"The Doers of the Law Will Be Justified":
A Reflection on Romans 2:13
S. Joel Garver
Romans 2:13 sometimes arises as a significant text with regard to the relationships among faith, the works that flow from faith, justification, and the final judgment. The Scriptures, of course, repeatedly speak of a final judgment that is "according to works" or "according to the deeds done in the body" (Eccl 12:14; Mt 12:36-37; Rom 2:5-6, 16; 14:10-12; 2 Cor 5:10; etc.; cf WCF 23.1). This judgment is one that results in either eternal life or condemnation. As Westminster Larger Catechism 90 states, in the final judgment believers will be "openly acknowledged and acquitted" by God.One question is whether this open acquittal is to be thought of in terms of justification. As Mark Seifrid, Richard Gaffin, and others have noted, in Scripture resurrection unto eternal life is the very form that justification ultimately takes: first with regard to Christ's vindication by the Father in his resurrection and then by imputation to those who are united to Christ through faith--those who are said to be "raised with him" and thus share in the verdict of right-standing before the divine court that Christ himself enjoys. The final resurrection of believers unto eternal life is the ultimate outworking of that justification and, thereby, functions as their open acquittal and vindication.
A further question, then, is how this aspect of justification is related to a judgment which is "according to works" and then, in turn, how that relates to the affirmation in Romans 2:13 that "the doers of the law shall be justified" in the final judgment. The 68th General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church appended this verse to WLC 90 as a prooftext for the open acquittal of believers, bringing these different aspects of biblical eschatology together.
But, if the final judgment is part and parcel of the justification of believers--as the ultimate outworking and public manifestation of what is already reckoned true of us now in Christ--and this judgment is according to works, then how does that intersect with our Reformed affirmation that justification is only by faith, and not by works of the law? And, in that context, what is the meaning of Romans 2:13?
One possibility is that Romans 2:13 is hypothetical, stating what would have be true of us if we, in ourselves, wished to obtain final justification: we would have to be doers of the law. The point on such an interpretation is that we all fall miserably short of that goal and thus stand condemned, were it not for the faithful obedience of Christ in whom the law is fulfilled for our salvation.
All of that, naturally, is true, but some have questioned whether that is Paul's actual intent in Romans 2. The immediate context, it is suggested, is not so much the equal condemnation of Jews and Gentiles as lawbreakers, but the more puzzling suggestion that some Gentiles are, in fact, doers of the law even though they do not have the law (Ro 2:14-15). These are the law-fulfilling "uncircumcision" whom, Paul later suggests, will judge lawbreaking Jews (Ro 2:27). As such, these Gentile "doers of the law shall be justified," having the law on their hearts (a new covenant promise).
One way to take this, I suppose, would be to say that there are those Gentiles who, though not keeping the letter of the law, maintain its spirit, and somehow their spiritualized lawkeeping avails before God for their justification. But, taken in a straightforward sense--that these doers of the law have somehow worked hard enough to deserve salvation in God's sight--such an interpretation is simply impausible in light of Paul's wider teaching in Romans: that it is faith in Christ that justifies and, moreover, that justification is only by grace, whereas, for the one who does works, the reward is not reckoned by grace (Ro 4:4).
But there's at least one other possibility regarding Romans 2:13 that doesn't take it as merely hypothetical and yet attempts to not let go of the sole sufficiency of faith for justification.
The suggestion is that when Paul says it is the "doers of the law" who will be justified on the last day, he may be somewhat cryptically and provocatively anticipating what he says later in Romans: that it is those who look to Christ in faith who are reckoned as righteous, as the true keepers of the law, having their hearts circumcised, and so on. Thus Paul can talk later on of "the law of faith" (3:27; and the "law of the Spirit of Christ", 8:2) and claim that faith doesn't void the law, but establishes it (3:31).
Here's how that picture could be filled out further:
This approach would operate in the context of Paul's whole argument that the law comes to fulfillment in Christian faith in Christ as the "telos" of the law (Ro 10:4). Christ is the law's telos both, positively, by fulfilling the law as its goal (its prophetic and typological anticipation, Ro 3:21, as well as Christ's own perfectly obedient faithfulness, Ro 3:21-26; 8:3-4) and, negatively, by bringing the law's condemnation to an end through his atoning and propiatory work (which was part of the law's "planned obsolescence" in exacerbating and then dealing with sin, Ro 4:15; 5:13-21).
