5. God will evaluate without playing favorites (Romans 2:11).
God offers salvation to everyone because everyone needs it. God is no respecter of persons. He shows no favoritism. Regarding the issue of sin, no one is better than anyone else from God’s perspective.
I remember as a child when dad took me to the top of the 10-story Braniff building in Dallas. I looked down, and all the cars look like toys.
Dad said, “Look at the people.”
“They all look small to me.”
“Can you tell the difference,” he asked, “between the five-foot-tall people and he six-foot-tall people?”
“No.”
Several minutes later we were down on the sidewalk and dad asked, “Now, can you tell the difference between a tall man and a short man?” It was easy. So it is in our human judgments. On the human level, we see all sorts of variations in wealth, culture, education, character, goodness, and badness.
But, from God’s point of view from the 10th story, everyone looks alike! Without being irreverent, I can almost hear God saying to some individuals, “You dummy. Do you really figure that you have calculated some shifty plan that will let you go up against me and get away with it? You don’t have a ghost of a chance.”
God doesn’t like to judge. He definitely says that judgment is his “strange work” (Isaiah 28:21).
Nevertheless, he will judge: “He who spared not his own Son but delivered him up” will certainly not hesitate to judge those who reject his free offer of grace in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:32).
6. God will evaluate according to how well we’ve lived up to the “light that we’ve received” (Romans 2:12-15).
There are two types of people: Those who have heard the gospel and those who have not. Both are judged according to how they respond to what they know. In other words, they will be judged on the amount of “light” which they have received.
Those who have heard the gospel have seen the “light” and by receiving Christ are living up to the level of the light they have received. But there are many people who hear the gospel and reject it. They have not lived up to the light and therefore stand condemned for God.
Of course, this begs the question regarding the natives in Africa who will never be exposed to, or hear, the gospel during their lifetimes. This is certainly unfair to send people to hell and have never had the chance, and most likely never will have the chance, to hear the gospel and respond positively to Christ.
Paul teaches us that these folks will be judged according to how well they live up to what they know and they know much more than we realize. They have an internal conscience which guides him as to what is right and wrong behavior. They can look at the stars at night and see the universe and know that there must be a God who created all.
In a startling way, Paul seems to be teaching us that salvation is available to those who never heard the gospel if they live up to the light they’ve received.
“To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger” (Romans 2:7-8).
This idea of living up to the light brings up some intriguing thoughts. Do you know anyone who’s lived up to the light they have received? Is it possible that God accepts for salvation those who have lived up to the light received, then, perhaps, it’s best that we not share the gospel because those who hear it may reject it and be lost. They might have a better chance to live up to the light that you have received.
