entirely on Jewish soil, he declared, “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). The Jewish nation obviously had significant advantages, leading Paul, when he earlier spoke of the power of the gospel for salvation, to say, “first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” (Romans 1:16). 

That same pattern, first for the Jew and then for the Gentile, however, also holds true in God’s final verdict. The Jews had great advantages, but greater advantages mean greater obligations. Of his unbelieving compatriots, Jesus said, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22). Jesus states the principle clearly when he declares, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48).

Although God’s dealing with people is not identical in each case, that is, in the quantity of blessings he bestows on one person as compared to another, yet God’s dealing with all people is absolutely just and evenhanded. In the final accounting, he judges all people on the basis of their response to his grace. That is just another way of saying that he looks for and rewards the actions that flow from a heart filled with faith and trust in what God’s Son has done. 

Conversely, God rejects and punishes everyone who has spurned his grace in Christ and who tries to stand before him on the basis of personal merit. Judgment on the basis of faith showing itself in action is God’s fixed pattern of dealing with everyone, Jew or Gentile. That is the case, “for God does not show favoritism.”

While that principle holds true for both reward and punishment, Paul here expands upon only the latter, the negative verdict spoken by God upon the unbeliever whose life does not reflect the obedience of faith in Christ.