Romans 2:15
15 Which [hostis] shew [endeiknumi] the work [ergon] of the law
[nomos] written [graptos] in [en] their [autos] hearts [kardia], their [autos] conscience [suneidesis]
also bearing witness [summartureo], and [kai] their thoughts [logismos]
the mean while accusing [kategoreo] or [e] else [kai] excusing [apologeomai] one another [metaxu] [allelon];) KJV-Interlinear
15 They
show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their
conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even
excuse them ESV
To show, means to be revealed, and so to those
gentiles or to those to whom the Law of God was not formally revealed, the
gentiles still had some semblance of the knowledge of right and wrong, or of law
and order.
This knowledge was written upon their hearts. Not with pen and ink, but with the natural
observations of life and knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, of what
is fair and of what is unfair.
Their conscience, refers to the judgment of the mind,
considering what is right and what is wrong and differentiating between the
two.
Whereas the conscience reflects the immediate decision
process permitting or preventing a person from thinking or doing a thing, then
the conflicting thoughts, show a logical or procedural thought process by which
decisions were made.
And to accuse or to excuse, reflects the due process
of bringing someone to justice or to promote justice in favor of someone, as
opposed to excusing or finding one not-guilty and letting them go.
And even though right and wrong were either revealed
directly by God, or though some natural reasoning ability, both sets of
revelation are in sync with respect to their process and/or outcome.
Now, when man reasons his own way through life, man
can easily abuse or run his reasoning in the wrong direction. Needless to say people were in the past
accused of witchcraft and people were accused of other vile attributes and so
forth.
It is not the quality of the reasoning that has come
to man, but the principle of the process by which man is capable.
To look through nature and see right and wrong is one
thing, but to look through doctrine and discern the principles of morality and
such is like looking at the night sky and seeing a hand full of stars vs. looking
through a powerful telescope and seeing vastly greater distances and far greater
revelations from the universe.
And so it is with the laws of nature. You can see only
so much, but you lack the principles that guide your thoughts correctly, even
though closely at times and not so close at other times.
But through doctrine, so much more is revealed, into
the spiritual realm that you cannot see or find or even discover through the
natural things of life.
