-----
Original Message -----
From:
Billy
To:
Craig
Re: Romans 2:14-15
Dear
Craig,
Greetings
in Jesus Name Brother! I hope you are
doing ok. I was reading in the book of
Romans last night; could you give me some meaning on the following two verses
in the text of Romans 2:14 &15?
Thank you.
God
bless you,
Billy
Hi Billy,
It’s always so good to
hear from you brother! My health has
been on a steady decline, with increasing levels of pain, given to me as a
thorn in my flesh, because of the abundance of revelations in Scripture, which
God the Father has graciously granted to me thru the Spirit of His son
Jesus. My heart’s desire is to build up
the members of the body of Christ and that thru my own weakness and infirmity;
Jesus has given me peace and comfort, so I pray that the hearts and minds of
others might be blessed by the comfort and compassion given to them thru the
same Spirit of grace I have received.
Romans 2:14-15 For when Gentiles who do not have
the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are
a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their
hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately
accusing or else defending them. New
American Standard Bible
Having done street
outreach evangelism (one-on-one) at the Bible Answer Stand Ministry for 20+
years, and another 7 years of online ministry, which involves answering
difficulties from people who are skeptical of the ‘Christian God,’ below is a
typical question I receive:
“Craigo, Christians say that unless a person repents
and believes in God ONLY thru Jesus Christ, that he or she is going to spend
eternity in hell. How can you believe
in a loving and just God who will damn people to hell just because they’ve
never heard the gospel message?”
For years, I avoided
answering this question directly, because, quite frankly, I had no proof from
Scripture that such a notion by Christians exists (i.e. that God sends people
to hell that never hear the gospel).
And yet, if and when I made my opinions known during any given
conversation with a fellow believer, inevitably I was accused of ‘compromising
the truth.’ One day, while reading the
very passage of Romans 2:14-15 that you asked concerning its meaning, the Lord
opened the eyes of my understanding, and I saw how plainly this passage proves
that if a person lives his or her life according to the precepts of God’s ‘Law’
they have, in effect, BECOME a ‘law unto themselves.’
In the apostle Paul’s
written letter to the Gentile church at Rome (i.e. the Greek or ‘non-Jewish’
converts to the gospel), the scriptural truths found in the context of Romans
2:14-15 are intended for one purpose: To declare that God, who created the
heavens and the earth and all that is within them, is both just and
loving. He will judge each man
according to his or her own deeds, taking into account the faith they have in
serving Him with a clear conscience.
In other words, though
many will never hear the revelation of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,
most often, because of the distant regions of the world they live in, God the
Father will use the only law they have, their thoughts alternately accusing or
else defending them.
For centuries, born
again Christians have misjudged those who never hear the gospel, but who live
according to the same truth taught in the Scripture. In fact, later in the same book of Romans, Paul summarizes and
boils down every single one of God’s commandments, whether in the Law given to
Moses, or whether in the revealed words given to the Prophets, or whether in
the those in the Psalms, Proverbs and other wisdom books, whether in the New
Testament commandments in the gospels, epistles, or in the Book of Revelation
thru the commands unveiled in the apostle John’s apocalypse; ALL COMMANDS are
summarized in ONE STATEMENT below:
Romans 13:8-10 Owe
no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has
fulfilled the law. 9 For
the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall
not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear
false witness," "You shall not covet," and
if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this
saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love
does no harm to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the
law. New King James Version
From the beginning of
creation, human beings have understood that there is an all-powerful and divine
being who made the world, the heavens, and all that is in them. Across the globe, many tribes and peoples
have believed in the “great spirit” (e.g. American Indians, African tribesmen
and various nomads) and have honored God in various ways. Some amongst various ethnic groups have
acted in ignorance of the scriptures just as many, many Christian churches and
denominations act and believe in doctrines and practices that are contrary to
scripture.
Ignorance of God’s
written laws is not by itself scriptural criterion for automatic condemnation
of their eternal spirit being banished away from the Presence of God and His
Christ. Knowing therefore, that there
are multitudes justified by their faith in God, which is expressed in genuine
love for their neighbor, (albeit they are ignorant of the revelation of God
through Jesus Christ), we should be motivated to pray for them, and to go unto
the uttermost parts of the earth preaching to them about the kingdom of
God. Jesus cannot fulfill the Father’s
promise to restore Israel until we, the body of Jesus Christ, have been his
witness to them.
