Dale Partridge - August 26, 2022


Romans 2_14-16： The Role Of The Conscience In Salvation


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Length

26 minutes

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162.29001

Word count

4,357

Sentence count

239

Harmful content

Toxicity

2

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Hate speech

17

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Summary

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Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 In this episode of Real Christianity, I continue through Romans chapter 2, where we examine
00:00:04.160 the purpose of the conscience and how people who have never heard of the moral law are
00:00:09.540 still guilty before God.
00:00:10.940 All that and more coming up right now. 1.00
00:00:30.000 Welcome to Real Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge. Today's episode is titled Romans 2,
00:00:35.840 14 through 16, The Role of the Conscience in Salvation. Now, as you know, this show is an
00:00:41.420 audio and video ministry of relearn.org. If you're watching the video recording of this episode,
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00:02:25.060 All right, guys, let's get started. Over the last couple of weeks, if you've been follow along on
00:02:30.860 the Romans 2 train here, we've been learning about the coming universal and individualized
00:02:38.520 judgment of God coming for every one of us. And so we saw Paul argue that all people, Jew and Greek,
00:02:48.840 lost and saved, will stand before God on judgment day individually. We also learned the difference
00:02:56.300 between judgment and condemnation. This was key to understand the difference between those two
00:03:03.240 realities is that there is a difference between judgment and condemnation. We will all be judged,
00:03:10.240 but we will not all be condemned. I think of Romans chapter eight, verse one, that says,
00:03:15.460 there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So all of us, yes,
00:03:21.560 we will stand before and be judged, but we will not be condemned because we will be found righteous
00:03:27.060 by the righteousness of Christ. So the distinction between judgment and condemnation
00:03:31.440 really taught us a key truth for the Christian life.
00:03:36.020 We need to learn, and pay attention here,
00:03:38.140 we need to learn how to rest in Christ
00:03:41.240 for our justification while we work in Christ
00:03:45.980 for our reward and our pleasing of God.
00:03:49.400 And so this is a balance of,
00:03:52.140 I'm not going to work and obey to help myself be justified.
00:03:56.840 I'm gonna work and obey to please God.
00:03:59.380 And so this is really a major difference between legalism, which is trying to work to maintain their justified state, and just resting in Christ for our righteousness, but at the same time working to obey, to please God, not to actually make ourselves righteous, because we are not righteous, only Christ is righteous.
00:04:23.420 And so I think about 2 Corinthians 5, 9 through 10.
00:04:26.200 It says, so whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
00:04:34.520 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive
00:04:39.140 what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
00:04:42.960 Colossians 3, 23 through 24 says, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and
00:04:47.980 not for men, knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward.
00:04:53.640 You are serving the Lord Christ. So our motive is not that our works would offer some additional
00:05:02.360 eternal security, but that we work because of our gratitude for redemption. That's really what
00:05:10.100 we're doing. We're working for our gratitude for the redemption that has been earned, not by us,
00:05:15.040 but by Christ alone. So Romans 2, 12 through 13, we saw just in the previous episode,
00:05:25.740 Paul moved from the grounds of God's judgment. And if we have a judgment, it has to be based
00:05:33.000 off the grounds of a law. And the law of God and the universal power of the law has really been
00:05:40.160 the focus of the past several verses. We learned that the purpose of the law was not to deliver
00:05:46.300 men, but to damn them. Now, you have to understand that the law was never intended to save men
00:05:54.880 through the law. The law was given to bring about the knowledge of sin. We're going to talk more
00:06:00.360 about that even next week. But this is all, Romans chapter two is really all about showing the power
00:06:09.800 of the law so that we will pursue and that we will turn not to works, but to the Savior. And it's why
00:06:18.580 it's such a tragedy that so many Christians and even some pastors don't use the law the same way
00:06:25.800 that the apostle uses the law here in Romans.
00:06:29.040 He opens up his presentation of the gospel
