According to all I've been taught, non-believers have God's law written on their heart. So they have no excuse. And when God saves a sinner, He writes His law on that person's heart.
Why the redundancy? What purpose would writing the same thing have? But Romans says that natural man has the work of the law written on his heart. I'd have to say that the law and the work of the law are two different things. Maybe?
I know the Romans passage well. But what is the passage you are talking about when you say that when a person gets saved God writes his law on their hearts?
ReplyDeleteJeremiah 31:33 is the text used to proof this idea.
ReplyDeleteOK, i see.
ReplyDeleteI think you have two quite different uses of law here. In Romans it is about a basic sense of negative law in terms of ethics: thou shalt not...
It is sufficient to establish the rudiments of right and wrong, and it is sufficient to establish our guilt before the righteous God.
The Jeremiah verse is using a much more Hebrew and expansive view of Torah, ie a covenant relationship of election for the sake of blessing others and including them in God's grace--something like that.
Well, that's just my idea.
"But Romans says that natural man has the work of the law written on his heart. I'd have to say that the law and the work of the law are two different things. Maybe?" (Steve)
ReplyDeleteI think the arguement is quite basic (on some levels). Paul is talking to Gentiles - who have no clue about the Torah/Law. He seems to be pointing out to them - although they do not know the law - the ideas were already in their system (or they knew to do better irregardless if they read the Law or not).
But now the law is written on their hearts via Jesus (and maybe his teachings). I think now they are learning aspects of the Law - the rights and wrongs - and have no excuse anymore for behaviour that is problematic.
Then again, I haven't read through Romans in a while - and I really should.