romanslawwrittenonheart

The Theme of the Letter; Romans 1:16-17

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ ”

The key to understanding the Book of Romans; yes, the very Gospel itself, is to grasp the meaning of the phrase ," the righteousness of God." The Gospel is the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ alone!

Many people are offended when confronted with the truth that justifying faith is in the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. They are, like Ignorance in Pilgrim's Progress , who agree with the facts of Jesus' death for sinners. But they will not agree that they have absolutely no part in their being justified before God!

The great problem in evangelism today is the definition of the Gospel.

Is salvation by grace, apart from works, or is salvation the result of a response to a proposition? Where are the millions of "saved" people this morning? Many have agreed to a proposition and believe that they are saved but they have no interest to assemble with the people of God to worship!

In 1:18, Paul declares: "For the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down the truth in unrighteousness."

You have no biblical concept of the Gospel if you dismiss the doctrine of the wrath of God. So if I tell someone, "Jesus died for everyone, and He really wants to save everyone, and if you will decide to let Him save you, you too can be saved." That seems to get results.

But if I tell them the truth, that everyone is under the wrath of God; and I leave them no refuge of lies, then I must trust the Holy Spirit to reveal righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.

In our study last Sunday in Romans we introduced the subject of :

The Wrath of God Upon the Jew {2:1-3:8}

We divided this subject into four parts:

Last lesson

2: 1-11 the impartiality of God's judgement.

This lesson:

2: 12-16 the universality of man's accountability to God.

2: 17-29 the Jew fails to live up to his privileges.

3: 1-8 the unbelief of the Jew.

Romans 2:12-16: The universality of man's accountability to God. The Law Written on the Heart.

Paul has established the guilt of the pagan {1:18-32}, and has now declared that the Jew, although the Jew did not believe it, was also under the wrath of God {2:1-11}.

But there remains a question of equity, or fairness of God's judgement.

The Jew had no problem seeing the pagan being judged because they thought that since they {the Jews} had the law, God had judged the Gentiles by not giving them access to the law.

If God's judgement is impartial {2:11}; then what is the basis for judgement?

How does God determine how to judge?

The Jew says, the pagan is judged because he does not have the law.

The pagan says, "I should be acquitted on the grounds of ignorance."

But the heathen is not ignorant of law, even though he may have never heard of the written commandments of God given to Israel through Moses.

vs 12 God says, "You have conscience and nature {1:19-20}, therefore you will be judged by these two witnesses and not by the written law.

The standard of judgement will be the law they have: the Jew will be judged by the law given by God to Moses; the pagan by the law of conscience and nature. Now these are not two separate sets of law; they are essentially the same. The Law of Moses simply codifies the law implanted on the heart and conscience of every man.

The following line of thought was suggested by Douglas Moo:

Paul uses two terms that we need to understand: "law" and "nature."

The Law: What does Paul mean by nomos, "law."

How many ways do we use the term "law?" The police; the laws of physics, e.g.., gravity & entropy; the body of law contained in federal and state constitutions. Most of the time when we read the Bible, "the law" conveys the sum total of God's requirements for holy living.

The key to expository preaching is for the teacher or preacher to tell you what the writer of Scripture meant. Else you have not preached the Scripture.

But Paul is a Pharisee. He is a Jew who lives in the Scripture; he lives in the Judaism in which he was trained. To Paul, "the law" is the Torah, the law God gave to Israel through Moses. Thus Paul can claim that "the law" was given 430 years after Abraham {Gal 3:17; Romans 5:13-14}.

When Paul uses nomos over 70 times in Romans, he almost always means this specific law.

Therefore, in vs 2:12 & 14 , "... apart from the law," or "without law," Paul means the law God gave to Israel through Moses.

But Paul sometimes uses "law" in a broader sense; cf 1 Cor 9:19-21.

Here as in 2:12, "those under the law" are the Jews and "those not having the law" are Gentiles. Paul himself claims he is "not under the law" in this sense of the word. He no longer feels bound to follow the specific law of Moses, the Torah. But, he quickly adds, this does not mean that he is "free from God's law." Clearly this last use of "law" must encompass God's moral demand generally.

Nature: In 2:14, Paul uses a broader sense of "law." The Gentiles, who do not have "the law," are "a law unto themselves." Paul brings in the word "nature" {physis}. For the Greeks, the "natural law" or "unwritten law" was an important concept, establishing the basis for universal moral norms and for the "positive law," as it was called, which was enacted by the Greek city-states. The Stoics, a school of philosophers influencial in Paul's day, rooted this law in nature. Jews familiar with this tradition then used physis in a similar way, to illustrate the universal applicability of the moral standards found in the law of Moses. Paul clearly reflects this tradition in 2:14, and first-century readers would have immediately understood that he was endorsing this wide-spread tradition about the universal moral law.

