The section of Romans 1.16 – 2.1, where the righteousness and wrath of God are juxtaposed in 1.17 and 1.18, leads right through to 2.1:
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
It is good to be reminded that the Holy Scriptures present us with a realistic yet positive view of mankind. Paul, along with the writers of the history and prophetic books, are untied by the Holy Spirit is seeing mankind as frail and fragile, often failing and always fallible. So much potential yet proved to be, from Eden through Babel and beyond, pathetically impotent in realising that potential.
Until God takes hold of us in Jesus. And reshapes our humanity by the power of the Holy Spirit and directs and invites us under His care into the obedience of faith. All our lives are, in the light of Jesus, capable of rebooting and reorientation, as we view the Cross and hear the call to repentance and faith.
Paul well understands the real failure of all mankind. But he is no cynic, as so many who deal with the debris of human behaviour through the procedures of law and social work sadly become. The Apostle calls us to humility and recognition of the universality of human sin, including our own. But out of that, to respond to the invitation to be lifted up in the power of Christ’s resurrection, enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
God help us all to hold to such a perspective.
