{"id":1207,"date":"2009-09-17T19:01:18","date_gmt":"2009-09-18T01:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2009-09-17T19:01:18","modified_gmt":"2009-09-18T01:01:18","slug":"romans-1211-the-impartial-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-1211-the-impartial-judge\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 12:11 – The Impartial Judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Romans 2:11<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For there is no partiality with God.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

God judges based on truth, not on appearance.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPartiality<\/span>\u201d comes from the Greek word pros\u014dpolepsia<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of pros\u014dpon<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cface\u201d or literally, \u201cthat part of the face at or around the eyes,\u201d and a form of lamban\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto receive.\u201d So, literally it means that God is not a receiver of faces. By implication it means that He does not treat people differently simply based on personal characteristics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul ended each of the previous two verses with the phrase, \u201cto the<\/span> Jew first and also to the<\/span> Greek.<\/span>\u201d The reason for this expression is to remind the Christians in Rome, who are mostly converted Jews, that their heritage is not something to boast about. God will judge all people alike with one exception: those who rejected His offer of salvation will receive condemnation, and those who accepted His offer of salvation will receive mercy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why does He treat Jews and Gentiles alike? Paul tells us in today\u2019s verse, \u201cfor there is no partiality with God.<\/span>\u201d Samuel the prophet was sent by God to anoint the next king of Israel. When he first saw the eldest son of Jesse, he was sure that this was the one God had chosen. God told him otherwise: <\/span><\/p>\n

But Jehovah said to Samuel, Do not look on his face, nor on his height, because I have refused him. For He does not see as man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looks on the heart. <\/span>(1 Samuel 16:7<\/span><\/strong>)<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what Paul is saying in today\u2019s verse. God will judge us all based on the righteousness that we possess no matter how hard we try to impress Him with our good works. We can go to Church every Sunday, read our Bibles, and pray daily. We can give to the poor and even work for a poor Christian organization and look at our low wage as \u201ca ministry for God.\u201d But if we are not declared as righteous in God\u2019s Book of Life then we will be judged with all the other unrighteous ones at the Great White Throne judgment. If, on the other hand, we have recognized our sinfulness and we have humbled ourselves before God, accepting the blood of Christ as payment for our sins, then God declares us as righteous and we will not appear at the Great White Throne judgment. Instead, we will appear at the Bema Seat judgment where we will receive rewards for the good works we have done.<\/span><\/p>\n

One final note: the works that we get rewarded for may not be the works that we expect to get rewarded for. Only those things which are done for Him, that is, to give Him glory, will be rewarded. These things that we do for ourselves (even if we claim that they are for Him) will not result in rewards. It\u2019s sort of a catch-22. If we do any deed for the purpose of getting rewarded for it, we won\u2019t get a reward for it. On the other hand, the selfless things that we do in obedience to God, strictly for His glory, because He is deserving, these are what will result in rewards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want to bless God, then serve Him humbly and faithfully. If you want God to bless you, then serve Him humbly and faithfully. <\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 2:11 For there is no partiality with God. Truth to Learn God judges based on truth, not on appearance. Behind the Words \u201cPartiality\u201d comes from the Greek word pros\u014dpolepsia, which is made up of pros\u014dpon, meaning \u201cface\u201d or literally, \u201cthat part of the face at or around the eyes,\u201d and a form of lamban\u014d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[503,488,412],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-impartial","tag-judge","tag-works"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-jt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}