SPIRITUAL GROWTH ENHANCERS
Reference NO: 007
Romans 2:12, NLT: "When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God's written law. And the Jews, who do have God's law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it."
NO EXCUSE ON THE JUDGMENT DAY
In our today's passage, Paul is referring to the law of Moses, given to Israel by God at Mount Sinai, as described in Exodus 20 and beyond.
Let's take a critically systematic approach to this. Paul lays out the depravity of man and the grace of God in the early chapters of Romans. All humanity is depraved. None do right and all are under God's condemnation.
None are disadvantaged by race; parentage; place of birth or colour of skin, and no one benefits from their nationality; bank balance; talents; qualifications or education. All have fallen short of God's glory but all have equal access to the riches of God's kindness and grace - by faith in Christ.
God will use the same scale to judge every one of us. On the judgement day, there would be no excuse so that one will say I sinned because I never had access to the Word of God. As a statement of fact, dear God, nobody reached me with the gospel.
No pastor or any Christian preached the gospel to me to repent of my sins. So dear Lord, let me enter the gate of heaven freely. In the court of law, they say "Ignorance of the law is not an excuse".
What Paul is trying to emphasize here is that God is going to use the same standard of the knowledge of Him we possess to judge us. This is scarier because nobody will have any excuse to say, Lord, please I don't know or I never knew. He judges everyone on how they respond to the revelation they receive.
"as many as have sinned without law [Gentiles—all non-Jewish people]".
God did not give the revelation of the Law to Gentiles but Jews.
God does not judge Gentiles, therefore, according to revelation in Scripture. What I mean to say is, God will not use the Law given to Israel as a nation to judge Gentiles. He will use a different standard of judgment for them. He will judge them for their understanding of God in general revelation and their conscience.
The word “perish” is the ultimate fate of those who reject the gospel (Jn 3:16; 1 Co 1:18).
People perish because they do not respond to the revelation of the gospel they have.
"and as many, as have sinned in [in the sphere of] the law [Jews]".
Jews sinned with full knowledge (in the sphere of the law) of God’s revelation in the Old Testament. They will be judged by [through] the law.
ARE WE STILL UNDER THE LAW?
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the law but grace. Romans 6:14 NASB
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: Galatians 3:13
Of course, not! We are no longer under the curse of the law but under grace. So the question should be solidified this way: If we are no longer under the mosaic law, why will God use the standard of the law to judge some people who had access to it and take a different but equal approach to judge those who didn't have this law? The Law was temporary (until Christ). Christ.
According to Galatians 3:23-24, The Law is a tutor to lead us to faith in Christ.
"But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor" (Galatians
3:25).
In other words, the law was a tutor. We are no longer under a tutor. So, we are not under the law.
GOD WILL USE JESUS TO JUDGE US
God will not use the law to judge us any longer because the law was temporal until Christ came. He will now use the standard knowledge of His dear Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
John 3:3, 16-17 set the standard plainly:
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
GOD DID NOT HIDE THIS FROM US
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16:15-16
Those who will come to the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus and turn away from there since to accept the Lord Jesus as their Lord and personal saviour shall be saved by God on the day of judgement. The same verses forewarned that those who reject the knowledge of the saving knowledge of Christ which is the Gospel preached to them will not be saved on the day of God's day of judgement. They will perish in hell and an eternal lake of fire.
WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO HAVE STILL NOT HEARD OF THE GOSPEL TO DATE
The same question goes merry goes round, is there still any person in any country by birth or by origin or by sojourn who is yet to hear about the saving knowledge of Jesus?
The thing is God is cleverly faithful. Nobody will have any excuse on the day of judgement to say nobody preached to me about this Jesus. Jesus told His disciples plainly:
"And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world so that all nations will hear it, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:14"
You see how smart, faithful and just our Judge is? Nobody will have an excuse on that day to say I don't know. Now the Word of God is shared everywhere and even on all social media platforms, radios and televisions etc. It will be very difficult for somebody to say I never heard of this gospel. with people who have never heard the gospel or do not have access to the gospel. God has given Scripture to all people but not all have it as yet right?. In that case, if a person today who never heard the gospel, then God will send a missionary with the gospel and the Bible.
Romans 10:14 “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!’”
People cannot become Christians without the gospel but God will honour His faithfulness and just by sovereignly sending a missionary.
As Christians we should continue to spread the gospel of Jesus everywhere we go with every means we get. We have been commanded by Jesus and tasked with reaching every person with the gospel to have them saved. Don't stop and if you haven't started telling people about Jesus, start doing that right now.
You witness to them vocally and you can also take advantage of social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Tiktok, Twitter etc to tell people about Christ and imagine how wide it goes because you are using the internet and social network which is a global network in nature.
OASIS WORDBANK/SOCIAL MEDIA MINISTRY COMMAND
