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Romans #2
Romans: An Exposition of Chapters 2:1-3:20: the Righteous Judgement of God
Diagnosis was a life-long interest of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Nowhere is this more evident than in his treatment of Romans chapter two. Here he unfolds Paul's analysis of the spiritual sickness of the human heart, its deceitfulness and rebellion against God, and its sinister use of religion as a defence-mechanism against true conviction of sin.
238 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
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154 people want to read
About the author
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
344 books588 followersDavid Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a Welsh Protestant minister, preacher and medical doctor who was influential in the Reformed wing of the British evangelical movement in the 20th century. For almost 30 years, he was the minister of Westminster Chapel in London. Lloyd-Jones was strongly opposed to Liberal Christianity, which had become a part of many Christian denominations; he regarded it as aberrant. He disagreed with the broad church approach and encouraged evangelical Christians (particularly Anglicans) to leave their existing denominations. He believed that true Christian fellowship was possible only amongst those who shared common convictions regarding the nature of the faith.
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones was married to Bethan Lloyd-Jones
Books about D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: https://www.goodreads.com/characters/...
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones was married to Bethan Lloyd-Jones
Books about D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: https://www.goodreads.com/characters/...
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 6, 2022
It’s Lloyd-Jones! On Romans! Enough said.
October 22, 2017
These just keep getting better (and longer!!!) highest recommendation
November 23, 2019
Every Lloyd-Jones commentary is worth reading and re-reading!
May 25, 2025
MLJ continues his commentary on the book of Romans, covering two chapters in this particular book. Like any good doctor, one must determine what the underlying condition is before prescribing a treatment plan and Dr. Jones does just this by bringing to surface the Apostle Paul’s strong words on the plight of man and his condition before God. The sinfulness of sin, as one puritan put it, is the one thing that we continually suppress in our unrighteousness and it is impossible to escape without a miraculous work of God. Look for deep exegesis here from MLJ and a careful and gracious application.
March 22, 2021
What do you say? D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Romans cannot be understated. This second volume is not exception. Since it cuts short of the most popular verse in that chapter I expected to breeze through it. It is however very potent. It provides the bulk of Paul’s argument over how all are guilty before God. All will fall victim to the wrath of God. This doctrine is largely ignored in today’s world. We have forgotten how to have a healthy fear of God.
March 6, 2023
It’s difficult to believe that a series of sermons preached from 1955-1968 could still impact readers today. Yet, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ multi-volume compilation of those sermons on Romans are exceedingly well-presented even for today’s readers and hearers. Romans: Exposition of Chapters 2:1-3:20: The Righteous Judgment of God is a volume that I purchased to aid me in my preparation of a sermon series on Romans which is not even scheduled to take 13 months, much less 13 years. Yet, Lloyd-Jones’ deliberate and methodical approach to this extended passage is an invaluable reference for both professionals and lay-persons.
Unfortunately, Lloyd-Jones does have rather a bias against modern scholarship. Said bias can be stated with one quotation from this volume: “That is why the higher critical movement of the last century has been such a terrible thing.” (p. 171) For all of the marvelous and insightful exposition of these passages in the rest of the book, our author throws the pickles out with the brine. Instead of celebrating the emphasis on the sitz im leben of form criticism and the usefulness of text and redaction criticism, he assumes (and you know what that makes out of you and me) that higher criticism’s purpose is to destroy the revelation of God rather than to sift it carefully. I realize that some treatments from “higher criticism” are so sterile and uninspiring that they seem to undermine an evangelistic approach, but Lloyd-Jones assumes that all scholarship is designed to the end of reducing confidence in the scripture. I don’t believe that is true.