00:06:31.620 with the law, with the power
00:06:34.140 and the universal condemnation of the law.
00:06:37.720 Yet for some reason, pastors today
00:06:39.460 just go straight to Jesus died for you.
00:06:42.160 They skip the reality that Jesus also had to live for you.
00:06:45.900 He had to live and keep the perfect righteousness of the law
00:06:49.300 so that he can impute his righteousness to you
00:06:51.820 through faith.
00:06:52.820 We don't talk about the law's condemning power
00:06:55.520 and the judgment of God, and that if you do not satisfy the justice of God through faith in Christ,
00:07:02.220 you will experience the wrath of God in hell. That is not a message that many pastors
00:07:08.720 are delivering, and it's unfortunate. And so the law in the New Testament is always presented as
00:07:15.660 this unbearable weight that no man can carry. We talked about a couple of verses that I'm going to
00:07:21.420 be repeating over and over in these episodes through Romans chapter 2, James 2.10, for whoever
00:07:27.040 keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. Again, the law is not
00:07:34.300 just an outward expression, but a totality of obedience, meaning that it's not just what you do
00:07:40.180 with your body, but it's also what you do in the heart and your internal thoughts. And so this is
00:07:45.540 a high stakes. It's not just that you don't hate somebody or don't murder someone. It's that you
00:07:53.060 don't hate somebody. It's not that you don't commit adultery. It's that you actually don't
00:07:56.400 lust after somebody. There's a totality of the law that Jesus makes clear in his message
00:08:02.000 through the gospels. Romans 3.20, again, we know that Romans 1.18 through 3.20, again,
00:08:07.620 I'm going to reiterate this several episodes in a row, is really this one big swooping message
00:08:13.920 that ends with Romans 3.20 that says, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified.
00:08:21.980 And so you will not work your way. You will not be a moralist. You will not earn your way through
00:08:27.340 religious doings. You must rest in what has been done. And so moralism, legalism, they cannot make
00:08:35.340 us righteous. You cannot contribute to your salvation or maintaining your righteous standing
00:08:40.760 through religiosity. So humanity's only hope for justification is what? It's in the righteousness
00:08:46.920 of Christ. Again, I'm going to beat that dead horse until you guys really understand it. So
00:08:50.680 Paul teaches that judgment is universal. The condemnation of the law is universal,
00:08:56.960 and he's cornering anyone, Jew or Gentile, that you cannot escape the law. You were made, 1.00
00:09:06.400 you have a maker and your maker has a right to tell you how you ought to live. You are unable
00:09:13.780 to maintain that standard by which he has put upon us and you are guilty of breaking his moral
00:09:21.000 law. And because you've sinned against an eternal God, there is eternal punishment. This is
00:09:26.940 essentially the beginnings of the presentation of the gospel. And so today we're going to be
00:09:33.380 looking at Romans 2, 14 through 16, which is a parenthetical statement. It really could be
00:09:39.400 put inside brackets. In your Bible, it might even be in parentheses. It sits under last week's text.
00:09:47.040 And so if last week's text was really the thesis that the Jews not only need to be hearers of the 0.53
00:09:54.900 law, but also doers, I mean, that is a complete doing of the law. Today's passage is related
00:10:00.700 to a different dimension in speaking to the Gentiles. The passage essentially answers the
00:10:07.900 pressing question that a Jew would be asking, which is what about the Gentiles who can't do the 0.95
00:10:15.000 law because they don't even know of the law? And so can God justly condemn Gentiles who don't even 0.96
00:10:24.240 have the law? That's the question that's really being answered here is can God justly condemn 1.00
00:10:29.600 those who've never even heard of the Ten Commandments and the moral law of God? How can God
00:10:35.800 rightly and justly put these people to justice if they've never even heard the law? You guys might
00:10:43.820 have heard in the previous episode, it doesn't matter if you know the law, you are guilty if
00:10:48.760 you're within its jurisdiction. So the reality is, is if I'm speeding here through Cottonwood or
00:10:54.160 Sedona, Arizona, and I don't realize that it's a 35 and I'm going 50. It doesn't matter if I'm
00:11:00.920 aware of the law, I'm guilty of the law. And so we're going to be talking a little bit more about
00:11:05.240 that. We're going to see Paul establishing the legal grounds by which God can bring justice
00:11:12.500 upon all people, Jew and Gentile, even if you don't have the law. So let's look back 0.98
00:11:18.600 at verses 12 and 13, for all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the
