NOTES for Rom 1:28

For Paul, life in the Kingdom is inseparable from following the Torah, and therefore in his letters, like the Old Testament authors, he often sets two ways against each other: the way of righteousness and the way of ungodliness (vv. 16-18). Of course, Paul's witness was addressed not only to Jews but also to those who had recently been pagans. It implied a certain universalism, and therefore the apostle had to answer, for himself and for others, the question of how far the Torah extends to those who may well have known nothing about it.

Naturally, for the first generation of Christians, all of whom were connected with the Synagogue to one degree or another, knowledge of the Torah was taken for granted. But the apostle addressed everyone who was ready to hear his witness, and in that case the question of those who knew nothing about the Torah and the commandments ceased to be purely theoretical.

Indeed, if without knowledge of the Torah it is impossible to follow Christ and enter the Kingdom, what is to be done with those who, for objective reasons, like many pagans, may have known nothing about the Torah and may not even have heard of it? In answering this question, Paul turns to the image of the inner Torah, interpreting it in relation to pagans as something that, by analogy with natural knowledge of God, could be called the "natural Torah." He says that to those who did not know revelation, God revealed Himself through His creation, so that they have no excuse for ignorance (vv. 19-20). At first glance, there is nothing in this statement of the apostle that goes beyond the idea of natural knowledge of God. But Paul does not consider it from a purely natural or psychological point of view. Speaking of the limits of natural knowledge of God, the apostle connects them not with the limits proper to the human mind, but first of all with the choice made by those who came to know Him at the moment when the presence of the Creator was revealed to them behind the beauty and majesty of creation. Instead of holy awe and gratitude, the response to such natural revelation often turned out to be theories and concepts produced not so much by a desire to know the truth as by a thirst for self-assertion (vv. 21-22).

This is precisely how Paul explains the emergence of paganism as a religion and as a way of perceiving the world, which for him is inseparable from violation of the Torah, in this case the second commandment (vv. 23-25). The Torah is an objective reality. It has existed as long as God's relationship with the human being has existed, and therefore as long as the human being himself has existed. And violation of the Torah is not simply a crime against the moral law given by God, but the destruction of the very relationship that binds God and the human being. It is no surprise that the result of such destruction is the spiritual and moral degradation of which the apostle speaks (vv. 26-32).