Tuesday, 12 May 2020 Romans 2:1-16
“But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed.” - Romans 2:5
Most Christians would admit that they love Jesus; but being Christians, we are all called to walk or behave in a manner worthy of the Gospel. But sad to say many Christians are only name-sake ones and don’t truly follow Christ. There are yet others who are entangled by deception through their stubborn nature unwilling for a real change. Very quickly Satan makes him/her a slave to a hardened heart, slowly drifting into a state of carnal nature.
Though the Word of God is heard by many day by day and week after week, it only remains in the intellectual realm. They are unwilling to open the door of their heart so that the Word can transform their lives. It’s God’s mercy that He holds back judgment (V.4), so as to allow people to repent and change their ways of life— it can be your actions, the way you speak or thought patterns.
Let’s not consider God’s patience an approval of continuing in our own selfish ways or otherwise His eventual judgment is certain. We don’t know when it will happen but rest assured that no one will escape that final encounter with the universal Judge – Jesus Christ. The treasure of wrath recorded here is opposed to the riches of goodness mentioned later (Vs10).
Jesus spoke thus in John 12:48: “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.” The purpose of Jesus’s first mission on earth was never to judge people but to show them the way of life. But one of the main purposes of His Second coming is to judge people for how they behaved on earth. The judgment is revealed in Rev.20:15- If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he/she was thrown into the lake of fire (paraphrased). We are not saved by deeds; but deeds are considered as clear evidence of a person’s walk with Christ.
Hebrews 6:7,8 says, “For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.” John the Baptist spoke of Jesus thus in Matthew 3:12: His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."An unproductive Christian life falls under God’s condemnation. Hence we need to examine our lives whether it is producing the right fruit which brings God’s blessings. To be rightly productive we need to be overcomers when the thorns of sin come to choke us—every word, deed, thought of hatred, unforgiveness, uncleanness ---etc should be destroyed and we should be an overcomer through Christ Jesus.
1 John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” If there is any stubbornness against God and His Word in our lives today, let us turn from them and ask for His cleansing so that our lives will truly become productive in Him!
JESUS said: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne.” (Rev.3:20,21)