Live Your Life with the Final Chapter in Clear View

LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH THE FINAL CHAPTER IN CLEAR VIEW

Unpacking and applying Romans 2:1-11

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: April 19, 2026

Series: The Basics of the Christian Faith

Note: Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

I invite you to turn in your bibles to Romans chapter two, and I’d like to read verses one through eleven. Romans chapter two, beginning in verse one. Holy Scripture says,

"Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

"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. For God shows no partiality." (Romans 2:1-11)

This is the word of God and it is for our good. Let's pray:

Father, we need the instruction and encouragement that comes from your words. And Father, we pray that you would cause the light of your words to shine upon our hearts this morning. Help us to see the bigger picture of what you are doing in the lives of your people. And lead us in your ways. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

INTRODUCTION

Well, let me introduce this sermon a little bit and why it came about. As I was thinking about the Basics of the Christian Faith series that we recently completed, I was thinking that it would be really good even as part of that series to include some instruction on the return of the Lord and the final judgment and how those future realities are meant to shape our life in the present. In fact, you may recall Alistair Begg even mentioned this when he was outlining essential doctrines in I think the third sermon, though it didn't actually come up in a whole lot in the thirteen sessions. And so I was chewing on that, and then I eventually found myself in Romans chapter 2, verses 1-11.

And so what I want to talk about this morning is the transformed Life, the transformed Christian life, particularly in view of the end, the final judgment, or the final chapter you could say. God calls his people into a transformed life. That transformed life commences with conversion. It continues through a life of sanctification and spiritual growth and practical holiness. And then it culminates in the fullness of eternal life with God in the new heaven and the new earth forever and ever. And so our present moment of following Jesus should be full of encouragement and hope.

Yesterday I took my youngest three to Lewiston and we went on the riverwalk there. And I noticed on a fence somebody had written these words: life is like a dirt road, never straight, always stoned. And it just caught my attention. And I thought, ‘This is not resounding with encouragement.’ And a lot of people live there in a place of discouragement, without a whole lot of hope and light. And you know, when we understand the Scriptures, we could say, you know, life is like a dirt road, never straight, but always full of promise, always a time for sanctification and for learning to grow in God's ways and to be transformed by his Spirit.

So I want to talk about this transformed life, but I want to set the transformed life within the larger context of our whole life, including God's character and the judgment that Paul has talked about here. So I want to walk through this passage in six points.

I. THE IMPENDING JUDGMENT (v. 5-6)

So first of all, I want you to notice the impending judgment, the judgment to come. You see that in verse 5, Paul refers to it as “the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.” He refers to it in verse six when he says that “[God] will render to each one according to his works.” You'll see that terminology all throughout the Bible, in the Old Testament (e.g., Ecclesiastes 12:14) and in the New Testament (e.g., 2 Corinthians 5:10), that there will be a day when God brings a final review upon the character and quality of your life, and he will take your entire life and all of your works into account. 

You can also see it if you go beyond the passage I read to verse 16. Paul refers to “that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 2:16) “[The] secrets of men” – many of our works, and of course our attitudes, are hidden from the sight of other people. But our entire life, internal and external, is wide open into the view of the omniscient God. And this reality that he will bring our entire life under his final review should make us sober-minded about each and every day of our lives and how we seek to live our lives, and whether or not we are striving to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.

II. TWO POTENTIAL OUTCOMES (v. 7-10)

So there is this coming judgment and there are to potential outcomes. And you can see that in verses 7 through 10. The first possible outcome is that God will render to you eternal life, glory, honor and peace. You can see that in verse 7: “to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.” And then verse 10 says, “[There will be] glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good”. So eternal life, eternal glory, honor and peace, is promised to those who follow the Lord.

The other possible outcome is wrath, fury, tribulation and distress. And you can see that in verses 8-9 when Paul writes: “but for those who are self-seeking” – for those whose lives are characterized by selfish ambition, they live by themselves and for themselves – “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” – and of course your ethnic and cultural background is completely irrelevant – “the Jew first and also the Greek.”

