https://youtu.be/U9WCbpHWJHM
In our study of Romans last time we finished Rom 2:2; with the Expanded Translation "For we have come to know that the judicial verdict from the God is according to the truth against them who practice such things."
This brought us to a discussion of the God who is the perfect Judge as compared with the self-righteous person who is incapable of judging.
We noted that in God all truth in every form of knowledge exists eternally. Since God is perfect His judgments are perfect. God's judgments are perfect and demand perfection.
Righteousness is the divine love for holiness. Justice is divine hatred for sin.
Righteousness and justice combine to form God's perfect holiness.
Infinite holiness acting toward other beings results in the function of God's justice. Holiness demands holiness and righteousness demands righteousness and God cannot change so judgment is rendered.
As long as God is what He is He must demand holiness and punish sin and evil. Because of the justice of God His judgments are vindicating but not vindictive. With unchangeable sin there is unchangeable judgment and condemnation.
God has absolute holiness (righteousness plus justice) for and from eternity.
God's moral excellence is not attained; it is inherent, infinite, absolute and eternal. God is the sum total of perfection in all of His attributes and the complete absence of sin and evil.
His holiness is not maintained by His will or His sovereignty it is part of the essence of His inherent unchangeable, immutable self.
God is immutable because of His perfect character. He can never at any time become better or worse than He was previously. The being of God is unalterable, absolute and totally consistent forever.
When infinite holiness acts toward His creatures God's justice is involved. His judgments are perfect and demand perfection. His righteousness is perfect and therefore not only rejects sin but He also condemns sin.
God's love for holiness is revealed by His righteousness. God's justice reveals His hatred for evil and sin that is rooted in His hatred for satan's lies, deceit, propaganda and fake news that are the cause of evil and sin.
Holiness demands holiness; righteousness demands righteousness. God's nature cannot change, He must demand holiness and He must punish evil.
Because God's justice judged our sins at the cross His justice has found a way to vindicate rather than condemn and not only not to condemn us but to bless believers in Jesus Christ.
Judgment is God's prerogative. Divine judgment is from the source of God's justice. God has both the character and the information on which to function as a perfect judge.
The same source of judgment (the justice of God) is the source of blessing to the believer also because of the fact that the sins of the world were judged on the cross.
Jesus Christ was bearing our sins when the God's justice judged them. 2 Cor.5: 21; 1Pet 2:24; Therefore God's justice is free to give us salvation when we believe in Jesus. Salvation instead of condemnation is the result of faith adjustment to God's justice.
Rom 2:3; The NASB starts with "But do you suppose this" it begins with the particle "de" used as a transitional conjunction translated "but" or "and" plus the present middle indicative of the verb "logizomai. "
"Logizomai" means to "think, to consider, to ponder, to calculate, to evaluate, to estimate or to reason" that are functions of a thinking people, but this same verb can also used for non-thinking people trying to guess, and so it can also mean "to presume, suppose imagine, infer or conjure."
So it could be translated "but do you imagine or infer?" The descriptive present tense is for what is going on in the thinking of self-righteous people who have to judge others to feel better.
Remember that self-righteousness cannot feel better without sinning, without judging, maligning, gossiping and slandering others.
The middle voice of "logozomai" means that the subject participates with producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood tells us that they think what they are imagining in their thinking is actually true but it is not.
Next we have an accusative neuter singular direct object from the immediate demonstrative pronoun "houtos", translated "this" that is used as a reference what they are conjuring in their thinking. "Do you presume this" is a good translation.
"O man" is the same description that was used for the slanderous, self-righteous person of verse one. It is exactly the same form in the Greek. The interjectory particle "o" is used with the vocative to express indignation against the evil judgment of self-righteousness.
The vocative of the noun "anthropos" translated "man" refers to the self-righteous person of verse one who presumes to assume the prerogative of God in judging others. The NRSV and the NET translate this "whoever you are" the KJV and the NASB transliterate it as "O man."
"When you pass judgment" is the articular present active participle of the verb "krino." It is a retroactive progressive present that denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time.
In order to maintain their feeling of superiority self-righteous people must find those they consider inferior to them and judge them. The active voice: the self-righteous individual produces the action of judging.
Then there is "tous ho" an accusative plural definite article that becomes the direct object describing the victims of the self-righteous, slanderous judge" who passes judgment."
" On those who practice such things." "Practice" is the transliteration of present active participle from the verb "prasso." The present tense is a historical present that views the past sins of heathenism with the vividness of something that is going on right now.
The active voice references the Roman heathens who produce the action of the verb. The participle with the definite article is used as a relative clause. The participle has a direct object, the accusative plural from the correlative adjective "toioutos" that means "similar things" or "such things"
"And do the same" first we have the connective "kai" translated "and" followed by the present active participle of the verb "poieo" that is contrasted with "prasso," that means to do, to make, to manufacture, to produce, to perform; in the context here it means to be guilty or to commit.
The present tense is a customary present, denoting what habitually occurs in the human race, that the self-righteous person who is judging, maligning and slandering others is actually guilty of the same sins.
The active voice: self-righteous people commit the same sins and are just as guilty before God's justice as the perverts are. The participle is circumstantial. The object is the accusative neuter plural from the intensive pronoun "autos" "the same things."
"That you will escape" the conjunction "hoti" introduces an objective clause after the verbs of imagining, presuming, or erroneous presumption. Plus the future middle indicative of the verb "ekpheugo" ("ek" = out; "pheugo" = flee), it means to run away to avoid or to escape.
The future tense is a predicative future for an event that one expects to avoid in the future. This is referring to an action that will occur at some future time. The self-righteous person assumes that because he is self-righteous he is permitted to assume God's prerogative and condemn others.
The more he condemns others the more he is certain that God will not condemn him. The middle voice: the subject or the agent who is the self-righteous one acts with a view toward participating in the results of the action so his is a potential future indicative.
"The judgment of God?" translated from the nominative singular subject from "krima" with the definite article "tou". The noun means decision, decree, judgment, judgment action, the function of a judge, or judicial verdict.
Plus the ablative of source of the definite article "tou" and the proper noun "Theos" the judicial verdict from "the God" that we have previously noted is Jesus Christ.
Expanded Translation Rom 2:3; "And do you presume this, O Man, who judges those who practice similar things, and are guilty of the same things, that you will escape the judicial verdict from the God?"
Some principle from this verse:
Self-righteous rationalism leads to hypocrisy. The self-righteous person attempts to excuse or minimize his own sins and failures by judging the more obvious sins of immoral people.
The overt sins of immoral people are very obvious while the mental attitude and verbal sins of the self-righteous are hidden behind a façade of legalism and human good.
In using the contrast between the two verbs, "prasso" and "poieo,"" prasso" is used for overt obvious sins in contrast with "poieo" is used for hidden sins such as mental attitude sins, sneaky sins, sins of the tongue, judging, slander, gossip.