Justified

 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ~ Romans 3:23-24

 

I have spent a good deal of time this week looking at how mankind is in sin. And unlike the presidential election,  the outcome of that study was always pretty certain.  I am not surprised at how Paul describes the human state... Mainly because I live on a daily basis with the reality of that.

I have been a Christian,  intermittently,  for about 35 years of my 43 years of life and I have understood this for all of them,  that a darkness lurks in the heart of my desires. That,  as Paul says,  when I would do good,  evil is present with me (Paraphrase).

 

And although,  as I stated yesterday, a time comes when I think,  but surely I would be better by now?

 

You know,  more sanctified.

 

I don't know why so much is made of the mystery of the paradox between free will and predestination.  Forget that mystery,  what about the one of so called sanctification?

 

Glory to glory,  as my mum would say politely,  'my foot'! (insert the name of a preferred limb/appendage)

 

It sure doesn't feel like it.

 

I got quite stunned when I asked a respected member of our congregation,  one who I have known all my adult life, one who is a dedicated man of prayer and commands a respect and admiration for his humble and disciplined life, what he thought about sanctification.

 

I had expected,  when I first began to serve Jesus,  that I would indeed be changed from glory to glory.  The reality had been somewhat of a disappointment.  If anything with age my character disintegrated as I become more and more curmudgeonly and less tolerant or others and increasingly set in my ways!

 

I was expecting some pearl of wisdom from him, something to give me hope that some kind of change could be expected and that there was some key to unlocking it.

 

This gentleman is in his eighties.  He has a lot of wisdom to bring.

 

He raised an eyebrow, leaned back and folded his hands across his chest,  paused briefly and then said,

 

"To be honest with you..."

 

(Yes,  yes,  what is it oh wise one?  What is your secret?)

 

"Well to be perfectly frank....."

 

(here it comes,  the diatribe about discipline,  and how tough is the road to holiness)

 

"Well, I have sort of given up, really."

 

Wow.

 

That's it?

 

Some seventy years of devotion to Christ and that's all you've got?!

 

You have given up!

 

"Yes, at my age you stop thinking change is possible and just accept it."

 

Oh man.

 

I am screwed.

 

Now I need to say a couple of things.

 

Firstly,  a couple of years after he said this I actually saw a huge transformation in this elder brother as he came into a fresh experience of God.  It is perfectly possible I caught him on an off day, or even,  as I have discovered is also perfectly possible, an off year.

 

Secondly,  there is actually wisdom in his answer.

 

I hated hearing him say it, but that is largely because I held aspirations of becoming better.

 

Although salvation is free, and there is grace,  I am not entirely satisfied with it.  What good is it if I can't feel good about myself?  (and here I expose my heart and my sin).

 

This need for approval is SO deep.

 

But if God has said that I am acceptable, then I am acceptable. Like my dear brother,  I should just give up and let sanctification take care of itself.

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones says;

 

"The opposite of condemnation is never sanctification,  invariably it is justification."

 

Look back at the verses a moment.  All have sinned.  Yup. Check. 

We are all sinners. All under condemnation. Check.

 

"But all are justified freely by his grace!"

 

CHECK!!

 

Now when I say 'give up', I don't mean not to make an effort in your spiritual life. Absolutely not. By no means.  We are told to 'keep your spiritual zeal in serving the Lord '.

 

We should give up on our false motivations for earning approval; anyone's approval.  Not man's, not our own, and certainly NOT GOD'S.

 

Salvation is a finished work.  Grace is free. It is done.  Jesus has sat down at the father's right hand.  Sat down because his work is complete.

 

And the irony,  when we stop trying,  is that we actually start to change.

 

Justified freely by God.

 

Clean and free with all charges cleared and all debts paid.

 

The sweet peace of that.

 

Rest in that.

 

Satisfy yourself not in your works,  but in Jesus and in his finished work.

 

Because, to quote John Piper,

 

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him."

 

Amen.

Apart From The Law

 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,²² even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all^[h]who believe. ~ Romans 3:21-22

So we're all sinners and we all stand condemned under the law. The previous verse has told us 'by law is knowledge of sin'. This is the purpose of the law,  to show us our inability and to lead us to Christ.

Interestingly it is the very thing that the tltree we ate from offered; a knowledge of good and evil.

So we know instinctively what is good and bad.

The law purports to show us a way back into righteousness and God's favour, for those bothered by this state of affairs,  but what it actually does is to highlight our very inability to do so.

