Before moving on from Paul’s first big argument, it’s time for another targum, a loose explanatory paraphrase of the text:
[1.18-23] Our good and just God shows us the real consequences of the sacrilege and injustice humans wreak on the earth when they willfully refuse to see what’s right before their very eyes. For what can be known about God — God’s ageless power and divinity — can be clearly known in the visible world. It is on full display in the well-ordered universe God has made. So no one can say they didn’t know any better. But, even though they could know God from the world around them, they did not give God due praise and thanksgiving. Instead, they muddled their minds and numbed their already dull senses. Thinking they were wise, they became foolish and worshiped created things that wear down and decay — statues of wood and stone carved into the shape of animals — instead of their indestructible Creator.
[1.24-32] And so, God left them to their own devices, to their insatiable appetites, including treating their own and others’ bodies disrespectfully, and again, worshiping and serving creation instead of its Creator (who is blessed for all eternity, Amen!). You know how the old story goes: God left them to their unrestrained appetites, leading to all kinds of excess and aberrant behaviour, with women leaving behind expected gender roles, and men overheating in passion and doing obscene things with other men, which is really its own punishment. Again, since all this is from their unwillingness to see things as they are, God left them to their unthinking minds, so they did what they shouldn’t. They became full of every kind of injustice, evil, excess, and wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, and poor character. They gossip, slander, show contempt for God. They are arrogant, boastful, and pretentious.They devise evil schemes, dishonour their parents, are foolish, have no relationships that rein in their behaviour, are without affection. They are merciless. Even though they know that God has justly said that the consequence of all this is death, not only do they still do it, but they cheer on others who do it too.
[2.1-11]. Of course, since you accept these stories, you will see that you — everyone of you who has judged any of this — are yourself without excuse. For when you judge others, you condemn yourself, since you do the exact same things! We know that when God judges those who do such things, that is just. But why do you think you’ll escape that same judgment when you hypocritically judge others for doing things that you do too? Does knowing how bountifully kind, tolerant, and patient God is make you complacent, making you forget that the only true response to understanding God’s kindness is repentance?
Honestly, with as hard and unrepentant a heart as that, you’re just storing up wrath for yourself for the day when you will stand before the heavenly Judge, who gives to each in line with what they have done. For those who patiently do what is good, thinking only of heavenly glory and honour, there is eternal life. But for those who, seeking their own earthly advantage, do what is unjust, there is only the full force of God’s just wrath. There is nothing but anguish for anyone who insists on doing what is wrong; but glory, honour, and the full measure of God’s peace for those who do what is good. (And if my own Jewish people are first in honour and salvation, we’re first in judgment too — for to whom much is given, much is expected!) God shows no partiality: all are judged in line with what they do.
[2.12-16] It’s simple: Anyone who sins without the Law will face the consequences without the Law; and all who sin with the Law will be judged by the Law. Having the Law doesn’t make you a just person as far as God is concerned; doing it does. When Gentiles who don’t have the Law live out its just ways, they in a sense are the Law in and of themselves, and reveal that the Law is written on their hearts, allowing their own conscience to speak alongside their conflicted thoughts on that day when God, through Jesus Christ in accordance with the good message of God’s victory to which I’ve dedicated my life, will judge everyone and everything they try to hide.
[2.17-29] If you value Jewish identity and the Law — if you boast in God because you understand God’s will through knowing the Law, and consider yourself a teacher and guide to children and the ignorant and foolish — if you teach others, do you follow your own teaching? You teach “Do not steal” but do you yourself steal? You teach “Do not commit adultery” but do you cheat? You hate idolatry, but do you take advantage of the wealth of temples? You boast in the Law, but do you dishonour God by breaking it? As it is written: “God’s name will be blasphemed around the world because of you!” Circumcision has value if you live out the covenant it symbolizes; but if you break the Law, you’ve effectively uncircumcised yourself. By the same logic, if foreskin lives out the Law’s just precepts, is not that foreskin as good as circumcision? In that case, the one who is by all expectation and custom an outsider will judge you whose behaviour marks you as an outsider despite the insider status with which your circumcision marks you. The circumcision God cares about is not the one on display in the locker room, but the one within: the circumcision of the heart, having the Law written in the heart and not on the page.
[3.1-8] If what I’m saying is true, is there any benefit in being Jewish, or any value in circumcision? Yes, of course. We Jews have been entrusted with the oracles of God. God has walked alongside us and taught us the right ways to live! If some of us weren’t faithful does their bad faith counteract God’s good faith? Absolutely not! Even if everyone else proves false, God will be proven to be true. Why? As the Scriptures tell us, addressing God, “May You be shown to be just in Your words and Your judgment prevail.” But if our injustice confirms God’s justice, does that mean God is unjust to act on God’s wrath? (I speak here in human terms.) Of course not. How then would God justly judge the cosmos? But, some might argue, if my bad faith only serves to demonstrate God’s glorious good faith, why should I be judged? Or, why not blaspheme even more (as some do) and say, “Let’s do more that is wrong so that more good things might come?” I’m not going to dignify that with an answer. Those who ask such questions condemn themselves by the bad faith they reveal in asking them.
[3.9-20] So what then: Are we actually better off? Well no. As we’ve argued, everyone, both Jews and Gentiles are under the power of sin. As is written: “There is not a single person who is just, not even one; there is no one who gets it, not one who seeks God. All have gone their own way, all have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.” And again, “Their throat is an open grave; their tongues lie.” “Their lips are drenched in venom, their mouths full of bitter curses.” And again, “Their feet hurry towards bloodshed; their path runs toward affliction and suffering, and they have not known the pathways of peace.” And finally: “There is no fear of the LORD in their eyes.” Listen: we know that whatever the Law says, it says to those to whom it applies. So, there’s no room for boasting or judgment or complaint: the whole cosmos is accountable before God. As far as the Law is concerned, “all flesh will be found unjust,” for at the end of the day, the Law can only reveal to us what sin looks like. It can’t do anything to stop it.
Matthew Root 