12 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 since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)16 This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
When God judges men by their knowledge, by truth, by guilt and by deeds, He will judge all men equally. He shows no favouritism. He doesn't judge based on looks, status, wealth, power, race or culture. He judges everyone equally (v11).
I liked MacArthur's point here...
Justification by faith alone applies to the time of entrance into salvation, but not to the time of judgment. We are saved by faith alone but we will be judged, says Romans, by our works....when God in free grace receives the sinner at the time of his conversion, he asks nothing but that we believe and submit to Him, right? That's it. He asks nothing more. But from that moment on the believer enters into a responsibility of obedience and then the mark of that believer becomes the obedient pattern of his life, we call it the fruit of grace. Faith doesn't mean that now I've received Jesus I can do whatever I want. On the contrary. True faith always results in holy living. Now there are lapses, there are times when we fail. But there has to be some evidence there, some evidence of a seeking after God and glory, honor and incorruption because that's the standard by which we'll be judged....
All your righteousnesses are as...what?...filthy rags. I mean, there is a thing you could call relative human good. I mean, it's better to be kind to people than to be unkind to them. And there's a certain good in that. But that is not true righteousness that pleases God. The reason is because the motive isn't right, see. In other words, you could do good but you could have a wrong motive. And any other motive than glorifying God is a wrong motive....if you didn't do good specifically to glorify the God of heaven, then you fell short of the standard of true righteousness. And the man in the natural world doesn't do good for that reason because he doesn't know that perspective...
The point is that men are going to be judged by their works. And the only way that you or anyone else on the face of the earth could ever produce one single righteous work would be when your spirit was energized by the indwelling presence of God through salvation. And then when salvation truly occurs, you will produce the works which become the attestation to the legitimacy of your faith. So God will judge by works.
He will judge by works, and He will judge with complete impartiality - on the subjective reality of their faith in Christ (only God can see the heart) and the objective confirmation of that in their works.
He will judge everyone fairly according to the knowledge that they were given.
If you don't have the law, you'll be judged as one who didn't have the law. If you have the law, you'll be judged as one who had the law. God will be utterly absolutely fair.
The Jews had the Mosaic law and they will be judged based on that fact. The Gentiles did not, and they will be judge on the basis of that fact. (v12) Just like today, there are many people who have still never heard the gospel message preached to them and they do not have the scriptures. God will still judge them, but they will be judged based on the fact that they did not hear the gospel. But they are still sinners. Which means they will still perish in hell, but it will be less severe for them than for those who had more knowledge. The hottest hell is reserved for those who know the most and rejected the Truth.
The more you know God's law, the more it intensifies the consequence unless it is obeyed.
And here is a terrible frustration because you can't obey it in your own strength. And so he literally backs them into a corner...God requires perfect obedience. God requires a manifestation of righteousness but no one can do that. Thus the law is meant to drive us to a point of desperation where we turn to God for the power to do what we otherwise couldn't do. so the question the Jew might ask is answered. It doesn't do you a bit of good to have it unless you do it, it just intensifies your guilt because only the one who does it is justified.
But what about the person who has never heard? How can they be held responsible if they've never seen the written word of God or heard the gospel message?
They are still responsible - for several reasons.
First, creation itself testifies to a creator - we saw that in Romans 1. They can look around and know there's a God and so they are responsible for their knowledge.
Next, their own conduct testifies to the fact that we've been instilled with a sense of right and wrong (v14). The unsaved behave in ways that compliment scripture very often - most unbelievers love their spouses and children, many help clothe the poor and feed the hungry, they know it's wrong to murder and to commit adultery, they honour their parents, they pay their debts - all consistent with the law of God. The law of God has been written on the hearts of men and their conduct proves it.
This does not mean that man is basically good, he is depraved. But there is in him a sense of rightness that keeps him from being as bad as he possible could be. And that is the law of God within him.
Another reason is their conscience (v15), which follows the same line of reasoning. It refers to a person's inner sense of right and wrong, the moral consciousness that pronounces judgment on thoughts and attitudes and speech and deeds.
There is that sense within you that convicts you when you do wrong. In a Christian the conscience is intensified because we not only have the natural law within us that all men have, but also the law of Christ from His Word, and also the work of the Holy Spirit. We should never violate our conscience because doing so causes it to become numb and scarred so that it becomes far less effective than it should naturally be. Everyone has a conscience, whether they've heard the scripture or not. The first thing a child often does when he's been caught doing something is wrong is to lie, because he knows what he did was wrong! We have that conviction within us.
Lastly, there's also the ability to analyze and determine whether something is right or wrong (v15 - accuse and defend). The majority of people who hear about a murder will determine it to be very wrong and will want to accuse that person and punish them - that's why we have a punitive system in place in our legal system. There is within everyone the ability to contemplate right and wrong and decide that this is excusable while this inexcusable.
Creation, conduct, conscience, contemplation, what they do, how they deal with the good and bad in their own life and how they deal with it in the lives of others indicates that they know the law of God as written in them. Now here is the most important thing I've said yet. The sum of it is this, if they live up to that much light, and they accept that much light, God will reveal to them the full light of Jesus Christ. I believe that with all my heart. You see, that's what it says in Acts 17, "He is not far from us if we would feel after Him." Do you see? If they would just take what they have and accept that. John 7:17, mark it down, "If any man wills to do My Father's will, he shall know of the teaching." If the willing heart is there, he'll know.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 2:17-24
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