Religion Can’t Save Us from God’s Wrath

The Summit of Our Salvation

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

April 14,2024

Religion Can’t Save Us from God’s Wrath

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Romans 2. Last week I told you about those who stayed in the Richelieu apartment complex as hurricane Camille approached the Mississippi coast. As hurricane Camille approached the Mississippi coast it grew to a category 5 hurricane and is the second most powerful hurricane ever to hit the United States. It's winds reached 190 mph and the storm surge produced a wall of water 25 feet high And many buildings including the Richelieu apartments were leveled right down to the ground.

I also briefly mentioned Paul Williams and his family. It's an incredibly sad story. Williams got permission from his pastor to weather the storm out at the church, thinking it would be a safer place then his house. As the storm surge began to knock the walls of the church right down Williams was swept along until he got wedged in a fork in the branches of a tree. There he watched helplessly as his family was swept away. No one in his family survived except Paul Williams. In one of those strange ironies of fate, the Williams home was one of the few homes to survive the storm.

As Paul warns in chapter one that the dark clouds of God's wrath are fast approaching those who deny God's existence and give themselves to a life of sin and depravity, we can imagine the faithfully religious Jews standing on the sidelines amening Paul; “Thosegodless heathens got it coming…worshipping idols, sinning it up, disregarding God’s holy commandments. Thank God we’re not like them. We’re God’s chosen people, we keep the law, we observe the Sabbath, we’re circumcised, our Jewish religion is a safe shelter from God’s judgement.”

In chapter 2 Paul’s going to shock…and offend them.

2 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 practice such things. ³ Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵ But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Rom. 2:1-5

Pray.

One of the dangers for religious people, including Christians, is to become self-righteous judges. To stand on the sidelines with our arms crossed, judging those who aren’t godly like us. Of course, in one sense we are to judge right and wrong based on God's word. If we didn't do that we'd be living without a moral compass. Paul's not saying We should never evaluate whether something is right or wrong. He's talking about a judgmental attitude that says about others I'm better than you and God's going to judge you!

The problem is that it's human nature to judge others for what they do while at the same time doing

the same things! We can’t see our own sin as clearly as we see other’s sin. The speck in their eye is far easier to see than the log in our eye. We tend to give ourselves a pass for the same things we harshly judge others for.

We go to church, got baptized, take communion, tithe, listen to the preacher. We’re good Christians – not like those …fill in the blank: atheists, sexually immoral, adulterers, homosexuals, transgenders, Jews, Muslims, socialist progressives, right wing extremists, Biden supporters, Trump supporters. We can slice and dice people up into any group we want and judge them for what they do and feel good about ourselves but we do the same things. Maybe not in the same exact way, but the sin is as putrid in God’s eyes as theirs.

Paul is speaking to the faithfully practicing Jew, but his words are just as true for the practicing “Christian”- and I’m not using that word in a strictly biblical sense but rather in a cultural sense- those who identify as Christians because they go to church or were born into a Catholic or Protestant family or nominally believe certain things about Jesus. And here's the scary thing: Paul’s point isn’t that everyone's OK. That would seem more palatable to us: don’t judge cause everyone’s going to be safe from the wrath of God’s wrath. That would play well in today’s culture where we think high thoughts of ourselves and our goodness and small thoughts of God and His holiness.

But Paul’s not pulling us all together for a big group hug, kumbaya moment. Just the opposite, he said God's wrath is gonna take down the good religious person just as fiercely as the complete Pagan:

³ Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?... ⁵ But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. vv. 3,5

The Jews who were standing on the sidelines judging those terrible pagans are in the same boat. They also are storing up wrath for themselves on the day when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. Their religion wouldn’t save them.

⁶ He will render to each one according to his works: ⁷ to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸ but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. ⁹ There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. ¹¹ For God shows no partiality. Rom. 2:6-11

This Is where Paul really starts to offend the Jews. They think being Jewish is all about God showing partiality: they're the chosen people, God gave them the law, the covenant, the promises, the prophets, and the promise of the Messiah. He gave none of that to the Gentiles, so what do you mean by saying God shows no partiality?

