Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Romans 2:11 - 2:16

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Romans 2:11 - 2:16


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The Necessity of Keeping the Law Properly.

Not the hearing of the Law, but the doing of the Law has value:

v. 11. For there is no respect of persons with God.

v. 12. For as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law; and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law,

v. 13. (for not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law shall be justified;

v. 14. for when the, Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law, these, having not the Law, are a law unto themselves;

v. 15. which show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another,)

v. 16. in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel.

The apostle had plainly stated that the judgment of God on the last day would be a righteous judgment. This statement he now establishes by declaring that there is no respect of persons with God; the external condition, position, or station of a person, his wealth and social connections, have absolutely no influence upon Him; He is righteous and impartial. For whatever people have sinned without Law, without Law also perish; and whatever people have sinned in or under the Law will be judged and condemned through the Law. If any people in the world are not in possession of the codified Law, the statement of God's will as contained in the Ten Commandments, then these people, evidently heathen, will perish, will be lost without a formal judgment according to such rule, they will suffer eternal death. But if any people—and this is true especially of the Jews—led a life of sin while in possession of the Law, with the full knowledge of its demands, promises, and threats, their judgment and condemnation will take place in accordance with and through the sentence of the Law. Whether, therefore, people have actually had the Law or not, whether they have been Jews or Gentiles, in either case the sinner incurs the penalty of God's wrath. And the special prerogative of the Jews, that they had received the written revelation of God, would have no value as an excuse for the transgression of the Law. For, as Paul very emphatically declares, not the hearers of the Law would be considered just before God, but the doers of the Law would be declared righteous. No degree of external familiarity with the words of the Law will have any weight before the judgment-throne of God; if there is to be justification in connection with the Law, it must be that of a perfect fulfillment of the Law, Luk_10:28. It follows, of course, that no man living can actually be justified by keeping the Law in his own strength, by his own merits. The fact that the believers are regarded by the Lord as doers of the Law, 8:4, is due to the perfect righteousness of Jesus, in which He fulfilled the Law for us, which is transmitted to us by faith and then regarded by God as our own property, though entirely the result of Christ's vicarious obedience.

The apostle had said, v. 12, that the people who had sinned without the Law would be condemned and suffer eternal damnation without the written Law. This he now proves in a parenthetical sentence. Whenever, as often as, or because the Gentiles who have not the Law, the written Law, yet by nature perform the things enjoined in the Law, do that which is commanded in the Law of Moses on account of the knowledge which they possess by nature, in all such cases these Gentiles, though they have not the Law, yet are a law unto themselves. These facts are fully substantiated in history. There are many heathen, unbelievers, who, by following the prompting of their conscience, shun every form of extraordinary shame and vice, do the work of their calling with all diligence, give assistance to the poor, and otherwise perform deeds which seem in total conformity with the injunctions of the written Law. They are a law unto themselves, they watch over their own deeds and distinguish between good and evil. This is further substantiated in v. 15: They thereby being men that show, prove, that the work of the Law, that which the Law requires, is written in their hearts. As the Jews had the words of the Law written on tables of stone, so the heathen had the contents of God's holy will written in their hearts, not in its concrete form, but according to its general trend; the knowledge of its demands was an intellectual possession of men. And now the heathen prove the work of the Law as written in their hearts, their own conscience testifying therewith, their own consciousness acting as witness for or against them. The natural law of God, the impress of His holy will in the heart of man, which tells him in general what is right and what is wrong, is accompanied and supplemented by the voice of conscience, which judges the concrete individual acts of a person, tells him whether the specific thing which he has done or is about to do is right or wrong. This is done in such a way that the thoughts between one another accuse or defend each other. The individual judgments, the individual actions of conscience are engaged in a dispute over the permissibility or inadmissibility of certain deeds which the person contemplates or has performed. The description of the apostle reminds of a formal court session, and incidentally brings out the fact that the judgments of conscience are not always reliable, and that an erring conscience is a possibility.

After this parenthetical digression the apostle now continues his thought regarding the judgment of the great day, a thought which is also loosely connected with this sentence: On the day on which God will judge the hidden things of men according to my Gospel, through Christ Jesus. The Gospel, as preached by Paul and emphatically declared to be his Gospel, entrusted to him, that will be the norm according to which sentence will be passed on the last day, Joh_12:48. The decision concerning salvation or damnation will depend upon the position which a person assumed toward the Gospel and toward Jesus, the Mediator of his salvation, whether he has accepted Jesus and the salvation of the Redeemer by faith or not. And since this faith will reveal itself in words and deeds, therefore it is correct to say also that sentence will be passed on the basis of the works as they have appeared in the life of every person.