ROMANS 2:1-29 FOR MY CHILDREN

A Targum* for my children based on Romans 2:1-29



Romans 2: 1:16

Now, I can hear some of your unbelieving friends saying, “That’s right! Give ‘em hell. You religious types claim to be all holy, but I’d never want to be like you. You’re a bunch of hateful, hurtful, judgmental, hypocritical, self-serving jerks.”

Well, they’d be right more often than not, but let me ask them: do you think that publicly judging other’s de-humanizing behavior is enough to rescue you from it? I mean, look around. Those who've never claimed to know God are guilty of doing the same things. Complaining about others isn't going to cut it. Don’t you know that God’s judgment will fall on all those who slavishly perpetrate sin? Do you think your societies’ increase in violence, loneliness and despair is a coincidence? It’s God’s judgment.

God will give the life of the Age-To-Come to all of those who desire to reflect truthfully his eternal life of love, but to those whose lives mimic the creatures that they idolize, he will give the full culmination of their de-humanization. It has already begun. Want to know what hell is like? You can see a small foretaste in the violence and despair of the inner city and the loneliness of the old lady forgotten and left to die in a nursing home bed. This is a fact for everyone…both those who claim to know God’s name and those who do not. God is not partial. It is the reality of both Jew and Gentile.

While God will judge those whom he’s recruited as partners in the fixing of the world by the clear stipulations of the relationship they freely entered into- the Torah, He will not judge the Gentile by a standard they do not possess. They will be judged apart from that special document that was given to Israel alone.

But just as “the critics” will not escape by mere criticism, God’s ancient people will not escape by the mere possession of the Torah. A man can be married and yet fail miserably to keep his vows. In that case the marriage covenant will only condemn him further. In the end, it will be those people who are faithful to the requirements of the Torah that will be fully vindicated and declared to be “His people, indeed.”

This is true of gentiles, as well. When they fulfill the Spirit of the marriage covenant, which God has entered into with Israel- even thought they haven’t the particulars of that relationship, they will show that God has written it on their hearts. At the end, neither the possession of secular morals not Jewish Torah will be of any consequence to those who have lived as idolaters.

2:17-29

Now, if ya’ll were Jewish or had any Jewish friends living right after Joshua’s resurrection, they might say something like, “Amen, the Gentiles are screwed up, and… what you say may be true of some Jews, but we as a people have been given the Torah. We are the answer to the sin and misery of mankind. God promised our Father Abraham thousands of years ago that that the world would be blessed through us. We know his will. We know how men and women ought to behave. You forget that we are a guide to the blind nations- their teacher and healer.” Well, what can I say, friend. This is what Israel was called to do and be, but…in your zeal to teach others, do you not teach yourself? You as a people are no different from those you claim to teach. Because of your sin and boasting the Gentiles mock God.

Again, being a Jew is of consequence if Israel keeps her covenant, but if she doesn’t then she's no different from the gentiles. So it’s only fair that if a Gentile is somehow enabled to keep the heart of the covenant of Torah, she should be regarded as one of God’s people. If there are such people in the world, then their lives condemn those who are in covenant with God and yet break it. Belonging to God isn’t a matter of race or other historical privilege. It is a matter of the heart.



Other completed passages of the Targum: Romans 1:1-7 , 1:8-17, 1:18-28
*A Targum was an expanded paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures composed by Rabbis during the diaspora to aid the understanding of their “Hebrew challenged” congregations. I thought something similar might be of help to my kids. So I’ve started with Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.