What does Paul mean when speaking of all who have sinned without or under the law?

Explanation:

Paul wants the Jews in Rome to understand that although they are God’s covenant people, God shows no partiality. Paul begins Romans 2:1 by saying that those who judge the wicked and yet do wickedness themselves are condemned. In other words, whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, God will condemn your wickedness. He goes on to explain that those who do good will receive eternal life, and those who are disobedient will receive God’s wrath (Romans 2:7–8), for God shows no partiality.

Now, in order to emphasize this point, Paul reiterates the fact that God shows no partiality in Romans 2:12. We can detect this because he opens Romans 2:12 with for, which we might take in the explanatory sense of because.³ Paul goes on to say all who have sinned without the law will perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. We can detect from the context that Paul is repeating his earlier statements. God is impartial, so the Gentiles who have sinned without the law will perish without the law. And since the Jews have the law, the Jews who have sinned will be judged by God through the law. In either case, both Gentiles and Jews will be condemned for their sin because God is impartial.

Counterargument:

This argument contends that Paul is saying both Gentiles and Jews will be condemned because of sin because God is impartial. Of course, this is not what Paul says. Rather, Paul says that all who have sinned without the law will perish, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. Assuming those without the law are the Gentiles, and those under the law are the Jews, Paul is saying that Gentiles who have sinned will perish. And Jews who have sinned will be judged. Of course, there might be Gentiles who have not sinned, so not all Gentiles will perish. And Paul never says that the Jews who sin are condemned but that they are judged. So he seems to be saying that some Gentiles are condemned and some Jews will be judged, not that all Gentiles and Jews are condemned. 

Response to counterargument:

When we reach Romans 3:23, Paul explicitly states that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.⁴ If we combine this statement with Romans 2:12, we can detect that all of the Gentiles will perish. For Paul says in Romans 2:12 that all who have sinned without the law will perish without the law. Now we know from Romans 3:23 that everyone has sinned, which implies that all who do not have the law, that is, the Gentiles, have sinned. So all of the Gentiles will perish. Of course, since all have sinned, this means that all of those who have the law have also sinned, which means that all of the Jews will be judged by the law.

So what does it mean to be judged by the law? According to this counterargument, one might be judged by the law and avoid condemnation, but this is not right. For the verb to judge that Paul uses here has to do with being judged, that is, condemned, by God.^5,6 In fact, we find the verb used in several other passages in the sense of condemnation (2 Thessalonians 2:12; John 3:17–18; John 12:47–48). ⁷ So by saying the Jews will be judged by the law, Paul is saying they will be condemned by the law.

Explanation:

Paul has explained that God is impartial (Romans 2:11), but the Jews would have found this difficult to grasp because God had given them the law. That the Jews had the law meant that they were under the sphere of God’s care, and to be under the sphere of God’s care meant salvation. Those outside the sphere of the law, that is, the Gentiles, were outside salvation, while the Jews considered themselves assured of salvation because they were under the sphere of the law. To help the Jews understand that God is impartial, so that even though the Jews have the law, they will be judged by God just as the Gentiles, Paul sets up a parallelism.⁸ That is, he says that those without the law will perish, and those with the law will be judged by the law. In other words, the parallelism displays that both parties are under the same condemnation if they sin. Of course, Paul goes on to explain in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned. This means that both Gentiles and Jews are subject to God’s just condemnation.

Counterargument:

This view has it that the Jews misunderstand what having the law entails. In particular, the Jews think having the law entails that they are assured salvation, when in fact Paul explains that anyone who sins will be judged by the law, and therefore condemned. The problem with this argument is that when we continue reading Paul’s letter, we come to Romans 11:26–29 where he explains that because God’s gifts and calling are irrevocable, all of Israel will be saved. Thus, while the Israelites who sin will be judged by the law, they will not perish, so they are assured salvation after all.

Response to counterargument:

At this stage in the letter, Paul is instigating his Jewish audience to understand the contents of the gospel. That is, he wants them to understand that the gospel has to do with justification through faith in Christ because no one is able to keep the law. As such, the Jews in Rome ought to recognize that the Gentiles are included in the gospel because God is impartial, and salvation is not linked to being Jewish, but to being in Christ. Later, Paul will explain some theological nuance as it relates to Israel, but none of what he says in Romans 11:1–36 undermines his initial statements that God judges all who sinned because he is impartial.

The weakness of this view is that we want to understand what Paul means in the context of Romans 2:12. The fact is, he never says in Romans 2:12 that all Gentiles and Jews will perish, so we ought to be careful not to read this meaning into this section. Rather, his main point seems to be to highlight God’s impartiality.

Explanation:

Paul says that those without the law will perish without the law, while those with the law will be judged by the law. Now, Paul will go on to explain that the Gentiles have a natural law, which is their conscience (Romans 2:15). The Gentiles’ conscience accuses them of sin, so they are accountable for their works and deserve to perish for sin. ¹¹ The Jews, on the other hand, have not only a conscience but also the law of God. Since they have the law of God, they will be held to a higher account and will be judged by that law.

So Paul’s surprising point in this section is that there are levels of judgment, and the Jews will be held to a higher account.¹² The Gentiles are judged by their conscience, while the Jews are judged by their conscience and the law of God.

Counterargument:

Unfortunately for this argument, Paul does not say that there are levels of judgment. Rather, if we assume that to perish is equivalent to being judged, we observe that he says that the Gentiles are judged without the law (which he goes on to explain is their conscience), while the Jews are judged by the law. He does not say that the Jews are judged by their conscience and the law, or that there are levels of judgment such that the Jews receive harsher treatment. Rather, he simply notes that the Jews and Gentiles are judged differently.

Explanation:

When Paul says that those without the law perish, and those with the law will be judged by the law, he means that there are levels of distress in hell. We can detect that this is Paul’s meaning because he has already intimated in Romans 2:9 that the Jews will face a harsher judgment than the Gentiles. He says in Romans 2:9 that there will be tribulation and distress for all who do evil, the Jew first and then the Gentile. In other words, by receiving tribulation first, the Jews receive the harsher eternal punishment. Now Paul explains why this is the case in Romans 2:12. The Jews will receive a harsher punishment because they have the law, so they are held to a higher account.¹³

Counterargument:

We cannot use Romans 2:9 to support the notion that Paul has levels of judgment in mind. He is explaining that for those who do evil, there will be tribulation and distress, and this tribulation and distress will begin with the Jews chronologically before the Gentiles. The reason he says that the tribulation and distress will apply to the Jews before the Gentiles is that the Jews had received the law from God, so they are held to a higher account. In other words, if there were Jews in Rome who thought their ethnicity gave them special status, it means they are held to a higher account as they will be judged first.