And then Jesus turns up,  and in his lifetime (in regards to his 33 years on earth),  as I have previously stated,  raises the bar even further.

So here is the state of affairs; we are sinners,  incapable of pleasing God,  Incapable of keeping the law,  and (if we actually could keep it) incapable also of honouring the spirit of the law by policing our interior life. We stand condemned by our actions,  our hearts,  our thoughts and the law.

In short,  we are screwed.

Or at least we would be.

We would be screwed without Jesus.

Hallelujah. The righteousness being revealed,  exposed and flaunted is apart from the law!

It never ceases to amaze me how when the righteousness I could not obtain by myself,  or by keeping God's commands has been bestowed on me, I still keep trying to be good enough.

There is only one way we are declared righteous and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.

You cannot earn it.

You cannot buy it.

You cannot keep it by effort.

It is a gift.

And the moment you stop trying to earn it and simply receive it, is the moment the healing can begin.

Christmas is looming.  If I gave my ten year old son a new X-box as a gift (yeah right,  I might stretch to a game) and his response was to leave it in the box,  go outside,  take up a bucket and sponge and start to wash my car,  I would be a little perplexed.

If on going out to speak to him and asking him what he was doing, he were to say 'I want to be worthy to receive such a gift', firstly I would laugh. And when I was done laughing I would hug him. And I would say to him,

Darling,  don't be so stupid.  It's a gift.  You don't have to earn it. I gave it to you to make you happy.  I gave it to you because I love you. I want you to enjoy it.  Now go back inside,  take it out of the box and start enjoying it.

Can I be frank?

I think we make God laugh an awful lot.

This righteousness is apart from the law.  It cannot be earned. Not ever. It can only be enjoyed,  and that takes a certain mentality.

Let's stop disqualifying ourselves and simply recieve the free gift of righteousness.  After all,  although it is free to us,  that does not mean that it is not costly. And just as I would be hurt if the X-Box stayed in its packaging,  I believe Jesus would be saddened by our not enjoying the gift he paid the ultimate price for, in order to bless us.

Father,  we recieve your free gift of righteousness,  thanking Jesus,

This day,
And all days,

Amen. 

Original Sinners

“There is none righteous, no, not one;
¹¹ There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
¹² They have all turned aside~ Romans 3:10-12

Just as their is nothing adult about adultery,  there is nothing original about sin.

We have been sinning from the beginning,  and no one,  since Adam has escaped the flawed nature passed down to us,  so generously by our ancestors.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God~ Romans 3:23 

Whether our sin amounts to murder or molestation,  or whether it consists of lies and lusts, it counts against us.

And we are in a sinful state,  as a race.  A child takes to sin like a fish to water.

We are in trouble on both counts.  We are part of this fallen race,  and so separated from God on that count and we have also deliberately and wilfully sinned.

I believe in original sin,  but I see it as a tainting of what God has made rather than a condemnation of the whole race as evil.

We fall short.  We don't achieve God's best for us.  We fail to be grateful or to give him praise as we ought.

But good things come from sinners too.  The creator's kindness and compassion is still reflected in his creation. Mankind is good and yet it is intrinsically sinful too.

The wheat and the weeds grow together,  and are inseparable until harvest.

Call me silly but I like to take comfort from that.

We have all turned aside.

This state I am in,  although I must live with it,  I do not bear full responsibility for it.  I am not a freak.  I am normal,  and this is a normal and practical problem that God has given a solution to.

We are told elsewhere that 'no temptation has seized you except that wich is common to all.'

In other words,. Don't be precious about it. Don't beat yourself up. Just deal with it.

Of course there is a personal and emotional side to our response to sin and it's solution.

But at times as a parent,  when my kid has fallen in something nasty,  he is upset enough.  I don't need to chastise him.  I just need to clean him up.  And as I do so,  my heart goes out to him. In my best moments,  my annoyance goes right out of the window.

And sometimes I think we are just too precious about our sin.

Our heavenly Father just wants to get us cleaned up and wipe away the tears.

Jesus too,  we are told is not without sympathy because he was 'tempted in every way,  just as we are'.

And though the passage makes it clear to us that none of us get away unscathed by sin, there is a parallel passage in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah which tell us the same thing.

All we like sheep have gone astray,
We have turned,  each one, to our own way,
And the LORD has laid on Him,
The sin of us all.

He took all our sin and shame, as the song has it, when he died and rose again. And so the sting of it is gone.  You are free.

You sin?

Well here is the solution.

And if we move with supreme confidence into the benefit of this sacrifice. We will realise that it is not about us.

