https://youtu.be/k967JnstKoM
In our verse by verse study of Romans we are in Rom 2:12; where we left off at the last phrase "by the law" translated from "dia" plus the genitive of "nomos" should be translated "through law." This is an anartharous construction here. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the perfect quality of the law.
Just because the law has been distorted into a system of self-righteousness it does not detract from its perfection. The law is holy, just and good. It is perfect.
Expanded Translation Rom 2:12; "For as many as have sinned without the law also shall perish: and as many as under the law have sinned, through the law will be judged."
We see from this verse that regardless of good or bad environment the entire human race is sinful and spiritually dead. Some have the environment of heathenism and some have the perfect environment of the Mosaic law, but all are spiritually dead. 1Cor 15:22;
With or without the Mosaic Law all people have an old sin nature that is the basis of God's condemnation and as a result they and still sin, and this is just as true after salvation as before. 1John 1:8.
However those who have the Law have a tendency toward self-righteousness and a maximum accumulation of human good by their law keeping.
The Mosaic Law not only sets up a standard to define sin and quantify sinfulness but the Mosaic Law also reflects the perfect absolute standard of God's eternal, infinite, perfect righteousness.
In other words, the Mosaic Law reveals God's perfect integrity but sinful mankind cannot comply with it to become righteous before God. Rom 8:3-4;
On the cross God's justice judged all sins including the sins of the Jewish unbeliever. Therefore the sins of the Jewish unbeliever will not be mentioned at the last judgment.
The OSN motivates Jewish unbelievers to use the Law to produce human good and build his case for salvation on the basis of self-righteousness. But the human good of self-righteousness was rejected at the cross and reserved for judgment at the great white throne.
On the other hand, God's righteousness is immutable, perfect and infinite, and can never change to accommodate any self-righteous people. To adjust to God's justice at salvation man therefore must discard illusions about self.
He must discard self-righteousness in favor of receiving divine righteousness that can only be accomplished by personal faith in Jesus Christ that creates instant adjustment to God's justice by the imputation of God's righteousness.
The accumulation of self-righteousness and human good will not save the unbeliever it will only condemn him because the more intensified the effort to be saved by keeping the law, the more human good, self-righteousness along with more guilt and greater condemnation is accrued from God's justice. Rom 4:4;
The point is that the self-righteous moral unbeliever with the law is just as condemned by God as the immoral or heathen unbeliever without the law. God's justice is impartial. It condemns the self-righteous class with the law just as much as the immoral class without the law.
Jewish and Gentile unbelievers are equally maladjusted to God's justice and therefore equally guilty at the last judgment.
Morality or human good are never the basis of salvation. Due to the impartiality of God's justice the unbeliever, regardless of the advantages of environment or circumstances, is condemned and judged in time as well as in eternity.
Expanded Translation Rom 2:12; "For as many as have sinned without the law also shall perish: and as many as under the law have sinned, through the law will be judged."
Verses 13-15, are a parenthesis, verse 12 is completed in verse 16.
The principle stated in verses 11 & 12 is a shock to self-righteous people, both Jew or Gentile, but it is especially a shock to the Jew under the law who always considered that it was an advantage to have the law and he is right until he distorts the law and tries to use it be saved.
When the self-righteous Jewish unbeliever with the law finds out that he is as guilty as the amoral Gentile unbeliever without the law before God's justice that is a shock.
It is completely foreign to his thinking because he thinks of the "Goi " as being inferior, uncouth and uncultured. He is shocked to discover that God's justice regards him with his self-righteousness law keeping the same way.
To the Jew under the law the standards of the law are distorted into a checklist that he can use to keep track of his self-righteousness and measure his human good. Such self-righteousness feeds pride, inflates the ego and gives momentum to arrogance and inevitably it leads to evil.
It is very difficult for Jews who have been building up their self righteousness on the basis of the immorality and unrighteousness of the Gentile, by distorting the law and using it to make favorable comparisons to himself to be informed that while by comparison he is producing more human good than the immoral person of Romans chapter one and while he may be impressed with his human good God is not impressed at all.
Zealous law keeping neither saves nor justifies before God's perfect integrity James 2:10; Rom 3:20,28; Gal 3:10-12; In the parenthesis contained in verses 13-15, two delusional assumptions are presented.
Rom 2:13; "For not the hearers of the law" begins with the conjunctive particle "gar" that is often used to express cause or reason, but here it becomes the explanatory conjunction and translated "For you see."
Plus the strong negative "ouk" that refutes the delusion of the self-righteous person, and the nominative plural subject from "akroates," that means those who sit in the congregation and listen to teaching.
It refers to the Jew being taught the Mosaic law. The unbeliever's inculcation of the Mosaic law and the observation of it does not impress God. God is not impressed just because people listen to the teaching.
Changing the translation into more understandable English: "For you see the hearers (students of the law) are not just...." The verb "eimi" is implied in the context. "Just" is translated from the adjective, "dikaios" that means to be adjusted to God's justice and rightly related to God's integrity.
"Dikaios" connotes connection with tradition or custom. While it is translated "righteous" or "just" it is a Greek word for virtue. In this context it means being adjusted God's justice that is the greatest of virtues.
"before God" is translated from the preposition "para" plus the dative of "Theos." "Theos" is always used to describe a person. The preposition "para" plus the dative indicates the judgment of someone so we translate "before the God." There is a definite article here that refers to Jesus Christ as "the God.".
Expanded translation so far Rom 2:13; For the hearers of the Law are not just before the God..."
"but" this is the adversative conjunction "alla," but it has a different meaning here. It is usually used to set up a contrast or to be a link between contrasting statements, but not here.
This is the intensive or emphatic or confirmatory use of "alla," so it will be translated differently. The reason that this use is possible in this case is because of the negative of the first clause also includes the second clause.
This means that the "not" applies to both the first and the second clause as in the equation "not (a or b)." It is the equivalent of a logical "nor gate" so in the second clause when the "not" is included it should be translated is "in fact, not" or "nor will."
"the doers of the law" the nominative plural subject of "poietes" that is correctly translated "doers." Plus a descriptive genitive singular of "nomos" translated the law."
The words, "in fact the doers of the law" are the beginning of the second assumption. It is a reference to hard-core self-righteous people who are not only students but they are real hard workers.
" shall not be justified" remember we have bring the negative because of the confirmatory emphatic use of "alla," plus the future passive indicative of "dikaiow:" translation "in fact the doers of the law shall not be justified."
This is a predictive future passive; the doers of the law will not receive justification because they have no relationship God's integrity. The indicative mood is declarative it is a dogmatic statement of fact.
The doers try to be justified before God by a system of good deeds that they have developed from the law. This is what the functional religious snob does.
Like the rich young ruler they are proud of their self-righteousness and human good. Their arrogance is so great that they assumes that God's justice will give him salvation on the basis of doing the law.
Expanded Translation Rom 2:13: "For the hearers of the law are not just before the God, in fact the doers of the law will not be justified."
So we have hearers and the doers. Both are distorting the law and trying to be saved by the Law and Jesus rejects both the hearers and the doers.