Saturday 21st March
Read Romans 2:12-16
“All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.” (NIVUK)
The context of Paul’s letter to the Roman church may help us when approaching these words. Paul is writing to both present the good news about Jesus and to encourage the church there, both Jew and Gentile, to reconcile. When he speaks about sin and judgment, he is deliberately outlining that both Jew and Gentile will be held to the same standard. Their judgment will be just because it will be delivered against what they knew and what they didn’t then do.
Paul is not arguing that there are some Jews who will escape simply because they have the externally written law. Gentiles also have knowledge of right and wrong, like the Jews, written internally on their hearts. This knowledge, when the books are opened and the thoughts of our hearts are revealed and put alongside our actions, will condemn Jew and Gentile alike. Completely.
So, when Jew and Gentile consider each other and then draw judgments and distinctions that harm their relationships it is revealed fully for what it is. Petty and pointless. They are all in the same boat when they stand before God in judgment.
It is a strange way indeed to promote unity in the church but that is at least part of Paul’s aim in writing here!