So you have these two possible outcomes, right? Eternal gain or catastrophic loss. And it says in verse 6: “He will render to each one according to his works”. Think about what a person's works reveal. A person's works reveals the presence or absence of faith. Your works reveal your character. Your works reveal the presence or absence of a personal relationship with the Lord. Your works reveal whether or not you actually love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. And so this impending judgment is coming with these two potential outcomes in view.

III. THE PROBLEM WE ALL FACE (v. 1-3)

And before we give more consideration to the favorable outcome for those who know and follow the Lord, we need to be honest about the fact that we all start – every human being starts – in in the same boat. Let me remind you of something that Paul says in Romans 3 before I go back to Romans 2. In Romans 3, starting in the middle of verse 10, Paul says:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10b-12)

Now think about that. What that means is, is that every human being left to themselves, apart from God's intervening grace, is in verses 8-9. No one does good, right? No one does the good envisioned in chapter 2, verse 10, unless a profound change takes place, right? We're all in this same boat.

And look at Romans chapter 2, verse 2 – “We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.” What things?  The catalog of sins that Paul had just enumerated at the end of chapter one. Look at chapter one, verses 28-32, which says:

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (Romans 1:28-32)

So upon those who practice such things, God's judgment “rightly falls” (Romans 2:2). “[Those] who practice such things deserve to die” (Romans 1:32). Now some will hear this catalog of sins and they get to thinking that that catalog of sins is an apt description of those people over there, but ‘cultured me, civilized me, refined me, religious me, nice me, well, I'm in a different place than them. I don't fall under God's condemnation.’ But what does Paul say at the beginning of chapter two? He says, “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.” And then verse three: “Do you suppose, O man–you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself–that you will escape the judgment of God?” Now Paul isn't saying that each and every human being is guilty of an external manifestation of every single sin on that list. But the point is that the entire human race is in bondage to sin and in all kinds of different ways, particularly in terms of the disposition and the attitude of our hearts and the basic way in which we conduct our lives, we are all bound up in this problem of sin.

And so if we're reading through Romans chapter 2, verses 1 through 11, we should be entertaining the thought, ‘How do I switch sides?’, right? How do I get out of the self-seeking and evildoing of verses 8-9, which leads to eternal loss? How do I get rescued out of that predicament? And how do I become the kind of person who is actually doing good, who is actually following the Lord? That's the question we should be asking.

IV. THE POSSIBILITY OF A FRESH START (v. 4)

Now this leads me to the next point, which is the possibility of a fresh start. For those of you who are familiar with the book of Romans, you might think that Romans 2:1-11 is a strange passage from which to teach the transformed life, because you know that Paul is really just making his case against sinful humanity in all of these chapters and showing our need for a Savior. But Paul is continually bringing into view the whole story. And so even in this chapter, early on, he is previewing for us the transformed life.

And that transformed life begins with repentance. So look at verse four: “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” Repentance is exactly the thing that is needed in order to forsake a life of self-seeking and evildoing and God-ignoring, and to begin to follow the Lord in sincerity and truth.

Where there is repentance, there is a sober assessment that one indeed is sinful, that God is holy, that God's judgment is real, that I'm in grave danger. And you begin to find your sin distasteful, and you begin to find God and his ways desirable. And so your mind changes and you move toward God in repentance and faith, with a desire to be transformed by Him.

Notice, still in verse four, notice that it is “God's kindness” that “is meant to lead you to repentance.” God's kindness. Now on one level, God's kindness can be understood simply as his gracious decision to withhold judgment from you at the present time. He hasn't judged you yet, he hasn't punished you yet, he hasn't wiped you out yet. He is delaying that judgment. And in that delay there is the opportunity, there is the space, to turn back to him in repentance.

But on a deeper level, we know that God's kindness is a way of describing his entire movement toward us in the gospel. In the Book of Titus, Paul talks abou how “the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, [and] he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (Titus 3:4-5). In one of Paul's letters to Timothy, he praises the “perfect patience” (1 Timothy 1:16) of Jesus who had saved him, the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15-16). And so God is exceedingly patient and kind and gracious and merciful, even to the point of giving his very own Son, who laid down his life as an atonement for sin, so that our sins could be forgiven, and so that the path back to God could be cleared wide open. And so it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance.

