Introduction

I want to share a story about a man named Paul—not the apostle! This is about his conversion.

"Paul’s" testimony...

That’s what we see in Romans 1–3, a sobering look at our sin.

When we get to the end of these chapters, we’ll read this:

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. (Rom 3:9)

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Rom 3:19-20)

But the point of really understanding the seriousness of sin is to help us cry out for forgiveness and ask, “Where can true forgiveness be found?”

The answer is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Christ is the ONLY Answer to the problem of sin, and no other answer EXISTS.
• Christ is the PERFECT Answer to the problem of sin, and no other answer is NEEDED.

The Series: Your gospel is better than you think. Most of you have some understanding of the gospel, but the point of the series is to see that it’s even better than you think.

Some of you have a wrong understanding or no understanding of what Christians call “the gospel.” For you, the goal of the series is to show that it’s far, far better than you think.

The Sermon: Understanding the coming judgment: (1) The coming judgment and (2) the natural law.

Prayer

I. The Coming Judgment (2:12–13, 16)

Paul makes several points here about the coming judgment. But we don’t want to miss the two categories of people he’s talking about.

In Rom. 2:12 he speaks of those “without the law” (anomōs) and those “under the law” (en nomō).

Those “under the law” are the Jews who are “under the law” of Moses. Those “without the law” are Gentiles who are “without the law” of Moses.

Throughout these chapters—Rom. 1:18–3:20—there are two categories of people Paul has in mind, Jews and non-Jews.

We’ll see various differences between Jews and non-Jews as we work through Romans, but the key difference Paul has in mind here has to do with the Bible, the Word of God.

The Jews had the Old Testament, but non-Jews had no WRITTEN revelation from God.

Remember, this is the Jew and the non-Jew in the first years after Jesus’s resurrection and Pentecost. There’s no New Testament you can order on Amazon. It’s being written, but it’s not yet complete. It’s getting close by the time you get to Romans, but it’s not complete.

It was the cross and Pentecost when Christianity began to spread throughout the world—crossing boundaries, cultures, languages, peoples.

The result? No longer is God’s Word the possession of a single people in Israel. The spread of Christianity brought the spread of God’s Word. There are still many who have never heard, but there are billions who have heard.

Those without the Bible are in the same place as those “without law” in our passage. They don’t have God’s written revelation. They have God’s revelation but not his written revelation.

How does God’s judgment differ when it comes to those WITH GOD’S WORD and those WITHOUT GOD’S WORD? They don’t have God’s written commandments, so do they get a pass because they didn’t know what God wanted from them?

Isn’t that like being given a test for a class you didn’t know you were taking?

We heard last week that God’s judgment “shows no partiality” (Rom 2:11). He is absolutely, perfectly fair and just. And we also heard that “he will render to each one according to his works” (Rom 2:6).

Our works will be held up to God’s perfectly fair and just standard—whether we have God’s written word or not.

Our passage explains how this works in a little more detail.

Sin will be Judged for those WITH and WITHOUT GOD’S WORD (2:12)

• “All who have sinned without the law WILL also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law WILL be judged [i.e., condemned] by the law” (Rom 2:12).
• Future indicatives show what WILL happen.
• Remember, this is leading to Rom. 3:19–20 where all condemned.
• “Judgment” here really means “condemnation.” The assumption is that those being talked about here are “without Christ.”
• The point of Rom. 2:12 is that With or without the law of Moses, sinners will be condemned and then perish forever.
• Having God’s written law won’t save you from God’s judgment.

Obedience is required for those WITH and WITHOUT GOD’S WORD (2:13)

• In verse 13 we’re told what we must do to be saved apart from Christ.
• We must be “DOERS OF THE LAW” and not simply “HEARERS OF THE LAW.”
• This point is really directed at the Jews.
• He’s telling them that HAVING THE LAW isn’t enough.
• They would have assumed that HAVING THE LAW was enough, because having the law meant you were part of God’s chosen people.
• Now it’s true, having the law is a huge gift. There’s great blessing in reading and being taught God’s word.
• We’ll get to that at the beginning of Romans 3 (Rom. 3:1–8).
• But that by itself isn’t enough on the day of judgment.
• On the day of judgment, the standard is whether we are a DOER of God’s Word.
• Apart from Christ, only those who are perfect DOERS OF THE LAW will be justified.

