WWUTT 1176 All Who Have Sinned Without the Law? (Romans 2:12-16)

If a person has died, never having heard the law of God, is God justified in judging them by the law that they've never heard? Certainly, because the scripture tells us the work of the law is written on their hearts when we understand the text.

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Romans 2:12-16 and the Judgment of Those Without the Law

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Romans, chapter 2. And picking up where we left off last week, I'm going to start out by reading verses 12 through 24. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, "...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.

But if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law, and boast in God, and know His will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law, and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?

While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law, for as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

So we come back here to talking about how a Gentile can be judged when they never had the law. Remember that the oracles of God were first given to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. And so we know how Israel would be guilty before God, because they had been given a law that they did not follow.

And so therefore, being judged by God, they will be judged according to the law that they did not keep. But how does this apply to Gentiles, given that Gentiles were never given the law? You had so many millions of people around the planet who never heard this law that was given to Israel from Mount Sinai.

So how is it that anyone who dies and goes and stands before God in judgment could be judged by God if they never heard the law? And that's the argument that Paul is making here in Romans 2 verses 12 through 16.

One of the things that he mentions is that they do have a law, the general revelation of the law that has been revealed by God. We talked about that a little bit when we were in chapter 1. But then there's also the law that has been written on their hearts, the very conscience of a man that he has.

Even though that conscience is corrupt, they still have an understanding of right and wrong. Sometimes we get the right things right. Sometimes we get the wrong things right. Like which things are supposed to be wrong?

Well, that's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. Correct. You got you got the wrong category. Right. It's kind of tough talking about that. Is that making sense? But then there are other times when we think that we're doing the right thing and we're actually doing the wrong thing in the eyes of God.

But we have reasoned or rationed in our own minds that this thing is right. And everybody who disagrees with me is wrong. So we become a law to ourselves. But as I mentioned last week, even those who perish without the law will still be judged because they were not even able to meet their own standard of righteousness.

You can't even keep your own standard of right and wrong, let alone God's standard of right and wrong. All of us are hypocrites. We've all judged people for things that we ourselves are guilty of. So all God would have to do would be to judge us according to the moral standard that we imposed on everybody else.

And we would come up guilty just based on the fact that we couldn't even keep our own standard of righteousness. So back here to Romans chapter two, verse 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. So I made this statement last week when we started off in Romans chapter two, God would not even need to use his law to condemn a person because they can't even keep their own moral principles.

When we were in chapter two, verse one, therefore, you have no excuse. Oh, man, every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

This is a similar statement that Paul makes here in verse 12, for all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. And so it's almost like he's made this argument already. He made the argument in verse one, but he's reiterating the point in verse 12 because he's going to come back to pointing out to the Jews that they have no excuse for the evil that they've done against God.

They had been given the law of God. They even taught the law of God. And as teachers of the law, they were still doing what the law said not to do. This is really a condemnation of the Jews who, though they had the law, were not able to keep the law.

So they shouldn't think of themselves as more righteous than Gentiles simply because they had the law. For Paul says, as we go on here in verse 13, it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

And this is one of those places where Paul's teaching lines up with James. Oftentimes, Paul and James get put against one another, and it's because Paul says that it is not by works of the law that we will be justified.

And yet James says in chapter two that it is by the works of the law that we will be justified. Let's look at what James says in James one, starting in verse 19. Know this, my brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

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. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

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. So they're the point James making is that we not merely hear the word that that doesn't do us any good to just be hearers of the word.

We must also do what it says to be a hearer and not do what it says is like a person who looks at himself in a mirror and then walks away from the mirror and forget what he looks like. When we look into the scriptures, especially when we look into the law, we become aware of our sinfulness before a holy God, for we know that we have transgressed this law.

We have not kept this law. So our conscience is awakened to our sin. If we read the law and then walk away and don't follow it, well, it's like we just looked into the mirror and saw ourselves, but then forgot what it was that we looked like.

The Bible shows us the sin that we have committed against God and our need for a savior so that we would turn to Christ and be saved. He would forgive us our sins by faith in him and then giving us a new heart teaches us to walk in his ways, not in the sinfulness that we were in previously to hearing the gospel and becoming a follower of Jesus Christ.

So do not merely be a hearer of the word. Do what it says. That's just like what Paul is saying here. It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

Now, of course, we cannot do the works of the law in order to be saved. We were incapable of that because we've already broken the law. So before God, we are not holy. We are unrighteous and we are guilty not just of breaking part of the law, but breaking the whole thing.

If a person is guilty of murder when they go to court, the judge is not going to give them a pass because they kept 2000 other laws but broke this one. They are guilty of breaking all of the law because they had committed such a great offense.

And before God, it is the same thing. If you've broken part of his law, you are guilty of breaking all of it. And so we need a savior to save us from our sins. And Jesus Christ is that one who kept the law perfectly and became that perfect sacrifice on our behalf, dying on the cross for us.

So we cannot be justified by keeping the law since we didn't keep the law, if that were possible, if it were possible for us to keep the law perfectly as Jesus did, then we would be justified. Hence the argument that Paul makes there, the doers of the law will be justified.

Now, given that Jesus did keep the whole law and died for our sins and our sins were placed upon him as that double imputation that we often talk about regarding the cross, Jesus gave his righteousness to us and he's clothed us in his righteousness.

We've been transformed. Our heart has been changed. We have, as it says in Ezekiel 36, we've had that heart of stone taken out and we've given we've been given a heart that desires to keep the law of God.

