Romans 2 Footnotes

2:6 God’s judgment is not based on people’s action toward others but on how people act toward him. Those who do good in relation to God obtain eternal life (vv. 7,10,13), while those who do evil toward God receive his wrath (vv. 8-9,12). Since justification comes by faith, not works (3:21-24), and because “there is no one righteous, not even one” (3:10), Paul could not mean that people secure salvation by self-effort. Instead, he appealed to this principle: actions reveal a person’s heart. Jesus noted that righteous actions will emerge from within (Mt 12:35).

2:14-15 One of two options is likely in understanding this difficult section, which people have sometimes interpreted as saying that a salvation exists outside of Jesus Christ. One option is that Gentile Christians are those who have the law written on their hearts, corresponding to Jeremiah’s depiction of the new covenant (Jr 31:33). These Gentiles do what the law requires without having it. Though not ethnic Jews, they are true Jews because of their circumcised hearts (Rm 2:28-29). They obey the law and are declared righteous (v. 13). A second option is that Paul was speaking of Gentiles in general who respond positively to their moral sense and the light they have in ways that correspond to God’s intentions, which correspond to the law Jews received.