And if you go into verse five, you can kind of read between the lines here and perceive that someone who experiences repentance is no longer going to have a “hard and impenitent heart”, right? A hard and impenitent heart is closed off to the Lord, is unteachable, unpliable, unwilling to yield, intent on doing its own thing. The hardened and impenitent heart, to go back to chapter one, it wants to “suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18) in unrighteousness, wants to suppress the truth, wants to hold God at arm's length. But where there is repentance, that deep internal change of heart and mind, then the heart becomes soft and tender and teachable and pliable, and we become moldable and shapeable. And that becomes the context for understanding the transformed life that Paul talks about in verses 7 and 10.

AN IMPORTANT THEOLOGICAL CLARIFICATION

Now I want to jump to the other side of the transformed life. But it might be helpful for me to pause at this point and to remind us that the Bible speaks about salvation in terms of the past, the present, and the future. And our understanding of salvation is inadequate and truncated if we reduce it down to just one of the three or even two of the three aspects of salvation.

Past, present, and future aspects of salvation

From the point of view of someone who is in a saved relationship with the Lord, we can speak about the past, that we have been saved, we have turned back to the Lord, we have been forgiven, we have been adopted into God's family, we have been reconciled to him, we have been born again, our heart has been regenerated, we have received the Holy Spirit, we have been saved.

But then there's the ongoing aspect, in the present moment, where we are being saved, we are being transformed, we are being sanctified, we are growing up into the fullness of our salvation.

And then looking to the future, we can say that we will be saved, we will finally be set free even from the very presence of sin, and we will be glorified with Christ.

And so it's helpful to keep this whole view of salvation in our mind.

V. THE PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE, GLORY, HONOR, AND PEACE (v. 7, 10)

And now I just want to call your attention to the fact that there is the promise of “eternal life” (v. 7), and there is the promise of “glory and honor and peace” (v. 10), again referring to the outcome of the final judgment for those who know God. So we're talking about everlasting glory and honor and peace. This is the promise of God to his people. This is the promise of God to those who know him and follow him. And it comes up all over the Scriptures.

For example, it comes up when Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) Or when he says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) All of Scripture looks forward to the day for believers when we will be glorified with Christ (Romans 8:17). We will be raised up – Paul mentioned that in Romans chapter 6 – we will experience a resurrection like that of Christ's resurrection (Romans 6:5). We'll be glorified, and we will shine like the brightness of the heavens. And we will bear a striking resemblance to our Lord. And we will be with the Lord in glory forever. And this promise is held out to us as a motivating factor, as a grounding and securing factor, for our lives. We're not just, you know, wandering around in the dark, hoping that there's something good at the end of the room. But rather, we have seen these promises in His Word, and we have embraced them, and now we're living in light of them.

VI. THE PATH OF TRANSFORMATION (v. 7)

And so now, finally, we come to the path of transformation. The path of transformation begins at conversion and it runs all the way to final glory, okay? It's everything in between the beginning of salvation and the end and final goal of salvation. It's that entire middle, okay?

A lifelong process that requires internal renewal

It's a lifelong process that requires continual internal renewal. Paul talks about that in Romans chapter 12, about how we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2), how we need to be renewed in the spirit of our minds (Ephesians 4:23) – God's words dwelling deeply within us and changing the way that we see him, and changing the way that we see others, and changing the way that we see the world. And out of that internal renewal comes good fruit – the fruit of a holy life, the fruit of a loving life.

The Holy Spirit leads us on the path of transformation

Now, I want to make it clear, if it hasn't been made clear already, that this life of transformation is not something that we pursue on our own. It's not something that we do alone. Now obviously we do it together as brothers and sisters, but the point that I'm really driving at is that we do it by the presence and strength of the Holy Spirit. Let me show you this in one particular passage. It's really helpful. Turn to Romans chapter 8. And I want to read a few verses from Romans chapter eight. Before I go back to chapter two, I want to read Romans chapter eight, verses 12 through 14. It says,

“So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Romans 8:12-14)

So let's think about this. Who are the sons of God? Those who have and are led by the Spirit of God. Now those who have and are led by the Spirit of God, then do what the Spirit leads them to do, which is envisioned in verse 13: “by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body.” And what I want you to notice that in this lifelong process of transformation, we're putting to death the deeds of the body – putting to death our misdeeds, putting to death our fleshly passions, putting to death our sins.

