Romans 2:14-15 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law… "Law" means God's special revelation through the Bible. This contains the moral code of Moses, exhibited in prophetic teaching, inculcated in the instructions, illustrated in the life and death of Christ: It is here suggested that man without the Bible — I. HAS BIBLE MORALITY WRITTEN ON HIS SPIRITUAL NATURE. 1. "The law written in their hearts." The great cardinal principles of morality are in every man's soul, and the ethics of the Bible are but a transcript of them. Christ, who was the living exemplar of the moral code of the universe, reduced it to supreme love for the great Father of all and unselfish love for all His children; and in every heart these two elements are found — moral reasoning and conduct. "Socrates speaks of the unwritten laws which were held in every country, and mentions as samples honour to parents and the prohibition of incest. He says that since these laws are universally held, and are evidently not the result of human legislation, they must have been made by the gods." Sophocles speaks of "the unwritted and indelible laws of the gods in the hearts of man," and Plutarch of "a law which is not outwardly written in books, but implanted in the heart of man." The moral Governor of the universe, then, has written in the constitution of all the subjects of His empire the eternal laws that should govern them. II. CAN PUT INTO PRACTICE IN HIS DAILY LIFE THE BIBLE MORALITY THAT IS WRITTEN ON HIS NATURE. "For when the Gentiles," etc., "are a law unto themselves." "Do by nature," i.e., by the outworking of those moral elements within them" — not by written directions, but by moral intuitions. The bee that constructs her cells and lays up honey proves thereby the existence within her of architectural principles. She works out the laws which her Maker imprinted upon her constitution. Thus, heathens who have no Bible can work out the moral principles of their nature, and often do to an extent that may well out to blush the conduct of those who possess a written revelation. In estimating their responsibility it is well to remember both I and II. They are rather the objects, therefore, of honest denunciation than of sentimental pity if they pursue an immoral or ungodly life. III. WILL BE INWARDLY HAPPY OR MISERABLE AS HE PUTS IN PRACTICE OR OTHERWISE THE BIBLE MORALITY WRITTEN ON HIS NATURE. "Their conscience also bearing witness," etc. 1. Psychologists supply different and conflicting definitions of conscience. Is it a distinct faculty of the soul, or its substratum — that in which all the faculties inhere? Whatever it is, it is that within us which concerns itself, not with the truth or falsehood of propositions or the expediency or inexpediency of actions, but with the right and wrong of conduct. If a heathen acts up to his ideas of right, it blesses him with peace; if he does not, it scourges him with anguish. 2. The "accusing" power of conscience was seen in the Pharisees who brought to Jesus the woman taken in adultery (John 8:9); in Felix, when he trembled before Paul the prisoner; in Pilate, when he called for a basin of water to wash his hands. 3. Conscience can "excuse," i.e., make righteous allowances; she vindicates as well as condemns. "Who can tell the sacred calm which fills the soul when Conscience, sitting on her great white throne, pronounces the sentence of approval of any one single act or thought, and assures the misunderstood, or misrepresented, or calumniated, or even self-doubting servant of God, 'Herein you are free from blame'?"Conclusion: Several things may be deduced from this subject. 1. The identity in authorship of human souls and Divine revelation. The grand rudimental subjects of the Bible are love, retribution, God; and these are written in ineffaceable characters on the tables of the human heart everywhere. 2. The impossibility of atheism ever being established in the world. The human soul is essentially theistic and religious. 3. The responsibility of man wherever he is found. 4. The duty of missionaries in propagating the gospel. Let those who go forth to the heathen not ignore the good in the human heart on all shores and under all suns, but let them — (1) Recognise it; (2) honour it; (3) appeal to it; and (4) develop it. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: |
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