Romans 2:12-13 - Daily Devotion - 10 June 2026

St Barnabas Anglican Church Fairfield & Bossley Park

12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Paul Bogg

Today’s passage helps answer a question that I once had about God as a younger Christian: does God have favourites? I once thought that since Israel were chosen from centuries of old to know God and be called his people, they could be saved more easily and God would have a bias toward them over people who were not chosen. But in today’s passage, and right throughout Romans so far, it is clear that God shows no favouritism when it comes to salvation. Even more importantly, all people equally need saving, regardless of which culture or background you are from. The reason is clear from verse 12: all have sinned.

Consider my personal background: I was raised in a secular household, knew very little if nothing of the law or commandments of God, and had no connections at all to any religious groups or cultures. If I knew nothing of the law or of what God required of me, did I sin? The answer is a definitive “Yes!” Would I have been held accountable for my sin, even if I knew nothing of God’s law? Verse 12 is clear: “Yes” again.

Consider those who were raised under the Old Testament law. Did any of them keep the entire law their entire lives? No – because as you and I know, nobody is perfect. Otherwise, why would there have been any need for the sacrificial system, if some people were able to be perfectly obedient to the law? Verse 12 tells us: those raised under the law will be judged by the law, and therefore will face the same consequences as those raised apart from the law – because all have sinned.

So where does that leave us? Who can possibly, as verse 13 says, be the “doer of the law who will be declared righteous”? Well – there was one man who could. One man who kept the law perfectly, who didn’t just know the law, but was perfectly obedient to the law, right up until his death: Jesus Christ. And so, because of his perfect obedience, regardless of whether we were raised under the law or apart from the law, we too can be declared righteous. But we don’t need to work to earn that righteousness, we simply receive it through faith in Jesus Christ. His righteousness is credited to us. As Romans 4:24 puts it, God will credit righteousness to those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. That’s good news for people everywhere, all over the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul is a member of our Bossley Park morning congregation.