Do Gentiles Obey God’s Law? Understanding Romans 2:14–16

Table of Contents

• The Context of Romans 2:14–16
• View 1: Paul Is Speaking Hypothetically
• View 2: Romans 2:14–16 Refers to General Gentiles
• Schreiner’s Revised View: Christian Gentiles
• Jeremiah 31 and the Law Written on the Heart
• Romans 8 and Spirit-Empowered Obedience

Romans 2:14–16 is one of the most debated passages in Paul’s discussion of the law, judgment, and justification. In this passage, Paul says that Gentiles who “do not have the law” nevertheless “do what the law requires.” Is Paul talking about unbelieving Gentiles who follow natural law, or is he describing Christian Gentiles transformed by the Holy Spirit under the new covenant? This raises a major theological question: how can people outside the Mosaic covenant fulfill the law’s requirements?

In his revised commentary on Romans, Tom Schreiner argues that Romans 2:14–16 does not refer to the generic moral pagan but to Christian Gentiles whose hearts have been transformed by the Spirit. This interpretation connects Romans 2:14–16 directly to Jeremiah’s prophecy of the new covenant (Jer 31:31–34) and Paul’s later discussion in Romans 8.

Romans 2.14-16, “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.”

The Context of Romans 2:14–16

Earlier in Romans 2, Paul says that God “will render to each one according to his works” (Rom 2:6). In verse 13 he adds:

“For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”

Tom Schreiner argues that Romans 2:13 restates the principle of verse 6: final judgment will fit according to one’s works. As Schreiner puts it: “Those who do good works will receive justification” and they “who do the required works will be declared to be righteous by God, the eschatological judge, on the day of the Lord” (128). 

So this raises the question: who then actually does the law?

View 1: Paul Is Speaking Hypothetically

Paul could be speaking hypothetically about “doers of the law.” The Jews (though not the Jewish Christians hearing the letter being read) thought they were acceptable before God because they had his Torah. Paul could be saying, “Look, those who keep the law perfectly will be justified by God. The gentiles sure don’t keep it, but neither do you. Thankfully, there is Christ’s sacrifice to rescue all of us.”

The logic would look something like this:

1. Those who perfectly obey the law would be justified.
2. Neither Jews nor Gentiles actually do this.
3. Therefore all stand condemned apart from Christ.

This interpretation emphasizes humanity’s universal sinfulness (following Romans 1) and the necessity of Christ’s atoning sacrifice.

View 2: Romans 2:14–16 Refers to General Gentiles

Another interpretation sees these Gentiles as unbelievers who nevertheless follow aspects of God’s moral law through their own God-given conscience and his natural law.

On this view:

1. Gentiles do not possess the Mosaic law.
2. They still recognize basic moral truths.
3. Their conscience bears witness to right and wrong.
4. Therefore, they remain accountable before God.

Schreiner held this interpretation in the first edition of his Romans commentary.

The argument fits with Paul’s broader point in Romans 1–2 that all humanity stands guilty before God:

1. Jews possess revealed law.
2. Gentiles possess moral awareness through conscience and creation.
3. Both fail to live consistently with what they know.

Schreiner’s Revised View: Christian Gentiles

Schreiner now argues that Romans 2:14–16 refers specifically to Christian Gentiles.

According to this interpretation, Paul describes Gentile believers who fulfill the law because they have been transformed by the Holy Spirit. The flow of Paul’s argument would be:

1. Mere hearers of the law are not justified.
2. Doers of the law will be justified.
3. Christian Gentiles thow this obedience because God’s law is written on their hearts through the Spirit.

This interpretation connects Romans 2 directly to the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. Paul tells us that these gentiles are in the new covenant. 

Jeremiah 31 and the Law Written on the Heart

Jeremiah 31:31–34 promised a future covenant where God would internally transform his people. Jeremiah 31:31–34 says,

³¹ “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ³² This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. 

³³ “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration.
“I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 

³⁴ No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.“

Israel was given God’s law in Exodus 20–23. How do gentiles who do not have the law do what the law requires? They do it by nature. Under the old covenant, Israel received God’s law externally at Sinai. Under the new covenant, God writes his law internally upon the hearts of his people. With God’s Spirit now at work in them, Gentiles are new creations. 

Romans 8 and Spirit-Empowered Obedience

Paul develops this idea later in Romans 8:

“[God] condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
(Romans 8:3–4)

Paul explains that the requirement of the law is not fulfilled through sinful flesh but according to the Holy Spirit, whom all who are in Christ have received. This seems to align with Schreiner’s interpretation that Romans 2:14–16 speaks of Spirit-enabled obedience among Christian Gentiles.

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Explore Schreiner’s Commentary

• My Review of Schreiner’s Commentary
  .
• A Scholar’s Devotion with Tom Schreiner
  .
• Interview with Tom Schreiner on Romans
  .
• Three Troubles in Romans 2
  • Romans 2.13: ‘Doers of the Law will be Justified’
  • Romans 2.14-16: Christian Gentiles Who Do the Law
  • Romans 2.25-29: True Circumcision
• What is the ‘Righteousness of God’?
  • God’s Righteousness as his Covenant Faithfulness?
  • God’s Righteousness as Transformative?
  • God’s Righteousness as Forensic

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