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BUT BECAUSE OF
YOUR STUBBORNNESS
(hardness)
AND YOUR UNREPENTANT HEART: kata de ten skleroteta sou kai ametanoeton kardian:
(see note
Romans 11:25;
Ex 8:15;
14:17;
Dt 2:30;
Josh 11:20;
1Sa 6:6;
2 Chr 30:8;
36:13;
Ps 95:8;
Pr 29:1;
Is48:4;
Eze 3:7;
Da 5:20;
Zec 7:11,12;
Heb 3:13,15;
4:7)
(Torrey's topic
Character of the Unrenewed Heart)
Stubbornness
(4643) (sklerotes from sklerós = dry, hard, tough,
harsh, used, of a stone which is specially hard for masons to
work; metaphorically of a king who is inhuman and hard in his treatment
of his subjects) describes
callousness, hardness or obstinacy (which is the quality of perversely
adhering to an opinion, purpose, or course in spite of reason,
arguments, or persuasion).
Sklerotes is a resistant or stubborn
attitude with regard to any change in behavior, this attitude denoting
unreceptibility. In the present use Paul is describing the hard,
impenitent hearts of his unsaved "religious" readers. Stubbornness
is an unreasonable and perverse unyielding attitude, one which is determined not to
change (we all have firsthand experience with this
attitude from time to time!) and refusing to comply with or agree to.
This is the only
NT use of sklerotes but there are 4 in the
LXX
(Deut 9:27; 2 Sa 22:6; Isa 4:6;
28:27). For example, Moses offers up an intercessory prayer for sinful
Israel (appealing to God on the basis of the immutable
Abrahamic Covenant)...
'Remember Thy servants, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness (sklerotes) of
this people or at their wickedness or their sin. (Deut 9:27)
NIDNTT
writes that...
Hardening, according to the OT
understanding, results from the fact that men persist in shutting
themselves to God’s call and command. A state then arises in which a man
is no longer able to hear and in which he is irretrievably enslaved.
Alternatively, God makes the hardening final, so that the people
affected by it cannot escape from it... Hardening is the continually
mounting refusal on the part of man to listen to God’s command. (Brown,
Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986.
Zondervan)
The verb skleruno was
originally a medical term as attested by Hippocrates and was used to
describe Pharaoh who first persistently hardened (skleruno) his heart
which eventually resulted in retributive hardening by God, after His
much longsuffering (see discussion of
Romans 9:17-18)
Skelerotes
is the root of our English medical term sclerosis as used in arteriosclerosis
which describes the condition of "hardening" of
the arteries. This physical hardening is a perfect picture of the
spiritual condition of a heart that have become unresponsive and
insensitive to God. However, the spiritual "ailment" is immeasurably worse
than the physical malady, for if one fails to receive a spiritual "heart transplant"
(cf
Ezekiel 36:26,
27)
they will die an eternal
death in the lake of fire.
Hardening of the
arteries may take a man to the grave
but
Hardening of one's spiritual heart will take a man to hell!
Remember, if the
kindness
of God
toward you is not leading you to repentance, then every day, every hour,
you live, drops another drop into the terrible "treasure" of indignation
which will burst the great dam of God’s long-suffering in the great Day
of His Wrath, when God shall reveal His righteous judgment! Flee to take
refuge in the Cross of Calvary.
Jesus said that
"he who
hears (His) word, and believes Him Who sent
(Jesus), has eternal life, and does not come into judgment,
but has passed out of death into life." (Jn
5:24)
The wrath
of God fell on Jesus but will fall on you if you fail to take refuge in
Him.
Unrepentant
(279)
(ametanoetos from a = without + metanoeo = repent
or change one's mind in turn from meta = after + noieo =
perceiving clearly with the mind) means admitting no change of
mind (amendment), unrepentant, impenitent.
Heart (2588)
(kardia)
(Click
for in depth study of
kardia) is never used
literally of the physical heart but always figuratively as here
signifying the seat and center of human life, thought and feeling, the
wellspring of man’s spiritual life. Kardia is the inner person,
the seat of motives and attitudes, the center of personality, in
Scripture it represents much more than emotion, feelings. It also
includes the thinking process and particularly the will.
MacArthur
commenting on kardia writes that...
"While we often relate heart
to the emotions (e.g., “He has a broken heart”), the Bible relates it
primarily to the intellect (e.g., “Out of the heart come evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
slanders,”
Matt 15:19). That’s why
you must “watch over your heart with all diligence” (Proverbs
4:23). In a secondary way, however, heart relates to
the will and emotions because they are influenced by the intellect. If
you are committed to something, it will affect your will, which in turn
will affect your emotions." (Drawing
Near. Crossway Books)
MacArthur
adds that...