That is a sinful mind set.

Salvation is a factory reset.

It rightfully robs us of our centrality and it places our Father God back into the heart of our affections and interests.

And John says,

If any of you have sinned,  you should confess it to God who is 'faithful and just to forgive'. And he will 'cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What a divine exchange.  Our sins for his righteousness,  and grace to return for help whenever you need it.

God bless you,

This days,

And all days,

Amen.

Shameful Women

By trade I am a cleaner.  I don't believe I am the first person whose career trajectory went from theological student to cleaner,  but it wasn't what I was expecting,  I must admit.
 

And on one hand I am fine with cleaning. I feel little disgrace,  though it is hardly a prestigious job.  But on the other hand it is occasionally a source of embarrassment to me,  depending on the company I am in.
 

Tell certain people that you are a cleaner, (people who may have shown a prior interest in you), and there is that look. They almost regret asking.
 

But any embarrassment I feel dwindles in comparison to the awkwardness I often encounter over a certain cleaning issue.
 

(By the way,  today is a temporary departure from Romans, with a rather unconventional start, but bear with me,  a spiritual aspect is coming)
 

My ex wife of 12 yrs was very matter of fact about the issue that is euphemistically referred to as 'feminine hygiene'. She spoke openly about menstruation and felt no embarrassment about getting me to purchase her sanitary towels and tampons, even when we were just dating. She was simply not squeamish.  And later on I was exposed to all the joys of a 'moon cup'. If you don't know what that is, Google with caution.
 

Let's just say that I have been exposed in detail to every aspect of menstruation in particularly graphic technicolour. She cured me of any squeamishness I had around the subject.
 

Now I know that as you have been reading some of you have been getting rather uncomfortable (men and women, I suspect) and if that's you,  well done for making it this far.  The light is at the end of the tunnel. But we have a little way to go yet.
 

So one aspect of my cleaning involves the sanitary bins in the ladies toilets. It is not my job to empty them,  but at times they are left too long (or something such as a coffee cup gets shoved into its rather small hatch)  and they start to overflow.  So I have to deal with that.

Not the most pleasant job,  but certainly not the worst thing I have to deal with. And living with my ex proved to be a good training ground.
 

And occasionally,  especially in the case of the coffee cups,  I have aired my frustration on social media or to female colleagues and friends. Because,  primarily,  someone's ignorance has caused me a problem.
 

But my complaint is never about having to deal with it, but rather that individuals lack of consideration.
 

And now,  finally,  we get to the point. I have been shocked time and time again by the response I get from women.
 

It's a true generalisation to say that most of them apologise (Or speak in apologetic tones) for my having to see that, or to deal with it, you know,  as a man.
 

It's like there is a corporate sense of shame on the whole gender.
 

If a female cleaner has to clean a loo seat that a man has carelessly peed on and relates that tale to a man,  he will likely feel no shame (generalising)  for his sex.  He may feel a little if he is personally responsible for that mess, but would rarely accept blame.
 

Now female consideration, for me,  is the better response than male arrogance,  but strangely there is something seemingly healthier in a man's refusal to take responsibility,  at least,  certainly healthier for him.
 

He will not take blame or shame for something that has nothing to do with him.
 

But in my experience women tend to take it on themselves.
 

There should be no shame around this issue. It is a perfectly natural function,  and an amazing one at that, which brings life to the whole human race.  It is, in a sense,  a beautiful thing,  even if it has difficult implications for women.
 

Why, oh why,  you may ask,  is he prattling on about menstruation in a devotional blog, that was supposed to be about the theology of sin?
 

Why indeed.
 

I have a good friend,  who happens to be female, who asked me for an 'arrow' (blog) on shame.

I have been looking for an opportunity to express my thoughts on 'feminine hygiene' and the state of shame that seems to unnecessarily attach itself to that subject, for quite a while now. But it is not one of those things that you just 'bring up' very often, for the exact reason I am highlighting.
 

And this morning whilst cleaning it occurred to me that God was drawing my attention to it for the purposes of this blog.
 

Shame is something that affects all humanity, but it seems to play a larger role in the female experience.  A much larger one than it should.
 

I don't really have solutions to the problem of shame,  but I have a few pictures of how it works., and of God's approach to it. And the majority of those pictures contain  Jesus.
 

In the garden,  when Adam and Eve fell,  the immediate consequence of their sin was a sense of shame.
 

They hid because of their nakedness.

They moved from love and approval to fear and shame.

Fear stops you loving.  Shame stops you receiving love.

But love can stop your fear.