The section of Romans (2:1-3:20) with which Lloyd-Jones is dealing in this volume has often been cited as evidence of Pauline antisemitism. As Lloyd-Jones elucidates, Paul isn’t presenting a one-sided case against the Jews of his day. Rather, Paul has dealt with generally pagan practices of the Gentiles in the first chapter but wants to weigh the Jews who do not know Jesus on the same scale as Gentiles who do not know Jesus. To show how Lloyd-Jones doesn’t take this as an attack, one should note that his application toward these verses demonstrates three points: 1)some of us (to which he includes both Calvinists and Armenians) tend to use the scripture to confirm our own prejudices; 2) we tend to put ourselves in special categories (as Paul’s readers/hearers did as Jew or Gentile), 3) we point our fingers at others (when we may be guilty ourselves) as what we would call today “whataboutism,” and 4) we tend to run away from the concept of “justification by faith” when we substitute other criteria for dependence upon God (pp. 9-10). Throughout the book, Lloyd-Jones refuses to allow people to look down their noses at Paul’s audience by applying the things Paul is arguing against to modern Christians of Lloyd-Jones’ mid-20th century. As for the charge of antisemitism against Paul, Lloyd-Jones spends plenty of emphasis on both the good and the bad of Paul’s emphasis of “the Jew first and then, the Gentile.” (p. 77)
From a 21st century perspective, watching the decay of the family unit and lack of respect for law and order, one had to agree with his illustrations for the judgment of God. We don’t like to think of God intervening in people’s lives with punishment, but to do otherwise would be to consider God like those irritating parents who are always threatening to punish their children if they don’t stop disobeying but never actually do anything. He follows that up with observations about countries where: “On paper they have a very fine legal system, but hey do not put it into practice, they have ways of avoiding it. Surely we tend to despise any such system.” (p. 48) Naturally, he applies these illustrations to both the rabbinic system of casuistry and then, urges his listeners/readers to recognize that a just, righteous God must punish sin “…lest in our ignorance and haste we be guilty of so describing God as o make Him contradict Himself, and, indeed, of having a contradiction at the very centre and heart of His own life and eternal being.” (p. 58)
One of the most valuable sections for me was found on pp. 110-111 when Lloyd-Jones reminds his readers of scriptural evidence for Jesus as the ultimate Judge (John 5:22, 26-29; Acts 17:30-31). He springboards from there to, “People are always ready to attack the character of God. They might say, ‘How can God judge us, He is so far removed, He is in heaven and we are on the earth? He does not understand human nature and human conditions and life in this world.’ The judgment is in the hands of One who has been through it all.” (p. 111)
Another really interesting section was where Lloyd-Jones dealt with hypocrisy. He seems to be a firm believer in the rule of threes because he gives us three descriptions of a hypocrite and three key actions of a hypocritie. He describes a hypocrite as: 1) one interested in only a general and theoretical (but not experiential) interest in truth (p. 144); 2) one who is too complacent to continue growing (“he is always resting on something”); and 3) one who is full of confidence, self-confidence, but is more focused on his capacity than “fear of the Lord” (p. 145). In a similar vein, the hypocrite: a) teaches and preaches to others but never to himself; b) is actually guilty of doing things that he tells other people not to do (p. 146); and c) dishonors God by breaking the law even though he talks so much about it (p. 147).
There is a disappointing aspect to Lloyd-Jones’ preaching in this volume. Several times he castigates people who question God as people guilty of cursing God (e.g. p. 212). I realize that he was trying to work with a phrase from the passage here, but what troubled me was the fact that he ignored the biblical tradition of contending with God. God honored Abraham for his intercession over Sodom and Gomorrah. God seems to have approved of Job’s honesty and that of the psalmist. Jeremiah seems to be presented as the honest prophet for his frank complaints regarding God. I am not saying that protesting to God cannot be as vile as Lloyd-Jones makes it in his sermon, but that is certainly not always the case. Indeed, he completely misses the fact that God tells the “comforters” that they were not honest in their faith talk like “His servant Job” when he focuses strictly on Job’s final response to God (p. 223).