Acts 1:6-8 And so when they had come together,
they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the
kingdom to Israel?” He said to them,
“It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His
own authority; but you shall receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even
to the remotest part of the earth.”
(NAS)
God has put within
mankind the ability to reason, to compute, and to analyze. There is something eternal within each of
us, which of course is our human spirit, given to each individual by God. He breathed His life into mankind at
creation and has been doing so ever since that time.
Genesis 2:7
Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (NAS)
Our human spirit is the
part of our existence that identifies with our Creator. It is the part of us that gives life to the
human body. When the human spirit
leaves, so does the life.
James 2:26 For as the
human body apart from the spirit is lifeless, so faith apart from its works
of obedience is also dead. Amplified
Bible
When God gave man a
human spirit, it was as though He gave him a sot of sixth sense; He set
eternity in the hearts of men.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything
beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet
they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. New International Version
Isaiah the prophet
writes about the teachable person that is willing to listen to God speak thru
His creation (as in the context of Romans chapters One & Two):
Isaiah 28:23-26 “Give
ear and hear my voice, listen and hear my words. Does the farmer plow continually to plant
seed? Does he continually turn and
harrow the ground? Does he not level
its surface, and sow dill and scatter cumin, and plant wheat in rows, barley in
its place, and rye within its area? For his God instructs and teaches him properly.” New American Standard Bible
God instructs people
that have a simplistic faith in an immense and beneficial Deity. Quite often, Christian missionaries document
first-time encounters and how stunned they were when, instead of finding
‘savages’ or those still practicing cannibalism in remote parts of the world,
to their amazement, they find people with a sweet, gentle, and even childlike
nature, who also possess a strong faith in the ‘Creator.’ They are the ones Jesus spoke of:
Matthew 18:1-3 At that time the disciples came
to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him
before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless
you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of
heaven.” New American Standard
Bible
Why should the
aforementioned missionaries be so surprised?
It is because our deep-seated appetite for theology often makes us
arrogant and puffed-up. We think that
we have an exclusive market on this whole God and Jesus concept. How shortsighted we are! Our so-called ‘Christian’ seminaries,
universities, and Bible Colleges are no match when compared to the mighty faith
of the simple farmer in a distant and faraway land, who is more likely to be
prepared for the coming of the Lord than the intellectuals of the universities
and colleges.
James 5:4-8 Behold, the pay of the laborers who
mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you and
the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of
Sabbath. You have lived luxuriously on
the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a
day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he
does not resist you. Be
patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious
produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late
rains. You too be patient; strengthen
your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. New American Standard Bible
I highly recommend two
books that have impacted my life and view of just such a people. The first book is called, “Eternity in
Their Hearts,” and the second book is called, “Peace Child.” In ‘Peace Child,’ the missionaries who first
brought the gospel to a civilization of cannibals in New Guinea had to almost
completely redesign their approach in presenting the message of Jesus. Culturally, the Bible character named Judas,
(who betrayed Jesus), was viewed as a great hero by the natives. I will let you find and read the book to
discover how the missionaries overcame this hurdle; you will be forever changed
when you experience the events that unfold in this true story.
While these simple folks
have a working knowledge of a God, their mode of worship is often skewed,
distorted, and frequently pantheistic.
They are lacking a plum line of truth that can only be found in the
scriptures. Many of them are as true to
their Creator as they can be, having only their human conscience and finite
minds to guide them.
That is why Satan can
take advantage of them by implanting their minds and hearts with superstitious
beliefs, and weave various forms of witchcraft into what pure faith
remains. How immense a calling it is
for those willing to lay down their lives in devotion to the descendents of
Abraham; who are willing to leave the comfort of their monolithic Christian
edifice, and live in a mud-floored grass hut for years, in order that they
might disciple others.
It is by faith that we
humans have the understanding of a divine Creator. True scientific knowledge will compliment such faith, contrary to
what the so-called learned and “wise” professors of our institutes of higher
learning proclaim. By faith we know
that God used an unseen microscopic atomic structure to create the visible
things on earth out of nothing.
