Romans 2:11 - 15

Hello!

I've been a bit under the weather for the last week or so - hence no posts. I'm curious if anyone is actually reading this; I'll probably keep writing just because I find it relaxing in an odd way, but if you're reading this, say 'hi' in the comments to me. No need for a RL name, but just a way for me to gauge if I'm essentially just talking to myself... :-D

Romans 2:11 - 15
For there is no partiality with God. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law unto themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them).

We pick up where we left off. We are considering how God judges Jew and Greek (for the whole text of Romans is about the unity of the Church and the universality of the Faith). Notice, for future referance, that "justification" is defined for us here. "Not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified." It is doing the law - that is to say it is living (acting) by faith - which justifies us. Justification is to "be made just." It is not "to be excused from being unjust" but rather it is a positive transformation from one who acts unjustly to one who acts justly. By this context, it cannot be a legal or juridicial category (i.e. one is unjustified if found guilty of sin or justified if found to be innocent, regardless of one's actual conduct). Rather, it is an ontological category. To be just is to think just, act just, live just. It is to live by faith. And remember the preceeding passage. We are judged according to our deeds.

We thus have two categories of people (so to speak; people probably fall on a range within this spectrum): the unrighteous who have killed their "nous" (intuitive-heart-mind) and thus cannot be justified (be made just) since they are without the light of God that justifies us, and the righteous (i.e. Abraham) who "live by faith" - that is those whose nous is repaired by God and who can thus, knowing (in an intimate union) the Truth (who is Christ) live by faith and act with Christ's justice - those who are justified.

It doesn't matter if a person has heard of or follows Judaic cultural norms (the Law). These things are good for the Jew - they teach us effectively of just how sinful we are and prepare us for Christ - but they are not the sum total of our salvation. If a Gentile, by some miracle (and by what other means are we justified?) manages to follow some portion of the "law" (speaking now of what is ethically right and ethically wrong), then that Gentile is, according to that law, justified.

There can be NO Truth apart from God, who IS the Truth. There can be nothing good apart from God, who IS goodness itself. There can be NO light except by God. Whenever we see someone doing good, be they a Buddhist or an Atheist or a Christian or a Jew or ANYONE we have seen a miracle of God. These are the do-ers of the law. They will be justified, for in so much as God is able to act in them and through them they are brought into union with God, and in so much as (that is, to what degree) that happens, their inner light is repaired - the Truth is made manifest, even if only a little bit.

Thus, as St. Paul said in the earlier passage, who are we to judge another? We cannot possibly know what light God has given to them, nor what things the world has done to steal it from them, nor what things they may have done themselves to nurture or kill that light. We can NEVER know the true nature of another except by mystical union to one another through union with Christ, and then it is not really US knowing them but rather CHRIST knowing them THROUGH us, and few and far between are those of us for whom this kind of sainthood will become a reality.

We cannot judge based on easy categories like "Christian" or "Jew" because God has come to save ALL people and, in love, reaches out continually to ALL people - to the Christian first and also to the Pagan (to paraphrase St. Paul's argument here).

And what is meant of the Gentile who does these things by nature? That nature is the image of God which is universal to all humanity and which this passage affirms survives despite the inheritence of death from the original sin. We are not born to sin. We are not born guilty. We are not born unrighteous. We each, on our own, kill the light of God in us. Though I cannot judge another, I can easily judge myself. Is the light of God present in me? Do I know it with an unsurpassing intimacy? Certainly I do not. Thus I know that I am not yet justified. As St.Paul says, I am judged by my own thoughts. My own personal realities accuse me of the fact which I spend a lot of time trying to ignore: I do not know God.

YET I am being justified, by the grace of God. When I look at the light of the saints, and the love of God that shines through them, I find myself sorely lacking. Yet they too were once like me - sinners seeking to repent. And if God can, through His Holy Spirit, bring them into that degree of unity with Him - into that light - then I have unlimited hope. If God can make even one who has never HEARD the law, HEARD the Gospel, know and follow the light, then I have hope He can save even me.

Simultaneously, this passage is an exhortation for us NEVER to judge and ALWAYS to hope. It is a reminder of God's reach (which far extends our own) and our own failures. It's one of my favorites in the Scriptures, and it humbles me (to what extent I let it) every time I read it.

Forgive me,
Macarius