Who said the Gentiles were never under God's law?

Though the Gentiles were never under the law of Moses, they have still always been under God’s law. They may not have “heard” God’s law that was written on stone, but God has written His law on mankind’s conscience. The law came to our conscience/mind through the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which is the knowledge of right and wrong. This is the law of God that every person since Adam and Eve are innately born with and instinctively know. It is the divine nature and law of God that has been written into creation and our conscience and is clearly seen and perceived since the beginning of the world. This law is what leaves humankind with no excuse before God. Even though Gentiles did not receive the law of Moses they/we all have an innate knowledge of God’s righteous decrees/judgments and a sense of justice that those who break them deserve consequences. This law that has been written by God on our conscience (though fallen and corrupted through The Fall) is the source of all humanities common and instinctual moral compass. Every human being not in Christ will be held to account on the Day of Judgment by God’s law, whether written on stone for Jews or written on our conscience for all mankind.

Here are the scriptures that back this up:

Romans 2:12-16

• Verse 12 – For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

Even though the Gentiles did not receive the law of Moses they will still perish for their sins (if not in Christ). But how can God hold unsaved Gentiles to account for their sins if they are not actually under His law? Because, though they are not under the law that was written on stone, they are under God’s law that He has written on their hearts/conscience.

• Verse 13 –  For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

This law was written onto all people’s conscience since the creation of the world and therefore all people, Jew and Gentile are under God’s law. Mankind was created in God’s image. We all carry something of God’s divine nature in us, though it has been corrupted because of original sin leading to the fall of mankind by Adam and Eve. God gave Adam and Eve a commandment/law not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and when they did their conscience, and consequently all of mankind’s conscience, became aware of good and evil. That is an innate knowledge or a knowing of what God declares is right and wrong. Now over the centuries people may have suppressed the truth of God and strayed off into ungodliness, however the truth is still always there and no matter how much people reject it or distort it, all of mankind will still be held accountable to God’s laws that have been written inside of us. Though many have rejected God’s truth, His truth is still plain to see through His creation that is all around us, and therefore people will be without excuse.

• Romans 1:18-20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Mankind instinctively knows God’s righteous decrees and that those who break them deserve the consequences:

• Romans 1:28-32 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

How could God hold all of mankind to account for the things they have done in this life, if there wasn’t a law to judge them by?

• Revelation 20:11-15 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
• Hebrews 9:27 Every human being is appointed to die once, and then to face God’s judgment. (Literally a court trial).

Well the reality is that the Bible declares that every single person who is not in Christ is under the law of God, whether it’s the law written on stone or the law written on hearts.

• Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

How can every mouth be stopped and the whole world be held accountable to God through His law if only the Jews are under His law, not the Gentiles? The reality is that “the whole world” and “every mouth” includes the Gentiles. Again, it may not be the law of Moses which came to the Jews, but it’s still the law of God that has been written on all humanities hearts ever since the creation of the world.

But what is the purpose of the law?

God never gave his law to make anyone righteous, He gave it to reveal sin in us and lead us to faith in Christ, that we might receive God’s righteousness and eternal life. Once a person comes into Christ they are no longer under the law of God as a means of earning salvation or relating to God. Now they are under “faith” and relate to God through grace. However, religion is all about earning blessings and avoiding punishment through your works. In fact all religion is based on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which basically says, “if you do good you will get good, if you do bad you will get bad”.

Even the Early Church was continually being tempted to return to this law-based works-righteousness way of thinking and behaving. The Jews returning to the Mosaic law, and the Gentiles returning to the “elementary principles of this world” which is the law-based system of the world. Paul had to admonish Gentile believers not to go back to these “elementary principles”. In other places he calls them the “beggarly elements” and it refers to man-made religion and rules which all have their origins in the “first laws” of this world, being The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Here are the scriptures to back this up:

The purpose of the law was not to make us righteous but to reveal sin and lead us to Christ:

• Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
• Romans 5:20 (AMP) But the Law came to increase and expand [the awareness of] the trespass [by defining and unmasking sin].
• Romans 7:7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.
• Romans 3:21-22  But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.
• Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
• Romans 4:5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
• Galatians 3:23-25 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
• Philippians 3:8-9 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

Scriptures to Gentile believers about being released from the law:

• Romans 7:4-6 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
• Galatians 3:24-25 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
• Colossians 2:13-14 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Scriptures about not going back to the “elementary principles” of this world:

• Galatians 4:1-5 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we (Gentiles) might receive adoption as sons. (Brackets mine.)
• Galatians 4:8-11 …But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years.  I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
• Colossians 2:8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
• Colossians 2:20-22 …Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men?

Believers are not supposed to live under the law anymore. We are supposed to walk in the Spirit by faith. The law cannot transform or sanctify anyone. True transformation can only come through the Spirit and by the grace of God:

• 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
• Galatians 3:1-6 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
• Romans 7:4-6 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

So there it is, all of mankind is under the law of God until we come into Christ. God’s law was never given to make us righteous but rather to reveal our need for a saviour. Once we come into faith in Christ we are no longer under the law of God. In fact we die to the law so that we can belong to Christ. Our relationship with God, serving God, being fruitful and being transformed into Christ’s likeness now is not based on the law but on grace, faith and the power of the Spirit.

By Ryan Rufus

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