 

 

It is vital to note that the shame is a byproduct of the sin. It is not something that God puts on them.
 

Shaming is not Gods style.
 

The only times I know of that God speaks of shame,  it is about it's removal.

And historically,  since the man compounded the woman's sense of shame by blaming her, the woman has bourne the blame for the fall.

Although Paul refers to Eve's sin,  he makes it clear that it is in Adam than we are in sin.
 

Now let's leap forward to our redeemer and his life.

Women bearing shame came to Jesus often,  or were cast across his path.

It is in Jesus that we see best God's compassion towards the shamed.
 

Take the woman caught in adultery.  In the very act.

How shaming is that?
 

And it's not the man that is dragged out into the street, is it?

They are both culpable,  are they not?
 

To be dragged naked (or half naked) out into the street, disorientated and humiliated? How must that have been?  How shaming! And Jesus,  without ever condoning her sin, defends and honours her in the most profound way.  Firstly he uses the sin of the accusers to level the playing field.

Who among you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone.
 

And now the woman's shame turns into everyone feeling a sense of shame.
And he does not condemn her.
 

Neither do I condemn you,  he says.  The only one who righteously could have.

Then he addresses the root of her shame

Go and leave your life of sin.
 

Where shame is 'deserved'. This (the above) is the pattern.
 

You are not a freak.  You are human.  We sin.  Now be transformed in yourself without shame.
 

Then there is the woman with the issue of blood. A woman who certainly did not 'deserve' her shame.  For many years the flow of blood did not cease.  She was ritually and culturally seen as a disgrace.  She lived every day with a sense of shame.  It was so huge for her that she spent all her money on doctors,  in an attempt to rid herself of this condition.
 

These days, I hope, she would be viewed with compassion but then she was seen as unclean. If she even touched someone they became contaminated. She was risking her life even by being in this crowd.
 

But something in Jesus gives her hope.  She knows,  if she can only just touch him,  she will be well,  and she scorns the shame,  bravely pushing through the crowd of hangers on,  and manages to reach out and touch him.
 

The moment she does, she is healed.
 

And Jesus,  noticing that power has gone out from him, does not let her slip quietly back into the crowd.  He calls her our and honours her for her faith,  to stand 'clean' for the first time, to look on the crowd and feel no disgrace.
 

Jesus emboldens the shameful. He gives hope.  He heals and honours.
 

And then there was the woman who anointed him at Bethany with an expensive perfume.
She has such a flagrant disregard for the shame she would incur because of her great love for him.

The scent we are told,  would have been the equivalent of a year's wages. My annual wage is about £15, 000 being a cleaner,  the average annual salary,  I'm told,  is around £25, 000.  In either case,  that is some expensive perfume. That's a sizable donation to Oxfam.  A lot of people could be helped with that. There is a shame, in a way,  of the waste of it. The disciples even say so.
 

This extravagant love has disregarded shame.
 

And Jesus says that because of it, she will be honoured wherever the gospel is preached,  as I am doing now.
 

Jesus bestows honour on the shamed.
 

There is no place for shame.
 

Jesus takes our shame away.
 

A while ago a dear brother,  who was, in my opinion,  by far and large the most flamboyant and least self conscious worshipper in our congregation,  (possibly that I have ever met) revealed that God had spoken to him about his sense of shame and shown him that Jesus had taken all his shame, and that,  from now on he was casting shame aside,  to worship without reservation.
 

And he was good to his word.
 

But I was thinking,  'You? You feel a sense of shame?! '

Because I saw him as completely uninhibited.
 

But that was not how he regarded himself.

And whatever came of that season for my brother,  it taught me something.
 

Shame has many,  many levels.
 

It goes so deep.
 

While you are ashamed, you are not free.

And for me,  what happened at the cross was the divine exchange of shame.

Jesus took our shame.
 

And we are told,  in Hebrews;

Let us go to him, outside the camp,  bearing his disgrace.

It seems only fair to me that if he bore our shame, we should bear his.

He says,  if anyone is ashamed of me or my words,  I will be ashamed of them before my Father.

But to bear his disgrace in truth,  is an honour and a privilege.

HIS shame is no shame.
 

He scorned the shame and humiliation of the cross.
 

He shamed sin itself,  making a public spectacle of it,  triumphing over it by the cross.  His 'shame' became his honour and victory.

The Christian has no place for shame,  but to give it to Jesus and to take his on ourselves instead.  His shame is easier to bear.  His burden is light.