And so now we are in God's sight justified by the imputed righteousness of Christ that has been given to us and Christ who kept the whole law, but now clothed in Christ's righteousness, we desire to keep the law, though we will sin, though we will stumble, though we certainly don't do this as perfectly as Jesus did.

It is by the grace of God that he does not hold against us when we stumble. But Christ's righteousness still covers us from all sin. So in this way, since we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ who kept the law, we are able to stand before God as justified and the doers of the law are those who are justified before God.

Now, I mentioned that Paul and James are often pitted against one another, and it's because Paul says we are justified by grace through faith and not of works. But James says we are justified by our works.

So which is it? Well, Paul and James are not in disagreement with one another. The problem is our interpretation of what it is that they're saying. It's not that Paul or James are using the wrong words.

The fault is ours, not theirs. But I'm going to talk about this when we get to Romans chapter four. I'm just mentioning it today and and here in the context of Romans two to demonstrate that Paul and James do agree with one another.

Just as James has said it, Paul says it, too. It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. So we're going to go on for now. Verse 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.

Now, this should make sense to us. Is it possible for a person who is not a follower of Jesus Christ to do anything that we might call kind, is it possible for them to exercise kindness toward other people?

Absolutely, and you probably even know people who are not Christians that you would call kind, you would say of their character, they are kind, they're they're generous to others, they're considerate of other people.

They'll even put others needs ahead of their own. I am a pastor in a church that is 60 percent military, and so I get a lot of soldiers that come into my congregation and it's through those soldiers. I meet many other soldiers who are not Christians, and I see plenty of soldiers who are so committed to duty.

They have such a love for country that they would be willing to take a bullet for me, for my life, for my freedom. They would take a bullet for the guy next to them. They would be willing to lay their lives down on the line for somebody else, though they themselves are not Christian.

So it is possible for a person who is not a follower of Christ to greatly sacrifice themselves on behalf of somebody else. It is possible for an unbeliever to show such kindness. But here's the thing, according to Romans 14, verse twenty three, whatever is not done in faith is sin.

So if a person does not believe in Jesus, even though they might do something so greatly sacrificial for somebody else, we might call this a sacrifice, a sacrificial selfless act, even though they do something so selfless for somebody else.

It's still done in vain and it's still done in blasphemy against God, because a person who is not a follower of Christ would be doing such great selfless deeds to the proclamation of their own name as if to say, I can be good without God.

And that kind of attitude, that kind of behavior in the heart of a person is deeply blasphemous. The rejection of the God of the universe, even if a person is able to do something that we would most certainly characterize as selflessness, it's still selfish when they do it to their own glory and not to God's glory.

You might even want to excuse their selfless acts as being to the glory of somebody else. Well, they would still be giving glory to someone that does not deserve it. There is only one who is worthy of all glory, worthy of our worship, and that is God alone.

And to not acknowledge that is incredibly evil. It is very self-centered. It is it's idolatry, in fact, because it is to exalt someone or something else higher than God. So even the most selfless individual that you could possibly think of, a person who does not know Jesus, but you would call them a kind, selfless, considerate person, even they do all things in vain and in blasphemy against God because they themselves think they can do good without God.

But as we're going to see when we go to Romans chapter three, no one does righteous, not even one person. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But God in his grace justifies us by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we can't look at a person who is such a kind person and think to ourselves, well, I don't need to share Jesus with them. They're already a nice person. Now, if they do not know Jesus, then they are under the wrath of God.

It doesn't matter how good they look in the eyes of man before God, as it says in Isaiah 64, six, even their best deeds are as filthy rags. Mankind is not their judge. God is their judge. The standard is not mankind's ability to do right and wrong.

The standard is God's holiness. And so the only way to be justified before God and forgiven our sins is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll know plenty of people who don't know Christ and are able to do what the law requires.

They are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. Paul goes on in verse 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 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Remember that I mentioned this last week that Jesus said in Revelation chapter two, he is the one who searches mind and heart and he will give to everyone according to their works. The works that we do on the outside should be a reflection of our heart on the inside.

If we love Jesus, then we will desire to keep his commandments. And what we do will be a demonstration of the fact that we have been justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has purified us from all unrighteousness and given us a heart that desires him and his kingdom and living according to the laws of his kingdom.

Those commandments that Jesus himself gave us. There are plenty of people who don't know those commandments. And yet, in doing kindness, in doing consideration for somebody else, in behaving in such a way that we might say of that person, they're so moral.

There's such an ethical individual. Well, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness. But unfortunately, our conscience is not a perfect guide because it's been corrupted due to sin.

So sometimes we get the right things right. Sometimes we're a little confused on right and wrong. And it is God who has established the ultimate standard of right and wrong. It is his word that is to guide us.

Prayer for Conviction, Repentance, and Gospel Witness

Let's conclude with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that convicts us of sin. Please forgive us of our sins. Help us to turn from any vain thing, anything that that is chasing after or pursuing the passions of our flesh.

Whenever we're tempted by sin, help us to turn all the more to Christ, to pray, to ask that you would that you would conquer our thoughts and direct them toward you so that we would not desire these worldly things, these things that are contrary to God, but instead would walk in the spirit and therefore not gratify any of the desires of the flesh.

Help us to be hearers of the word and doers of the word also. As a demonstration of our love for Jesus, who said in John 14, 15, you will show me that you love me when you keep my commandments. Help us to consider the needs of others and show love and kindness, especially when it comes to the need to share the gospel.

It is the message of the gospel that saved us and has changed us into lovers of God. We ask for your continued guidance on us today. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt .com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.

Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.