The Moral Person’s Plea for Acquittal | Romans 2:1–5

Paul strips away the false refuge of moral comparison by showing that the person who judges others stands guilty before the same truthful judgment of God.

The Moral Person’s Plea for Acquittal

Romans 2:1–5 (WEB)

1. Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.
2. We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
3. Do you think this, O man, who judge those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?
4. Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, tolerance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
5. But according to your hardness and your unrepentant heart you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

Paul’s argument in Romans 2:1 begins by dismantling the moral person’s plea for acquittal at its root. The one who condemns another imagines that judgment creates distance from guilt, but Paul says the opposite. In judging another, that person…