I enjoy and benefit from the preaching and teaching of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, though I realize that we have agreement in substance but disagreement in nuance and methodology. There is a gap in time and tradition between us, but I am challenged and inspired by much of Romans: Exposition of Chapters 2:1-3:20: The Righteous Judgment of God and I expect to read (and in some cases, re-read) many of the other volumes in this mid-20th century sermon series on Romans.
Unfortunately, Lloyd-Jones does have rather a bias against modern scholarship. Said bias can be stated with one quotation from this volume: “That is why the higher critical movement of the last century has been such a terrible thing.” (p. 171) For all of the marvelous and insightful exposition of these passages in the rest of the book, our author throws the pickles out with the brine. Instead of celebrating the emphasis on the sitz im leben of form criticism and the usefulness of text and redaction criticism, he assumes (and you know what that makes out of you and me) that higher criticism’s purpose is to destroy the revelation of God rather than to sift it carefully. I realize that some treatments from “higher criticism” are so sterile and uninspiring that they seem to undermine an evangelistic approach, but Lloyd-Jones assumes that all scholarship is designed to the end of reducing confidence in the scripture. I don’t believe that is true.
The section of Romans (2:1-3:20) with which Lloyd-Jones is dealing in this volume has often been cited as evidence of Pauline antisemitism. As Lloyd-Jones elucidates, Paul isn’t presenting a one-sided case against the Jews of his day. Rather, Paul has dealt with generally pagan practices of the Gentiles in the first chapter but wants to weigh the Jews who do not know Jesus on the same scale as Gentiles who do not know Jesus. To show how Lloyd-Jones doesn’t take this as an attack, one should note that his application toward these verses demonstrates three points: 1)some of us (to which he includes both Calvinists and Armenians) tend to use the scripture to confirm our own prejudices; 2) we tend to put ourselves in special categories (as Paul’s readers/hearers did as Jew or Gentile), 3) we point our fingers at others (when we may be guilty ourselves) as what we would call today “whataboutism,” and 4) we tend to run away from the concept of “justification by faith” when we substitute other criteria for dependence upon God (pp. 9-10). Throughout the book, Lloyd-Jones refuses to allow people to look down their noses at Paul’s audience by applying the things Paul is arguing against to modern Christians of Lloyd-Jones’ mid-20th century. As for the charge of antisemitism against Paul, Lloyd-Jones spends plenty of emphasis on both the good and the bad of Paul’s emphasis of “the Jew first and then, the Gentile.” (p. 77)
From a 21st century perspective, watching the decay of the family unit and lack of respect for law and order, one had to agree with his illustrations for the judgment of God. We don’t like to think of God intervening in people’s lives with punishment, but to do otherwise would be to consider God like those irritating parents who are always threatening to punish their children if they don’t stop disobeying but never actually do anything. He follows that up with observations about countries where: “On paper they have a very fine legal system, but hey do not put it into practice, they have ways of avoiding it. Surely we tend to despise any such system.” (p. 48) Naturally, he applies these illustrations to both the rabbinic system of casuistry and then, urges his listeners/readers to recognize that a just, righteous God must punish sin “…lest in our ignorance and haste we be guilty of so describing God as o make Him contradict Himself, and, indeed, of having a contradiction at the very centre and heart of His own life and eternal being.” (p. 58)
One of the most valuable sections for me was found on pp. 110-111 when Lloyd-Jones reminds his readers of scriptural evidence for Jesus as the ultimate Judge (John 5:22, 26-29; Acts 17:30-31). He springboards from there to, “People are always ready to attack the character of God. They might say, ‘How can God judge us, He is so far removed, He is in heaven and we are on the earth? He does not understand human nature and human conditions and life in this world.’ The judgment is in the hands of One who has been through it all.” (p. 111)
Another really interesting section was where Lloyd-Jones dealt with hypocrisy. He seems to be a firm believer in the rule of threes because he gives us three descriptions of a hypocrite and three key actions of a hypocritie. He describes a hypocrite as: 1) one interested in only a general and theoretical (but not experiential) interest in truth (p. 144); 2) one who is too complacent to continue growing (“he is always resting on something”); and 3) one who is full of confidence, self-confidence, but is more focused on his capacity than “fear of the Lord” (p. 145). In a similar vein, the hypocrite: a) teaches and preaches to others but never to himself; b) is actually guilty of doing things that he tells other people not to do (p. 146); and c) dishonors God by breaking the law even though he talks so much about it (p. 147).