00:11:28.860 law. And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. Verse 13, for it is not the
00:11:34.780 hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
00:11:40.460 And again, that's a complete doing, not just externally, but internally. We can't talk about
00:11:46.160 that in detail right now, but that's really what's being said. Today's text is two verses later and it
00:11:52.620 says, for when the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are 0.95
00:11:59.540 a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is 0.99
00:12:06.860 written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts
00:12:12.420 accuse or even excuse them. On that day, when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets
00:12:18.580 of men by Jesus Christ. So let's talk about verse 14. For when Gentiles who do not have the law
00:12:26.520 by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have 1.00
00:12:32.800 the law. What is Paul saying here? Paul is ultimately implying that while the Gentiles
00:12:40.220 do not have the law that was given to them, to the Jews on Mount Sinai, on the tablets,
00:12:46.900 through Moses. They do have a conscience that's consistent with the tenets of the law.
00:12:53.640 And really, if you read chapter one of Romans, they know that God exists. They know that there
00:13:00.980 is a general difference between good and evil. Romans chapter one, verse 19 says,
00:13:06.780 quote, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For
00:13:15.540 although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. And so the people who
00:13:23.640 don't know God, they can see God in the things that are made. Again, you can go back to Romans
00:13:28.240 chapter one if you'd like to read that. But biblically and philosophically speaking,
00:13:31.540 the conscience operates primarily in a mode of condemnation, meaning that the primary function
00:13:37.780 of the conscience is more to tell you what not to do than to tell you the righteous things that
00:13:44.220 you need to do. So it's something that is in us to tell us something that's wrong. We shouldn't
00:13:49.640 do something versus the conscience role is less involved in telling us to do something that is
00:13:55.520 righteous. So while all people do not have the Ten Commandments, God has implanted within every
00:14:01.560 person the form of the law, which acts as a moral law unto themselves. So that's what the conscience
00:14:09.460 really operates as a moral law unto themselves. Now, that universal conscience, as we all know,
00:14:15.160 is violated by each and every one of us every day. We don't do the things that we want to do.
00:14:20.360 We don't do the things that we should do.
00:14:22.380 We do things that we know we shouldn't do.
00:14:25.260 And if you don't realize that you're bad and that you're terrible and that you're a sinner, 0.99
00:14:29.500 just think about the greatest commandment, right?
00:14:32.380 It's to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind,
00:14:35.300 and to love your neighbor as yourself.
00:14:36.960 Ask yourself how many minutes of the day you failed to do that.
00:14:40.580 And you'll realize that, wow, I am in a constant state of sin.
00:14:44.460 So again, Paul is saying that this law of the conscience
00:14:47.680 and our breaking of it essentially reveals that all humanity is deserving justly of condemnation
00:14:56.840 because we have a law, even if we don't have the moral law that was given to us on Mount Sinai.
00:15:02.620 Verse 15 says, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their
00:15:08.540 conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. So Paul goes
00:15:14.560 on to really prove his point here by providing further evidence for the conscience. And so the
00:15:20.780 conscience, it's not perfect. It's not a perfect law, but it's still a law to those who do not
00:15:27.020 have the Ten Commandments. That's what Paul is getting across here. Scripture teaches us that
00:15:31.320 we are never to actually violate our own consciences, and it's truly, really a law unto us.
00:15:38.400 um now man there's so much that we could teach on the conscience dr martin lloyd jones does an
00:15:44.940 episode on this specific episode and goes deeper on that if you'd like to go further on the
00:15:50.340 conscience there now notice he doesn't say that the law is written on their hearts in this in
00:15:55.280 verse 15 he says the work of the law is written on their hearts now what is the work of the law
00:16:03.540 Essentially, it's the results of the law.
00:16:06.520 It's the results of the law.
00:16:09.340 They are, and what are the results of the law?
00:16:11.840 Their God is acknowledged.
00:16:13.780 They are, life is protected.
00:16:16.280 Marriage is honored.
00:16:19.340 Parents are honored.
00:16:20.680 This is the result of the law. 0.97
