Good news

Sunday 22^nd 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)

Jew and Gentile alike are united in the impartial, just and deserved judgment they will face on the last day. They will be judged against what they knew and then failed to do. There are at least two implications of this truth.

First, it proclaims, in the negative, the justice of God. There are some who rather optimistically think that these words of Paul provide hope to those living in deepest darkest obscurity.  That if they live good lives as measured against their own internal moral compass, they will be saved. This is to confuse Paul’s subject. He is writing about the last day and the judgment that all must face. He has not moved on to the way of salvation yet. That judgment will be just and fair, public and clear. We know that to be true because Jesus will be judge.

Second it provides grounds for Christian actions to promote justice in society now. There is a congruence between the laws of God written externally and provided to the Jews and the laws of God written internally on the hearts of all. The phrasing may be different in the hearts of those who know the law and those who don’t, but everyone ‘knows’ what justice looks like.  Sometimes they will act against it and sometimes they are blind to it because of societal norms that have built up over time. But Paul’s words provide hope that labouring for justice in society is not a futile raging against the wind – it seeks to align God’s will in heaven, on earth. It matches perfectly with what Jesus called us to pray for every day… In that sense these words capture the ‘good news’ perfectly.