Everyone agrees with the unwritten law even though they may have never heard of or seen a Bible. For example, everyone knows it is wrong to steal. A man may be the biggest thief in town and has long ago seared his conscience by stealing from others; but he knows it is wrong to steal. It is easy to prove that he knows that it is wrong to steal: Let someone steal something from him!

The idea of "natural law" that Paul endorses here helps to establish a foundation for universal moral norms, thus a "positive law," which will not be undermined by the whims of society or for the convenience of the majority. Francis Schaeffer warned us over twenty years ago about what he called "the tyranny of the 51 percent majority."

We have a current example of this in the U.S. Senate: Republican or Democrat. One senator switched party affiliations and changed the leadership of the Senate. What if all law was decided by simple majority rule? The law could change moment by moment based on the whims of society. Today's technology could easily give everyone eligible to vote an ID number and a password and a way to vote on on the issue of the day.

For more than twenty years I have been saying that when the problem of our aging society becomes too expensive or inconvenient, we have in this country, already gone over the crest of the "slippery slope."

Because of the majority's approval of abortion on demand for reasons of convenience, embarrassment, and expense, we have adopted a culture of death in American society. A nation that will kill babies who are inconvenient will have no problem rationalizing the killing of old people.

Some of you are thinking, "We would never do that." May I remind you that I am only 65 years old and I can remember when less than fifty years ago when the vast majority of Americans would have said the same thing about abortion on demand: "We would never do that."

Here is your wake up call. The government of the Netherlands has recently decided that it is in the common good to allow people to put to death aged and sick relatives.

The idea of "natural law" is a necessary concept to grasp if we are to understand Romans 2:12-16.

The fact that the Jew had the Law does not mitigate the guilt of the pagan. Both pagan and Jew are under the wrath of God. By having greater privilege, the Jew had greater responsibility, not immunity from guilt.

vs 13 Translators differ on how to punctuate this passage. You have been taught that the Greek does not have punctuation. So the translators have to decide where to put periods, commas, parenthesis, etc. Three of the Bible references that I use offer three different views: One says that vs 13, 14, 15 as parenthetical: read 12, then 16. Another says that vs 14 & 15 are parenthetical, so you would connect vs 13 to vs 16.

The third suggestion is from William Hendriksen {one of my favorite N.T. commentators}. The syntax is not strained and the meaning is enforced if you follow this translation: vs 16 reads:

[All this will become clear] on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge men's secrets.

vs 13 Another uncomfortable fact, conveniently forgotten by the Jew, is made plain.

It is not enough to be a diligent hearer of the Law. The Law demands perfect obedience if you are to be justified by the Law. This is the first use of the word justified and Paul will later show {3:20}that no one can be justified by keeping the Law.

Jim, it is not enough that you have read the Bible countless times, that you have taught others, that you have preached the truth, that you have visited the sick, given of your goods to help the poor. Jim, if you are to be justified, you must possess the righteousness of God, and consider your personal righteousness as dung!

It may seem trite, but the word justified has been defined as: "Just -as -if - I'd never sinned."

God, in His sovereign mercy, by fiat, declares the actually guilty sinner, "not guilty."

vs 14 The heathen are not in possession of the written Law, yet their own judgements and actions are an acknowledgment of the moral law stamped upon their nature by the Creator.

Paul is not teaching that the partial and external obedience to this law is pleasing to God.

Robert Haldane observes: "That the pagans do many things that, as to the outward act, are agreeable to the law of God, it is obviously true, and shoud not be denied. That they do anything acceptable to God is not true, and is not here asserted."

vs 15 Conscience is that innate faculty to distinguish between right and wrong, which passes its independent judgement on man's thoughts and actions. We accuse or excuse.

Satan told half the truth in the Garden of Eden: "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you shall be like God, knowing good and evil." {Genesis 3:5}

You will no longer need God to tell you right from wrong, you will decide for yourself.

That much was the truth. The part that Satan did not tell our first parents was that while they would determine right and wrong {they would have a conscience}, they would not have the power to do right nor the ability not to do wrong!

vs 16

[All this will become clear] on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge men's secrets.

Judgement will not be based on what others see you do, but what you do.

Jesus Christ is the Judge! {cf John 5:27; Acts 17:31; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5;

2 Corinthians 5:10} You must have realized by now, if Jesus is the Judge of all men, He must be God indeed!

"... according to my Gospel."

Judgement is a part of the Gospel Message.

Man is the sinner.

Jesus Christ is the Savior.

Judgement is certain.

Jesus is not a beggar.

All men will not hear the Gospel. But Paul has established the righteous judgement of God against all men; both the pagan and the Jew

Amen