Day 17: Equally Guilty

Romans 2:11-16 :

For there is no partiality with God. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified (for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.

You don’t have to tell people that killing is wrong. We know naturally that hurting someone else is bad thing. This is evidence that the Creator has left His mark on all of us by giving us a conscience. This doesn’t mean that we have a full understanding of what God thinks concerning sin, but we have a general idea. If we really want to know what God thinks we should read the Bible.

The Jews had the Bible before everyone else and God held them responsible for what they knew. Most Americans today are aware that God has a Bible and that in it are the Ten Commandments. Alarmingly, most Americans don’t even know what these Ten Commandments say!

It is very inconsistent of us to think that there is a God who has a Bible but not care what God says in the Bible. God will hold people responsible for this. This is no small matter because those who don’t do what God wants will be judged according to what they knew. If you had no awareness of the Ten Commandments, then you would be judged by your conscience, but if you are aware of them, you will be held responsible for doing them. That’s what I believe Paul is saying here. In both cases, people find themselves lacking what God requires, however. Those who don’t know about the Bible violate their own conscience and those who know about the Bible break the Ten Commandments.

So, God sees all of us equally as sinners but for different reasons.