Sisters (and brothers)  I hope we can learn from these women and,  more importantly,  from Jesus,  who honours us so preciously,
 

Amen.

Absolute Truth

For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.~ Romans 3:3-4

What does God say regarding the truth of his promise?  "I am not a man that I should lie,  or a son of man that I should change my mind".

I have said it before; we Christians,  particularly evangelicals, often regard ourselves as guardians of truth. That we hold truth,  but the deeper truth is that the truth holds us.

In Paul's description of the armour of God (a useful metaphor for the principles that keep you protected in a spiritual battle) he refers to truth as a 'belt'. In the case of the typical armour of a Roman guard,  who Paul was likely observing as he wrote from his imprisonment, a belt was the piece of kit that held the whole ensemble together.

Truth is the foundation.  It is the undergirding and underpinning principle that we stand on.

In the psalms we are told that righteousness and truth are the foundations of his throne.

In an age where truth is often seen as subjective this concept grates,  culturally. People say,  I have found 'my truth'. Or I'm glad that is true for you!'

And let's be real about it. Part of the reason I place my faith in Jesus is because of subjective truth. If it wasn't 'true for me', I probably wouldn't believe it.

But I believe that my subjective truth has been drawn into confluence with his objective truth. We flow together,  and as long as we do, our truth is truth.

So as a Christian,  when my 'truth' starts to depart from his,  I instinctively know it must be re-examined.

The only area we find in our culture where absolute truth seems to be adhered to is where it is convenient for the adherent.

So 'science' gets wielded about by people who laud it's as absolute truth as long as it justufies their position,  particularly in relation to God.

But they forget, often,  that science itself is based on scepticism and unbelief.  That everything is subject to disproval by new discovery. Nothing is sacred.  Nothing is beyond question.

But here is the thing.

My belief in something does not affect its existence one iota.

It is or it isn't.

I may say that the phone on which I write this is in fact a cabbage. But it would not cease to be a phone.

Does a rose by any other name not smell as sweet? It's is still a rose. Call it what you will.

You don't believe in God? Okay. But your unbelief won't save you if you're wrong.

But I love what this text says.

For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 

Unbelief is another way of saying faithlessness. But what the text says is that your lack of faith does not affect his faithfulness. 

He is still faithful to you.

You don't believe in God,  but he believes in you.

He has not stopped caring for you, providing for you, or loving you. Not for a second.

As we saw earlier,  his patience with you, his kindness to you,  is that you would turn to him.
And he remains faithful. 

And for as long as this window we call 'life' is open, there is time to reconcile 'your truth' to his truth, to have confluence,  to flow together with God,  your father.

He is true to himself. He cannot lie. This truth can hold you back,  or it can hold you close.

The hardest thing to believe, in the end,  is what we all desperately want to believe.

Yes, you are valued,
Yes, you have purpose,
Yes, you are loved.
Yes, their is forgiveness.
Yes, there is hope.
This storm will pass,
And the anchor will not sway,
The foundations will not falter,
The truth will not fail,

Not today,
Not ever,

Amen.

True Jew

   "he is a Jew who is one inwardly"

Are You Jewish?

There is an argument here that Jewishness is not a legalistic,  nor religious thing.  It's not even racial.

Paul a 'proud' Jew,  loves his people and his nation.  Let's be clear about that,  but the line he develops is one of a spiritual Jewishness. It supercedes the requirements of law, religion and race.

This is not to say that God does not have a special relationship with his covenant people.  God does not go back on his promises.

That is why in the previous paragraph he speaks of judgement coming first to the Jew, but then so does honour.

We are told that 'there is no partiality with God'.

I think that he is saying,  in the balance it all works out.

So having made it clear that those without the law are in peril,  as are those with the law,  he moves on to deal with the very religious,  who claim to have special favour with God,  as teachers of the law and who take strength from their racial privilege; 'making their boast in God'.

Those people will make much of their being circumcised.  Remember David's attitude to Goliath? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? That someone is uncircumcised is a disgrace to them,  in their eyes. (I am not commenting on David,  but highlighting the cultural attitude)

But Paul rightly points out that one can be Jewish on the outside but inwardly they are effectively uncircumcised.

And then Paul says something that would be staggering to his contemporary Jewish readers (remember he is writing primarily to gentiles).  He says that;

"He is not a Jew who is one outwardly"

But rather;

"he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God."

He has already made allusion to those who fulfill the law apart from the law,  saying that they are a law unto themselves.

I believe this is a development of that.

He describes the gentile who keeps the righteous requirements of the law as being those who have circumcised hearts.

