Eternity Daily Bible Study - No. 507 Series: Romans 1-8 "A Righteousness That Is By Faith" Verses: Romans 2:12-16 Topic: The Law In Our Hearts Date: 31st August 2005 Romans 2:12-16 HCSB All those who sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all those who sinned under the law will be judged by the law. (13) For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be declared righteous. (14) So, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, instinctively do what the law demands, 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. Their consciences testify in support of this, and their competing thoughts either accuse or excuse them (16) on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus. The first key phrase is: "For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be declared righteous." In other words it is not the church-goers that are righteous, but the commandment-keepers. Of course church-going is good if it helps you to obey God! (I pastor a small church so I have to say that!). Those who hear the law, have its light, and have an opportunity to obey it. The law is thus meant to be a lamp to the path of the obedient disciple. The Bible is truth and we are supposed to live by it. But some people who do not hear any bible teaching still do righteous deeds - such as being compassionate, kind and honest and helpful. When people who have not heard the Scriptures, still do God's will, so we say that: "the law is written on their hearts". Some people still have a lot of the light of God in their conscience - Ghandi I think would be one such person and some folk I met in tribal areas of Papua New Guinea were, intuitively and sensitively, very good people. Such consciences are rare but they do exist and Abraham would be an example of someone who followed God without having any church or Scriptures. "So, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, instinctively do what the law demands, 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. Their consciences testify in support of this, and their competing thoughts either accuse or excuse them on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus." Even Gentiles (in modern terms -people without the Scriptures) can be spiritually sensitive and walk according to their consciences. And God will judge them by the light which they have, the light of their own best and deepest understanding of right and wrong, of gratitude and ingratitude, and of the holy and the profane. Paul leaves us in mid-air on the question of whether such people will go to Heaven. Abraham certainly was justified by following God via his conscience - and perhaps there are also a few modern examples. But I will leave that thorny question to the theologians! The question Paul is nudging towards is the location of our knowledge of God. Is the law written in our hearts, or just in our book and in our minds? There is a certain kind of highly conceptual Christianity that spends much time discussing the latest books and ideas - but scarcely obeys a single one of God's commandments. (In fact the very idea of "godly obedience" is scorned as Pharisaical legalism.) Knowing is good, but doing is much better. The gospel is personal, moral and spiritual (not impersonal, abstract and intellectual) and thus its locus of operation is primarily in the spirit, in the conscience, and in the heart. Hebrews 8:10-12 HCSB "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the Lord: "I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. (11) And each person will not teach his fellow citizen, and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. (12) For I will be merciful to their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins." The "law written on our hearts" is a deeply internalized sense of respecting God's commandments and is part of God's gift to Christians in the New Covenant. In fact it is part of the operation of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 HCSB (2) You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by everyone, (3) since it is plain that you are Christ's letter, produced by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh. Romans 2:28-29 HCSB For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. (29) On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart--by the Spirit, not the letter. His praise is not from men but from God. So God's rules for living are supposed to operate at the deepest level of our being, through the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. Thus a truly Spirit-filled Christian should have a sensitive conscience and a sense that they are ruled "from within" by God. Ultimately though figuring out who is in or out of Heaven "is not our call" but God's, who is the only one entitled to judge the deep recesses of the human heart: "on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus." On that day we may find the preacher did it all out of selfish ambition and that the prostitute knew no other way to keep her children from starving. The rules of God are not things to be studied and debated, but should be written deep in our hearts and conscience by faith - and lived out in daily life, "For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be declared righteous". Blessings In Christ, John Edmiston (johned@aibi.ph) __________________________________________________________________ REFER OTHERS: If this devotional is a blessing to you, maybe you have a friend or family member that would like to start receiving this daily bible study. 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