Romans 2:1-16
No Excuses, No Escape

Handout for lesson

Review of Ch. 1:18-32

  • Ungodliness is (v.21, 23) ________________________________________________________.
  • Unrighteousness is (v. 24) _______________________________________________________.
  • Everyone knows that he is responsible to God, even those who have only Creation to go on.
  • One of the great themes of Romans is ________________.

Chapter 2

v. 1. ___ ________ is often used in the New Testament to refer to Jews. The Jews had God's Word, but the rest of the world, at that time, did not. Compare 1:19-20 with 2:12. Today, ch. 2 applies to anyone who lives where God's Word is known and observed.

v. 2. "According to truth" or "rightly" means "according to ______ __________ ____ ______ _________."

v. 3. Most people count on God grading on a curve. They think they will somehow be excused and escape His judgment. Paul's rhetorical question shows this to be folly.

v. 4. Despise means ____ ________ __ ______ ________________ __.

"They despise the goodness of God, who form such a wrong estimate of it, as to suppose that it gives them a license to sin; who imagine that he will not punish, either because he long forbears, or because his goodness towards us is so great that we shall escape, though others perish."1

"The goodness of God leads us to repentance, because it...gives us ground to hope for acceptance."2

v. 5. "____________________ ____ __________" is an accounting term related to banking, savings, and compound interest. Each day that God is patient with us in our lack of repentance, we make another deposit to the wrath of God against ourselves.

v. 6. Paul supports his point with Scripture. Prov. 24:12, Jer. 17:9-10, Ps. 62:11-12

vv. 7-11. Paul is here expounding the ______, not the ____________. He is laying out the eternal principle of judgment according to works. Until we understand the law that binds us, we cannot properly understand the gospel that frees us.

vv. 12-15. Those who have heard God's Word will be judged by it. Those who do not have God's written Word have a different form of God's Law, one written on their hearts, in their consciences.


Review Key

03 March 2002
David J. Finnamore
Orlando, FL