The Gospel Message includes Jesus Judging All Secrets (2:16)

• At the end of the passage, Paul makes a quick point about his GOSPEL.
• His GOSPEL includes judgment.
• And the GOSPEL includes the fact that “CHRIST JESUS” is the Judge.
• He is the one who will judge us.
• It is sometimes said that the God of the Old Testament is a God of anger, and the God of the New Testament is a God of love.
• Or we’re given an image that Jesus is about love, and the Father is about judgment.
• But that’s not biblical Christianity at all.
• God as Father, Son, and Spirit is a God of love (1 John 4:8).
• And God as Father, Son, and Spirit will bring about the final judgment.
• But when the New Testament gets more specific about the final judgment, it tells us the Judge in that judgment is “Christ Jesus.”

Acts 10 and 2 Timothy 4:

And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. (Acts 10:42)

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the Word. (2 Tim 4:1–2a)

Application

Judgment is not something we like to bring up at holiday gatherings with our family. It can create an awkward silence if we suddenly ask over pumpkin pie, “Do you ever think about the fact that you and I and everyone will one day stand befor Jesus Christ, who is the judge of the living and the dead?”

Of course, there’s wisdom in thinking about what we say and when we say it. But do want to be very clear in our own minds about these truths about judgment.

God’s judgment is certain—not some fairy tale made up to scare kids into behaving.

God’s judgment is thorough—every “work” we do is examined, even “the secrets of men” (Rom 2:16) will be examined.

God’s judgment will be personal—“EACH ONE according to his works” (Rom 2:6) will be examined.

II. The Natural Law (2:14–15)[1]

This is another really important idea in this passage.

So, what about those who are without God’s written revelation? Are they judged according to the same standard?

Remember Romans 1. Without God’s written revelation, all people still know there’s a God. They know something about the true God, but then they reject that knowledge and give in to false religion:

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Rom 1:21-23)

As they turn away from God, they turn away from righteousness and goodness. More and more their lives are filled with self-centeredness and sin.

But they still have some knowledge of what is pleasing to God. That’s also back in Romans 1:

Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Rom 1:32)

They know something of God (“his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature,” 1:20), they know something of God’s law and the judgment that breaking it brings (“they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die,” v. 32).

So, by the time you get to the end of chapter 1, you see the inconsistency and inner tension of the person apart from Christ:

• Knowing God but rejecting that knowledge
• Knowing God’s law but living opposite to that law and happy for others to disobey it.
• Knowing God’s judgment but refusing to live in light of it

That’s what sin does, takes what is true and twists it, perverts it, distorts it. But sin cannot completely destroy it.

Like looking up at the sun in the middle of the day. I can close my eyes and in some ways not see it. But I can tell there’s light there and not darkness. And I can feel the warmth on my closed eyelids. I can feel the sun on my face as well. No matter how tightly I close my eyes, I know it’s there.

When you get to chapter 2, Paul is going to add to this picture more detail. Now the emphasis is on THE LAW OF GOD. Does an unbeliever know anything of God’s law? Paul says, yes.

Let’s read Rom. 2:14–15 again.

Paul says here that “GENTILES”—non-Jews, those without the law of Moses—have a law. Not the law of Moses, but they have a law.

Two things “bear witness” together (summartureō) that this is true.

First, “by nature [they] do what the law requires” (Rom 2:14). Because it’s “by nature,” we call this THE NATURAL LAW.

When people “do what the law requires,” they don’t do it perfectly, of course. They sin constantly. But they also do some things the law requires:

• They (often) honor their parents
• They (often) don’t murder
• They (often) don’t steal
• They (often) don’t bear false witness
• They (often) don’t commit adultery
• They (often) love the people close to them
• They (often) take care of their children

These are MORAL COMMANDS in the Bible, things that have to do with how we treat people.

They don’t do it well enough to be saved. That’s the point of Rom. 2:12!

But they do it often enough to show they have some knowledge of God’s law.

So, first, they do what the law requires.

Then, second, “their conscience” shows “that the work of the law is written on their hearts” (Rom 2:15).

• Our conscience is a little voice in our souls that is always “accusing or even defending” [apologeomai] us.
• When we do the right thing, there is a little voice that defends us: “You’re doing well, good job!”
• When we don’t do the right thing, there’s a little voice that accuses us: “What you did was wrong, you should be ashamed!”