And then a big question for us is what does Paul mean when he says that God will render to each one according to his works? Did he forget already what he wrote in chapter one that righteousness from God comes through faith? Is he now saying our judgment is based on our works?

Obviously Paul’s not contradicting himself, so what do we make his assertion that God will render to each one according to his (or her) works? To answer that question we need to realize that Paul is quoting from Psalm 62 which ends with the proclamation: “You reward everyone according to what they have done.” Ps. 62:12

Ps. 62 is not about those who do good versus those who do evil, it's about those who do wrong versus those who trust in God. It's a warning not to trust in riches or promoting our interests by hurting and cheating others but to rest in God, and trust Him for salvation.

It matters what we do. Trusting God for our salvation doesn't paralyze us from doing good works it energizes us to live for a kingdom bigger than us. The Holy Spirit inspires us to do good, not to be saved, but to seek God’s glory and that which lasts for eternity, as opposed to those who seek their own selfish and small priorities. It matters what we do and why we do it.

When we patiently seek to do good and obey God from the heart, God cares about that. We aren’t saved by doing -Paul will make that clear soon- but doing good from the heart for the glory of God will be a fruit of being saved. If there isn’t a desire to obey God and do good to others for the glory of God in our hearts, but we live for self-seeking and unrighteousness purposes, Paul says there will wrath and fury and being a religious person won’t save us.

Just as the Williams family found that taking shelter in the church couldn't save them from the fury of the hurricane in the same way if we go to church regularly but our hearts are full of gossip and pride and judgmentalism and self-righteousness, church attendance will not shelter us from the coming wrath of God.

Paul’s point here isn’t to leave everyone hopeless but to point their hope in the right direction. Paul Williams was hopeful, but his hope was misplaced. Paul doesn’t want that to happen to us on judgment day. It won’t be until chapter 3 that he will once again spell out our great need for the gospel – for the righteousness that comes from God by faith, but we’re going to close with two thoughts:

1. At the same time Paul includes the Jews in the wrath that’s coming to the Pagans, he also includes the Pagans in the same glorious gospel hope that is available to the Jews!

⁹ There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. ¹¹ For God shows no partiality. Rom. 2:9-11

Suddenly the Gentile’s ears perk up. The gospel is for everyone: the Jew first and then the Gentile! No one on earth is beyond the reach of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

2. Judgment is coming. The storm clouds are gathering. No one will avoid the judgment of God. Being religious can’t save us from Judgment Day, keeping the law can’t save us from Judgment Day. We are all sinners, we are all hypocrites, we all do unrighteousness, and we all must face God’s judgment. So where is the hope? Let me share a true story as we close.

There was an incident in the early days of our nation when some pioneers were making their way across one of the central states to lands that had been opened up for homesteading. They traveled in covered wagons drawn by oxen, and progress was slow. One day they were horrified to see a long line of smoke in the west, stretching for miles across the prairie, and they could see that the dried grass was burning fiercely and coming toward them rapidly. They had crossed a river the day before but it was too far to make it back to the river in time. Things looked hopeless except one man knew what they had to do.

He gave the command to set fire to the grass behind them. Then when a large space was burned over, the whole company moved back upon it.

As the flames roared toward them from the west, a little girl cried out in terror, "Are you sure we shall not all be burned up?" The leader replied, "My child, the flames cannot reach us here, for we are standing where the fire has been!"

What a picture of the believer, who is safe in Christ! On the cross Jesus took the scorching fire of God’s wrath in our place so all who by faith stand in him stand on scorched earth where the fire of judgment has already fallen. We don’t stand there self-righteously or thinking we are better than anyone, just humbly grateful that we stand in Christ safe from God’s judgment for he has received our judgement in our place.

We’re safe from that fire because we stand where the fire has already been. And all thanks and praise go to Jesus!