Hebrews
11:3 By faith we understand that the
worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not
made out of things which are visible.
(NAS)
Throughout the world
people know that there is a God through His magnificent creation. Once I climbed the peak of a glacier high
atop the Olympic Mountain range in Washington State. There, on top of the world, my breath was taken away by the
awesomeness of God revealed in His beautiful handiwork. Everything in me cried, “Glory!”
The only words I could
utter in that place were, “Yahweh” (He is).
I had a foretaste of what Moses must have felt when God told him that he
stood on holy ground. The only way I
can explain what I felt, there atop the snowy peaks, looking straight down a
shear drop of over one thousand feet, and feeling the power of the winds at
such heights was, “There is too much of God’s presence here in this holy place
for my puny physical human existence to handle.”
Exodus 3:3-6 So Moses said, “I must turn aside
now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” When the LORD saw that he turned aside to
look, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, “Moses,
Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do
not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which
you are standing is holy ground.”
He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then
Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. New American Standard Bible
Isaiah
45:18 For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God
who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a
waste place, But formed it to be inhabited), “I am the LORD, and there is none
else.” (NAS)
What many people
recognize and distinguish thru their spiritual perspective is that God’s
invisible attributes and His divine nature are continually discovered in and
through His creation. For some, it is
an occasion each day to be in awe of and feel affection for Him. Still others have rejected the divine
Architect, and have worshipped and served the creatures rather than the Creator
who is blessed forever.
Romans 1:18-23 For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress
the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is
known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without
excuse. For even though they knew God,
they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in
their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools,
and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of
corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
(NAS)
The whole creation, from
a tiny ant to the gigantic blue whale, from vast constellations of planets and
stars to the tiniest meteors, from a babbling mountain stream to roaring of the
waves that spray a cool mist as they crash upon the sands of the beach, from
the intricate tunnels and burrows of the prairie dog, to the magnificent
canyons and lush green jungle, from the pure artesian spring bubbling up from
deep within the earth, to the mammoth Niagara waterfalls, from the tiny fingers
and toes of a newborn baby to the complexities of the human vascular and
neurological system operating within the human body; all these, as well as
billions upon billions of other examples in creation testify of the
Almighty. His eternal power and divine
nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so
that every human being is without an excuse in acknowledging his or her
Creator.
For those who have not
embraced pantheistic ideology, and who revere the Creator they see expressed in
His great and marvelous wonders, their faith is accounted to them as
righteousness. Though they have yet to
hear of the liberating message of the Christ, and many never hear, those who
express their love for God by loving their neighbor as themselves are a law
unto themselves (which is the intent and meaning of the apostle Paul’s words
written in Romans 2:14-15).
These have yet to meet
the mediator between God and man; the man Christ Jesus, who can bring them into
oneness with the Father as sons and daughters of the Most High. That which is, “known about God is evident
within them; for God made it evident to them.”
Their human spirit comes from God and bears witness to a Creator. Once they have made a heart confession of
Jesus, they can partake of the glories of salvation found only in him.
Romans 10:8-18 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in
your heart”-- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you
confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God
raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for
with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the
mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be
disappointed. ‘ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same {Lord}
is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for “Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord
will be saved.” How then shall
they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him
whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is
written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of
those who bring glad tidings of good things! ‘
However, they did not all heed the glad tidings; for Isaiah says, “
Lord, who has believed our report?” So
faith {comes} from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, surely they have never heard,
have they? Indeed they have; “Their voice has gone out into all the
earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” (NAS)
I hope this has been
helpful for you in grasping the heart of God expressed in Romans 2:14-15. For a more in-depth read on this passage and
other Scripture narratives bearing the same witness, click onto the study link
I have provided below:
God's Provision to Those Who
Never Hear the Gospel
God bless you brother
Billy, and thanks again for staying in touch!
Love in Jesus always
bro~
Craigo
The
Bible Answer Stand Ministry
1 Peter 3:15 Always be
ready to give reasonable justification to anyone who asks you for an
explanation of the hope that is within you,
but do it considerately and courteously.
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