This week was the 63rd anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's death by execution shortly before the war with Germany ended. In one of his letters to his friend and biographer, Eberhard Bethge, he referred to his absorption in reading the Old Testament as he endured the Nazi prison at Tegel. He wrote, "…it is only when one submits to God's law that one may speak of grace." Then he commented, "In my opinion it is not Christian to want to take our thoughts and feelings too quickly and too directly from the New Testament" [Letters & Papers from Prison (New York: MacMillan, 1972), 157]. John Stott explained Bonhoeffer's statement, "What he meant is that, until the law has done its work of exposing and condemning our sin, we are not ready to hear the gospel of justification" [Roman's: God's Good News for the World, 88-89]. The point is well-taken!
Today's superficial evangelism needs law-work before getting to the gospel. The brief, often truncated, outline of the gospel that fails to lay groundwork for understanding its central message of justification doesn't offer true hope for sinners. As it has been expressed so well, we cannot understand the good news of the gospel until we understand the bad news concerning our sin and God's judgment. Otherwise, the gospel is either pointless in the mind of the hearer or viewed as a quick fix to common problems with little thought of eternity. The problem of sin, in such a mindset, is not its offense against a holy God but its inconvenience in maintaining a happy life. Judgment is relegated to past eras. The God of the modern era surely is much nicer than to hold humanity accountable for its sins!
Yet, the same message that Paul wove in Romans for first century Jews and Gentiles transcends the centuries to speak to our age. We may be more sophisticated and technical. We may travel at speeds that the ancients could not dream of and communicate in ways unimagined. But just like them, we still struggle with the guilt of our sins. Haunted by words, thoughts and deeds, we search for something to wrest the guilt from us just so that we might enjoy life. No less than us, the Romans sought to enjoy life, and just like us, thought more of the present than eternity. They avoided the Day of Judgment just as much as post-moderns! That's why Paul had to declare firmly, "For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God" (Rom. 14:10). And it's why he told the Greeks in Athens, "He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).
The Jews did not have to be convinced of the Day of Judgment but they did have to be convinced that their heritage, religious practice, and superior morality were inadequate to give them righteous standing before God. They considered Gentiles as the focal point of judgment. Yet the reality is that all men must give an account of themselves to God (Rom. 14:12). That's where the gospel grabs our attention. Future judgment beckons us to look to the gospel of Christ for righteousness. Without His righteousness we have nothing to shield us from the wrath of God. Judgment becomes the door to eternal hell. But it need not! Indeed, Christ has become righteousness for all that will trust in Him. But why is Jesus Christ alone our only hope at the Day of Judgment? Men cling to props instead of the cross of Christ. Consider how Paul dismantles the props in light of judgment.
The little word "for" shows that Paul is not starting a new subject but continuing the line of thinking already stated. His focus is on the gospel as the revelation of God's righteousness. Yet to understand this, one must also come to grips with his sinful condition. So, Paul unpacks the stark sinful reality of the Gentile world (1:18-32). In spite of God's revelation in both nature and conscience, men "did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened" (1:21). They could easily cast aside whatever God had revealed of Himself in exchange for the crass, empty idols of the world. With idolatrous hearts, men indulged in every desire of depraved minds.
It would be very easy to explain that this kind of lifestyle deserved judgment. But Paul doesn't stop there. He aims his next blow toward the smug, arrogant heart of those who love to condemn others while excusing their own sins. Yet "you have no excuse," Paul declared. You can judge others while trying to excuse your own sins but do not think that "you will escape the judgment of God" (2:1, 3). Whether a moralistic Gentile or practicing Jew, such stubbornness and unrepentant heart stores up wrath for the day of wrath and revelation of God's righteous judgment (2:5).
Some might complain that God's judgment is an intrusion on human freedom. Yet the creature owes worship and obedience to the Creator. He is the Creator and Judge; the righteousness of His nature and kingdom demands that He "render to each person according to his deeds" (2:6). For those persevering in the faith, He gives eternal life; for those who are selfishly ambitious and disobedient to the gospel truth, they face God's wrath and indignation (2:7-8).
"Wait a minute," someone else objects, "wait, wait, wait! You don't understand. I'm very religious, extremely moral—even exemplary in the way I conduct my life and business. Surely, I have a distinct advantage over those from primitive regions that follow the basic instincts of their humanity."
