Does Romans 2:12 say that a man will not perish if he does not have the law (which means God has not given him the law) and commits sin? Will a sinner still end up in perdition if he has never heard the gospel?
Perdition and sin are closely related. Whether or not one perishes does not depend on the existence of the law. Romans 2:12 says, “For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law.” If a person does not have the law or has not heard the gospel, God has a way to deal with him. (1) The righteous God does not do anything unrighteous. (2) God is not obligated to save man. Man has committed sin and deserves to perish. Therefore, God would not be unrighteous if He did not save man. We are saved not because God is obligated to save us, but because God extends special grace to us.
When we consider this question, we must pay special attention to God’s grace and God’s righteousness. God’s grace caused a Savior to die and resurrect for us. We were saved by the righteousness of God because the Lord Jesus died, and God must save us if we have believed. However, if the Lord Jesus had not died for us, God would not have been unrighteous if He did not save us. Grace comes first and then righteousness follows. Grace is the means of salvation, but salvation itself is accomplished by righteousness. By His grace God sent the Lord Jesus to become the Savior of sinners. This is how God saves a sinner. In the future there will only be voices of pain in hell but no voices of complaint, because hell is God’s most righteous punishment. The judgment in Revelation 20 shows us that nobody will rise up and say that God is unrighteous at that time.
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