There is a disappointing aspect to Lloyd-Jones’ preaching in this volume. Several times he castigates people who question God as people guilty of cursing God (e.g. p. 212). I realize that he was trying to work with a phrase from the passage here, but what troubled me was the fact that he ignored the biblical tradition of contending with God. God honored Abraham for his intercession over Sodom and Gomorrah. God seems to have approved of Job’s honesty and that of the psalmist. Jeremiah seems to be presented as the honest prophet for his frank complaints regarding God. I am not saying that protesting to God cannot be as vile as Lloyd-Jones makes it in his sermon, but that is certainly not always the case. Indeed, he completely misses the fact that God tells the “comforters” that they were not honest in their faith talk like “His servant Job” when he focuses strictly on Job’s final response to God (p. 223).
I enjoy and benefit from the preaching and teaching of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, though I realize that we have agreement in substance but disagreement in nuance and methodology. There is a gap in time and tradition between us, but I am challenged and inspired by much of Romans: Exposition of Chapters 2:1-3:20: The Righteous Judgment of God and I expect to read (and in some cases, re-read) many of the other volumes in this mid-20th century sermon series on Romans.
March 31, 2014
Are you a good person? The way you answer that, Lloyd-Jones explains, depends almost entirely on how you understand God. Using Romans 2 and 3, he follows Paul’s argument to show that none are righteous before God. Any apparent goodness we have is an illusion based on our ever-changing definitions of good, not God’s inviolable standard. Solid exposition, sound teaching, and careful reasoning are the hallmarks of Lloyd-Jones’ work and they are on full display here.
March 12, 2024
"Biblia trebuie predicata; Biblia trebuie aplicata; Biblia trebuie inteleasa. [...] Sa nesupunem intotdeauna Cuvantului." pag.14
"Exista conditie pentru fiecare promisiune din Biblie." pag.24
"Ceea ce zice Pavel este ca nu exista nimic mai condamnabil decat sa continui sa traiesti intr-o viata de pacat in timp ce vorbesti despre bunatatea si mila lui Dumnezeu." pag.41
"Mai inainte de toate Evanghelia ne cheama la pocainta." [...] Cuvantul latin"pocainta" inseamna "sa gandesti din nou"". pag.59,61
"Pocainta implica actiune, pentru ca omul actioneaza dupa felul cum gandeste." pag.61
"Inceputul este aceasta schimbare de atitudine fata de Dumnezeu, aceasta noua gandire despre Dumnezeu; o intelegere a lui Dumnezeu potrivit cu revelatia Scripturii."[...] Dar pocainta mai ineamna si sa te gandesti diferit la tine insuti..." pag.63
"Cine zice"Il cunosc", si nu pazeste poruncile Lui, este un mininos, si adevarul nu este in el"-unele dintre cele mai ferme afirmatii din intreaga Scriptura." pag.97
"Noi ne pregatim pentru vesnicia noastra." pag.109
"Cititi Biblia in intregime in fiecare an... si in timp ce o cititi, intotdeauna sa o aplicati. " pag.147
"Adevarul trebuie aplicat la noi insine si trebuie sa ne umileasca." pag.148
"Ei Il judeca pe Cristos dupa ceea ce vede in mine si in tine." pag. 149
