Judge According to Law
Romans 2:12-15; 10/27/2024; BCBC/IOUC; Rev. Paul Wang
Introduction
We talked about judging according to truth and righteousness before. Why do we talk about judging according to the law today? Regardless of the establishment of the law, the history of the law, and the function of history, there are many topics that can be discussed. But the core meaning is because the goal of the law is Christ. Let’s look at the first point:
Taking the law as the criterion
Paul starts here with the actual relationship between the law and us, which means that the law affects our daily life and becomes the yardstick of our lives. First, be judged according to the law. The law is a rule, and once it is set, it must be obeyed, otherwise it will affect the establishment of righteousness and the operation of truth. In the Garden of Eden, God said, you must not eat from the tree! This is the rule, this is the law! If Adam obeyed, everything would be fine. Eve ate it and gave it to Adam to eat, and Adam also ate it, and the consequences of death came to the world. Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, disobeyed the Lord and offered unauthorized fire without permission, and were devoured by God’s fire. Eli’s two sons also thought that God could be mocked, so they took away the sacrificial meat of the sacrificer and seized the fat of the offering made by fire as a fragrant aroma to the Lord, and they died on the same day.
Secondly, the ones without laws do not need to accept God’s judgment. The human heart is deceitful above all things. Who can understand it? It is as if the Gentiles do not need to accept God’s judgment because they do not have the Law of Moses. This is because we do not have a clear understanding of God’s judgment and think that God’s judgment is a bad thing. As everyone knows, the judgment is based on truth, righteousness, and the law. Is there anything to be worried about? After David sinned, he said, I would rather fall into the hands of God than into the hands of the Philistines. Why? Isn’t it because God is merciful? Think about it again, if there is no discipline or judgment from God, isn’t it just God’s abandonment? A person who has neither law nor judgment will eventually become an outcast in the kingdom of God.
Finally, there are laws governing life and death. The law is divided into explicit and implicit, visible and invisible. The Bible says: “ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” God’s law is in God’s creation, who can deny it? God’s creation every day says there is evening and there is morning. The order of time and space itself is one of the expressions of the law. Although people cannot see Christ, the purpose of all creation is to reveal the glory of Christ. The message that the gospel brings us: “Believe in Jesus and you will have eternal life; if you don’t believe in Jesus, you will have eternal death!” It refers to the gospel judgment based on the law. Let’s look at the second point:
The doers of the law who will be justified
Justification by faith is the core of our faith, but no one can deny that the actions that arise from faith are proof of the unity of faith and its two sides. First, listen to the beginning of the law. In order for God’s people to hear the law, God began to prepare it with Abraham. After the selection of three generations of Isaac and Jacob, they entered Egypt and waited for 430 years of suffering. In order to prepare Moses, God spent eighty years honing his character. When the time was fulfilled, from the seventy people who entered Egypt to the approximately two million people who came out of Egypt, they came to Mount Sinai in great numbers to hear the law of God, the Ten Commandments, the general outline of the law. It was the time, God’s elect were still in the initial stage of understanding. Moses asked for stone tablets on the mountain, but they cast a golden calf at the foot of the mountain. God is patient and disciplines, and of course he also judges. Moses broke the stone tablets and God killed three thousand people at once.
Secondly, the progression of knowledge of the law. Three months after leaving Egypt, God made a covenant with the Israelites on Mount Sinai. Why? Because God’s people hear the law and know that the essence of the law is to make a covenant with God. At the same time, it is also an invitation. God invites us to obey His words, keep His covenants, and be His people. This process is a gradual revelation, allowing people of God to go from not knowing to knowing a little, to knowing more and more about God. God asked Moses to tell the Israelites: “and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Exodus 19:6)” Just like today, even though we believe in Jesus Christ, we gradually understand why we need to pray, supplicate and give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in everything we do, right?
Lastly, the doers of the law who will be justified. For those of us who have been justified by faith, when we hear even the Bible says: “but the doers of the law who will be justified.” There will be a conditioned reflex, and you will ask: Doesn’t it mean that one is justified by faith? In fact, the Bible not only talks about justification by faith, but also has scriptures that mention justification by works of the law. In fact, there is no contradiction between the two, it is just a cognitive perspective. Without faith, one cannot please God. We are saved by grace through faith. Not by works, lest anyone should boast. However, James said: “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:17)” Therefore, simply hearing the gospel and knowing the gospel cannot be justified. Only by practicing the gospel according to the law can one be justified. Let’s look at the third point:
Demonstrate the function of the law
Revealing the essence of the function of the law is that the Holy Spirit testifies with our hearts that we are children of God. First, the law is written on the heart. To be engraved in the heart is to become an integral part of life. The function of the law, in the original text, is the instinct to distinguish between good and evil. The original ancestors, Adam and Eve, were still in a so-called “dream-like ignorance” in their initial stages of creation. Therefore, the poet exhorts us: “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11)” Moses taught us to take God’s Word: “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.(Deut. 6:8)” Even “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deut. 6:7)” This is why our church encourages brothers and sisters to practice devotion, pray, read the Bible, recite scriptures, and sing hymns every day and every week.
Next, conscience also bears witness. As soon as we are born into the world, we have a sense of right and wrong, which is our conscience. Everyone, no matter good or bad, rich or poor, is born with a conscience. Conscience is given by God and exists in our lives, but it is independent of our judgment on morality and ethics, right and wrong, relationship with God, and the degree of knowledge of God. Conscience has been polluted due to sin and cannot be used as a standard for judgment. However, the law is still good and perfect. Jesus also said that until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law. If a person is not saved, he does not have the Holy Spirit in his heart. Without the Holy Spirit, one cannot know the true meaning of the law, and one lacks the heart to distinguish right from wrong.
Lastly, conflicting thoughts. The thoughts here refer to reason, which together with human nature and conscience constitute the function of the law. Under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, traces of mutual competition were left. Being enlightened by God to reason can produce civilization and testimony that are in line with God’s will, allowing God to receive the glory He deserves. Antichrists, false Christs, and non-Christ representatives will leave strife, greed, war, plague, famine, deceit, lies, deception, etc. in the world. At this time, the law became the only standard of judgment.
Conclusion
Thank you Lord! I will hide your word in my heart and your law in my mind, so that I will not sin against you! May God help, may God bless, and may God strengthen us. When your day of judgment comes, all your people will come to judge this world with you.
Let us pray……
Romans 2:12-15
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
13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
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.
