Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans. Tonight is study #21 of Romans 2, and we are reading Romans 2:14-16:

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;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Here, when we read, “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law,” it means that they do not have God’s Word. They are not under the hearing of the Bible; they are out in the world. Again, it says in Romans 2:14:

For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law…

The word “contained” is not in the original Greek, so it really says, “…do by nature the things in the law.” Then it says in Romans 2:14:

…these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.

It is interesting that God speaks of Gentiles doing by nature those things in the Law. This word “nature” is found 14 times in the New Testament. It is the Greek word, “phusis,” which we get our English word “physics” from, and we saw it used in a very interesting way in the previous chapter, if you remember. Let us go back to
Romans 1:26-27:

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

The word “nature” is #5549 in Strong’s Concordance. The word “natural” is related. It is Strong’s #5546. Here, God says that women and men who engage in homosexual activity change the natural use into that which is against nature. It is against nature because God created the male and female, and He gave each natural desires and instincts when it comes to sex and gender, just the same as God did for the animal world. He made male animals and female animals, and He gave them an instinct to mate together and procreate little baby animals. That is the “natural” law that God has designed and placed within His creatures.

But, especially now at the time of the end when God has “given man up” to his baser instincts and to sinful and wicked desires, then women began to do that which is against nature, and, so, too, do the men. They go against their own nature. It is not natural to have a sexual relationship with the same sex, no matter what the world says. God is telling us that in what they do, they are changing the natural use into that which is against nature and contrary to nature.

But in our verse, we read in Romans 2:14:

For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do…

The word “Gentiles” is the word “ethnos,” which is also translated as “nations.” They do not have the Bible, but they “do,” and the word “do” is that Greek word “poy-eh’-o,” the word we looked at when we discussed verse 13: “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Here, that is what the Lord is speaking of when He says that the Gentiles do not have the written Law, and yet, they do by nature the things contained in the Law. Yes, the written Law of God does speak of God instituting marriage between a man and a woman, and of sexual relationships between a man and a woman. And it is not to be between men or between women, which is against the written Law. So when the Gentiles that do not have the Law “do by nature the things in the Law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves.” In other words, they have kept the Law of God on this point without actually having the Law. And that is unusual and curious as to how that is possible, so the Lord goes on to explain how it does happen, in the next verse in Romans 2:15:

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;)

This would not apply to every single Gentile, but this was the case for most of the history of the world that the Gentiles kept, on the level of basic morality, the Law of God as recorded in the Ten Commandments. They kept this Law to some degree, so God says that the reason they did this was the result of the fact that He had written His Law on their hearts. And since they did do it, it shows that, and it proves that the Law was written in their hearts.

We could go to 1Corinthians 5 to see references to Gentiles that kept the Law even when those that identified with the Law – the Jew or professed Christian – did not keep the Law. God says in 1Corinthians 5:1:

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.

There was this gross sin taking place among the Corinthians who had the Gospel, where a man had his father’s wife. It would have been a concubine. It does not mean his own mother. We find cases in the Bible like Jacob, and he had a wife that gave her handmaid to her husband (to wife), and it was also the same with Abraham, who Sarah gave Hagar to wife. And it was Rueben who laid with “his father’s wife.” It was not his mother, but it was a handmaid that became his father’s wife.

And this kind of sin was unheard of in the world of the Gentiles. They did not so much as even speak of it, as it was “not so much as named among the Gentiles,” even though they were heathens that were without the Word of God. They did not have the Oracles of God to guide them, so why were they obedient on that point? It was because of the Law written in their hearts.

And, of course, there is the great example of King Abimelech of the Philistines, in Genesis 20, when Abraham journeyed to that area, and Abimelech took Abraham’s wife Sarah. We read in Genesis 20 that God came to Abimelech in a dream, and told him that he was “but a dead man” because the woman he had taken was a man’s wife, which is adultery and goes against the written Law of God. Then Abimelech begin to explain or excuse his action, defending himself, in Genesis 20:5-6:

Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.

How did God withhold him from sinning? It was because the man had a conscience, and the Law of God was written in his conscience, and God is able to work through that. The way God made man was as though His Law was written in the inward part of a man, and God was able to use that fact to hold back sin in this wicked king Abimelech, so that he could properly say, “In the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.” And God agreed that he was guiltless on this point and, therefore, he had done exactly as it said in our verse: “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.” And this showed the work of the Law written in his heart, and his conscience also bore witness.

Now this is significant, regarding the last part of verse 15, but let me read the whole thing: “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.” So man’s conscience bears witness, and man’s thoughts either accuses him or excuses him. You know, that is an aspect of the conscience that we do not think too much about, as we normally think of the “guilty conscience,” the conscience that accuses us of doing wrong. We feel badly: “Oh, I should not have said that, done that, or thought that.” We are all familiar with that, but there is also the aspect of the conscience that “excuses,” and we will look at both of these.

