Romans 2:12-16 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. 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. (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. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them. This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
All our secrets, everything about us, will be known on the day of judgment. How will we measure up to Jesus Christ, the perfect one, the sinless one? If we fail to live up to his perfection, we will not exist with God forever. God will not allow anything imperfect to exist forever in his presence. God is holy; therefore, we must be holy. We must be like God. Is this possible? Are we who live in an environment of sin able to live a perfect, holy life? The Bible clearly says all of us have sinned, none of us are perfect, and we have all chosen our own way to live, under our own authority instead of God’s authority. At the beginning of creation, we see Adam and Eve choose their wisdom and knowledge over God’s wisdom and knowledge. They chose not to rest in God’s blissful domain, called the Seventh Day, the sabbath. Instead of rest, they chose to work by going to the tree of knowledge and eating of its fruit. This work on the day of the sabbath brought in the storm of sin and disobedience. Rather than following their holy God, they became free agents, doing their own thing when it pleased them. In today’s passage, we see what disobedience to God’s authority brings to man: harsh judgment. Failure to obey either our own laws, embedded within our consciences, or God’s laws, written in his Word, will bring us into disfavor with the Creator. God’s judgment is based on the perfect template of righteousness: Jesus Christ. Jesus in the flesh fulfilled the law; He alone satisfied the laws requirement: complete obedience. He obeyed the Father’s will at all times. He fulfilled God’s purposes for his life. Because He was directed by the Almighty Holy One, his life on Earth was perfect, satisfying God’s requirements of him. We who are locked in sin cannot fully meet the requirement of the law: perfection at all times, perfect obedience to God’s will for our lives. We fail—all have failed, no one is perfect. As we read in Psalms and again in a little later in Paul’s letter: There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. (Romans 3:10-12) Consequently, mankind needs another way to God, a way that will not fail. In the New Testament, the preaching of the gospel was known as THE WAY. Of course, every Christian knows that the way comes through the gate of Paradise, Jesus Christ. He is the only one who saves us from judgment outside of the law or under the law.
The requirements of the law are written on our hearts. Humans understand that they should treat others as they would want to be treated. Humans comprehend that love brings harmony and peace while hatred causes disruption and chaos. Humans realize that the will of God is for them to do good and not evil, but their nature is competitive, self-seeking, not willing to be subservient to others, or to serve others before they serve themselves. As we see when delving into history or even the activities of our present day, the behavior of human beings has caused and is causing tremendous pain in the world. Even in our modern day, we see people so degraded by sin that they sell members of their race as commodities or treat each other in abusive ways for their own pleasure. We know that hundreds of thousands of our fellow human beings are killed each year. Sadly, collectively and individually our human nature reveals rapacious, destructive, and hurtful behaviors outside of Jesus Christ. Breaking our own understanding of what is right and wrong, or what our conscience tells us, we fall into darkness. The Bible does not lie when it states, There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:22-23) Likewise numerous Old Testament verses confirm this truth: Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins. (Ecclesiastes 7:20) We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6) Many other verses in the Bible emphatically verify mankind’s wayward and sinful nature. Without the saving blood of Jesus, we who were made in God’s image turn ourselves into a threat to the very existence of mankind. With nuclear power we can obliterate life; we can cause the earth itself to be toxic to life. How far we have strayed from that glorious day in the beginning when God proclaimed that we who were made in his image were very good. But God had a plan and his answer remains the same through millenniums of time, mankind needs a Savior, a Redeemer, to rescue them from the stormy seas of sin, from their self-destructive nature. Of course, we know this is Jesus.
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. Sin will be judged: sin will be counted unworthy to enter the portals of heaven’s domain. As we have said before as Paul nails down this theme, sin is a cancer, whether it exists apart from the law or under the law. The Bible is very clear. People who try to justify themselves before God by their own righteousness will find themselves naked, exposed, without excuse for their wrongdoings. All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6) God will judge every secret, every hidden thought, every activity that we did in the dark. He knows everything about our lives. Are there any righteous amongst us? No not one. Not one of us can stand before God completely justified by our own way of living on Earth. We need a Savior. We need an advocate before the righteous Father. We need a high priest as an intermediary between God and ourselves. Of course, Jesus Christ is that one. He did miracles on Earth to prove that He was from God. No man from the beginning of time had done such miraculous things. He died for each of us, fully satisfying the penalty of sin for us. We are special to God because we have been made in his image. We are the biological specie that can hear his voice, know his love, and reciprocate by honoring him, by giving him our love and dedication. He has given each of us a special name. Each of us is unique, loved by him because of what He created in us. We will be glorified: all creation will know us on the day He brings glory to us because we are his sons and daughters, bought by the blood of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Because of that sacrifice, we are very special people right now on Earth. Lift up your heads, realize you are free from the constraints of the law, either yours or the written law. You no longer live by rules but as Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) You are free, free to be the daughters and sons of the living God without the fear and torment of the enemy. Enter into God’s sabbath day of rest, the Seventh Day. Adam and Eve failed: they worked on the sabbath. You, dear friends, rest on this day. Cease from your own efforts, know that Christ has made you free, free to live in the bountiful presence of the living God, awaiting the day when He welcomes you home. Amen!
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