Romans 2: The Jews, just like the Gentiles, are shown to be under sin

• v1-3: The Jews were in general proud that they were God's chosen people, and hence looked with contempt upon the Gentiles, even though they were just as sacrilegious. Hence if the Gentiles, who only had God's creation and their own consciences to guide them, were inexcusable (Rom 1:20), how much less excuse would the Jews have, who had the law and the revealed will of God?
• v2: God's justice is based on truth, according to the heart and not the outward appearance.
  
• v4: "Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?" - God's grace was free, but it wasn't free. It was the most expensive thing in the world. Am I gonna be someone who will treasure the riches of God's grace and receive it with thanksgiving, or am I gonna be someone who will treat His gift with contempt? Am I going to come back to God with something in return for His kindness, or am I gonna go on living life my own way, on my own terms and continue to break His heart? How much does God's kindness mean to me, and when I live out my life, do I show its importance to me? In every wilful sin, I am treating God's goodness with contempt. I need to realise, that God's kindness doesn't just lead to repentance, but leads ME to repentance. I need to thank God, that I'm not dragged or driven like a beast to repentance, but I am led, like a sheep led by a good shepherd.
• v5-6: this is the warning - that a hard and unpenitent heart is storing up for itself the wrath of God, for God is also a God of justice. God is angry with sinners each and every day (Ps 7:11), but He will not judge before the time (Ps 50:6), when the revelation of the righteous judgement of God will prevail (Rev 6:17)
• v7: It is ok to seek honour, glory and eternal life. We weren't meant to just live average lives. We were created to live lives of significance, of honour, of glory. But what concerns God is the methods we use to seek those things. By persistence in doing good, we seek honour and glory in His name and for His sake, because we are aligning ourselves for the right purposes: seeking glory and honour that is immortal.
• v8-9: the Spirit of God strives with sinners (Gen 6:3)
• v11: Jews and Gentiles stand on the same level before God. (Acts 10:34).
• v12-16: God will eventually come to judge, and the common denominator is man's obedience to one of three laws that God has revealed:
  1) the light of nature: God is a just and fair God; hence He will not judge the Gentiles for the transgression of the law they never had. Rather, those who sinned apart from the law will perish apart from the law. The Gentiles had their conscience, no law of Moses nor any supernatural revelation.
  2) the light of the law: this is what the Jews would be judged by. The Jews prided themselves in having the law, but Paul reminds us in v13, that having and hearing the Word does not justify, but only a do-er of the Word will be justified. (James 1:22)
  3) the light of the gospel (v16)
• v17-19: The Jews were a special people, separated and distinguished from all others by their having the written law and the special presence of God among them; as a result, many of them were arrogant and proud. Yet, as Rev 2:9 puts it, many of the synagogue of Satan will say that they are Jews, as they boast of their heritage and privileges as though these are sufficient in themselves to attain the kingdom of God.
• v20: Christians are a guide for the blind, light for those in the dark, instructor of the foolish, teacher of infants, and blessed with knowledge and truth. Paul is speaking against those well versed in religion and theology, yet a stranger to godliness and purity i.e. hypocrisy. The Jews 'approved' and were convinced that the Gentiles had to go to them for instruction and guidance, but it was this pride and self deference in heaping up titles of honour upon themselves that was unacceptable to God.
• v21-22: The Jews sinned against their knowledge and against what they preached. It was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees that they did not do as they taught (Matt 23:3). They pulled down with their lives (i.e. by their example) what they attempted to build up with their preaching (i.e. their words). Stealing, adultery and robbing God (?in tithes and offerings cf Mal 3)
• v23-24: breaking the law = dishonouring God. The Jews treated God and His law as an honour/title to them which they boasted of, but they were a dishonour to God in their daily lives.
• v25: cf Gal 5:1-2 - "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. ² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all." Circumcision is of value if one observed the law i.e. obedient Jews would not lose the reward of their obedience. God did not give the law nor appoint circumcision in vain, before the ceremonial law was abolished and fulfilled in Christ. Circumcision however, would be made uncircumcision (i.e. be no more justified than the unjustified Gentiles), if they broke the law. Being uncircumcised = being unclean (Isa 52:1) and out of the covenant (Eph 2:11-12)
• v26-27: The uncircumcised Gentiles stand upon the same level with the Jews if they "keep the law's requirements" and "obeys the law". For example, Cornelius was a Gentile, yet being a devout man and one that feared God with all his house (Acts 10) he was accepted. Circumcision was commanded to the Jews, but it was never a necessary condition of justification and salvation.
• v27-28: True circumcision is not outward in the flesh, but also of the heart. We are not to place our trust in the observance of rituals and traditions as though they are sufficient to bring us to heaven. It is the heart that God looks at - "The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live" (Deu 30:6)