Romans 2:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Romans 2:7

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Here is the tree that brings forth good fruit because it is a good tree, a tree that has been made good by the Lord. The root cause of our obtaining eternal life remains always the gift of life through Jesus Christ, and his atoning death for those who believe. So why then does the apostle put it this way? Why does he speak of one who is seeking eternal life, and not rather of one who already possesses eternal life? Doesn’t Christ say, ‘Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day’ (John 6:54), and doesn’t the apostle John write, ‘These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life’ (1 John 5:13)? Certainly the believer possesses eternal life from the moment he repents and trusts in Christ, but it is obvious that he does not yet enjoy the full benefits of Christ’s gift. The verse is very carefully worded. He seeks glory and immortality because he currently lives in a mortal body which is subject to the curse, and is very different to the body which will be raised in glory (1 Corinthians 15:43). Has the one seeking eternal life lost sight of the fact that life is a gift from God according to free grace? That at no point does it become something earned by the way we live? No, in seeking these things he is pressing towards what has already been promised to him, and what he longs to see as a visible reality. His motivation for doing good works is to please the one who has already given him so much; they are good works done out of gratitude. They are also done because he knows he cannot be a genuine believer without the fruit of righteousness being seen in his life, and he longs to be genuine.‘But to them who by patient continuance.’ He must be patient because he is not transported to heaven the moment he believes. There are trials to face, and hills to climb, and character to be developed. That will require patience, the patience of one who waits for his good things in heaven, and forfeits them on earth. There is continuance in well-doing. This is the mark of genuine conversion. We have been given that new nature through the new birth and it must express itself according to its nature. It must continue to the end and not give up after a short burst of activity like the seed that falls into stony ground.

Application

What is the ‘well-doing’? It's not earning God's favour. You cannot do that. You say, ‘I need eternal life.’ Like Christian in Bunyan’s Pilgrim's Progress, suddenly it is put into your heart, ‘I must get to the celestial city. I must have heaven. I must have God. I must know that I am on the road to heaven. Oh, to have everlasting glory when I will have purity and character and understanding of all things and perfect communion with God and my Saviour in the everlasting bliss.’ The whole aim, the whole object of the exercise is the end of the journey and heaven; you cannot live the Christian life without that aspiration constantly in front of you. This is a tremendous thing.

There is a lot of nominal Christianity about, even in Bible-believing churches these days. If somebody comes to church and says, ‘I like this message of Christ; I like this message of the gospel. I am going to repent of my sin, and I am going to ask for salvation so that I am going to go to heaven.’ If they do so, but not very deeply or genuinely, and they are not really converted, then they are not covered by this verse. They are not people ‘who by patient continuance in well doing seek’ for God’s blessing and eternity. They think they believe the gospel; they have made their profession of faith, but they do just the same things more or less with a little bit of improvement on what they did before. Their priorities are for fun and enjoyment in this world, fulfilling their ambitions, having a great time. When you see genuine believers, you look at them and you say, ‘That person continues to follow the Lord, and trust in Christ, and do his bidding. That person would never claim to be highly righteous, but they are genuine and sincere, and they are kind, and they are striving, and it is heaven that they want, not things on earth.’ So righteousness is necessary. A shallow belief is no good. There must be a level of trust in Christ and a giving of yourself to him that makes you a different person. God changes you.

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Romans 2:7 Commentary and Bible Study

The meaning of Romans 2:7 explained