Listen,  Jewishness is about covenant.  And the whole Jewish faith is a picture of what God would do in Jesus.

Even at the beginning God made a covenant with Abraham,  saying that through him all nations would be blessed.  The Jews were chosen to be a light to the gentiles. And Jesus,  the pinnacle of Jewishness described himself as the 'light' not of Israel only,  but 'of the world'.

God's love for humanity was always inclusive.  He made a way for us to all be Jewish.

In the prophets it was spoken of,  that God would make a new covenant,  that he would write his laws in our hearts; that he would change our hearts from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.

And now,  through the blood of Jesus,  believer,  you are in a covenant relationship with God,  a blood that speaks a better word than the blood of bulls,  a blood that is effective and powerful and that can clean you,  not just ceremonially,  but on the inside.  A blood that gives you a new and circumcised heart.  Where by your very (new) nature,  you can do the things that please God.

In essence,  you are a true Jew.

A caveat here. 

I believe that God has very much still got a plan for Israel and for the Jewish people.  I do not believe in replacement theology.  No. This is about us being grafted in to the vine of Israel.

And the wonderful thing is that anyone can be 'Jewish' in spirit.

Because that is an inward thing.

And he has made this most wonderful way with his amazing grace.

Thank God for Jesus,

This day,

All days,

Always,

Amen.

Secrets and Lives

And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.~ Romans 2:16

I am starting at the end.  It's a very good place to start.

But,  ends can be beginnings.  As the meme has it,  a man holding up a placard saying "The beginning is nigh!".

And if we speak in apocalyptic terms,  (I almost feel like I am back in Revelation) then this verse is highly appropriate.  Because it speaks of the judgement of the final day.

But it is at the end of this paragraph (2:1-16) that Paul wraps up his examination of God's righteous judgement, where he expounds the various combinations of behaviours and cultural backgrounds,  with the assertion that Christ will judge all of these lives. 

But here is a breakdown.

1. There are those who have no law,  and therefore do not fulfil God's requirements.
2.  There are those who have the Law and cannot keep it.

Both parties will be judged.

Both are up a certain creek in want of a certain rowing implement.

And then there is,  mysteriously, another category.

3. Those who do not have the law,  and yet somehow keep it.

I remember being set a question when I was at bible college on this very verse... But unfortunately I cannot remember my answer.  But it is certainly,  at first,  a little perplexing.

We know that Paul later makes reference to 'all' having 'fallen short of the glory of God'.

He seems to be contradicting himself.  How can they keep a law they do not have?  Are there special types who are exempt from the need of salvation?  He says that these people are 'a law unto themselves'.

Here are the vereses in question;

"for when the 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."

It never really occurred to me before that he was not talking about unbelievers.  I could be wrong,  but I think now that the third category he refers to are not naturally 'good gentiles'. Remember he says,  if righteousness could be obtained apart from the law then Christ died for nothing.

I think (and I freely admit that this is speculative) Paul is making a sideways reference to Gentile Christians,  such as the ones he is writing to.  And the clue to why I think this is here,  in verse 15;

"Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness"

That sounds to me like the kind of believer that the prophets speak of when they talk of  God writing his law in the hearts of men, when they speak of creating a new heart from a heart of stone.

That sounds to me like the description of the the postage new birth Christian.

And that for me,  fits the overall argument much better.

But the key is here,  that no matter what category you fall into;

Christ will judge all.

And he sees our secret lives. He knows the deeds done in secret,  he knows the thoughts of our hearts.  He will not miss a single heartbeat,  not a breath nor a sigh,  in his scrutiny.

We are told that what is done in secret will be proclaimed from the rooftops.

In the parable of the wheat and the weeds we ate told that they will be separated,  the wheat from the chaff.

Now that sounds like a tricky and intricate job,  but Jesus is up to it.

And here is the message.

According to my gospel,  Paul says.

This judgement is the gospel,  or rather a large and significant part of it.

A gospel without judgement is no gospel.
Or at least is only half a gospel.

What, I ask myself,  when thinking about universalists,  do they think Jesus is saving us from?

They reduce Christ to a self help guru.

They make a joke of the cross.

But that God gives us a new heart,  where we come to do by nature the things required of us,  and that when Judgement comes we have no need for fear.

That my friends,  is truly gospel.  Thay is good news.  The Gospel is bad news for good people (people who think themselves good)  but it is good news for bad people.

And that means you,
And it,  thank God,  means me.

God we live to thank you for Jesus,

This day,

And all days,

Amen.