Lesson 4: God’s Judgment and the Law – 2:12-29
 12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God
18 and know His will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law;
19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—
21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?
22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.
24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.
26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.


28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Our verses today warn us that living by the Law, or without it, has no effect on whether or not we will be judged. God’s judgment will come BY the Law if we are trying to follow it, and it will come even if we did not know the details of the Law – because even those who did not receive the Law know some of the things that are right and wrong. Not one person in history has ever been saved by hearing the Law, and not one person in history has ever been saved by keeping the Law. There has only been one person in all of history who was perfect – and He was the author of the Law…Jesus. And Jesus was not saved by the Law, because He never sinned.

These verses remind us that none of us is perfect in our earthly life. We all make mistakes, we all fall short of God’s standards, we all sin. As we read in the last lesson, not one of us is qualified to be the judge of any other person, because we have sinned just as greatly as they have. Not one of us can measure up to the standards of God’s Law.

This is why our verses today say that if we want to follow the Law, we will also be judged by it – and be found imperfect every time because, as we read in James 2:10, if we break it just in one point, we have become guilty of breaking it all. It is a Law, not a group of laws. We cannot single out one point to obey and disregard all the rest.


Our verses are also a warning for every believer who thinks God has called them to be a teacher or leader of other believers. If we teach or preach something we do not follow ourselves, we have a heavier judgment on our own actions than if we were not a teacher or preacher – see James 3:1.

The life we live as a believer in Jesus should be such that those around us who see our lives will never blaspheme God because of us (Verse 24). When they know we claim to believe in Jesus, and we practice the same evil things they do, we are the cause of God being blasphemed by them when they say, “If s/he is what it means to be a Christian, then I want nothing to do with God.”

*Have you ever told someone not to do something, and then they saw you doing that very thing? What was their reaction to you?