Notice that putting to death our sins is not how you become a son of God. Putting to death your sin is not how you get to the point of receiving the Holy Spirit. No, it doesn't work like that right? We become a child of God and we receive the Holy Spirit through initial repentance and faith as we believe in Jesus. And Jesus keeps his promise to us and forgives our sin and brings us into God's family and sends forth his Holy Spirit into our lives. So don't think that this life of transformation is something that you're supposed to pull off in your own strength, and then if you're particularly good at pulling it off, then you'll get the Holy Spirit and then you'll be part of God's family. That's not how it works. Become part of God's family and receive the Spirit through faith in Jesus. But then, of course, if you've actually received the Spirit, then that reality is going to significantly shape your life. The Holy Spirit is going to significantly shape your life. He is going to lead you.

And so you can see how, if you think about Romans 8:12-14 and relate it back to Romans 2, the Holy Spirit is leading you through the path of transformation envisioned in Romans 2:7. That is the path of transformation that leads to life. If you're not on that path, well, then you're stuck in Romans chapter two, verses eight and nine, which corresponds to the first half of Romans 8:13 – “if you live according to the flesh you will die”. But Romans 2:7 corresponds to the second half of Romans 8:13 – “but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Do you see?

So as we go back to Romans 2, think about putting to death the deeds of the body. Putting to death our fleshly passions and sins means that we are involved in conflict, mortal conflict. I mean, this is not a walk in the park. It's not comfort and ease. We experience temptations. We experience the weakness of our flesh. We experience the deceitful promises of sin. We experience the assaults of the enemy. We experience the allurements of the world. All of those things are coming at us all the time. And we need the Holy Spirit to strengthen us, to “cast off the works of darkness” (Romans 13:12). That's how Paul speaks in Romans 13, to “cast off the works of darkness” and to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13: 12, 14).

Now as we are back in Romans 2:7, let’s get into a few more details regarding the path of transformation.

Your desire is set on the promise of future glory

First of all, notice that on this path of transformation, your desire is set on the promise of future glory. It's not just that God has promised eternal life, glory, honor and peace to his people. It's that you have laid hold of that promise. And that future glorious promise is ever before you, shaping your life. So look at verse seven and let me just emphasize one part of it here: “to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality” (italics added) You're seeking for it, you desire it, you're striving after it. This isn't just like a shot in the dark that you hope lands sometime, somewhere. No, this is a confident expectation that has heard the promise of God, believed the promise of God, reckoned the promise of God better than the promises of sin, better than the promises of the world, better than the promises of a self-seeking life. And now you are gripped by that promise.

It's interesting to me that Paul says what he says. He says that the Christian is “[seeking] for glory and honor and immortality”. We know that God is the ultimate possessor of glory and honor and immortality. And yet Paul doesn't say that we're seeking for the glory and honor and immortality of God, or that we're seeking for God. Obviously, we are seeking for God, but I think there's something richer going on here because God has promised to share his glory, honor and immortality with us in eternity. And so the desire here isn't only for the glory and honor and immortality of God. This desire is to share in that glory, to be clothed with that immortality, to hear that “Well done, good and faithful servant…. Enter into the joy of your [Lord]” (Matthew 25:23), ( and to reign with Christ forever (Revelation 22:5). And so it's not just seeking after God, but it's seeking our own joy and fulfillment in God and in relationship to God, that is the desire of our Heart.

The Apostle John says over in First John chapter three – this is my paraphrase – that we don't realize how glorious we are going to be at the end, but that when he comes, when Jesus comes, we're going to become like him because we're going to “see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2) When we see him as he is, we’ll be transformed by the sight, we’ll become like Him. We'll be shining like the brightness of the heavens with him forevermore. So this desire, this desire for future glory, is shaping our life.

