Romans 2:12-16 – God’s perfect judgment

In these verses, Paul showed that whether one has received the Law (of Moses) in a formal way or not is inconsequential. For everyone is under condemnation. Those Jews who prided in the fact that they have the Law, therefore they are unlike the Gentiles who did not have the Law, Paul tells them that having the Law is no advantage. For it is not about having the Law but keeping it that would put a person in right standing with God.

The Gentiles, on the other hand, have no disadvantage. Although they may not have the Law but they do fulfill what the Law requires unknowingly. In so doing they have lived in alignment with what the Law requires. And thus show that they do have a law written in their heart. Paul refer to it as the conscience, or the light within, that guides them. This light is their inner witness that either affirms when they act rightly, or bring a sense of guilt when they act wrongly. However, we need to know that conscience is an inadequate guide in life. For conscience could be weakened every time we go against it. And when we persist in the same wrong long enough, our conscience does not even sound the alarm. In that sense it’s not a good indicator. The point is that besides the Law, men still have his conscience as a light.  

Paul then points us all to the Day of Judgment when everything will be revealed. Right now all of us may put up a respectable front and hide our shame, but on that Judgment Day, nothing would remain hidden. God will judge all things. And God will judge it through Jesus Christ. The Judge Himself is the one who had died for us. Who else could be a better judge than He?

Knowing that every secret of men’s heart will be exposed on the Day of Judgment, should make us want to pursue life with honesty before God. He is all seeing and all knowing. Let’s stop rationalizing a wrong or moralizing when we are right. God knows the intention of the heart. No wonder the author to the Hebrews say this, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him whom we have to do.” (Hebrews 4:13)