That little voice of conscience is like a lawyer—accusing or defending us and giving evidence why it is so.

• Paul says our “conscience” “bears witness” to this NATURAL LAW written on our hearts.
• It bears witness to a NATURAL LAW, because the different moral consciences of people often “accuse” and “defend” based on the same basic standards.
• People feel bad when they STEAL FROM or LIE TO a friend.
• They feel bad when they MURDER.

There’s an echo of this idea in Romans 13 when Paul talks about civil authorities:

3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. (Rom 13:3-4)

Good and bad or good and evil are what civil authorities are supposed to be about. And Paul says that in a general way, civil authorities approve the good and they punish “the wrongdoer.”

Of course, here he has in mind a Roman government like the one of his day, one led by Emperor Nero. Yet, even in the fallen Nero in the very fallen Roman Empire, there was some trace of God’s plan for civil governments approving the good and punishing the evil.

The common rules of societies are another witness of the natural law God has revealed to all people.

But here’s the tricky part: Romans 1:21 is still true:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Rom 1:21)

The same people who have God’s natural law written on their hearts and who are entrusted with rewarding the good and punishing the evil in a society, are “futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

There’s an INTERNAL INCONSISTENCY IN SOMEONE WHO IS NOT BORN AGAIN.

• They both KNOW the truth and REJECT the truth;
• They feel GUILTY about sins but CONTINUE TO DO THEM;
• They know that governments should APPROVE THE GOOD, but they instead use civil authority to APPROVE EVIL and PUNISH THE GOOD.

This INCONSISTENCY is actually a sign of God’s grace—his COMMON GRACE. If people were consistent in their view that God doesn’t exist and therefore that there’s no such thing as evil or wrong behavior, the world would be a continual nightmare.

But Paul is reminding us that God’s common grace gives even those who are not Christians some sense of right and wrong, some sense of what they should and shouldn’t do. They can deny their conscience exists, but they can never turn it off.

There’s no NOTIFICATIONS setting with your conscience. You don’t scroll to your CONSCIENCE app on your phone and swipe, “TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS.” Conscience notifications just keep coming—in the middle of the night, when you look into the face of your child, when you see a beautiful sunset. You are pricked in your conscience and aware of where you’ve FALLEN SHORT or where you’re doing well.

Again, this is for the whole set of humanity that is without God’s written law, who doesn’t know God’s written law.

Their conscience proves they have some sense of God’s moral law.

And here is Paul’s point: That natural law is the law that will condemn them. Their lives will be measured against that natural law, and on the day of judgment, it will be shown that they have fallen short.

For those “without the law,” the standard of judgment will not be what is WRITTEN in the Bible. It will be God’s moral law that is “WRITTEN ON THEIR HEARTS” (Rom 2:15).

Application

When we talk to people who are not Christians, we can know three things:

• They have a sense of God’s moral law, a sense of right and wrong, good and evil.
• They have a sense of God’s existence
• But they’re working really hard to deny those truths internally

That internal inconsistency will be true until they come to Christ and their mind is “RENEWED” in their thinking (Rom 12:2).

In our evangelism, we can APPEAL to their knowledge of God’s law, their sense of right and wrong, good and evil.

And their sense of God’s existence and nature—“his eternal power and divine nature,” Rom 1:20.

We use the tools of logic and persuasion and even point to the evidence all around us in the creation.

But we shouldn’t be surprised if someone rejects our clear message. That internal inconsistency will be there until Christ changes their hearts.

As citizens:

• We can appeal for Christian values and Christian laws, because these reflect the moral law, part of the natural law written on the hearts of people.
• And when they are in office, we can require our politicians to reward the good and punish the evil.
• We can vote for politicians who we think will most reward the good and punish the evil as Romans 13 teaches.
• This is not a relative good and evil, but good and evil as God defines them.
• Good and evil as God defines them have a witness in the hearts of people—their conscience, the things they do testify they have a knowledge of God’s law.
• But as Christians, we need to remember constantly that the same people with God’s law on their hearts are suppressing God’s truth and “futile in their thinking” (Rom 1:21).

Conclusion

The certainty of judgment (it WILL come), the standard of judgment (being a perfect DOER of God’s law, God’s law written in the Bible or written on our heart), the Judge in the judgment is “Christ Jesus.”