Let us start with the word “accusing,” and we find this word in Luke 23, concerning the Lord Jesus and His interaction with the leaders of Israel. We read in Luke 23:1:

And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.

Then it says in Luke 23:9-10:

Then he questioned with him in many words; but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him.

So we can see that “to accuse” is to charge someone with wrongdoing. That is what they were trying to do, as they said, “We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.” They were charging Him with evil doing, and with perverting the nation and trying to cause a rebellion against Caesar. These were the accusations that were laid against the Lord. That is the whole idea behind “accusing,” meaning it is someone that has done wickedly, evilly, and wrong.

And that is what the conscience does within a man: “You have really done something wrong.” But we are living in a time when God’s operation between His Spirit and a man’s conscience is not working as it did in times past when God’s hand of restraint was upon the hearts of men, and God would use the conscience to restrain the desperately wicked heart of man. That operation of restraint is not being used by God as much, and He has actually lifted His hand of restraint, and man is doing more and more according to the desperate wickedness of his spiritually dead condition. And that is why we see iniquity abounding, and we see such shamelessness. You can find people who are charged and accused of having done the most gruesome and unbelievably ugly and filthy things, even to their own children. But there is a picture of them looking into the camera in their “mug shot,” and they are looking as if they have done nothing wrong. How can that be? Why are their consciences not just destroying them? Why are their heads not down in their hands, weeping and crying out, “How could I have done such a thing? How is it possible?” Well, it is because we are living at the time of the end, and He has lifted His hand of restraint. He is not activating the hearts of men with the Law written on their hearts to the point that they would see their guilt, which would produce a feeling of shame or a feeling of not being able to stand one’s self for doing such wrong.

Many people try to hide the activation of the conscience through alcohol or drugs, but today even with sober people, the conscience does not seem to be accusing them as men’s consciences have done in times past.

Another example of the accusing conscience can be found in John 8 where the woman was found in adultery, and some of the Pharisees brought her to Jesus, using her as a prop to catch Him in wrongdoing, because Moses had said that such a woman should be stoned, and they said to Him, “What sayest thou?” They thought they had the perfect trap. If He said, “Stone her,” then they would go to the Roman authorities and say that He had violated Roman law by stoning her. If He said, “Do not stone her,” then they would go to the Jews and say, “This man does not keep the Law of Moses.” You know, they had their best legal minds working on this, and they thought this was (the perfect) trap. Then it says in John 8:7-9:

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

They were convicted by their own conscience. That was the operation of the conscience within men that had “kept a lid,” for the most part, on the desperately wicked nature of fallen mankind throughout the history of the world. Of course, it did not eliminate sin, but it merely contained it to a degree, but now at the time of the end, the containment is not being applied as much by the will of God, as God is letting everyone see the true nature of man’s wicked heart.

Let us go to one other place, and we will find the word “accusing” again, in John 5:44-45:

How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.

The reference to Moses is a reference to the Law of God. That is what the Jews trusted, the Law of Moses, but Christ is saying that Law is accusing them because they have broken the Law and transgressed it. So the accusation of the Law is that they are guilty. They have broken the Law and, therefore, “the wages of sin is death.” The Law of God, the Bible, says that they are lawbreakers.

And the conscience works in a similar way. If you break the Law that the Lord has intuitively placed within, then there is a feeling or understanding that you have done wrong against the Law which the Lord says is written in the hearts of men.

So we see that “accusing” means to charge someone of a crime or wrongdoing, or to charge someone with evil. But we also see the word “excusing,” in Acts 19 when the Apostle Paul was under assault, and they wanted to kill him, we read in Acts 19:33-34:

And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence unto the people. But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

He would have made his defence, or his excuse or rational, but they would not listen. We can see how this word is used.

Also in Acts, when Paul is being judged, and Tertullus was the prosecutor that the Jews brought forward, and it says in Acts 24:2:

And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence,

Then it says down in Acts 24:5-6:

For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law.

Then it says in Acts 24:8-10:

Commanding his accusers to come unto thee: by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him. And the Jews also assented, saying that these things were so. Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself:

The word “answer” is the word for “excuse,” and then he said in Acts 24:13:

Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.

You see, this is the inner working of the mind, in one sense. Here we see the Jews, the accusers, and Paul, the accused, and yet, he feels he has done no wrong, so he cheerfully excuses himself and says they cannot prove it. This is how our conscience works. It can “accuse,” but it can also “excuse” or defend, and that is something we do not always think of, but it is a necessary part because there are people that will accuse someone falsely, just as Tertullus and the Jews were doing to Paul, and just as the Lord Jesus was falsely accused.

And it is just as the elect people of God were accused of being heretics, date setters and of being of Satan. All kinds of things were said. You know, when things are said and they are true, they can work on a man’s conscience, and his conscience can go along and start accusing him as the others do. But the conscience can also defend when things are not true, so this is an important thing we are seeing about a person being accused. That man can think, “I have just done what God would have me to do according to His Law and according to God’s righteous standard, so I have nothing to be guilty about.”