Romans 2:12-16
For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
In this section Paul begins describing the justice in God’s impartial judgment. People who have never read the Bible face judgment the same as people who know the Bible well. Knowing the Bible doesn’t confer righteousness. Doing God’s will leads to righteousness. Everyone has a conscience as part of being made in the image of God. The express image of God, Jesus Christ, is the standard by which everyone will be judged.
Complete permanent ruin of the soul is the unavoidable result for everyone who fails to be morally perfect, from God’s perspective, every day of their entire lives. Not having the Law of Moses does not exempt the modern man any more than it did those who were destroyed by the flood. If the long jump event were analogous to our attempts at righteousness some of us could jump further than others but the mark required to avoid hell is jumping to the moon. We all fall utterly short.
Possession of the law doesn’t do anything to help us jump higher. What the law does is clarify that the goal is the moon and completely unattainable without Christ. Everyone who has the law just knows more clearly how very short of perfection we all are.
Philippians 3:7-11
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
The world insists that its grievances against the church must amount to something but the only judgment that counts is God’s judgment. In Psalm 51 King David is repenting for his sins regarding the matter of Bathsheba. His sins began with dereliction of duty and wound up with adultery and murder. But of them he says this in Psalm 51:4, “Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.”
We should try to not offend others, not because we fear their judgment but because we rightly fear God’s judgment. The purpose of the law is to convict us of sin. Knowing and owning our own sinfulness is the first step toward being declared righteous in God’s presence.
It is all too easy to become comfortable with a little religion. Jesus said in Luke14:34, “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?” In the gospels there are three instances of Jesus using this saying. Each time He uses it to put an exclamation point on the challenging thing he just taught. Let’s look at Matthew 5:1-13, Mark 9:42-50 and Luke 14:25-34. Each time these are stinging words but over time they can become familiar words and lose their punch. Their salt loses its saltiness.
James 1:22-24
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
People who have no Bible are not merely lawless. Anthropologists at the University of Oxford have discovered what they believe to be seven universal moral rules.
The rules: help your family, help your group, return favours, be brave, defer to superiors, divide resources fairly, and respect others’ property, were found in a survey of 60 cultures from all around the world.
These common rules of humanity remind me of Matthew 22:37-39, “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”
When people who don’t know anything about God, who do not have the law, and don’t even know how to behave in church by nature do, without the interference of churchianity, what the law requires; that is, they love God and others, they are a law to themselves. They demonstrate that there are fundamentals of reality that cannot be ignored without disastrous consequences. Self-preservation leads people along these basic guidelines even though they do not have the law. Without ever reading one word from the Bible they show a clear demonstration of conviction of sin which is the whole work of the Law.
By the workings of conscience and the confusion generated by violations of conscience people are guided by natural law even when they don’t have the Law of Moses. Conscience means with knowledge. The undeniable presence of conscience indicates the knowledge of God and the knowledge of the reality of sin and death. Conscience is part of the image of God we are all made in. It is like God’s maker’s mark, its presence tells us exactly by whom we were made.
Violations of conscience lead to conflicted thoughts. Since no one sets out to ruin their own life they are seeking the good. But when that leads to doing wrong we face the inevitable pain of a bad conscience. Even if no one else knows, our own thoughts know when we’re not regulated against the straight edge of reality. A conflicted thought life is a sign of missing the mark. On the other hand, many words of condemnation from outside do not overcome the knowledge of doing right.
The whole book of Romans is the declaration of Paul’s gospel. In this section he is pointing out the universality of God’s judgment. No one gets to judge another person; we don’t even get to judge ourselves. Judgment is for God alone. There are no secrets from God. He knows us better than we know ourselves.
When God judges the whole world the standard is Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 2:18
For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 4:14-16
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
As churchgoers, I hope we are not trusting our religion to be a defense on the day of judgment. Remember the salty words of Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
brotherpayne 