Paul's response levels the ground for all humanity: "For there is no partiality with God" (2:11). The word "partiality" is literally, "face receiving one." It came from the oriental custom of a visitor bowing before a dignitary; if he was accepted then he could raise his head again to face his host [ELKGNT, 319]. The host would "show partiality" toward that person. God is not like that! He doesn't favor one race or nationality or gender or language group. Jews don't have an edge with Him; nor do the very moral and very religious. Every person faces Him on level ground.
"But we have the Law, and they don't," the Jew asserts. Paul answers, "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." The common condemnation of all men is not based on whether or not they have the written revelation of God's Law. Because the Gentile, as a rule, didn't have knowledge of the Law, the Jews considered them to be objects of judgment. Since God had given the Law to the Jews, then they expected to be exempt from judgment. But, though possessing the Law, they did not obey the Law. Their guilt piled up before God because, having much light through the Law, they still continued in sin. The Gentiles, though having less light, will still be judged by the light that God has given them. As Leon Morris wrote, "People are judged according to the light they have, not according to the light they do not have" [The Epistle to the Romans, 121]. Whatever revelation of law one possesses becomes the instrument of judgment before God.
I don't think we need to see the two terms, "perish" and "judged," as though expressing distinctly different ideas. They are more stylistic variations. "Perish" does not imply annihilation but "the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power" (2 Thes. 1:9). "Judged" refers to the judicial decision of the Lord against lawbreakers. It's the same implication of eternal hell found in Paul's use of "perish."
Since few people could read in that era but depended on listening to professional readers, the Jews thought that their regular hearing of the Law read in the synagogue put them into a judgment-safe zone. It's tantamount to those in our day thinking that their regular or occasional church attendance means that they are in a judgment-safe zone, too. However, it is doing not hearing that God accepts. "For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified."
Now Paul raises an interesting issue—one that has been taken in different ways over the centuries. He introduces us to the term "justified" for the first of fourteen usages in Romans. It is from the legal realm and means a declaration of righteousness. To be justified by God is to be declared righteous in regard to His Law. It means that nothing remains in God's sight by which the righteous Judge can condemn you.
Yet, does Paul mean that if we just pay good attention to doing the Law, then that action will be the instrument of our justification? We can boil the interpretations down to three views.
(1) Some explain, doing or practicing the Law or Ten Commandments, which is the implication by the term Law, is the way to find acceptance with God. Many would find this to be comforting since they view their adherence to the Ten Commandments in a more positive light than is actually true. They think that if they can just obey the Ten Commandments then God accepts them as righteous. Of course, some of the Jews thought that hearing was equivalent to doing in God's sight. But Paul corrects that misunderstanding. Let's consider this view for a moment.
Paul has already stated that men suppress the truth in unrighteousness (1:18) and that even the religious and moral have nothing to excuse their sin before God (2:1-4). He later declares that all have sinned (3:23). That's an all-inclusive argument. Neither the pagan nor the religious nor the moral have maintained faithful observance to the Ten Commandments. Consequently, all are guilty before God. Further, Paul states plainly in 3:20, "by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight." Instead, "through the Law comes the knowledge of sin," not the instrument of justification. If man could practice the Law to such a level that he is "justified," then he would have room to boast before God. However, the whole economy of salvation is such that "no man may boast before God" (1 Cor. 1:26-31, esp. v. 29). The rest of Paul's argument in Romans dismantles this view that insists that Paul is teaching adherence to the Law as the means to justification.
(2) Others suggest that Paul offers further explanation of 2:7-10 in which he distinguished or contrasted the believer and unbeliever—with the believer persevering "in doing good" and characterized as the one "who does good." Perhaps Paul is expanding on that truth of how true Christians continue on in faithfulness to God's Law.
Contextually, that would make a good fit and provide a sensible interpretation to this verse. It also amplifies what Paul fills out in more detail later in the epistle—that faith in Christ for righteousness before God does produce fruit (see chapters 8, 12-15). The persevering life is a radically changed life.
