No Partiality With God

In one paragraph

This message was the continuation of a series through Romans, working through chapter 2. Pastor Ray walked the congregation through one of the harder stretches of Paul's letter, the section that levels every person before God, religious or not, and offers no exit. He described it plainly: there is no hope in this passage on its own, but it is the foundation everything else gets built on. Pastor...

Read together

1. Romans 2:11 There is no partiality with God, used as the anchor statement for the whole passage
2. Romans 2:12-16 All who sinned without the law will perish without the law; conscience accuses or defends; God will judge secrets through Christ
3. Romans 2:17-24 Jews who boast in the law but break it cause God's name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles
4. Romans 7:24-25 Mentioned briefly as a forward skip to reach the statement about no condemnation in Christ
5. Romans 8:1-2 Mentioned briefly alongside Romans 7:24-25 to affirm no condemnation in Christ
6. James 1:22 Prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves

Talk about it

1. The pastor said he spent the night trying to squeeze hope out of this passage and came up empty. Have you ever sat with a section of scripture that offered no comfort? What was that like for you?
2. The sermon described God showing no partiality as something that 'lands hard.' In what ways do you find yourself tempted to think God might make an exception for you because of your background, your church involvement, or something else you are holding onto?
3. Paul's point about conscience, that even people without the law instinctively know right from wrong, came up in the sermon. Where have you seen that play out in your own experience, inside or outside the church?
4. The book Unchristian came up in the sermon, with the finding that outsiders describe Christians as judgmental and holier than thou. Paul says in this passage that God's name is blasphemed among outsiders because of the behavior of religious people. How honestly do you think that charge lands on us as a congregation?
5. The pastor said that the somber season of looking at how destitute we are outside of Christ actually amplifies the hope we have in Christ. Do you find that to be true in your own life? What does it do to your experience of grace when you sit with the weight of what this passage is saying?