Romans 2:16

‘In the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ.'

This verse continues the thought in Romans 2:13 where it is not the hearers of the Law who are to be seen as just in the eyes of God, but the doers of the Law, who, if they fulfil the Law perfectly, will be counted as in the right. We may then ask, ‘when will such a judgment take place?' And Paul now tells us. It will be in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, in accordance with Paul's Gospel, which is the Gospel of God (Romans 1:1), the Gospel of His Son (Romans 1:9). Note the emphasis on the fact that in that day nothing will remain hidden. All men's deepest secrets, their hidden things, will be brought into the light, and men will be judged by them. What was done in the darkness will be revealed by the light. Man may look at the outward appearance, but God will look at the heart. They will be known as what they really are. Compare Romans 2:29 where ‘the true Jew' (who can be a Gentile), is one ‘hiddenly'.

We note also that this is the first mention of Jesus Christ since Paul's argument began (indeed since Romans 1:16). All the emphasis has been on ‘God', for Paul has been facing both Jew and Gentile up with his arguments on the basis of what they know and accept. Now, however, his readers are suddenly faced up with the reality that, according to Paul's Gospel, God's judgment on men will be in the hands of Jesus Christ, the Son Who had lived among them but was also declared to be the powerful Son of God by the resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:2). Having lived among men, and having endured as a man, He is seen as perfectly fitted to judge. This is fully in accord with what Jesus Christ Himself taught, that God has committed all judgment to His Son (John 5:22; John 5:27).