Long story short, the only ones whom God will declare to be righteous are those who obey his Law (that of Moses for the Jews of the Abrahamic Covenant, that of Jesus' Gospel for everyone after he fulfilled the former). That nobody can live up to this standard is the conclusion Paul is building toward, but for now he lays part of the foundation by proclaiming that those without divine revelation will be judged by their consciences, and those who have received divine revelation (i.e. God's Word) will be judged by what it proclaims.
To those of us who have been blessed to hear God's Word this is not a comfort, but a hard dose of reality reminding us that only perfection will suffice (in a few paragraphs Paul will proclaim how Jesus resolved this fatal flaw in humanity). To those who only have conscience as a guide, the specific accountability will be less, but the judgment to come remains. In the end, both those who know more and those who only have what is common to all humanity made in God's image will have to reckon with the fact that with God knowledge is not enough, only obedience is acceptable.
No comments:
Post a Comment