"In most modern cultures, the
heart is thought of as the seat of emotions and feelings. But most
ancients—Hebrews, Greeks, and many others—considered the heart to
be the center of knowledge, understanding, thinking, and wisdom. The New
Testament also uses it in that way. The heart was considered to
be the seat of the mind and will, and it could be taught what the brain
could never know. Emotions and feelings were associated with the
intestines, or bowels." (MacArthur,
J: Ephesians. Chicago: Moody Press)
YOU ARE STORING UP WRATH FOR YOURSELF
IN THE DAY OF WRATH: thesaurizeis (2SPAI) seauto
orgen en hemera orges:
(see note
Romans 9:22;
Dt 32:34;
Am 3:10;
Js 5:3)
("the day"
Job 21:30;
Pr 11:4;
see note on
2 Peter 2:9;
note on
2 Peter 3:7;
Rev 6:17)
(Torrey's
topics
The Anger of God;
The Judgment;
The Long-suffering
of God;
The Punishment
of the Wicked)
Storing
up
(2343) (theaurizo from thesaurós = a treasure, that which is deposited = place
where something is kept.
English = thesaurus, a
treasury of words) means
of keep some material thing (especially things of great value) safe by
storing it. To store or treasure up goods for future
use. Theaurizo means to
do something that will bring
about a future event or condition. In the present context theaurizo specifically refers to to treasuring up
wrath or future punishment as if they were building up a fortune of gold
and silver.
The
present tense
indicates treasuring up wrath was their
continual lifelong activity (whether they realized it or not)!
The root word thesauros in
secular Greek means a treasure chamber, storage room, granary,
strong-box and thus a treasure. Even at a very early period temples were
built with treasure chambers, where gifts and taxes in kind and money
could be stored. The practice appears to have spread from Egypt to
Greece. Collecting boxes were also known (cf. 2Ki 12:10). The verbal
form thesaurizo is used similarly in the sense of storing up
treasure, or putting it in safe keeping.
Theaurizo was used in later
Judaism (the non-canonical book of Tobit 4:9) to describe storing up of
"works"...
So doing, you will lay up
for yourself a great treasure (theaurizo) for the day of
necessity.
Be sure to distinguish eternally
worthless "human"
works described in Tobit 4:9 from Spirit empowered "good works"
(see
discussion of what constitutes "Good Deeds").
The TDNT has this note on the
root thesauros writing that it is...
“The place where a thing is
stored,” the “treasure chamber, chest, or house,” e.g., state warehouse,
P. Lond., I, 31, temple treasury, or temple storehouse for offerings
in kind. Payments into the thesauros are temple offerings,
sacrificial and guilt offerings, or thank offerings, e.g., for
successful cures. The erection of a thesauros in the temple
seems to have spread to Greece from Egypt. The cultic treasuries
provided an impulse for private money boxes (1 Cor 16:2).
(Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W.
Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament.
Eerdmans)
NIDNTT writes that the root word
thesauros is found from Hesiod
onwards. Its etymology is uncertain, and it is probably a technical
loan-word. It means:
(a) a treasure chamber, a storage
room, granary, strong-box;
(b) treasure. Even at a very early
period temples were built with treasure chambers, where gifts and taxes
in kind and money could be stored. The practice appears to have spread
from Egypt to Greece. Collecting boxes were also known (cf. 2 Ki 12:10).
Thesaurizo is used similarly
in the sense of storing up treasure, or putting it in safe
keeping.
Mandaean Gnostic literature made use
of the concepts of the treasure-house and the treasure of
life and light from which the soul takes its rise, and to which it may
return after it has experienced salvation (cf. W. Foerster, Gnosis: A
Selection of Gnostic Texts)...
In later Judaism good works, e.g.
alms giving, are a treasure which is stored up as a reward in the
world to come, while the interest is enjoyed in this world as well (cf.
Tob. 4:8ff.; 2 Esd. 6:5ff.; 7:77; Tosefta Peah 4:18; SB I 430). “All
that Israel lays up in the form of fulfilments of the Law and good
works, it lays up for its Father in heaven” (Deut. R. 1 on Deut. 1:1;
cf. F. Hauck, TDNT III 137; SB I 431).
The rabbis sometimes spoke of the
treasure from which the scribe draws and of the treasure house of
eternal life, i.e. the place where the souls of the dead are stored up,
or the “bundle” in which they are “bound” (cf. 1 Sam. 15:29; F. Hauck,
ibid.; SB II 268; III 803). (Brown,
Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986.
Zondervan)
Theaurizo is used 8 times
in the NAS (Matthew
2x;
Luke;
Romans;
1 Corinthians;
2 Corinthians;
James;
2 Peter)
and is translated: reserved, 1; save, 2; store, 2; stored
up...treasure, 1; stores up treasure, 1; storing, 1.
