Romans 2:12–29 (ESV)✞: God’s Judgment and the Law
Passage
As mentioned in a previous passage we’re in the middle of a section which roughly follows this pattern:
- 1:18–32: Gentiles aren’t righteous
- 2:1–3:8: Jews aren’t righteous either, even though they’re God’s chosen people, which is further broken down (at least in the ESV) to:
- 2:1–11: God is the only One who can rightly judge, and
- 2:12–29 (this passage): The Law doesn’t make you righteous
- 3:9–20: In case you didn’t get the point, nobody is righteous
- 3:21–4:25: Jesus provides the solution to the problem
Paul has shown us that none of us are righteous (and have no excuse), and that we can’t judge others because we have our own sin so God is the only one who can actually judge. But Paul’s Jewish readers might question that: what about the Law? Isn’t that exactly how you judge someone? Someone who follows the Law is righteous, and someone who doesn’t isn’t? Isn’t it just that simple?
No, Paul answers, it’s not just that simple.
Firstly, we’re in the middle of a section in which Paul is pointing out the sinfulness of man—all of us, every single one of us—but it’s true that there is a nuance involved; God does treat people differently based on the relationship they’ve had with Him. Or, another way to put it:
12 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.
We covered in 1:18–32 the fact that everyone is sinful and nobody has an excuse because it should be clear that there is a God, and that, if nothing else, He must be a powerful one to have done all this. When such people reject God they are judged for that rejection. They are not judged, however, for violating the rules of His Covenant with His people! He is not approaching someone who has never heard of Him, and, for example, punishing that person for not making the right sacrifices at the Temple, or following the dietary restrictions set out for the Jews, or even for committing murder. (Though… maybe there’s more nuance to this one, which I’ll get to later.)
On the other hand, those who are His people, and who do know His Law, are judged by it. If you already know who God is, and have even received a set of rules directly from Him, and yet you disobey those rules, then it’s right and fair for him to judge you by those rules. In fact, more is being required of you, because you could also be judged for the kind of rejection of God that those who don’t know Him are being judged for.
13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
There is a lot of value in being one of God’s chosen people and having His Law handed to you from His prophets. To have the kind of relationship with the God of the universe where He has given you that kind of communication. But that’s not the end of the “transaction!” God didn’t hand a “get out of jail free card” to His people1 – He actually handed them a heavy burden!
When God spoke directly to His people (and then, when they couldn’t take it, indirectly through His prophets), He initiated a special relationship with them. And when He handed them the rules and regulations He indicated to them that the relationship was a two-way street: “I will be your God, and you will be My people, if you obey My rules.” Which they clearly didn’t. Ever. When we hear the word “prophet” we usually think of someone foretelling the future, but God’s prophets rarely did that, they were usually just “telling the present:” “God told me to remind you that you’re violating His covenant and you need to do better!”
Verse 13 isn’t the first time Jewish believers had heard this concept; not by a long shot. And yet… God’s people had had a long history of assuming that they would always remain God’s people, even if they ignored His demands, and needing to be reminded that no, the Law wasn’t just God’s mark on His people it was His demand upon His people.
To sum all of this up, after all that: having the Law—just being one of God’s people—doesn’t make you righteous, obeying it does.
14 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.
This is what I meant when I said I’d get back to that murder thing. No, people who’ve never heard of God, or never heard of His rules, aren’t going to be judged for breaking the rules they’ve never heard of. However, humans—all humans—are made in His image. We are, when not hindered by our own sinfulness, like him. God is patient, and loving, and forbearing, and when we’re at our best we also exhibit those qualities. We can all think of examples of people who weren’t followers of God yet who performed wonderful, selfless acts; there’s a little bit of His nature in us and sometimes it shines through.
But it goes even deeper than that. Why do we even value those selfless acts? Why don’t we look down on people for violating the law of “survival of the fittest?” When we see someone push a stranger out of the way of an oncoming bus, sacrificing their own life instead, we all recognize that as a valiant and good act, and we recognize it because we’re made in the image of God. When we value human rights it’s because we’re made in the image of God.
To put it negatively, when we recognize murder as being wrong it’s because we’re made in the image of God. Even a murder that benefits me a whole lot is still a bad thing, and we all “get” that, even those of us who don’t know God – or actively reject Him!
15 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 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
I’m a Christian, and I know a lot about God, and I know a lot about His relationship with His people, and I know a lot about what His Son has accomplished on my behalf, and I’m grateful to Him for it, and I try to live my life in a way that is pleasing to Him. I also know people who are not Christians who are more “good” than I am. Who are more patient, more generous, more loving. They’re still sinners, but if you were to judge between us based on how “good” our lives are, they’d come out ahead of me; if you were to choose who you’d rather hang out with you’d choose them over me. As Paul says, “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts” – or, as I’m simplifying it, they’re made in the image of God.
