(Herman Hoeksema was the first editor of the Standard Bearer and long-time pastor of the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan.)
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:
Which show 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. Romans 2:14, 15
The thought in the immediate context is that God shall judge every man according to his works. The revelation of the righteous judgment of God in the day of Christ - this is the theme of the immediate context. This judgment shall be conducted according to our works. That is, our works shall be the evidence in this judgment. According to our works, our moral, ethical value will be shown. Our value will be shown, not to God but to us. It will be shown in order that He may be justified when He judges and that we may be found to be liars.
The apostle explains that the verdict will be such that they who sought for glory, honor, and immortality, in the way of patient continuance in well-doing, will be rewarded with eternal life. On the other hand, he who lived from the principle of partisanship, that is, he who used his position, place, and relation to God for himself, for his own advancement, and, therefore, disobeyed the truth, will receive indignation and wrath. In the following verses the apostle elaborates upon this verdict of God. Tribulations and anguish will be upon every soul of man who does evil. But glory, honor, and peace will be to every man who worketh good. This is the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
The apostle is addressing man. It is plain that he does not exclude the Gentiles. He is speaking to man in general, but yet to the individual. He is speaking to man, not excluding the Jew, and having in mind to apply it presently to the Jew in particular. For this reason the apostle emphasizes that the Jew shall be first in that judgment. The Jew shall be first, as always. But also the Gentile shall be in that judgment: the Jew first, but also the Gentiles. For there is no acceptance of persons with God. There is only one thing to be judged. This is whether man is ethically worthy of eternal life.
But now a possible question arises in the mind of the apostle. Some might say, "But we have the law." So the Jew reasoned. "God gave me the law, and that God gave me the law is proof that I am righteous." The apostle takes this excuse away and says: "Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified."
But the question arises, how then with respect to the Gentiles? They have no law. How can they know what is right or wrong? By the law is the knowledge of sin. But if the Gentiles have no law, how can they know? The apostle has already said that as many as sin without law shall also perish without law; and as many as sin in the law shall be judged by the law. In other words, it is possible to sin without law. For, and this is the connection, the Gentiles which have not the law, have the work of the law written in their hearts.
The apostle explains this, in the first place, by saying, that the Gentiles do the things of the law. They do not do "the things contained in the law," as our English translation has it. This is not a translation but a commentary. The Gentiles do not do "the things contained in the law." But they do "the things of the law."
In the second place, because they do the things of the law, they are a law unto themselves.
In the third place, that they are a law unto themselves is evident from two facts. First, even in the Gentile world the conscience witnesses. Second, public opinion sets its seal upon the fact that they are a law unto themselves.
What This Means
The Gentiles are a law unto themselves, the apostle says. The question has been asked: what law does the apostle have in mind? The question has been asked whether the apostle has in mind merely the moral law, the law of the ten commandments, or whether he has in mind the entire law of the Jews, the moral, ceremonial, and civil laws.
This question is entirely out of place. This question should not be asked. The apostle does not have in mind any specific law. What the apostle says is that the life of the Gentiles, in the external sense, is characterized by this, that they have no law. This is the difference between the Jews and the Gentiles.
By law here is meant the external code, the written law, not the spiritual essence of the law. The apostle does not mean to say that the Gentiles are not under the law of God. This is just what he emphasizes. But he means to say that the Gentiles have no written law, no external code of precepts. They have no written law telling them what is the will of God. There is no such revelation to the Gentiles, as there was to the Jews. God spoke to the Jews in decalogue, in the law of the ten commandments. These ten commandments were real; they were written in stone. In that code, God came from without to the Jews and said: thou shalt, and thou shalt not. The entire way, step by step, was externally mapped out for the Jew. He could walk that way blindfolded. Israel was bound, all along the way, by the external law. God said to the Jew, from without: thou shalt, and, thou shalt not. This, the Gentiles did not have. The Gentiles are without law, in this sense.
These Gentiles are a law unto themselves. They are their own law, in a certain sense. That the Gentiles are their own law does not mean that they have the authority to declare what is right and wrong. This is not the meaning. Rather, there is in them a principle, a light, by which, to a certain extent, they are able to declare unto themselves what is right and what is wrong. When they declare what is the will of God concerning right and wrong, they show that they have sufficient light to know that law which they do not possess.
If you ask how that is, the apostle explains that they have the work of the law written in their hearts. Do not mistake this phrase. That the Gentiles have the work of the law written in their hearts is by no means the same as having the law written in the heart. Scripture speaks of having the law written in the heart. Scripture emphasizes that God's people have the spiritual principle of the law of God, which is love, written in the heart, so that they have no more need of an external code. The heart is the center of man's life, from a spiritual point of view. If God implants the spiritual essence of the law in the heart, this heart does what the law requires. But this is not the meaning here.
The work of the law does not mean the work which the law requires. Many interpret it this way. Some say that although the Gentiles have not the law, they are in a position to do what the law requires and be saved. Others say that there is a general grace by which God has written the work of the law upon the hearts of the Gentiles, so that they do the things contained in the law. But this is not the meaning.