You live honorably

Let’s go to the next detail. You actually do what is good, right? You live honorably. Paul says: “to those who by patience in well-doing” (italics added). He’s envisioning here good, beneficial, and virtuous action. If you actually desire glory and honor and immortality, then you seek to live your life in a way that befits, is worthy of, and corresponds to that glory, honor and immortality. What is the opposite of glory, honor and immortality? Well, the opposite of immortality is death. We don't want to do those things that Paul listed at the end of chapter one, things that are worthy of death. We don't want to entertain dishonorable and degrading passions. We don't want to do that which is inglorious and shameful. We want to do that which reflects the beauty and the character and the grace and the wisdom of God. And so we want to bring our actual conduct, our everyday behavior – growing out of a transformed heart – we want to bring our actual conduct into alignment with glory, honor and immortality.

We shouldn't be afraid to call one another to holy action. Sometimes in our desire to make it clear that we are saved by grace and not by works, we get hesitant or fearful to even talk about works. But even though we're not saved by works, we're saved for good works (Ephesians 2:8-10). And it's actually by our own Spirit-enabled effort that we actually grow. Like Peter says: “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Peter also says: “make every effort to supplement your faith with” (2 Peter 1:5) all of these practical virtues, including the crowning virtue of love (2 Peter 1:5-7). In Colossians 3, Paul says to put off that which pertains to the old self and put on that which pertains to the new self. (Colossians 3:5-14) You have to do that. God is not going to do it for you. He's going to instruct you, encourage you, empower you, work in you. But you have to apply yourself in all diligence. “[Work] out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13) So we shouldn't be afraid to call people to holy action, to prayer, to fasting, to serious Bible study, to putting biblical instructions into practice, striving to be a worthy follower of Jesus Christ.

You persevere

Finally, still in verse 7, notice that there is a persevering quality to this transformed life. Paul says: “to those who by patience” (italics added). By patience, by perseverance, by steadfastness, by stick-to-itiveness. This is not a flash in the pan or hey, every once in a while I feel inspired to drop a few good works into the bucket. You can't think of it like that. This is different. Your whole life is taken over by this new heart, this new life, and the Holy Spirit's work within you. And even though we face trials and difficulties and setbacks and disappointments in our life, the true believer who was participating in this real transformed life keeps at it and keeps going until the very end. Perseverance.

And what keeps you going is God's promise. You think about just our practical, everyday lives. You know, people have goals in their lives. It could be to complete a course. It could be to complete school or complete a project. And even though you experience many difficulties and setbacks along the way, you keep going because the promise of a completed project is in view. And it needs to happen the same way in our spiritual life, where we have before us the promise of a completed project in view when we will be fully conformed to the image of Christ. And today is simply one more step along that road of transformation.

THE LAST WORD (Romans 2:7 and Galatians 6:7-10)

I want to conclude by reading a passage from Galatians Chapter six – a passage that reminds me of Romans Chapter two, verse seven. Let me read Romans Chapter two, verse seven once more so it's fresh in your mind. And then I'm going to read Galatians 6, verses 7 through 10. And that's how I'm going to close the message. It's a very fitting conclusion.

Hear Romans 2:7 again: “to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life”. Now – from the same writer, same theology, same vision – hear Galatians 6, verses 7 through 10:

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption” (Galatians 6:7-8a).

That sounds like Romans 2:8-9.

“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:8)

That sounds like Romans 2:7.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good”. (Galatians 6:9a)

That sounds like “by patience in well-doing” (Romans 2:7), by perseverance in well-doing.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:9-10)

Let's pray:

Father, I pray that you would help us to understand our own life and the lives of our fellow believers in view of this whole picture of salvation that you have set before us – the beginning, the middle, and the end. Father, we look forward to that day when we will be clothed with immortality, with the imperishable, when there will be no more sorrow or death. And Father, I pray that you would strengthen us to anticipate that day by fixing our eyes on Jesus today, by putting Jesus’ words into practice today, by growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ today. Father, help us to grow as a community of faithful disciples. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.