Romans 2:12-29--God's Judgment and the Law

Romans 2:12-29
English Standard Version

God's Judgment and the Law​
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. 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. 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. 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.

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.”

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.

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So, Paul has laid out the case that natural man is in rebellion against God and that God's judgment on rebellious man is righteous because He will judge each man by his or her own works.  Paul has also opened the door to talking about the gospel because we know we all stand condemned if we are judged by our own works, but there is another way which is going to lead to eternal life, but today we're going to see that this eternal life cannot come by way of the Law or any amount of good works.

Paul first addresses the hypothetical argument that many like to throw at us about the people who have never heard about God or His Law (Gentiles who have never seen or heard the Law).  Paul hypothetically says that if such a person existed and lived and died apart from the Law that they would be judged apart from the Law.  That is not to say that they would be guiltless as we've already talked about in Romans 1, as there is enough revealed about God and His nature through the general revelation of nature and as we'll later talk about the general revelation of what we call our conscience, that will condemn us when we stand before God--even if se live and die apart from the Law.

All who have sinned under the Law (that is the Jews and Gentiles who have read or heard the Law) will be judged by the Law.  Then Paul makes an interesting statement--it is not the hearers of the Law that are righteous, but the doers of the Law.  This is consistent with what we read in James 1:19-27.


James 1:19-27
English Standard Version

Hearing and Doing the Word
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 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. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 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.

​26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Then Paul switches gears and asks if those who have the Law think they can judge those without the Law when they themselves who have the Law don't keep the Law?  They are hypocrites.  Sounds a lot like what Jesus said to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law (sometimes called "lawyers"  or "scribes" in the gospels).  This is a real problem for the Jews who thought that they were safe simply because of the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants and that somehow God would only look at their acts of righteousness and ignore their iniquity.  While the blood of their guilt offerings, sin offerings, and fellowship offerings offered atonement for some of their sins, it did not take away all of their sin debt as there were some high-handed sins of rebellion for which there was no sacrifice that could be offered--the only option according to the Law was execution and for God to judge such a man (presumably to send such a person to hell).  However, we see grace even for such sins in the Old Testament like when David committed adultery and murder--he cries out for God to create in him a new heart and to renew a right spirit within him (see Psalm 51).

Then Paul really goes for the jugular and says that the Gentiles who don't have the Law are better at obeying a Law they do not have than the Jews who have the Law, for the Gentiles have their consciences and they obey them (somewhat) and God made our consciences to be in His image so that we are convicted when we do things that are against His character and nature.  However, we can train ourselves to not listen to our consciences, seer them so that they stop convicting us, and even teach them to call evil good and good evil.  It is not a foolproof system since sin has corrupted every part of us, even our consciences, but is is really something when the "heathen" of the world who have no special revelation from God are better reflections of God's nature and character than those whom call themselves "the people of God" and have had all kinds of special revelation from God--the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings that we would call the Old Testament.  The Gentiles show that the Law is something that is written on their hearts (their consciences like I mentioned before) and then by this they are also convicted and condemned because they also break the Law that they do know.  On the day of judgment (the day of the Lord) when all men will stand before judgment before Jesus there will not be a single person that will be able to say that they were completely ignorant of what God wanted from them--that is Paul's argument here.  So then, this is our answer to the hypothetical that gets thrown at us so many times about the person in the "bush country of Africa" that has never heard about God and dies apart from any knowledge of God or what God requires of him--such a person does not exist.  If you find such a person, they will have rebelled against the Law that they do know and understand and will be guilty like everyone else.  That doesn't fix the issue though about that person not hearing the gospel and us thinking that there is something unfair about that, but it is the gospel itself that is "unfair" as a Man paid for the sins of another, yea for everyone in the world who would believe on Him--past, present, and future.  It is grace and mercy that are unfair, but being judged according to the Law that each man understands for his or her own actions seems to be the textbook definition of what is "fair."  So, be careful what you ask for.  Don't ask for God to be fair, but like David in Psalm 51 cry out to God to be unfair and to take away your sin and find some other way to pay and atone for them because you yourself can never be good enough to be declared righteous whether it be by the Law or apart from the Law, because all of us have broken God's natural law even if we have not known the Law as it is revealed in the Old Testament (and all of you who have been reading these blogs as I've been writing them do know much of the Law as we've already studied Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus together).  One last thought here before we move on is to go back to the idea of the Sermon on the Mount.  The people thought they were pretty good because they thought they could measure up to the external measurements set up by the Pharisees for seeing if people were righteous or unrighteous, but Jesus comes along and says that every man will be judges for every idle thought, careless word, and their passions, lusts, and desires.  The people hearing this rightly asked, "Who then can be saved?"  The answer will come up soon in Romans, "None is righteous, no, not one." (Romans 3:10).  So we see that when we stand before Jesus and everything is exposed--not just our actions but our thoughts and motives, we will definitely stand condemned apart from the finished work of Christ dying on the cross in what we will call penal substitutionary atonement.

Paul then expounds on the hypocrisy of the Jews in having the Law and being teachers of the Law, but then breaking the Law themselves, and tells how their boasting actually blasphemes the name of God.  "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.”"  Those are some pretty strong and harsh words that Paul has for the Jews, but it's also a good warning to us as Christians as we too have been given the Law and are expected to live according to it once our nature and identity have been changed.  If we would let the Holy Spirit live perfectly in and through us, then we would never break the Law because the Spirit would act in a way perfectly consistent with the Law of God since the Law of God is a reflection of the very nature and character of God, which also belongs to the Holy Spirit since the Father, Son and Spirit are all one in nature (what we call the Trinity--One God in Three Persons).

One might then rightfully ask, "What advantage is there to being a Jew if it just leads to greater condemnation?" Paul will start to use the word "circumcision" to refer to Jews and Gentiles who have converted to Judaism and "uncircumcision" to those who are still Gentiles apart from Law.  This is the sign of the Abrahamic covenant and is something that the Jews were proud of and they thought that the act of circumcision which occurred when they were but a few days old would somehow secure their eternity with God in heaven--maybe think of this like the modern day practice of infant baptism as a sign of bringing the child into a similar "covenant community" and imagining that the act of infant baptism (or baptism of any kind at any other point in a person's life) somehow assures that person's salvation.  There are some who believe that, but that doesn't mesh with everything that we've said here so far as that child will be one day be judged by the Lord Jesus whether he's been circumcised, baptized, or neither.  We will all answer to God for what we have done unless we are trusting by faith in Jesus Christ as our penal substitutionary atonement.

Paul says that those who are circumcised who are rebellious to the Law might as well be uncircumcised Gentiles in the eyes of God.  It is only of value if it reminds you to obey the Law, not if you think it somehow exempts you from the consequences of disobeying the Law.  Then Paul says that the man who is uncircumcised who keeps the Law that is written on his heart has a better kind of circumcision--circumcision of the heart.  This is a direct reference to some Old Testament passages where the LORD commands His people to circumcise their hearts.  See Deuteronomy 10:16, Deuteronomy 30:6, and Jeremiah 4:4.  Paul then says that no one is a Jew simply because of physical circumcision and that circumcision always has been and always will be about the heart and belongs to all those who are obedient to God but not to those who live in rebellion against God, regardless of the state of their physical bodies.  It is the Spirit of God and not the letter of the Law that changes a man so that he becomes pleasing and acceptable to God--the metamorphosis that we talked about before.  So then everyone who comes to God must do so by a change in heart and a change in spirit, not simply by external signs of the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants, but the internal sign that is the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to take that which was dead and to make it alive and to make all things new.