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Last week we re-discovered that religion got wrath wrong. Biblically, wrath is not a future act of retribution by God invoked by our bad behavior. Instead, wrath is a present “state of being” which is revealed by our “not being right” about who we truly are. In my series A Course in Darkness: part 2, I break down the biblical theology of wrath/darkness as God’s loving negation in proximity to the beloved. Religion twists Paul’s thesis into a binary…a hard line, but his framework is more nuanced than that. Consider how Paul started this letter, that although everyone knows God (1:19,21), we all suppress this truth (v.18) and exchange what is true (true self) for falsehood (pseudonym) (v.25)… we think we are wise (we think we know ourselves), but we don’t. This delusion about ourselves, this NOT-BEING-RIGHT (unrighteousness), mutates into every form of evil and suffering in the world (v.30-31). Wrath is as Kierkegaard would say: the state of refusing to be one’s true self before God.

Paul’s salvation is the discovery that our true existence is actually God’s existence. Salvation is not conversion to a religion, for Paul’s own conversion was out of religion. Salvation is not repeating the “sinners prayer“… it’s not joining a church…none of these extract us from wrath. The framework for Paul is not a behavior modification model, it is an existential model. Once we perceive these two planes, the Gospel opens up to us. Wrath is the loving or (kindness-2:4) plane of “non-existence” or superficial existence, of not being real or possessing what Paul calls the Truth (2:8). Wrath is the friction that God wills by his “turning us over“(1:24,26,28) to our falsehood. The design of grace is pain and suffering when we live as a false self (2:8), and our transformation emerges as we (metanoia) (re-consider, think along side of, re-think, or repent)(v.4).

Genuine repentance relocates our plane of existence…it’s how we regain our mind that was turned over. This is the ground of Paul’s Gospel.

Chapter two begins with “therefore” which means Paul is building on this framework for wrath. Today we consider verses 1-11. As I read, consider how religion mutates these words into innies and outies. It’s my assertion that most bible teachers insert (eisegete) an end of the world day of judgement against unbelievers. Textually, I see no such threat baked into Paul’s understanding of judgment.

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. ² We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. ³ Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵ But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:1-5, ESV)

Can you see Paul’s focus on hypocrisy? That’s important.

The Greek word “krino” is used six times in the first five verses. Krino means to deicide, prefer, evaluate, hold a view, condemn, rule, or judge. We must access Paul’s mind as a former Jewish leader. Paul knows the Hebrew scripture and its theology surrounding the judgment of God. It’s my position that Paul’s excitement over the Gospel (1:15) is shaped around his re-discovery of justice and the judgement of God. Paul becomes clearer by rendering “krino” as “deciding” rather than “condemning.” This is the bridge to Paul’s discourse on “election.” It all stems from krino “evaluating both.”

First, textual observations on “The Day of Judgment” will keep us out of quicksand. Paul uses this word “Hapakolúpheos” from which we get Apocalypse. It means revelation and Paul has already used it in (1:18) by stating that wrath is revealed. The questions are: First; Is Paul referring to a future event? Possibly. Second; How can we know Paul’s understanding of this term? Hold my beer.

Paul’s gives up his ontological understanding of the Day of judgment. Remember, Paul wrote this letter while in Corinth, and he wrote Corinthians a couple years earlier from Ephesus. Paul has been teaching this framework for his Gospel years now.

“… each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. ¹⁴ If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:13-15)

This text reveals Paul’s “Day of Judgment” (decision) is not a condemnation of the person, but a “decision” about his or her plane of existence. This is how I deduce that Paul isn’t threatening religion’s future, eternal Hell for those in this state of wrath, he’s saying, those who won’t “re-think/re-consider” (àmetanontos“) are already in a living (ontological) hell, and are making it worse for themselves, and the world.

For Paul, wrath is visible in everyone’s Hypocrisy which literally means “Under a mask.” Paul makes a point (1:13,16, 2:9,10,11) that both religious and non-religious people are “putting on a false face” (v.11), living apart from who they truly are in God, as evidenced by behavior. The “hèméra” (day, indeterminate timeframe) (2:5) is right now because the kindness of God leads us to “re-think” (metanoia)(v.4). Paul is pleading with with all comers to remove our masks, to re-consider (repent) and thus regain our minds that were given over in wrath. The re-orientation (God seeing our face)stops the stock piling of wrath(2:11).

Verses 6-11 have caused many preachers to stumble. The English insertions shape this into future decision based upon human effort.

“He will render to each one according to his works” (2:6)

The only word in the future tense in this entire passage is the word “hapodidomai” (2:6)(to reward, pay, cause to happen, render). The rest is entirely in the present tense and the English insertions are (he will give, there will be (2x)). Yes, “future” can be inferred, but textually Paul is talking in the present, dative, indicative, saying this is an ongoing reality. Wrath and eternal life are taking place now and continue.

This is how I see Paul framing this:

Paul’s cosmology reveals that we each seek two planes of perceived “existence“: The spiritual plane is the true and lasting plane (háphtharsia-“since all time“)(immortality)(v.7), and the other is the wrath plane of “every human soul/ inner self” that does evil and cannot ultimately exist (v.9). Each plane is accessed by our seeking (attention), one seeks glory, honor, and immortality (God)(v.7), the other seeks a self (agency) by disobeying or rejecting the truth of who we actually are (v.9). The reward (v.6) of our seeking is finding ourselves in God (eternal life/ since always), or the suffering of a delusional existence. This is not getting to heaven and hell one day, it’s living from the planes of real or false. Paul’s framework is that eternal life is revealed now as both planes of existence and EVERYONE sees them both.

So which framework do you prefer? The evangelical gospel of Jesus loves you and wants to evacuate you from earth and keep you from eternal Hell? Or Paul’s Gospel of Repentance and faith, which allows us to discern what is real. Paul’s day of judgment is today, not a far off event which the right religion would help us avoid. Wrath is lovingly revealed in our midst so that none of us can miss God (2:1). The Good News awakens us to our fictional existence which is ruins everything. Wrath is not a threat, it the state of our world in delusion, and the good news is that everyone sees it and can reconsider/repent.

Change is possible. Wrath is the love of God in proximity to the beloved. Thus judgment is not condemnation, but God’s decision to grant us genuine and lasting existence through repentance and faith, which first restores the minds that were given over, and then restores the world.