I’ll steal a concept from a preacher I often listen to (and I won’t feel too bad because I’m pretty sure he said he got it from someone else): Imagine if God put a recording device around your neck and every time you told someone what they “should” or “ought” to do it recorded it; every time you declared the way people are supposed to live, that statement got recorded.
Now imagine that you get to the end of your life, are standing before God for judgement, and He doesn’t judge you by any standards other than your own: You said people are supposed to act like this, so did you act that way? You said people are supposed to live like that, so did you live that way? How would you do? How would any of us do?
That’s something like what Paul means by people’s conflicting thoughts accusing or even excusing them. Any human, whether they’ve ever heard of God or not, or heard of any of His rules or regulations, or ever seen a law written down that says “you’re not supposed to murder people,” still has an innate sense of right and wrong – and fails to live up to it.
I’m not saying it’s a precision sense of right and wrong, or that we don’t disagree about what’s right and wrong – not at all! Depending how you slice and dice it there are hundreds or perhaps even thousands of Christian denominations in the world, at least in part because we can’t agree on what, exactly, God requires of us. Are you supposed to baptise babies or not? And when you do baptise people—babies or adults or anything in between—how are you supposed to do it; by fully submerging them or just by dripping water on them? I’m just using one simple example, baptism, and there are already a bunch of different ways churches have split because of disagreements on it.
So no, when Paul talks about God’s law being written on our hearts I can’t believe that he means we all innately know exactly how God wants us to act in every circumstance. But even if you and I disagree on various points, Paul is pointing out that I’m not even true to myself. There are things I feel in my heart are wrong but I do them anyway, or things my heart tells me are the right thing to do but I don’t do them. But my conscience bears witness, and my conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse me.
But let’s get back to the people who actually have the Law of God, His people:
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
There’s an obvious pointed criticism Paul is aiming at his fellow Jews, but I also think he’s just extending the point made to Gentiles: if I’d never heard of the Law but am made in the image of God and have a sense of right and wrong and am judged for violating it, similarly, if I have heard of the Law, and am violating it, I’ll get judged for that.
More fundamentally, Paul seems to assume that those under the Law will violate it. Will, in fact, be hypocrites about it, judging others for things we ourselves are prone to. And at this point I’m no longer talking about Jews and the Old Testament Law, I’m also talking about Christians and what we believe to be right and wrong. Do we tell people it’s wrong to steal but steal ourselves? Do we say adultery is wrong but lust ourselves? Do we look down on all those dumb people in the past who worshipped idols while bending over backwards to do anything required of us by the god Money? Let’s be clear: God is blasphemed in the world because of us!
If Christianity was just a religion, where we have to obey rules to please God, it would be no better than any other religion. God had to do it all for us, because we couldn’t do it on our own.
And now, because we never think about circumcision anymore, Paul seems to go weird on us:
25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
In my time and place I have to remind myself that circumcision was very important in the Old Testament; more than just a ritual people did. In this case, of course, the context makes that pretty clear, though it can still be weird to see so much talk about circumcision in the Bible.
But like I say, I think the context makes Paul’s point very clear: outward signs, or symbols, or special clothing, or rituals… none of those things make you right with God, or make you one of His special people. It takes the Spirit to do that.
Thoughts
I would point out, by the way, that “the Law” doesn’t mean what most of us assume it means. When 21st Century Western Christians hear “the Law” we think Paul means “the laws,” plural, meaning all of the rules and regulations outlined by Moses. And that’s part of it, but when Jews of Paul’s day—including Paul himself—said “the Law” they actually meant all of the first five books of the Old Testament Scriptures: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And yes, the rules and regulations are in those books—that’s why the Jews called them “the Law”—but they obviously contain more than just rules and regulations, too.
When Paul talks about “having the Law,” yes, he’s referring to the rules and regulations, but he’s also referring to a general knowledge of God. God’s people knew so much about Him as revealed in the Scriptures, more than they got just from the rules and regulations.
So there’s a sense that, yes, when Paul talks about being “doers of the law” he means “obeying the rules,” but there’s a wider sense in which he just means “being like God.” Someone who is really following “the Law” is paying as much attention to God telling Abraham He’ll spare Sodom if He can find ten righteous men as she’s paying attention to God saying “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
Footnotes
- A reference to Monopoly, which was a popular board game when I was growing up. ↩
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