00:16:24.600 For example, India is a pagan nation that is ruled by people who do not know the scriptures 0.99
00:16:32.540 and don't have the moral law of God. However, in India's Penal Code, Section 302, murder is
00:16:39.800 outlawed and is punished by, quote, death penalty or life imprisonment. In Iran, adultery is outlawed,
00:16:49.080 and we know that they have rejected the moral law of God. They've rejected Christ as Lord. 1.00
00:16:55.100 They don't follow the Bible. They follow the Quran. And adultery yet is still outlawed, 1.00
00:17:01.720 and is, quote, punishable by 100 lashes for unmarried people and death on the fourth offense.
00:17:10.240 It is punishable by death, by stoning, or by other means for married people, and in all cases of incest, end quote.
00:17:19.660 And so we think also about the aboriginal tribes of Australia or Africa, and even in these distant cultures,
00:17:27.320 they still condemn stealing and lying and dishonoring of parents. Those things are still
00:17:33.320 happening even though they don't have the moral law of God. So the moral laws among pagan people 1.00
00:17:39.700 are the evidence of the work of the law that is written on their conscience even though they don't
00:17:47.800 know God. And so further evidence for the conscience is the public discourse that goes on
00:17:53.520 around moral issues. You know, it's why Paul says at the end of this verse, and their conflicting
00:18:00.660 thoughts accuse or even excuse them. If there was no human conscience, there would be no discussion
00:18:07.280 about abortion or homosexuality or transgenderism or pornography or divorce or lying or cheating 0.82
00:18:19.240 or stealing. There would be no reference point or standard among people who don't know God,
00:18:26.620 but there is a conscience and it's evident in the public discourse about, you have people who
00:18:32.360 are arguing over these facts if they're right or wrong because their conscience
00:18:37.380 are accusing them or excusing them to do these things. So, you know, among the lost,
00:18:46.020 there are those whose consciences have been seared. We've seen this in Romans chapter one
00:18:53.100 and leading into chapter two, and God's judgment is upon them. They've actually have no conscience.
00:18:59.260 They become shameless around shameful acts. They've become essentially desensitized.
00:19:06.820 And then there are those who, by God's grace, have still a sensitive conscience that is convicted
00:19:14.100 of righteousness and by God's grace will maybe be saved. And so the public discourse again about
00:19:23.060 morality becomes evidence for the existence of a law within all of us and in turn providing just
00:19:29.480 grounds for God's judgment. So that's essentially the point that Paul's making there. But Paul closes
00:19:34.320 his point in verse 16, which is really connected to the previous verse. I want to read it with you
00:19:38.780 together here. So I'm going to read 15 and 16 together. It says, they show that the work of
00:19:43.940 the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting
00:19:49.120 thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets
00:19:55.960 of men by Christ Jesus. So Paul wraps up his point in this section of scripture by stating a few
00:20:02.500 essential facts. Number one is if there is a universal law, the conscience, there is a universal
00:20:09.820 judge to uphold justice according to that law, because to have a law without a judge would make
00:20:15.780 no sense, right? If there is a judge, then there also must be a time for judgment. If there is a
00:20:23.640 judgment, there must be a standard of righteousness by which a judgment can actually be made. And this
00:20:31.820 is the point of, again, leading people towards Christ. So Paul is stating that the judge,
00:20:38.000 which is God, will reckon humanity on judgment day according to the law of God and the righteousness
00:20:43.760 of Christ. And so there's a deep theological understanding that needs to be caught here.
00:20:51.380 And the one who sees the heart, the judge, who will see all of our hearts and will judge the
00:20:58.620 secrets of men will make correct judgments upon all of us. And so everything will be laid out
00:21:04.280 before God at that time. Acts 17, 31 says, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the
00:21:12.320 world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. So there's that standard of righteousness.
00:21:18.900 He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. And the reason that Jesus was
00:21:25.380 raised from the dead is because the wages of sin is death. And so anybody that's broken the law
00:21:31.340 must die. Now, Christ died for our sins, but had no sins of his own, therefore must be resurrected
00:21:37.640 from the dead because the wages of sin is death and Christ had no sin. Yet that means that Christ
