Friday, October 31, 2014

Romans 2:12

Copyright Ó 2014 J. Neely
Romans 2:12

12 For [gar] as many as [hosos] have sinned [hamartano] without law [anomos] shall [apollumi] also [kai] perish [apollumi] without law [anomos]: and [kai] as many as [hosos] have sinned [hamartano] in [en] the law [nomos] shall be judged [krino] by [dia] the law [nomos];   KJV-Interlinear

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.   ESV

Sin is a transgression of a rule of conduct.  It is not merely a violation of some law or of some social no-no, or some criminal act, but includes anything that violates any link to God.  Thus indifference toward learning doctrine is in effect a sin, which needless to say, leads to more sins.

God does not play favorites, but deals with everyone based on His righteousness and His justice.  And in this verse, when addressing the issues of gentiles or those who did not grow up with access to the Mosaic Law, and therefore had no knowledge of it, they still are under a natural law of right and wrong.

Not knowing the ten-commandments is no excuse for wrong behavior.

Any sin is a transgression of something that is right and good, as defined by God.

So, a gentile or a pagan sort of person, if you will permit the term, who has never heard of Moses or of Jews or of the Bible and such, is still bound to proper behavior.  And improper behavior will still be judged.

They will not be saved due to ignorance of Christ, because they did whatever they did, as a result of conscious decisions they made.  They sinned and therefore they are condemned.

All of the world is evidence of a deity and a designer and everyone is bound to either want to know about God, or they are indifferent.  Those who want to know, will be brought to the gospel or the gospel will be brought to them, one way or another.  Thus missionaries bring doctrine to them, or they in some way, perhaps through slavery or through some other means, were brought to the gospel.  All things work together for good.  Even bad things can have a good result.

So, do not think that a bad thing is always bad and only bad.  Salvation is far better than any human insult.

And conversely for those who are knowledgeable of the Law, then their judgment is based on their conscious adherence to or indifference of those same written rules.

In other words, the Law demonstrates mans inability to keep the Law, and therefore the need of a savior.

Indifference toward that principle, while trying to keep an otherwise unkeepable Law, gains you no favor with God.  Likewise ignoring the mandate of faith for salvation, due to obstinence or whatever attitude you have, gains you nothing either.

In all cases, Gods righteousness and justice are the unbreakable rule, and all are judged accordingly.

In addition, the word for judged, ‘krino,’ also means loss.

And in that regard, when a person is a believer, but disregards Gods spiritual process in favor of their own design, then the resultant reward of spiritual growth is forfeit, because there is in fact no spiritual growth, no spiritual production, nothing legitimate in the spiritual sense.

Believers are still bound by Gods rules and cannot substitute their own rules or beliefs simply because they are more convenient or seem right.

Each believer is still bound to confess in order to gain fellowship.  Each believer is still bound to a daily study through instruction.  Each believer is still bound to learning and using and understanding, the principles that they are taught.  Each believer is still bound to apply spiritual principles to their life, like truth, integrity, tithing, giving and so forth.

Disregard of these principles results in loss.  Adherence to these principles results in reward.

God is fair and equitable with all.  God does not change when the times change.  Bible doctrine is immutable.