Romans 2:12-16--
All those who sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all those who sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be declared righteous. So, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, instinctively do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts will either accuse or excuse them on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.
Look at the context of these verses in Romans 2.
Paul says
" So,
when Gentiles, who do not have the law, instinctively do what the law demands,..
They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts."
In all of scripture there is only one mechanism under the Gospel where "
the law is written on the heart" and that is the NEW Covenant of Jer 31:31-33 and Heb 8:6-12 - it is the work of the Holy Spirit just as Paul points out at the end of Romans 2. There is no other option in scripture.
Now let's take a text where Paul is saying that everyone - both Jew and gentile are lost and need salvation.
IT will not be a statement of the form "
Law is written on the heart" and "do what the law demands".
Rather it will be something like this ...
Rom 3:23 "All have sinned"
Rom 3
9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that
both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written,
“
There is none righteous, not even one;
11 There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
15 “
Their feet are swift to shed blood,
16 Destruction and misery are in their paths,
17 And the path of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is
no fear of God before their eyes.”
The description is not one of "law keeping" but rather "law breaking"
19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that
every mouth may be closed and
all the world may be held as guilty before God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law
comes the knowledge of sin
That is "the lost state" - and nothing in it is of the NEW Covenant form of "The Law written on their heart"
Thus the Rom 2:13-16 statement is about the gospel benefit to the gentiles who have the NEW Covenant work of the LAW written on the heart.
"16 on the day when,
according to my Gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.."
And you have to interpret these verses keeping in mind the preponderance of verses in Romans that show that the law is of no value to the person who has received Christ as his Savior by grace through faith.
Rom 3:31 "
Do we then make void the LAW of God by our faith? God forbid! In fact we ESTABLISH the LAW"
Rom 8:4-10 it is the lost that "do not submit to the LAW of God - neither indeed can they"
Heb 8:6-11 the New Covenant saints do not abolish the law - rather they have "The LAW written on the heart".
1 Cor 6 "
do not be deceived" says Paul - law breakers do not go to heaven.
Romans 6 - do not be deceived - "
you are the slave of the one you obey" - and obeying sin results in death.
Rom 10:4 4 Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
For Christ is the goal/Culmination (NIV) of the law
Also, look at Galatians 2:15-21--
We who are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners” know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. C.H. Spurgeon makes that same point about obedience vs rebellion. So also does D.L. Moody make that argument.
Nothing I have quoted argues for "justified by the works of the law" - and Gal 2 Is not a text arguing in favor of taking God's name in vain.
This is not a view unique to Sabbath-keeping, take a look at the
"Baptist Confession of Faith" section 19, and the
"Westminster Confession of Faith" section 19.
See Romans 13 list of the TEN that Paul quotes
See Matt 19 - Christ and Paul quoting the same details from the TEN.
And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.
And those justified by faith are under the NEW Covenant with the LAW of God written on the heart. They by their faith "establish the LAW" -- no wonder God says
"this IS the LOVE of God that we keep His Commandments" 1 John 5:2-3
where the "first commandment with a promise is th 5th commandment" Eph 6:2
But if we ourselves are also found to be “sinners” while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild the system I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker.
Obedience, and not rebellion against the Law of God - is what characterizes the saints.
We begin the Christian life, the walk of the Spirit, by grace through faith, and we continue that walk by grace through faith - and the result is not a walk of "rebellion against the commandments of God" for as Paul says "what matters is KEEPING the Commandments of God" 1 Cor 7:19
in chapter 3 of Galatians, Paul says, "Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned
And in chapter 3 of Romans Paul defines the term "under the law" as "under the condemnation of the Law" Rom 3:19-21
The LAW was the guardian of the lost - placing them under condemnation as Romans 3 says and guiding them ... directing them to the solution for sin -- Christ. So that when "faith comes" (not when "Christ comes" but
when FAITH comes to the lost person) we are released from that condemnation - no longer under the condemnation of the law.
hence even for New Covenant Christians it is "
still a sin" to
take God's name in vain.
And even in the NEW testament "
SIN IS transgression of the LAW" 1 John 3:4
So then "
the saints KEEP the Commandments of God AND their faith in Jesus" Rev 14:12