James addressing the rich draws a
similar picture writing that
"Your gold and your silver have rusted
and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh
like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your
treasure!"
(James 5:3,
compare use in
2 Peter 3:7 see note) .
Jesus uses theaurizo in
the Sermon on the Mount explaining an "investment strategy" which
produces the ultimate diversified portfolio...
"Do not
lay up
(present
imperative + a
negative = command to stop action already in process)
for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and
where thieves break in and steal. (The saying is
true...You can't take it with you!)
"But lay up
(present
imperative =
make this the habit of your life! Don't be stingy!)
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal
(see notes on
Matthew 6:19-20)
In Luke 12:21
Jesus explained true riches in the parable of a rich man who sought to
build larger barns so that he might be at ease...
"But God said to him, 'You
fool! This very night
your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have
prepared?' So is the man who stores up treasure (theaurizo) for
himself, and is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:20-21)
In first
Corinthians Paul writes...
On the first day of every week each
one of you is to put aside and save (theaurizo), as he may
prosper, so that no collections be made when come
In a context of
judgment (analogous to the use here in Romans 2:5) Peter records
that...
by His word (cf creation "by the word
of God") the present heavens and earth are being reserved
(theaurizo) for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of
ungodly men. (2Pe 3:7)
The
Septuagint (LXX)
has 9 uses of
thesaurizo (2 Ki. 20:17; Ps. 39:6; Prov. 1:18; 2:7; 13:22;
16:27; Amos 3:10; Mic. 6:10; Zech. 9:3; Matt. 6:19f; Lk. 12:21; Rom.
2:5; 1 Co. 16:2; 2 Co. 12:14; Jas. 5:3; 2 Pet. 3:7) and is used both
literally and figuratively.
Psalm 39:6 "Surely every man
walks about as a phantom. Surely they make an uproar for nothing. He
amasses riches, and does not know who will gather them.
2 Kings 20:17 'Behold, the
days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your
fathers have laid up in store to this day shall be carried to
Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says the LORD.
Proverbs 2:7 He stores up
(Hebrew = tsaphan = hide, treasure, store up; Lxx = thesaurizo) sound
wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
Amos 3:10 "But they do not
know how to do what is right," declares the LORD, "these who hoard up
(Hebrew = 'atsar = store up, save, lay up; Lxx = thesaurizo) violence
and devastation in their citadels."
Here in Romans
2:5, Paul pictures hardened and unrepentant sinners
treasuring up judgment for themselves, as if they were building up a
fortune of gold and silver! But what a fortune that will be in the day
when God’s wrath is finally revealed at the judgment of the Great White
Throne (Rev
20:11,
12,
13,
14,
15)!
The religious individuals Paul addresses are storing
up wrath like a man who collects snake eggs, bringing them into his warm
house where they will one day hatch and destroy him.
Wrath
(3709)
(orge from orgaô = to teem, to swell, the
idea of a swelling which eventually bursts) (Click
for an in depth study
of
orge) is used primarily of God's
settled opposition to and displeasure against sin. Settled indignation
means that God’s holiness cannot and will not coexist with sin in any
form whatsoever. Orge is not the momentary, emotional, and often
uncontrolled anger (thumos =
2372)
to which human beings are prone. Orge refers not to an explosive
outburst but to an inner, deep resentment that seethes and smolders,
often unnoticed by others (certainly true in the case of God's wrath
which is being "stored up" unbeknownst to most of mankind).
William Barclay writes
that...
"The Greeks defined thumos as
the kind of anger which is like the flame which comes from straw; it
quickly blazes up and just as quickly subsides. On the other hand, they
described ogre as anger which has become habitual...Orge
is anger which has become inveterate; it is long-lasting, slow-burning
anger, which refuses to be pacified and nurses its wrath to keep it
warm...To the Christian the burst of temper and the long-lived anger are
both alike forbidden." (Barclay,
W: The Daily Study Bible Series, Rev. ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster
Press)
Arthur Pink defined God’s
wrath (orge) as...
“His eternal detestation of all
unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of Divine equity
against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against
sin” (Arthur W. Pink, The Attributes of God, page 83).
Bishop Trench defines
orge as...
“a wrath of God who would not love
good unless He hated evil, the two being inseparable, that He must do
both or neither.” Trench adds that
orge
is an anger “which righteous men not merely may, but as they are
righteous, must feel; nor can there be a surer and sadder token of an
utterly prostrate moral condition than the not being able to be angry
with sin—and sinners”
Lenski comments that "storing up wrath"
pictures
"a load that God bears, which men heap up more and more,
making heavier and heavier. The wonder of it all is that God holds any
of it up even for a day; yet he holds up all its weight and does not let
it crash down on the sinner’s head."