Paul is holding up to us here the REALITY OF JUDGMENT. In this passage he’s not showing us how to ESCAPE GOD’S JUDGMENT.

Being a perfect DOER of God’s law is the standard—and no one meets that standard.

Salvation is not in obedience. Judgment alone is the outcome of our obedience if that’s all we have.

Salvation is through faith. Remember Paul’s thesis statement:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Rom 1:16-17)

Having God’s written law or law on your heart can never get you there—because we break the laws we’re given. Obedience can never get you there—always falls short.

Only FAITH IN CHRIST!

The rest of “Paul’s” story from the Introduction...

Yes!

Prayer and closing song

III. Paul Tripp’s Conversion Story

Kevin to Paul: How did you come to faith?

I grew up in a home that was “church going but with challenges.”

This is [a story of] how God brings his grace and glory into tragedy and hardship.

There was one summer where my parents emptied the home. I still don’t know why that is. I was 9. My younger brother (Mark) was 7. My two older siblings, Tedd and Barbara Joe, all of us, they got us out of the house.

We went to a Christian camp in PA called Harmony Heart Camp for six weeks. My brother, Mark, and I for six weeks. We were way too young to be gone for six weeks.

My brother Mark made it a couple days. But he was so homesick that he ended up living in the cottage of the director of the camp with his wife.

My older siblings went to work with a Bible conference on the staff there.

So I’m there for six weeks.

My particular counselor seemed like a very old man, but he was probably 30.

He proceeded to teach through Romans with 9-year old boys. By the time he got to Romans 3, I was deeply aware of my sin. And all of that “raised-in-a-Christian-home” pride just bled off of me. He had devotions before we went to bed. I was up on the third bunk. I went to bed that night, and I was weeping. It was conviction. I laid there thinking I need to just confess my sin to Jesus and just plead for his forgiveness. And I thought, I can’t do this laying down. So I crawled down and knelt down on the floor. And I cried out for my Savior’s forgiveness.

And I would love to see this man in eternity, because we underestimate the power of the gospel even with little children.

There’s so much I didn’t understand, and my life has been a journey of learning.

But to be rescued by grace, before I made the major decisions of life, I was still in this very troubled home, it’s just such a beautiful grace to me.

So, I’m very, very thankful for that.

It’s one of the reasons I came out of this home not broken and insane. The wrenching contrast between the belief system on Sunday and the experiences inside the home during the week. It was like an everyday schizophrenia that was very confusing.

And yet, there was a belief that I had been saved by grace, that Jesus was with me. Once in high school I went to a party—and I never went to parties—I knew shouldn’t be there as soon as I walked in the door. I ran out and walked 3-4 miles home. It was that fear of God and love for God and desire to please him that was planted at 9-years old that was operating there.

I grew up in the 60s and when culture exploded, and I’m so thankful for God’s rescue at such a young age.

Kevin: How did your parents respond to your faith? Were they born-again?

Paul: All of us have ended up in ministry, and that’s grace. My mom was serious about her faith. All my books for my first year in seminary I took off my mom’s shelf (except the Greek and Hebrew texts)! She knew her Bible but was broken in many ways. She had been raised in a dramatically abusive home.

We sang hymns to her when she died, but there was still that dysfunction.

That’s what inspires what I do. My mission is connecting the gospel to everyday life. I want people to connect the gospel to how you actually live. The enemy of our souls will give us our theology, he will give us our biblical literacy, he will give us our Sunday attendance, if he can capture our hearts. So I want to help people live self-consciously in way that’s stepping in accord with their Redeemer.

Paul Tripp from an interview with Kevin DeYoung for the podcast, Life & Books & Everything, Nov 6, 2024 (starts 43:11).

[1] On natural law see Mark A. Seifrid, “Natural Revelation and the Purpose of the Law in Romans,” Tyndale Bulletin 49, no. 1 (May 1998): 115–29. See also John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, II:2.20-22 (looks at what we know innately and cites Rom 2:14–15; some trace of God’s moral law in how people generally think and act and govern, but this is very imperfect as a simple assessment will reveal); II.8.1 (natural law and Ten Commandments are connected); IV.20.14-16 (moral laws of the Bible backbone of good civil laws, with flexibility regarding punishments).