Romans chapter 2

vs 11

Ok, so this verse really caps off yesterday's idea of Jews and gentiles being able to receive mercy or wrath from God. Favourtism is not shown in respect to grace and judgement. I think some may make the argument that Israel is still a favoured people. I would need more convincing, considering this verse.

vs 12

Now we move onto a new idea - the idea of the law. Up until now, we have had the idea of a general revelation being enough to call people to account, we have had the idea that people who recognise some sort of moral code are still to be judged. Now we are talking about the Old Testament Law (this comes out in vs 14), even though it's not capitalised as Law anywhere except the NASB). And it seems that whether you are under the law (Jew) or apart from the law (gentile) you are still going to be judged. Are you seeing a pattern here, coming to the point that all people are alike in their position under God?

vs 13

It's a sad state when people think that because they are listening to a mesage, they are fine, rather than actually realising you have to act on that message to be in the clear. Everyday life would tell you that knowing laws is not the same as following laws.

vs 14

(It's the NIV translations that put in the brackets - there's no punctuation in Greek.) Paul indeed points out here that it is possible to not know the law, but to obey it! And he considers this to be more righteous than knowing it and not obeying it.

vs 15

The reason Paul gives for gentiles being able to obey the law without knowing it is that he considers it an OT truth that God's law is written on people's hearts, and that people's conscience bears witness to that. This is all fine and dandy up to a point - but it's pointless trying to create a universal morality based on the shared conscience of humanity. The fact is that human conscience and human hearts are both broken by sin - and therefore neither are able to adequately reflect the true absolute morality that was created by God.

Paul says that it is this conscience that accuses and defends them. I think he means that in accusing them when they do wrong, their conscience is defending their ability to follow the law by showing that it knows the law. Unfortunately, we need more defence than that.

vs 16

Whose gospel? We would normally never say something like this. But in not doing so, we lose something. Paul takes ownership of the gospel. He makes it his own. Not by changing it - it is still the gospel of God from the Old Testament and the truth about Christ. But It also belongs to Paul. He works for it. He therefore takes ownership and responsibility for it. He defends it, he proclaims it.

"This" refers back to God's declaration about who is righteous. Apparently, Paul believes a day is coming when there will be one big declaration which happens at the same time as one big judgement. And that judgement is part of his gospel. God's gospel.

vs 17

Tlaking to Jews now.

vs 18

Jews value the Law.

vs 19

Jews believe that they are custodians of the Law, and can therefore lead people to God. This might be specifically written to Jewish Christians, who believed that they were more well equipped to interpret the Old Testament for the sake of gentiles. Probably some truth in that too.

vs 20

Paul feels strongly about the responsibility that those who would be teachers and instructors have, beyond the norm. James seems to agree (James 3:1).

You get the feeling, right, that Paul's building up to something?