I call your attention to the fact that the text is an answer to the question, "Can the Gentiles be marked as sinners and perish?" Therefore, the apostle means that the work which the law would otherwise do, this work the Gentiles have written in their hearts.
What is the work of the law? The work of the law is, in the first place, to express what is the will of God and to distinguish between good and evil. In the second place, the work of the law is to promise life to them that keep it. In the third place, the work of the law is to curse them who do not abide in all that is written in it. This is the work of the law. This is written in the hearts of the Gentiles.
They did not need the law to distinguish between good and evil. Why? They had the work of the law written in their hearts. Therefore, they had no need of an external law. There is a threefold work of the law written in the heart of every man.
The Effect in the Gentile World
You might ask, how is the work of the law written in the hearts of the Gentiles? The answer is, by God Himself. God has written it in their hearts, externally by His revelation in nature and internally by the testimony of His Spirit in their hearts. This testimony of the law was not only in the hearts of the Gentiles, but also in the hearts of the Jews. This was not the distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles. The distinction was that the Jews had the written law, besides having the work of the law in their hearts, while the Gentiles had only the work of the law written in their hearts.
What is the result? The result is that the Gentiles do by nature the things of the law. They do not do "the things contained in the law," as our English version would lead us to believe. This is a commentary, not a translation of the original. The things contained in the law are to love God above all and the neighbor as ourselves. The things contained in the law are not to have any other gods; not to have any graven images; not to use the name of God in vain; to keep the sabbath; to honor your father and mother; not to kill; not to commit adultery; not to steal; not to bear false witness; not to covet. If the apostle had said that the Gentiles do the things contained in the law, he would have said that the Gentiles keep all of the ten commandments. But the apostle says in the context that the Gentiles perish without the law. Therefore, we must understand that the things of the law are the things which the law did for Israel.
What did the law do for Israel? It divided all of life into several departments. It gave Israel precepts and clearly marked out what Israel had to do: thou shalt have no other gods; thou shalt keep the sabbath; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not covet. All the time, the law drew lines before the consciousness of the people of Israel. This, the Gentiles did for themselves. Otherwise they could not have made laws.
The Manifestation in the
Life of the Gentiles
How did they do it? They had the law not to kill, not to steal. How did they do it? They had the work of the law in their hearts. That this is true is plain from the conscience, the apostle says.
What is the conscience? The word is a translation from the Greek. The first part, "con," means "with." The second part, "science," means "knowledge." Therefore, the word "conscience" is derived from a word which means "to know with." It means "to know something with another."
Let me illustrate. Someone commits a crime. Another is witness to that crime. He who commits the crime has knowledge of it. The witness also has conscience of it. That is, he has knowledge of it, with the one who committed the crime.
In the second place, the word "conscience" means "to have knowledge with ourselves." It means that we have knowledge with ourselves of the thing we have done, after we have done it.
Let me illustrate once more. A man does something wrong. Before he does it, he knows that it is wrong. But after he has done it, his own judgment condemns what he has done. This is his conscience.
It is sometimes said that we must not do anything against the conscience. But strictly speaking we cannot do anything against the conscience. The reason is that the conscience speaks after the thing is done. For this reason the conscience is sometimes called "the voice of God." The conscience always speaks after the thing is done. It condemns the wrong and approves of the good that is done.
It is true that the conscience can become very sinful. Sometimes man succeeds, to a certain extent, to silence the conscience. A man can tell the conscience to keep still. If he says it often enough, he will put the conscience to silence. But the conscience never stops speaking. In the judgment day the conscience will bear witness with the law. This is what the Gentile does. His conscience bears witness. Because his conscience bears witness, it is a plain manifestation that there is the work of the law written in his heart.
In the second place, the work of the law becomes manifest in public opinion. There is a public opinion. You find it in your daily papers. What you find in your daily papers is not a mere recitation. What you find there is the judgment of men concerning the things that are done. How do men judge one another? They find lines between what is good and evil. Thus, there was a public opinion among the Gentiles. There was a public opinion by which they accused or else excused one another.
What does this mean? It does not mean that the Gentiles have grace. The fact that man can distinguish between good and evil, that he condemns the murderer and the thief, does not mean that he does not steal. But it shows that no man is excusable.
This is the theme of the apostle in this chapter. "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest" (v. 1). Law or no law, man is inexcusable. You say that you have the law? It makes no difference, you shall be judged according to your works. You say that you have no law? It makes no difference, you have the work of the law in your heart. God judges man according to his works. Every soul that is not righteous will receive indignation and wrath.
What then? Is there no hope? There is no hope in religion, in going to church, in being
baptized, in partaking of the Lord's Supper. There is but one hope. This is the
righteousness of God in Christ Jesus which comes to them who have sought glory, honor, and
immortality, in the way of patient continuance in well-doing. The righteous shall live by
faith. Therefore, as far as we are concerned in the matter, we must learn to write hell
and damnation upon all that is of us. Having come naked before the Judge, we must learn to
look at Him who is our righteousness and our redemption
THE STANDARD BEARER Vol. 73; No. 16; May 15, 1997
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