NOTES for Rom 2:12-16
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; |
13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. |
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: |
15 Which shew 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;) |
16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. |
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Developing his thought about the "natural Torah," Paul contrasts Jews and Gentiles not by a religious criterion, but only on the basis of the attitude of both toward the Torah. Of course, when speaking of the Torah, the apostle considers it not only as legislation, but also as a way that presupposes following the commandments and the laws based on them. For him the Torah is an objective reality; its laws are in force whether people know about them or not. But these are still spiritual laws, and their effect on a person, unlike the laws of nature, depends to a known degree on the relationship between the person and God. A Gentile may know nothing about the Torah, yet he still senses it through its effect on his soul and his heart. In this case Paul uses the expression "the work of the Torah" (v. 15), in fact placing before God Gentiles who fulfill the Torah written in their hearts on the same level as Jews to whom it is known in all its fullness (v. 14).
The "natural Torah" is in no way worse than the written one if it allows a Gentile to find the road into the Kingdom. And the apostle considers the proof that it exists and is perceived by many Gentiles as an undeniable reality of their lives to be the moral struggle that Gentiles know no less well than Jews who sincerely strive to follow the Torah (v. 15). The differences between Jews and Gentiles become relevant not in the Kingdom, and not even on the way to it, but when the issue is violation of the Torah.
Objectively, sin remains sin in every case, and therefore Gentiles who sin without knowing the Torah are threatened with destruction, while Jews who violate the Torah face judgment (v. 12). The difference, as we can see, lies in the fact that God judges those who have consciously accepted the Torah according to what they have accepted, while the rest are judged according to what they could and should have known about sin and righteousness. The Torah is not a guarantee of salvation and not a privilege. It is only an instrument that helps on the way to the Kingdom. And the one to whom it was given bears responsibility for what he received into his hands, especially since this gift is always accepted voluntarily.
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