ASLC Devotions-Tuesday

Romans 2:12-16

12All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. 15They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them 16on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.

On a recent trip I stood on the steps of the Coliseum in Ephesus where St. Paul preached to the Ephesians and I couldn't help but wonder "What was he telling them?" Was he speaking about the law of God the Jews kept or was it the law of man. Surely these people had well-developed laws of their own, and in that case, I could imagine them thinking — "And your point is?" No, it had to be something different. These Gentiles had to receive the truth that when the law is broken there is a God that provides forgiveness and eternal life through One who has taken on himself the burden of all their wrongs. A new concept for them and one that we can live by.

Carole Graesser


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