00:21:44.140 had to be resurrected from death, which is the validation of God that he was righteous before
00:21:50.240 the law. And so again, Christ didn't just die for us. He also lived for us. He lived righteously.
00:21:56.280 And the evidence for his righteousness is that he didn't die. Yes, he died for our sins, but he
00:22:02.560 lives eternally. Anybody that, if Christ would have stayed dead and didn't have a resurrection,
00:22:08.420 it would mean that he was a sinner and he deserved death. But because he didn't deserve death, 0.80
00:22:13.020 he was resurrected. And so lots there. But what is the application? What does this mean for us
00:22:19.960 How can we apply this to our lives?
00:22:21.960 First, we must thank God that as Christians,
00:22:25.400 we have more than a conscience.
00:22:27.820 What a blessing to have the Holy Spirit,
00:22:31.460 to have the law of God written upon our hearts,
00:22:34.440 to have the righteousness of Christ
00:22:36.620 so that while we will stand before judgment,
00:22:39.160 we will not be condemned
00:22:40.360 because we have the righteousness of Christ
00:22:42.240 imputed to us by faith
00:22:43.400 and that our sins have been paid for on the cross
00:22:45.960 by Jesus's death, dying the death that we deserved.
00:22:48.960 And so Hebrews 10, 16 through 17, which is really quoting Jeremiah says,
00:22:53.000 this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord.
00:22:58.000 I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds.
00:23:03.580 Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.
00:23:09.400 What an amazing passage of scripture.
00:23:11.260 So second piece of application, we must not only leverage the law in discussion, but when we
00:23:20.240 evangelize, we really need to use the law. We need to not just use the law, however, we need to also
00:23:26.620 use the conscience. And so people know when they violate their conscience. We know it, they know it.
00:23:32.880 And so leveraging this violation of the conscience, the guilt and the shame that they feel,
00:23:37.980 We live in a culture that wants to make shame feel shameless, but we need to absolutely
00:23:43.180 tell people that that shame is the conscience, it's a law unto themselves, convicting them
00:23:49.080 of the sin that they have against a God that created them, and it is a law unto themselves
00:23:55.100 and it will condemn them to hell.
00:23:57.560 And so I actually opened up one of my gospel tracks with this concept.
00:24:03.580 The reality is, is that we can't give them the ointment of the gospel or the healing
00:24:08.340 oil of the gospel until we first afflict them or wound them with the law.
00:24:13.560 That is exactly how the gospel is always preached in the New Testament.
00:24:17.620 It's this reality that we tell them the law, they're wounded with the law, it causes repentance,
00:24:23.580 and they cast themselves on Christ, who is the only one that is righteous.
00:24:27.580 But I opened up the gospel track that I wrote for mailthegospel.org, and I used this line.
00:24:33.740 I said, everyone knows they have something to be forgiven for, but not everyone knows
00:24:39.120 who they must be forgiven by.
00:24:42.160 So again, shame is God's internal tool to bring conviction upon the lost, to bring conviction
00:24:49.580 upon those he's going to save.
00:24:51.900 And the world, however, is constantly looking for ways to reduce shame.
00:24:55.820 I mean, my goodness, if you think about Brene Brown or Dr. Phil or Oprah or everybody's talking and trying to figure out ways to reduce shame in our culture.
00:25:06.060 However, shame is, again, an operating element of the conscience to bring us to a place of understanding that we are violating the way that we were made and what we were made for and the God that made us.
00:25:20.880 And so as Christians, the most loving thing we can do is magnify the things that they
00:25:28.800 are doing that are sinful, that are causing shame.
00:25:31.440 We don't want to suppress that shame.
00:25:34.180 We actually want them to understand that that shame is actually causing them to turn to
00:25:39.100 Christ, that they're guilty, that they are lost, that they need to repent and turn to
00:25:44.420 Christ.
00:25:44.720 They're not going to be found righteous unless they trust in the righteousness of Christ,
00:25:50.180 that they need to be forgiven
00:25:51.520 and that they shouldn't suppress
00:25:55.060 that feeling of conviction.
00:25:57.940 So hopefully that episode was helpful for you guys
00:26:00.440 in really breaking down a little bit of the basics
00:26:02.720 of what the purpose of the conscience is
00:26:04.260 and how to understand the difference
00:26:05.500 between the law and the conscience.
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00:26:44.500 On that note, thank you guys for listening to this episode of Real Christianity.
00:26:47.700 My name is Dale Partridge and we'll see you next time.