Romans 2:16
According to my gospel
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγέλιον euangelion · gospel
Original
Translations
on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Christ Jesus, as proclaimed by my gospel.
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my good news, through Jesus Christ.
곧 내 복음에 이른 바와 같이 하나님이 예수 그리스도로 말미암아 사람들의 은밀한 것을 심판하시는 그 날이라
이런 심판은 하나님께서 나의 복음대로 예수 그리스도로 말미암아 사람들의 은밀한 것들을 심판하실 그 날에 이루어지리라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Rom 2:1-16 as a whole
The Jews thought themselves a holy people, entitled to their privileges by right, while they were unthankful, rebellious, and unrighteous. But all who act thus, of every nation, age, and description, must be reminded that the judgment of God will be according to their real…
Read the whole commentary →Wesley Rom 2:16
In the day - That is, who show this in the day. Everything will then be shown to be what it really is. In that day will appear the law written in their hearts as it often does in the present life. …
Read the whole commentary →
Note
From 1:18 to 3:20 Romans makes one long case: all people stand guilty before God. In chapter 2 Paul turns to the one who judges others and says that God shows no favouritism but will repay each person by his deeds. The Jew who has the law and the Gentile who has only conscience both stand before that judgment (Romans 2:12–15). Then Paul names the day: "on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Christ Jesus, as proclaimed by my gospel" (Romans 2:16).
The noun carries μου here: my gospel. This is not a private gospel of Paul's, different from the apostles' message, but the one entrusted to him, which he insists was "not devised by man" (Galatians 1:11). The phrase comes again in Romans 16:25 and in 2 Timothy, where Paul writes of Jesus Christ "raised from the dead, descended from David, as proclaimed by my gospel" (2 Timothy 2:8). It stands after κατά, "according to". God's judging of people's secrets, , through Christ Jesus is part of what Paul proclaims.
How can judgment belong to good news? Paul's gospel does not hide the day when God will set the world right. What makes it good news is who the judge is: Christ Jesus, "who died, and more than that was raised to life" (Romans 8:34), and who intercedes for his people. At Athens Paul preached the same day, on which God "will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed" (Acts 17:31), and pointed to the resurrection as its proof.
The versions join the verse to different places. The King James Version puts verses 13–15 in parentheses, so that verse 16 completes verse 12: those who sinned in the law shall be judged by the law "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." The BSB uses no parentheses and lets verse 16 run on from verse 15: consciences "accusing or defending them on the day when God will judge men’s secrets". The LSV keeps the Greek order of the last words, "according to my good news, through Jesus Christ". Where the bracket closes changes what "that day" hangs on; in every version the last judgment is through Jesus Christ, and Paul counts it part of his gospel.
Wesley reads "according to my gospel" as "According to the tenor of that gospel which is committed to my care" Wesley, and draws a conclusion of his own: "Hence it appears that the gospel also is a law" Wesley. For him the gospel, too, sets the standard by which people will be judged. Matthew Henry writes that "Nothing speaks more terror to sinners, and more comfort to saints, than that Christ shall be the Judge" Matthew Henry, and that "Secret services shall be rewarded, secret sins shall be then punished, and brought to light" Matthew Henry.
The church put this into its confession from early on. The Apostles' Creed says of the ascended Christ that "from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead" the Apostles' Creed.
Anyone who hears the gospel hears in this verse that they will stand before One who knows even what is hidden. But the judge is the Christ who died for sinners, and that stands at the centre of what Paul calls my gospel.
Source
- The early church, The Apostles' Creed — The West's basic creed, grown from the Roman baptismal confession. Read