" Asa ca de la versetul 21 (Rom.3:21), pana la sfarsitul capitolului el prezinta probabil in modul cel mai glorios si mai explicit sustinut vreodata chiar si de apostolul insusi, aceasta mareata doctrina a dreptatii lui Dumnezeu in Isus Cristos - de ce era necesara si mai exact cum a infaptuit-o. Si acest pasaj include, dupa cum stiti, acel mare locus classicus cu privire la doctrina ispasirii, pe care o avem in versetele 25 si 26. Asadar suntem din nou in fata unuia dintre cele mai importante capitole ale Bibliei (Rom.3) , unul dintre cele mai marete. Si din punct de vedere doctrinar, cu siguranta nu exista in toata Biblia un capitol mai important decat acesta." pag.161
"Cuvantul lui Dumnezeu; si ne-a fost incredintat evident nu doar ca sa-l tinem si sa-l pazim ci sa-i invatam pe altii din El.Si aceasta este motivatia pentru calatoriile misionare si este in mod deosebit motivatia pentru a face tot posibilul ca oamenii din alte tari care se intorc la Dumnezeu sa aiba Scriptura in limba lor. Nu -i destul ca ei sa se intoarca la Dumnezeu, ei trebuie sa invete Scripturile, trebuie invatati cum sa le citeasca si sa le inteleaga." pag. 171
"Estesarcina crestinilor sa-i invete pe copii lor aceste cuvinte ale lui Dumnezeu, care le-au fost incredintate lor, pentru ca mai tarziu in viata copiii sa zica: "Multumesc lui Dumnezeu pentru ca am avut un tat crestin si o mama crestina. Nu va pot spune cat le datorez." pag.172
"Du-i pe oameni la Scriptura. Pentru acest motiv, noi credinciosii, ar trebui as fim buni cunascatori ai Scripturilor, si ar trebui sa le memoram sau daca nu putem face lucrul acesta ar trebui sa stim unde gasim acele versete. Noi ar trebui sa umblam cu Biblia in buzunar ca s-o putem deschide si zice: "iata ce zice Biblia". pag.190
"Cand Il cautam pe Dumnezeu in mod Biblic, Dumnezeu devine centrul gandirii noastre, iar obiectivul suprem al vietilor noastre este sa-L cunoastem pe El si sa-L iubim pe El, si sa traim pentru glor20ia Lui. Dati-mi voie sa citesc din nou prima intrebare din Catheismul abreviat al bisericii Westminster: "Care este scopul suprem al omului?" Raspunsul este: Scopul suprem al omului este sa-L glorifice pe Dumnezeu si sa bucure cu El pentru vesnicie", si omul in viata caruia este adevarat acest lucru este omul care cauta pe Dumnezeu." pag. 204
"Testul pentru facerea de bine este acest element al gloriei lui Dumnezeu". pag.208
"Exista conditie pentru fiecare promisiune din Biblie." pag.24
"Ceea ce zice Pavel este ca nu exista nimic mai condamnabil decat sa continui sa traiesti intr-o viata de pacat in timp ce vorbesti despre bunatatea si mila lui Dumnezeu." pag.41
"Mai inainte de toate Evanghelia ne cheama la pocainta." [...] Cuvantul latin"pocainta" inseamna "sa gandesti din nou"". pag.59,61
"Pocainta implica actiune, pentru ca omul actioneaza dupa felul cum gandeste." pag.61
"Inceputul este aceasta schimbare de atitudine fata de Dumnezeu, aceasta noua gandire despre Dumnezeu; o intelegere a lui Dumnezeu potrivit cu revelatia Scripturii."[...] Dar pocainta mai ineamna si sa te gandesti diferit la tine insuti..." pag.63
"Cine zice"Il cunosc", si nu pazeste poruncile Lui, este un mininos, si adevarul nu este in el"-unele dintre cele mai ferme afirmatii din intreaga Scriptura." pag.97
"Noi ne pregatim pentru vesnicia noastra." pag.109
"Cititi Biblia in intregime in fiecare an... si in timp ce o cititi, intotdeauna sa o aplicati. " pag.147
"Adevarul trebuie aplicat la noi insine si trebuie sa ne umileasca." pag.148