On the other end, however, here is Paul's first use of "justified" in Romans. He uses it 13 more times through 8:33 (cf. 3:4, 20, 24, 26, 28, 30; 4:2, 5; 5:1, 9; 6:7 where translated as "freed"; 8:30, 33). In the rest of the usages, with 6:7 being the one exception, his emphasis is on justification by faith apart from the works of the Law. Keep in mind, as well, that Paul has not adopted a different subject than the gospel he declared in 1:16-17. So, if we're viewing justification by faith with the evidence of justification found in doing the Law (not perfection in the Law) then this interpretation would fit. Or if it implies that without this evidence there is no justification, then again, it fits well. But this interpretation does not fit if there's even a hint of doing the Law as instrumental for justification.
(3) The third view explains that Paul's meaning may be hypothetical: that God is a righteous God, and therefore requires perfect adherence to His Law in order to be justified by the Law. But this is only hypothetical since none qualify due to the common ground of depraved natures and sinful practice. Therefore, since none are capable of perfectly conforming to the Law, then our need is for the gospel! We need Christ's righteousness if we have any hope of finding acceptance before God.
I think with the qualifications in the second view or the third view that sees the verse as hypothetical, we come to a good understanding of what Paul meant in verse 13. But he quickly moves to another question: what of those that do not have the Law? How will they be judged if they have no legal standard and therefore, no understanding of the kind of righteousness that God demands? Would that not be an act of injustice on God's part?
"Okay, Paul; so it's the doers of the Law not the hearers that will be justified. That's just fine for those that have the Law, namely, the Jews. But what of the Gentiles that do not have the written Law? How will God judge them justly without a written Law?"
The Apostle makes sure that he does not leave anyone out or anything dangling in his argument that all are sinners, all will be judged by God, and therefore, all need the gospel of Christ. Here we come face to face with one of the great questions asked concerning the standing of those that have never heard the teaching of Scripture. Will God judge the millions that have never heard of the Ten Commandments or the gospel of Christ? Or will they be judged by a different standard and have a different way to heaven? Some who dare to call themselves evangelicals teach that those that have never heard will make it to heaven by another way. Yet that runs contrary to the teaching of Scripture—that Jesus Christ alone is "the way, the truth, and the life; and no man comes to the Father but through" Him (John 14:6). There is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved but through Christ alone (Acts 5:12). So, the biblical teaching is that men are saved only through faith in Christ. Therefore, the impetus to take the gospel to the people groups that have little to no knowledge of Christ is an ongoing imperative for the church.
But the question still lingers: is God unfair to judge those that have never heard of the Law or the gospel? Paul explains God's justice and impartiality in verses 14-15.
Obviously, it is best to have the Scripture in one's own language. Yet the reality is that thousands of languages do not have even a portion of the Bible in their tongue. Major strides have been made in the 20th and the 21st centuries toward translating the Scripture into the thousands of dialects without the Word. But the reality is that millions have died without any portion of Scripture in their language. They died without reading the Ten Commandments and died without reading of the gospel of Christ. So what is God's standard for judging them? That's what Paul explains.
"For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves." The translation helps us by distinguishing the Ten Commandments by upper case "Law" and identifying the Gentile understanding of "law" with a lower case. Paul explains that people without the written Law are still created in the image of God. The Creator's moral imprint is still on every person born. Consequently, God has written His moral standards into the human DNA so that even remote tribal groups understand something of God's law. Anthropologists have discovered this again and again, as they've investigated primitive peoples who regarded murder, adultery, stealing, and lying as wrong and punishable if order would be maintained. Paul states that they do the Law—that is God's standards in the Ten Commandments—"instinctively" or naturally as human beings. This instinct for God's Law becomes "a law to them…" Curtis Vaughan and Bruce Corley explain, "The point is that there is a valid standard for judgment for every person." The difference between the two standards, Law and conscience, is not in essential content but "the manner in which they are mediated and in the degree of fullness which characterizes them" [BSC: Romans, 35].
It is clear that when Paul speaks of "Law" he refers to the moral law only, and not to the civil or ceremonial laws that were specific to Israel. Those laws are not written on the conscience but God's moral law is.
