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: which shew the work of the law written in their
hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean
while accusing or else excusing one another (Rom. 2:14-15).
COMMON GRACE ARGUMENT:
“Not all unsaved people commit fornication, steal from
their neighbor, murder those whom they hate, seek divorce when they weary of
their spouses. There can be found, among unsaved people, an external conformity to the law. … How is
it to be explained that they ‘do by nature the things contained in the law’
apart from a work of common grace?”
(I)
Prof. Herman C. Hanko
(a)
[Source: Another Look at Common
Grace (2019 edition), pp. 152-153]
3) This doing of the law does not mean that they kept the
law of God perfectly or in any sense as a duty and obligation to be obedient to
the God of heaven and earth. They do the things contained in the law because they are able to see that this is for their
own advantage. Laws against murder and theft are codified and enforced. To
do anything different would result in the dissolution of society and the fall
of the empire. It does not take grace, not even common grace, to understand
this. Anyone can see that.
4) How do they know the law? The apostle says that they
“show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing
one another” (v. 15). Notice, the apostle does not say that they show the law written in their hearts. This is
true only of those who are saved by grace. But they show the work of the law written in their hearts.
That is, God testifies, through their conscience, the work of the law. He
testifies of what is in keeping with His law and what is contrary to His law.
Every heathen knows this. It is implied in the fact that all men not only know that God is God, but they know, too,
that God alone must be served.
5) This also takes place through God’s manifestation of
Himself in creation. After all, when God created all things, He imbedded in the
creation His own law. It is woven into the warp and woof of creation. It is
part of man’s obligation which he knows by virtue of his own creatureliness and
the created character of the creation within which he lives. He cannot escape
knowing that the creation clearly shows that murder and theft, adultery and
fornication are wrong. Creation itself shows that God alone must be served. And
God so impresses this truth upon man’s conscience that they accuse or else
excuse one another.
6) But again, there is no mention of grace, even and especially a grace shown through some gracious
revelation of God. It is, in fact, the way in which the wicked become accountable in the judgment.
(b)
[Source: Common
Grace Considered (2019 edition), pp. 179-180]
[There] is no mention of [a “common grace”] in the text,
and we ought not to introduce that which God does not introduce …
… But that they conform their lives, in some measure, to
the outward demands of the law is also understandable. It does not take
regeneration or grace, though it be common, to see that defiance of even the
outward demands of the law leads to chaos. Thus, they heed the voice of their
conscience in an outward obedience, which is only evidence of man’s desire to seek his own good. But if he
could sin and get away with it, he will do it. Abortion is a case in point. The
threat of pregnancy following fornication is a deterrent to sexual immorality;
but given abortion and the removal of the deterrent, soon total moral chaos
results. But these wicked who know the law and conform outwardly to its demands
do not and will not love the Lord their God with all their hearts and minds and
souls and strength. Apart from such love for God and the neighbor, there is no
true keeping of the law at all.
The knowledge of this is not “common grace”; this knowledge
is given so that men may be without
excuse when God judges all men (2:16). The creation itself teaches that God
is God alone, and that, because He is God, the Creator, He must be worshipped
and served. That they know what is right and what is wrong is evident from and
proved by their lives in which they maintain some outward conformity to the
law. It is not “grace” that enables them to live lives in conformity with the
law of God externally, but simply that even wicked man can see the social benefit of keeping the law
outwardly. Society, and life in society, would be impossible if people stole
and murdered without any restraint. It does not take regeneration or grace to
see that laws defining what is right and what is wrong are necessary and that
society is better preserved when law enforcement agencies are given the
authority to punish violators of the law.
Dr. Abraham Kuyper and his followers claim this outward
conformity to the law is “common grace.” But such is not the case.
----------------------------------------------
(II)
Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965)
(a)
It seems that the Synod [of 1924] meant to teach, on the basis of this text
[Rom. 2:14], that the heathen are able to keep the law of God, and, in fact,
that they do keep it. For it refers to Rom. 2:13: “For not the hearers of the
law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” And it
also refers to Rom. 10:5: “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of
the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.” And once
more, it refers to Gal. 3:12: “And the law is not of faith: but, The man that
doeth them shall live in them.” Apply all this to Rom. 2:14, and you get the
teaching: 1) that the Gentiles are able by nature to keep the law of God; and,
2) that the Gentiles, doing the things contained in the law, shall be justified
and live by the things of the law!
How the Synod of Kalamazoo, 1924, could ever teach such evident heresy and
such palpable contradiction of Scripture, I cannot understand.
If this were true, the heathen would be saved without Christ.
But this is not the meaning of Romans 2:14.
The very contrary is true. Nor is this the teaching of the Bible in
general.
What, then, is the meaning of Romans 2:14?
Literally, the text, according to the original reads: “For when the
Gentiles, having not the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, having
not the law, are a law unto themselves.” And in verse 15, which really belongs
to verse 14, we read: “Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts,
their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while
accusing or else excusing one another.”
What does it mean? The text certainly does not mean that the Gentiles keep
the law, but it does mean that without revelation they themselves do what the
law did for Israel. And what did the law do for the Old Testament people of
God? The law distinguished, in the various departments of
life, between what is good and what is evil: it is good to serve
the true God, to keep the Sabbath, to obey those that are in authority over us,
to preserve the neighbor’s life, to live chastely, to speak the truth; on the
other hand, it is not good to serve false gods, to desecrate the Sabbath, to
violate or go against authority, to kill, to steal, to swear a false oath, etc.
