Romans 2.15-The Inherent Law of the Gentiles in Relation to the Function of the Conscience
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday August 26, 2007
Romans: Romans 2:15-The Inherent Law in Relation to the Function of the Conscience
Lesson # 55
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 2:12.
This morning we will continue with our study of Romans 2, which contains twelve principles regarding God’s judgment of mankind.
Thus far in our studies of this chapter we have noted the first nine and on Thursday we began a study of the tenth principle, which appears in Romans 2:14-15, and states that God judges men in direct proportion to the divine revelation that they have been exposed to in life.
In Romans 2:14, we studied that the Gentiles inherently possess a law that is manifested when they obey the principles that appear in written form of the Mosaic Law and this morning we will study Romans 2:15, which teaches that the manifestation of the inherent law of the Gentiles is through the function of the conscience.
Romans 2:12-15, “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 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.”
“In that” is the qualitative relative pronoun hostis (o^sti$) (hos-tis), which emphasizes the obedient character of a particular group of unregenerate Gentiles who manifest through the function of their conscience and actions that they possess inherently a moral code.
In Romans 2:14, we read where these unregenerate Gentiles demonstrate that they possess inherently a moral code when they obey instinctively the principles that appear in written form in the Mosaic Law.
In Romans 2:15, Paul teaches that this same group of Gentiles also demonstrate that they possess inherently a moral code in their hearts through the function of their conscience.
“They show” is the verb endeiknumi (e)ndeivknumi) (en-dike-noo-mee), which means, “to demonstrate or manifest something by arguments or acts, to give outward proof of something that is inherent.”
Therefore, Paul is saying that the Gentiles “demonstrate” or “manifest” that they possess inherently a moral code by their obedience to the principles that appear in written form in the Mosaic Law.
“The work” is the noun ergon (e&rgon) (er-gon), which refers to “conduct” that is produced by obedience to the moral code of the Mosaic Law that is inherent in the soul of every human being.
“Of the Law” is the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), which is a reference to the Mosaic Law and functions as a “genitive of production” meaning that obedience to the moral principles that appear in written form in the Mosaic Law and that are inherent in the heart of every human being “produced” these actions.
“Written” is the adjective graptos (graptov$) (grap-tos), which is used in a figurative sense to describe that all of mankind was created by the Lord Jesus Christ with a moral code inherent in their soul.
“Hearts” is the noun kardia (kardiva) (kar-dee-ah), refers to the dominant lobe of the soul, the right lobe and is the mental activity or function of the psuche, “soul.”
Romans 2:15, “In that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.”
“Conscience” is the noun suneidesis (suneivdhsi$) (soon-i-day-sis), which refers to that aspect of the soul that evaluates one’s actions and distinguishes between right from wrong.
Warren Wiersbe writes, “Conscience is that inner faculty that indicates to us whether our actions are right or wrong, according to the standards within our hearts…Conscience is not the law; conscience bears witness to the law. Conscience is not the standard; conscience bears witness to the standard. In different parts of the world there are different standards. Let me illustrate this. When the British took over India as part of their empire, they found some practices that simply had to be abolished. One of these practices was to burn the widow of a deceased man on the funeral pyre. The British issued a law abolishing this practice. One of the religious leaders among the Indian people came to a British leader and said, ‘Our conscience tells us that the widow must be burned.’ And he responded, ‘And our conscience tells us that if you do it, we’ll hang you!’ That gives the difference, doesn’t it? Conscience can guide us aright if we have the right standard.” (Real Peace, pages 92-93).
Hebrews 10:22, “let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
Suneidesis is that process of thought which distinguishes what it considers morally good or bad, commending the good, condemning the bad, and so prompting to do the former and avoid the latter.
Proverbs 20:27, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the innermost parts of his being.”
To have a “clear conscience” does not mean that we have never sinned or do not commit acts of sin but rather it means that the underlying direction and motive of life is to obey and please God, so that acts of sin are habitually recognized as such and confessed to God the Father (1 John 1:9).
1 John 1:9, “If any of us does at any time confess our sins, then, He (God the Father) is faithful and just with the result that He forgives us our sins and purifies us from each and every wrongdoing.”
The believer is to examine his conscience in order to determine if he needs to confess any known sin to the Father so that he might be restored to fellowship.
1 Corinthians 11:23-34, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.”
1 John 3:18-22 teaches that the heart, which contains the conscience will convict when we do not love our fellow believer by means of deed and truth.
1 John 3:18-22, “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments.”
The first manifestation in history of the function of the conscience was in the Garden of Eden when Adam and the Woman disobeyed the Lord’s command and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3).
In addition to an innate awareness of God’s law, men have a warning system that activates when they choose to ignore or disobey that law and it is this instinctive, built-in sense of right and wrong that activates guilt.
All mankind has an innate inner sense of right and wrong, which Scripture refers to as “conscience.”
Sociologists have encountered in all cultures a sense of sin and fear of judgment which leads that culture to make some attempt to appease whatever gods are feared and this built in discernment of right and wrong is what Paul is alluding to here in Romans 2:15.
Conscience is like an inner judge that accuses and condemns us when we have done wrong and approves and commends us when we have done right.
The conscience varies in sensitivity, depending on the degree of one’s knowledge of and feeling about right and wrong.
The person who has considerable knowledge of God’s Word will have a more sensitive conscience than someone who has never had opportunity to know Scripture.
Furthermore, repeated sinning hardens the conscience so that it becomes “seared” like scar tissue (1 Timothy 4:2).
1 Timothy 4:1-3, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.”
To continually reject God’s truth causes the conscience to become progressively calloused, hardened and less sensitive to sin, as if covered with layers of unspiritual scar tissue.
Romans 2:15, “In that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.”
“Bearing witness” is the verb summartureo (summarturevw) (soom-mar-too-reh-o), which means, “to confirm, testify in support of someone or something, to provide confirming evidence by means of a testimony.”
In Romans 2:15, the verb summartureo indicates that the conscience “confirms the testimony” offered by the obedience of the unsaved Gentiles to the principles that appear in writing in the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic Law that they possess inherently a moral code in their soul.
“Their thoughts” is the noun logismos (logismov$) (log-is-mos), which denotes the mental activity in the soul of man or reasoning process in the soul of man by which he determines whether a particular word or action he is considering is right or wrong.
“Accusing” is the verb kategoreo (kathgorevw) (kat-ay-gor-eh-o), which denotes thoughts that accuse a person when he does wrong or is considering doing something that is wrong and not in accordance to the moral standard inherent in his soul.
“Defending” is the verb apologeomai (a)pologevomai) (ap-ol-og-eh-om-my), which means, “to speak on behalf of oneself, to defend oneself.”
In Romans 2:15, the word is applied to an unregenerate Gentile’s thoughts, which at times function as a witness in his defense when he does right or is considering doing something right or good.
Romans 2:14-15 presents the tenth principle of divine judgment that appears in Romans 2, which is that God judges men in direct proportion to the divine revelation that they have been exposed to in life.
The Gentiles are judged by God as guilty because they have an inherent law within their souls, which is manifested through the function of the conscience.
Thus, although the Gentiles did not possess the Law like Israel, they still possessed inherently a law that governed their conduct and was manifested through the function of their conscience.
Therefore, the Gentiles are guilty before a holy God even though they did not have the Mosaic Law since their conscience would convict them of sin when they committed an act that was in opposition to this inherent law.