So interwoven in the human psyche is God's Law, that Paul indicates three ways that the Law drives home both instruction and conviction even among those with no written revelation. When the Gentiles instinctively do the Law so that it becomes a law to them, "they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them." While the promise in the New Covenant is that God writes His Law on the hearts of believers, the indication in that context is that it is implanted in the heart with an inclination and desire to obey (cf. Heb. 8). But in the case of those having no written revelation, God's Law has been written in the heart as those made in God's image. Though knowing morally what pleases the Creator, they still rebel and follow the inclination of depraved hearts. So the "conscience" goes to work "bearing witness" with what God has inscribed on the heart. The word indicates that the heart and conscience team up in order to give stronger voice to God's Law in the heart. Even one that has never heard of the Lord God feels the weight of God's Law bearing down on his heart and conscience.
A third internal Law-indicator goes to work—the thoughts. "And their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when…God will judge the secrets of men…" Here's the remarkable thing that happens even when people don't have written revelation; the heart tells them that adultery, stealing, and lying are wrong. Being rebels at heart, they commit adultery, steal, and lie or else begin to scheme to do so. Then the conscience goes to work, weighing with heaviness and inward pain that these things are wrong. Finally, "their thoughts" go to work, juggling desire and God's law written on the heart. "Thoughts" is a word that implies an inward calculating or counting or taking matters into account. So it's not just a flippant thought that Paul has in mind. It's mental gymnastics! They calculate whether it is right or wrong for such and such an action; or having committed the sin, they reason with themselves and rationalize within about why they had the right to commit their sin.
Here's the point that Paul makes: even those that do not have the benefit of written revelation have implanted in the heart the testimony of God's Law. God has so designed the conscience that, though not infallible, it still normally hones in on God's Law. Further, God has so designed the thinking process that when one faces his sin, an inward thought-battle takes place, with a flurry of accusations and defensive thrusts. That is sufficient standard for God to righteously judge even those that have no written Word.
It seems best to see verse 16 continuing as an explanation of the statements in verse 12. The verses in-between parenthetically explain verse 12 but now Paul continues. How can those sinning "without the Law" still perish "without the Law"? Because God has written the Law on the heart with the conscience bearing witness and the thoughts juggling accusations and defenses in light of sin. Yet why is it important to know this? Because of "the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus." Judgment will be just because the same standard of Law, though mediated in different manners, will be the instrument of judgment. There will be a Day of Judgment. What does Paul tell us about the day?
It seems odd that Paul explains judgment with reference to the "gospel." Yet there's nothing strange about this because the gospel is God's merciful response to His judgment. The gospel is God's declaration that judgment is certain for everyone; so certain, that if anyone would have hope to pass through judgment unscathed, Someone else would have to bear the weight of his judgment. The Apostle does not let us forget that he's explaining the gospel! Even when discussing judgment it is so that we might see the seriousness of sin that Jesus bore at the cross—sin deserving God's wrath and indignation. Yet so effective was Christ's sacrifice on behalf of sinners, that the full weight of God's judgment against us was satisfied at the cross for all that trust Him.
Even the hidden things—"secrets of men"—will be unmasked at judgment. Why does Paul bring us such an uncomfortable subject? It's because we all have secret sins—sins that shame us and we tuck away in the mind, trying to forget and hoping that God forgets. But judgment reveals "the secrets of men." So, you may be one that puts up a good front and has everyone believing that you are a Christian when you are not. Your secret will be unmasked at judgment. You may have a secret life unbeknown to the rest of us. But God knows; and the day will come when He unmasks the secret life.
It is only through the gospel of Christ that our sins can be buried in the depths of eternal mercy, never to surface and haunt us.
The Savior is also the one through whom God will judge the secrets of men. It's the same truth that Paul told the Athenians, that God has appointed a day in which He will judge all men through "the Man" whom He appointed—Jesus Christ risen from the dead! He that dwelt among us, who knows the reality of sin, who felt the full weight of it at the cross, and who rose with conquering authority over the lair of sin, will judge the secrets of men. Think of it: the only One that can forgive sin and that provided forgiveness through facing God's judgment at the cross, will also be your Judge. Can you treat Christ with carelessness and apathy when you will face the One that is both Redeemer and Judge? Will you welcome Him as your Judge or shrink from His gaze?
All men face Jesus Christ. You either face Him as Judge or you bow to Him as gracious Lord.
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