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. LESSON 5 (May 11) . Romans 2:11-29God Shows No PartialityIf God shows "no partiality" (2:71), what about the fact thatthe Jews had a God-given law delivered through Moses andthe Gentiles did not? Later in this same letter to the Romans,Paul will write of his Jewish "kinsmen according to the flesh": They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, theglory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship,and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, andfrom their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, whois God over all, blessed forever. Amen. (9:3-5) Are Jews, then, not superior to Gentiles? Or, on the flipside,"The wrath of Cod is revealed from heaven against allungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (1-18), but whywould Gentiles be subject to this wrath? How can theassertion that God shows no partiality be true? Paul addresses both people-groups and describes both assinners in Romans 2:12:. All who have sinned without the law will also perishwithout the law,. All who have sinned under the law will be judged bythe law. Take a moment to carefully think through the distinctionbetween these people-groups. Both are described assinners, but why? In what way are they both accountable totheir Creator, but for different reasons?* Gentiles who were not given the law of Moses -* Jews who were expected, as recipients of the law ofMoses, to meet the requirements of that law –How vitally important for descendants of Abraham tounderstand, "it is not the hearers of the law who arerighteous before God, but the doers of the law who will bejustified" (2:13)•As a Jew,l am a physical descendant of the people-groupwhich received the law, but that does not mean that my genealogy justifies me before God.•As a Jew,I may have been raised with a knowledgeof the history of the Hebrews and an understandingof the essence of the law, but mere knowledge willnot justify me before God.•As a Jew, l maybe an expert in the finer points ofthe law, tithing even my mint and dill and cumin(M:att 23:23), but if I neglect the weightier mattersof the law-justice and mercy and faithfulness-Iwill not be justified before God. There is one, and only one way to be justified by the law.Consider: For by works of the law no human being will be justifiedin his sight, since through the law comes knowledge ofsin. (Rom 3:20) By works of the law no one will be justified. (Gal 2:16) For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse;for it is writlen, "Cursed be everyone who does notabide by all things written in the Book of the Law, anddo them." Now it is evident that no one is justifiedbefore God by the law, for "The righteous shall live byfaith." But the law is not of faith, rather "The one whodoes them shall live by them." (Gal 3:10--12) You are severed from Christ, you who would be justifiedby the law; you have fallen away from grace, (Gal 5:4) What, then, is the one and only way to be justified by thelaw? What problem does this pose for each and every Jew?