Romans 2:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

I do not reject the law, he says, yet even so I justify the Gentiles. Do you see how, while undermining the glory of Judaism, he gives not the slightest occasion for saying that he disparages the law?

On the contrary, he seems to praise it and present it as great, and in this way he arranges everything well. By saying "by nature," he means natural reason.

Here he shows that others, the Gentiles, were better than the Jews. Most importantly, they were better because they did not receive the law and did not possess what the Jews thought gave them an advantage.

The Gentiles, says the Apostle, are admirable precisely because they had no need of the law. Yet they manifested everything proper to the law, inscribing in their minds not letters, but deeds. See also Rom 2:25.

He proves what he says against the Jews, and conducts the discourse with wise skill, lest he seem to say anything against the law.

As if praising and exalting the law, he says that those who do not have the law "by nature" are worthy of wonder. That is, they have conviction in their thoughts.

For they had no need of the law, and yet fulfilled the law, imprinting in their hearts not letters but deeds. Instead of the law, they used conscience and natural thoughts as a witness to the good.

He speaks here of three laws: the written law, the natural law, and the law of works. The Gentiles do not have the law. Which law? The written law.

If the Gentiles, not having the law, do by nature the things of the law, such people are a law to themselves. They show that the law is written in their hearts. Therefore man's knowledge of himself is, as it were, the law of God. If men could fulfill the natural law that God poured into every soul, there would be no need for that law which was written on tablets of stone. That law exposed and bound up the weakness of human nature more than it loosened and freed it (cf. Ex. 24:12; 2 Cor. 3:3).

The uncircumcised do not distinguish new moons, Sabbaths, or foods. Yet nature itself teaches them to believe in God and in Christ, that is, in the Father and the Son. To keep the law means to know the God of the law. In wisdom, the first thing is to fear God the Father, from Whom are all things, and the Lord Jesus His Son, through Whom are all things. Nature by itself knows its Creator not through the law, but through rational order. Thus creation discerns the Creator in itself.

That the divine law requires action is witnessed by those before the law of Moses who were guided by pious thoughts, adorned their life with good works, and became lawgivers for themselves.

1. QUESTION. Why does Paul say, "The Gentiles, who do not have the law, are a law to themselves" (Rom. 2:14)? If they did not have the natural law, how did they become a law to themselves? ANSWER. This saying requires examination. Our inner man was darkened by sin, and yet was not darkened. He became blind, and yet in part remained with open eyes. He is dead, and yet lives in nature.

If the Gentiles, he says, who do not have God's written law, are guided by nature alone and fulfill the commandments prescribed by the law, then from this it is clear that they, the Gentiles, though not having God's law, are a law to themselves.

This proves to us that in human nature there is an innate law. It guides man to the keeping of God's law, and we call it the natural law.

By the guidance of this natural law Abel, Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, and all the righteous who lived before the law kept the commandments of the written law.

They did not have the written law, yet they were a law to themselves. They gave law to themselves, being illumined by the natural light.

"By nature they do the things of the law." The natural law is not, in the strict sense, a law given by someone. It is a definite and constant manner of acting, conditioned by man's natural demands and aspirations. Better to say, it is man's moral nature itself. Thus people who fulfill the natural law only show "the work of the law written in their hearts." That is, following the prompting of the heart and the natural demands of their moral nature, they act just as if the law followed by the Hebrews were written in their heart.

He says that the doers of the law will be justified. But where is the law among the Gentiles? Look carefully. Do the Gentiles do anything lawful, anything in accord with the law?

They do. Yet they do not have the written law? They do not. How then do they do what is lawful?

By nature, that is, without special directions from above, by their natural powers, guided only by what God has placed in their nature.

If in this way they do what is lawful by nature, without the written law, then it is clear that they are a law to themselves. That is, they bear the law within themselves.

They read it, hear it, and fulfill it within themselves. You, O Jew, hear the written law, receive it into conscience, count yourself obliged to fulfill it, and fulfill it. You do what is lawful.