It is intriguing that some Jewish traditions
(see note above) speak of treasuring up good
works against the day of wrath. Paul is insisting
that the impenitent Jew fails to realize the relation of the present to
the coming judgment of God. It is interesting that Paul uses a term
which was used twice in Jewish Hellenistic literature
both examples referring to the last judgment. The day of wrath reveals the
character of God as the Judge who judges righteously. This is contrasted
with the moralizing of those who condemn heinous evils but do them
themselves, so that their judgment is not according to truth (not
righteous) like that
of God.
Vincent, commenting on the words, “wrath against the day of wrath,”
says that this is
“A very striking image—treasuring up wrath for one’s self. The sinner stores it away. Its forthcoming is
withheld by the forbearance of God. It will break out in the day when
God’s righteous judgment shall be revealed.”
Spurgeon
describes God's wrath in vivid terms explaining that
"God's wrath, though it come not on
you yet, is like a stream that is dammed up. Every moment it gathers
force. It bursts not the dike, yet every hour it is swelling it. Each
moment of each day in which you remain an unbeliever you are treasuring
up wrath against the day of wrath when the measure of your iniquity is
full"
Bengel
calls our attention to...
"...the antithesis between ‘despising the riches of goodness,
‘and ‘treasuring up wrath’; between ‘hardness’ and ‘goodness’; between
‘impenitent heart’ and ‘repentance, ‘of v4. Also note that it is
‘against thyself thou art treasuring wrath, not against others whom thou judgest. Finally, the unquestionable antithesis between ‘forbearance’
and ‘revelation of judgment.’ "
David Brown
comments on...
"What an awful idea is here
expressed, —that the sinner himself is amassing, like hoarded treasure,
an ever accumulating stock of Divine wrath, to burst upon him ‘in the
day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" And this
is said not of the reckless, but of those who boasted of their purity!"
AND THE
REVELATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS
JUDGMENT OF GOD: kai apokalupseos dikaiokrisias tou theou:
(Torrey's
topic
The Judgment)
Revelation
(602)
(apokalupsis from apó = from + kalúpto
= cover) (Click
for in depth study of
apokalupsis) literally
describes the removal a cover thus exposing to open view
that which was previously concealed.
"Revelation"
therefore conveys the idea of "taking the lid off" so that some
thing previously secret or unknown is now manifest and exposed to open
view. In all the NT uses, “revelation” refers to
something or someone, once hidden, becoming visible and now made fully
known.
Although in one sense, it is true that "the
wrath
of God is (already being) revealed (apokalupto) from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (see
note
Romans 1:18), as Job
says "these are (but) the fringes of His ways" (Job
26:14) and will
come to fruition in "the Revelation of Jesus Christ" (Rev
1:1) with the
seal, trumpet and bowl judgments, the Day of the Lord and ultimately in
the eternal "the lake of fire and brimstone where" "stubborn
and unrepentant" men "will be tormented day and night
forever and ever." (Rev
20:10)
In the first coming of Jesus
Christ, the loving character of God was revealed with greatest emphasis
but at the second coming of Jesus, the righteous judgment of God will be
revealed most clearly.
Spurgeon emphasizes that...
"It is absolutely necessary that men
should be convinced of sin. The fashionable theology is, "Convince men
of the goodness of God. Show them the universal fatherhood, and assure
them of unlimited mercy. Win them by God's love, but never
mention His wrath against
sin or the need of an atonement or the place of punishment. Comfort and
encourage, but never accuse and threaten." That is the way of man, but
the way of the Spirit of God is very different. He comes on purpose to
convince men of sin, to make them feel that they are so guilty that they
are lost and ruined and undone. He comes to remind them not only of
God's loveliness, but of their own unloveliness. The Holy Ghost does not
come to make sinners comfortable in their sins, but to cause them to
grieve over their sins. He does not help them to forget their sin or
think little of it, but he comes to convince them of the horrible
enormity of their iniquity. It is no work of the Spirit to pipe to men's
dancing."
Righteous
judgment
(1341)
(dikaiokrisia from díkaios = just or in
accordance with what is right + krísis = judgment) is the
judgment which renders justice and produces right and stresses the
equity of the decision rendered. Although not popular in many
theological circles, it is nevertheless a fact that wrath is as much a
part of the righteous character of God as is His love. If God did not
exercise wrath against injustice he would be unrighteous. A universe in
which evil exists unchallenged and ultimately unvanquished is
inconceivable and could not be ruled by a good God of holy love Who
exercises "righteous
judgment" as explained
in the next verse.
Just before the death of actor W. C. Fields, a friend visited Fields’
hospital room and was surprised to find him thumbing through a Bible.
Asked what he was doing with a Bible, Fields replied,
“I’m looking
for loopholes.”
God's Judgment is Righteous....
There are no "loopholes! |
