Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Romans 2:12

"For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law;" — Romans 2:12 (ASV)

The principle of impartiality has to face a problem as soon as the two groups, Jews and Gentiles, are considered together, for God has not dealt with them in similar fashion. The Jews have received a revelation of God in Scripture that has been denied the Gentile. But in this section Paul shows that Gentiles do have a law, and this suffices as a basis for judgment. Before discussing this law, however, Paul sees in it no power to save, for “all who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law.” Gentiles do not perish for the reason that they lack the law which Jews possess, but because they sin. In speaking of Jews, Paul says they “will be judged” by the law, but this does not imply exoneration, for no Jew has succeeded in keeping the law.

The expression “all who sin under the law” could strike a Jewish reader as incongruous, but Paul is linking sin with law deliberately in order to prepare the way for his next statement—that the righteous are not those who “hear the law” (cf. James 1:22–24). Rather, doers of the law are the ones who will be “declared righteous” (v.13; GK 1467). This is the first occurrence in Romans of the important expression “be declared righteous.” Full treatment of this matter must wait until ch. 3, though the full theological significance of this word should be retained here.

Paul’s purpose is to undercut the position of those Jews who are counting on their (limited) obedience to the law for acceptance with God. To Paul, one’s compliance would have to be perfect if one were to be declared righteous by an absolutely righteous God (cf. Lk 10:28). By analogy, Gentiles are in essentially the same position, seeing that they also are not without law (cf. vv.14–15). The future tense in “will be declared righteous” favors the conclusion that final judgment is in view. Paul is not raising false hopes here; on the contrary, he is dashing them. Only after the flimsy edifice of humanly contrived righteousness has been leveled will the apostle be ready to put in its place the sturdy foundation of the justification provided by God in Christ.

The word “indeed” in v.14 demonstrates that Paul intends to counter the boastfulness of the Jews by a discussion of the Gentile situation, to which he now turns. He seems anxious to avoid the impression that he is discussing the Gentiles in their entirety (he says “Gentiles,” not “the Gentiles”). He is thinking of them in individual terms, not as masses. He goes on to recognize that there are Gentiles who, despite their apparent disadvantage in not possessing the Mosaic law, “do by nature” what the law requires.

What are these things? Presumably, they are not matters peculiar to the law of Moses, but moral and ethical requirements widely recognized and honored in people generally. It was a commonplace of rabbinic teaching that Abraham kept the laws of Sinai long before they were given. Paul states that such people as he has in mind are “a law for themselves.” He is not talking about laws invented in their own self-interest; rather, they are laws that come from the law that is written on their hearts. We must not confuse this statement with God’s promise in Jer 31:33 of the law written in the heart, for if that were the case, Gentiles would have the law in a more intimate way than Jews did. Rather, Paul is insisting that the basic requirements of the law are stamped on human hearts. Presumably, he can say this because human beings are made in the image of God. All people, for example, when they quarrel, instinctively try to determine who is in the right and who is in the wrong. Similarly, despite the great differences in laws and customs among peoples around the world, what unites them in a common humanity is the recognition that some things are right and others are wrong.

An additional element that belongs to the equipment of the Gentiles is “their conscience,” which “[bears] witness” (v.15; GK 5210). The word used here has the idea of bearing witness with; so one must ask, With what? Only one answer seems possible: with the requirements of the law written on the heart. The two function together. While in the Greek OT the word “conscience” never appears, the operation of a conscience is recognized in such passages as Ge 42:21 and 2 Samuel 24:10.

Paul’s fairly frequent use of the term “conscience” (GK 5287) indicates his indebtedness to his Greek environment and his desire of capitalizing on a concept familiar to his Gentile churches. In his thinking, the function of conscience in Gentiles is parallel to the function of the law for Jews. The way conscience operates is described as a process of accusation or defense by the thoughts of a person, the inner life being pictured as a kind of debating forum, so that at times one finds oneself exonerated at the bar of conscience, at other times convicted of wrong.