obey unrighteousness,' and to men in Christian countries who are the enemies of the righteousness of God manifested by Jesus Christ. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned under law, shall be judged by law; for not the hearers of a law are righteous before God, but the doers of a law shall be accounted righteous.' But the doctrine is not warranted by Scripture in its application to all the heathen. God will render to every man according to his works: to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life. "In all human conditions there are souls which contemplate the ideal here described, and which, ravished with its beauty, are elevated by it above every earthly ambition and the pursuit of sensual gratifications."2 Wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, are visited upon some heathen, not for the reason only that the light of the Gospel has never shone upon them, but for the reason that they "hold down (or hold captive) the truth in unrighteousness." God's revelation to the conscience they repress, preventing "it from diffusing itself in the understanding as light, and in the conduct as a holy activity." Knowing God, they glorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks. Wrath and indignation are visited only upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew 1 Rom. ii. 12, 13. 2 Godet. 3 Rom. i. 18. Godet on Rom. 1. 18. "The Apostle proves first that men had the truth (vs. 19 and 20); then that they hindered it, and perverted it (2123)."-Schaff. "If they did so out of ignorance, they would be excusable; but they do not so out of ignorance, and therefore God's wrath is manifested against them."-Meyer. first and also of the Greek. Glory and honor and peace come to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. When the heathen who have no law do by nature the things of the law, these, having no law, are a law unto themselves. If they obey this law, if by patience in well-doing they seek for glory and honor, they are in a salvable condition in life and in death. Enveloped in the darkness of paganism, they have not come into the actual possession of life and salvation, for there is no name under heaven other than the name of Jesus Christ wherein they must be saved;' and faith in Jesus Christ is the only way by which Christ and His benefits may be appropriated. But every man that worketh good, whether Jew or Greek, has the ethical capacity and the spiritual disposition to accept Jesus Christ by faith whenever to him the life and salvation of Christ are manifested. Or, as Godet expresses it: "The love of goodness will then lead him to embrace Christ, the ideai of goodness. * * The desire of goodness is the acceptance of the gospel by anticipation." |