Does Romans 2 Teach "Justification By Works?"

This is a question that Jack Cottrell raises in his Romans Commentary and I think he does an excellent job in addressing it. I will do my best to convey to you his thoughts on the matter.

Let’s first look at what the Bible says in portions of Romans 2:

“He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek…” (Romans 2:6-10).

“...For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Romans 2:13).

“…So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?” (Romans 2:26).

On the surface, this sounds consistent with the general idea of “keep God’s commandments” that we were taught from childhood--that is do good and go to heaven--or-- do bad and go to hell. That’s fair, right? Pretty simple it seems. This is also consistent with what we talked about before. What are the principles of law?

BREAK THE COMMANDMENTS AND SUFFER THE PENALTY
KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS AND ESCAPE THE PENALTY

This is difficult to argue with. And for the record, let me emphasize that I do whole-heartedly believe that we are to submit to God’s ways and obey Him. Please, make no mistake about that. But there lies the problem with taking these scriptures I just quoted at face value without considering them in their proper context. Paul indicates some other things in his theology that on the surface, seem to contradict what he says here in Romans 2. Let’s look at a few examples:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘the righteous shall live by faith’ (Romans 1:16-17).

“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).

“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28).

So we have what looks like two opposing views from the pen of the same inspired apostle. But we know that can’t be the case, right? Surely Paul is not contradicting himself. There has to be an explanation. We have to search for the way that the Bible harmonizes both of these concepts to form what we know as Truth. Once again, keep in mind that Paul is speaking in the overall context of law-keeping in this section of scripture, making the point that it falls short as a means of salvation. Under this type of salvation system, we fall short; all of us do. No one is exempt from this. Therefore Paul is actually speaking here about the conditions or terms of salvation if law-keeping were it—but we know that is not the case. But if it were, Paul is saying, this would be the description. And not one of us meets the terms of this type of salvation. This is the only viable explanation in light of its context; otherwise we have Paul, an inspired apostle, directly contradicting himself and sounding like a hypocrite. I don’t think any of us believe this about Paul or his writings.

Notice Dr. Cottrell’s explanation of this. He does a much better job than what I am able to convey:

“In the texts in question (vv.6-10, 13, 26) Paul is not talking about the judgment of Christians under grace, but about the conditions that prevail within the sphere or system of law, or about how a person is judged for either justification or condemnation under the provisions of God’s law. As already explained, the subject of this whole section is law, and especially its inability to save sinners.

As we also saw earlier, the principles of law are this: ‘Keep the commandments, and therefore escape the penalty; break the commandments, and therefore suffer the penalty.’ Within the context of law, anyone who does not keep its commandments will be condemned. Likewise, anyone who persevered in good works, who is a doer of the law, who keeps its commandments, will be justified. This is a statement of fact. Any Jew or Gentile who completely obeys the law available to him will be justified.

But as a matter of fact—and this is Paul’s whole point in this section—there is no one at all in this category; everyone has sinned. As a formal principle it is true that the doers of the law will be justified. But in view of the universality of sin, it is only theoretically or hypothetically true. Not one single Jew and not one single Gentile will in fact be accepted by God in the final judgment because of his good works or his obedience to law. Thus, vv.7, 10, 13, 26 should not be taken as referring to any actual state of affairs.

The actual state of things is given in (Romans-JB) 3:20, that by works of law no one will be justified, since the law judges everyone to be a sinner.” (Jack Cottrell, Romans, pp.100-101).

Everyone has flaws. In theory, if one is able to keep the law perfectly, then sure that person is justified. But Paul’s point in the context is that this theory (law-keeping as a means of salvation) falls short because none meet this standard. The only way to meet the criteria is to keep the law perfectly (Galatians 3:10; James 2:10). In other words, because of the universality of sin, law keeping as the means of salvation can only be in theory (or hypothetical). There really are only two alternatives to being saved: “nonexistent perfect obedience [law] or the gospel reality of righteousness through faith [grace]” (Cottrell, p. 101).

I do think it is important that we seek and make application from all of this. The lesson here is so strong that we can ill-afford to miss it. Its application is actually two-fold: on one hand, when sin enters our lives, we become desperately in need of God’s grace. And we need to rely on that grace. Trust in God and His righteousness more than we do our own. Relying on it means submitting to it—understanding that it is a much better way than our own way, and so we trust that it is powerful enough to save us although we don’t deserve it. This is humility. This will lead to true repentance--hopefully. On the other hand, keeping this in context with the overall Romans letter, if we think this means we can stop serving God and start living immoral lives, and somehow withdraw our responsibility to submit to His will, then that makes a mockery of His grace (Romans 6:1ff). God forbid that anyone define God’s grace as a license to sin.