Thus from the standpoint of faith in what God has accomplished in and through Christ for us, it is clear that the law cannot provide salvation whether as a badge of identity, meritorious works, or what have you.
And yet, in that same faith, everything for which the law had been given by God comes to completion. And so Paul can paradoxically and ironically speak of faith in Christ, apart from the law, as the "doing of the law."
Now, of course, for Paul this has the additional dimension that through faith and the forgiveness of sins, a right relationship between God and humanity is established so that, in the Spirit, the kind of life for which people were originally created begins to come alive (Ro 7:6; 8:4ff; 13:8-14). This plays itself out in the fruit of faith, which is the love that fulfills the law, not in the judaizing sense of "law-keeping" (in whatever manner one understands that), but in the free obedience of the Christian, which the law had anticipated, though was unable to provide since it was a ministration of death.
In this additional sense then, faith again counts as doing the law since, through faith, as its outworking, the law is freely fulfilled in love, apart from "law-keeping" (which includes Jewish boundary markers, particularly insofar as they become badges of ethnic pride, and thus encompassing all analogous manifestations of law-keeping, including meritorious works-righteousness; the fruit of faith is nothing like that since faith doesn't look to itself and its own outworking, but to Christ).
Thus, going back to Romans 2, when Paul says that is it "the doers of the law" who will be justified on the last day, it is possible that what he has in mind is, first and foremost, those (Gentile believers) who count as "doers of the law" by putting their faith in Christ. Inasmuch as that sort of faith is extraspective and looks away from itself and rests upon and receives Christ as the one in whom God's promises are fulfilled and to his faithfulness (and thus as the telos of the law), "doing the law" cannot be in any way interpreted in terms of obedience that avails before God for (even our final) justification.
And yet, on the other hand, such a faith produces fruit (as Rom 6 and 13, among other places, make clear). Justification, after all, involves a deliverance from the power of sin unto newness of life (Rom 6:7, where the term "justified" bleeds off in this direction), as the embodied and conjoined effect of God's judicial verdict over us in Christ (which is made based upon what Christ has already done apart from us, for us, imputed to us for the forgiveness of sins).
Thus it is also the "doers of the law" in this sense who are justified, not because they've somehow attained to a certain level of performance, but because the kind of life the law anticipated (but was unable to give) has begun to appear in God's people and this has happened as a fruit and effect of faith, by the power of the Spirit.
That is to say, the "doers of the law" are justified on the last day. This is the case insofar as: [a] truly "doing the law" is ultimately, for Paul, a matter of putting all your faith in Christ alone (and thereby receiving justification in him and his faithfulness) and [b] those who put their faith in Christ end up, moreover, fulfilling the law in love as a fruit of faith (and, thus, with no room for boasting).
In neither case are we talking about the grounds for final justification (which always remains Christ alone and his righteousness), but the means or instrument of final justification. And that means is only faith, yet the faith that is the only means, is not a lone faith, but a faith that also works in love. In both senses, then, it can be said that it is those who count as "doers of the law" who, on the last day, "will be justified."
That at least is one exegetical proposal for dealing with Romans 2:13.
Addendum: Philip Melanchthon on Romans 2:13
(from the Book of Concord, The Defense of the Augsburg Confession)
Accordingly, James is right in denying that we are justified by such a faith as is without works. But when he says that we are justified by faith and works, he certainly does not say that we are born again by works. Neither does he say this, that partly Christ is our Propitiator, and partly our works are our propitiation. Nor does he describe the mode of justification, but only of what nature the just are, after they have been already justified and regenerated...
...And here to be justified does not mean that a righteous man is made from a wicked man, but to be pronounced righteous in a forensic sense, as also in the passage Rom. 2:13: "The doers of the Law shall be justified." As, therefore, these words: "The doers of the Law shall be justified," contain nothing contrary to our doctrine, so, too, we believe concerning the words of James: "By works a man is justified, and not by faith alone," because men having faith and good works are certainly pronounced righteous. For, as we have said, the good works of saints are righteous, and please on account of faith. For James commends only such works as faith produces, as he testifies when he says of Abraham, 2:22: "Faith wrought with his works." In this sense it is said: "The doers of the Law are justified," i.e., they are pronounced righteous who from the heart believe God, and afterwards have good fruits, which please Him on account of faith, and, accordingly, are the fulfilment of the Law.