Those are the things which the law did for Israel. And those are the things
which the Gentiles did, in a general way, for themselves.
In making laws for and unto themselves, they plainly revealed that they
could distinguish between good and evil. But this surely does not mean that
they kept the law even as far as they knew it. The law was not
written in their hearts, but the work of the law. And having
that work of the law in their hearts, they, nevertheless, transgressed the law.
And thus they were without excuse in the day of the righteous judgment of God.
(b)
[Source: A Triple Breach in the Foundation of the
Reformed Truth]
The second
passage to which synod referred appears to be more weighty. It is Romans 2:14:
“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.”
Berkhof offers a brief interpretation of this text: “The things contained in
the law” (“the things that are of the law” according to the Greek) are things
demanded by the law. Berkhof appeals to Romans 10:5 and Galatians 3:12 to
support his interpretation: “Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the
law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them” (Rom. 10:5).
“The law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them”
(Gal. 3:12). According to Berkhof, both passages clearly teach that the man who
does the things demanded by the law is righteous and shall live. He acquires
the righteousness that is of the law.
If Berkhof’s
contention is correct—that the phrase “the things contained in the law” in
Romans 2:14 signifies things that the law demands, as in Romans 10:5 and
Galatians 3:12—it follows by rigorous logic that Paul teaches in the first
passage that the Gentiles are righteous and live by the works of the law, for
he declares that the Gentiles do by nature the things of the law. But this
interpretation refutes itself, for it is evident from the context in Romans 2
that the apostle purposes to prove the very opposite, namely,
that no man is justified by the works of the law. All have sinned
and are condemned. All perish, whether they have sinned with or without the
law. The Gentiles do not have the external proclamation of the law, yet they
sin and are accountable.
In Romans
2:14–15 the apostle does not contradict this statement by saying that the
Gentiles keep the law and do good, but he explains how it is possible that
those who have not the law can nevertheless sin, be held responsible, and be
judged. They show in their lives and walk that they have the work of the law
written in their hearts (v. 15). What is the work of the law? To declare
what is good and what is evil, to draw the lines of demarcation between light
and darkness, and to proclaim the will of God concerning our lives. The
Gentiles have in their hearts the work of the law, natural light by which they
can discern between good and evil. They are a law unto themselves (v. 14). Thus
they do by nature the things of the law, that is, they do things that the
external law does among Israel: they draw the lines of demarcation between good
and evil.
Although they
show the work of the law written in their hearts and clearly reveal that they
discern between righteousness and unrighteousness, between light and darkness,
yet they follow after darkness and wallow in the most terrible iniquity, as the
apostle sets forth in Romans 1:18–32. Therefore, they are responsible, for they
sin consciously as moral beings, and they will perish without the law.
Berkhof’s interpretation must be rejected as wholly contrary to the meaning of
the apostle, and synod erred seriously when it offered Romans 2:14 as proof of
the contention that there is a general operation of the Holy Spirit on
men whereby they are enabled to do good.
(c)
[Source: The
Protestant Reformed Churches in America (1947), pp. 404-405]
6. But
does not Romans 2:14 teach that the gentiles keep the law?
Considering
the additional references to which synod calls our attention, one must, indeed,
draw the conclusion that it was synod’s intention to teach that the heathen
keep the law of God. For it refers to Romans 2:13, 10:5, and Galatians 3:12.
This is, indeed, a serious heresy, for it denies, as far as the heathen is
concerned, the incapability of performing the law of God and the need of
redemption. For according to Romans 2:13, the doers of the law shall be justified,
and he that is justified is saved. According to Romans 10:5 and
Galatians 3:12, he that doeth these things shall live in them.
If, then, as synod desired, evidently, to show, the gentiles keep the law of
God and do the things contained in them, they shall be justified and live by
the things of the law.
However, this
is not the teaching of Scripture. And even the general and clear teaching of
the Bible ought to have been sufficient to refrain synod from such an
interpretation of Romans 2:14. Nor is this at all the true meaning of this
passage. When we read that the gentiles “do by nature the things contained in
the law,” the meaning is not that they keep the law of God, but
that they do, without the possession of a revealed law, what
the law did for Israel. What does the law do? Distinguish for various
departments of life between what is good and evil. This the heathen did for
themselves, though they possessed no external, divinely revealed code of
precepts. The original does not read: “the things contained in the law.” The
heathen, having “the work of the law” written in their hearts
(which is quite different from having the law written in their
hearts) outlined for themselves laws in which they plainly revealed that they
could distinguish between good and evil, even without a revealed code. This
does by no means signify that they also kept the law as they
knew it, that they did the good and that, therefore, they
were justified. On the contrary, knowing the law, they transgressed
and were left without excuse in the day of the revelation of the righteous
judgment of God. Anyone will be able to see and will be compelled to
acknowledge that this is the true interpretation of the text and that, in this
way, we do not fall into the gross errors of Pelagianism.
----------------------------------------------
(III)
Rev. Martyn McGeown
When Gentiles
do “the things contained in the law,” they do not obey God’s law, which is
impossible (Rom. 8:7), but they display external virtue and avoid external
vice. When they display “the work of the law written in their hearts,” this
does not mean that God has written the law on their hearts—that
is regeneration (Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10)—but it means that God has written the
knowledge of right and wrong in their hearts, and He testifies it to their
consciences. All men know the difference between right and wrong. This does not
make them good, or even partially good, but inexcusable!
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(IV)
More to come! (DV)
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