"Ei Il judeca pe Cristos dupa ceea ce vede in mine si in tine." pag. 149
" Asa ca de la versetul 21 (Rom.3:21), pana la sfarsitul capitolului el prezinta probabil in modul cel mai glorios si mai explicit sustinut vreodata chiar si de apostolul insusi, aceasta mareata doctrina a dreptatii lui Dumnezeu in Isus Cristos - de ce era necesara si mai exact cum a infaptuit-o. Si acest pasaj include, dupa cum stiti, acel mare locus classicus cu privire la doctrina ispasirii, pe care o avem in versetele 25 si 26. Asadar suntem din nou in fata unuia dintre cele mai importante capitole ale Bibliei (Rom.3) , unul dintre cele mai marete. Si din punct de vedere doctrinar, cu siguranta nu exista in toata Biblia un capitol mai important decat acesta." pag.161
"Cuvantul lui Dumnezeu; si ne-a fost incredintat evident nu doar ca sa-l tinem si sa-l pazim ci sa-i invatam pe altii din El.Si aceasta este motivatia pentru calatoriile misionare si este in mod deosebit motivatia pentru a face tot posibilul ca oamenii din alte tari care se intorc la Dumnezeu sa aiba Scriptura in limba lor. Nu -i destul ca ei sa se intoarca la Dumnezeu, ei trebuie sa invete Scripturile, trebuie invatati cum sa le citeasca si sa le inteleaga." pag. 171
"Estesarcina crestinilor sa-i invete pe copii lor aceste cuvinte ale lui Dumnezeu, care le-au fost incredintate lor, pentru ca mai tarziu in viata copiii sa zica: "Multumesc lui Dumnezeu pentru ca am avut un tat crestin si o mama crestina. Nu va pot spune cat le datorez." pag.172
"Du-i pe oameni la Scriptura. Pentru acest motiv, noi credinciosii, ar trebui as fim buni cunascatori ai Scripturilor, si ar trebui sa le memoram sau daca nu putem face lucrul acesta ar trebui sa stim unde gasim acele versete. Noi ar trebui sa umblam cu Biblia in buzunar ca s-o putem deschide si zice: "iata ce zice Biblia". pag.190
"Cand Il cautam pe Dumnezeu in mod Biblic, Dumnezeu devine centrul gandirii noastre, iar obiectivul suprem al vietilor noastre este sa-L cunoastem pe El si sa-L iubim pe El, si sa traim pentru glor20ia Lui. Dati-mi voie sa citesc din nou prima intrebare din Catheismul abreviat al bisericii Westminster: "Care este scopul suprem al omului?" Raspunsul este: Scopul suprem al omului este sa-L glorifice pe Dumnezeu si sa bucure cu El pentru vesnicie", si omul in viata caruia este adevarat acest lucru este omul care cauta pe Dumnezeu." pag. 204
"Testul pentru facerea de bine este acest element al gloriei lui Dumnezeu". pag.208
July 20, 2017
A strong candidate to be ranked the ugliest cover in Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Romans series. This is no mean feat, for the colour combinations in this series are truly awful. The 1980s - what were they thinking?
December 4, 2017
I thought this would be my least favorite volume in this series. I was wrong. ML-J's exposition of Romans 2 is stunning. Particularly, sermon "Five" on Romans 2:4-5.
June 12, 2022
Great Exposition of Romans 2 & 3
July 11, 2022
Just need to read it….wonderful!
May 13, 2025
We keep powering through Lloyd-Jones.
July 10, 2025
Searching exposition and application of God's Word. This volume in the MLJ Romans series shows him at his clearest - powerful and thoughtful preaching that has few equals.
July 16, 2025
terrific! read it!
April 10, 2016
Outstanding, detailed and deeply searching exposition of Romans 2-3.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews