Dionysus on a Bike

Romans 2:12-16 – 7/9/2026

The law of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah, is, among other things, a statement of God’s will for God’s people, a set of instructions for how to live well in a way that is good and creates flourishing human community. It’s application thousands of years after it was laid down might not be straightforward, but the Law still holds the basic principles of caring for others first and not violating them while trying to live one’s own life and worshiping the one who created it all. In the teachings of Jesus we learn that loving God and others fully is the summation of the Law, so that it can be called a law of love. Jesus’s ministry teaches us how to move from rule-following toward love being the primary criteria and motivation for action.

Paul, in his letter to the early church in Rome, tells us that the Law given to the descendants of Abraham is not the only source of this knowledge about doing good and living well. Or to put it another way, the Law is not only found in the written text of the Torah; it is accessible to all no matter what their language or what texts they have access to or consider holy. Paul says that those who do not have the written law can “by nature do what the law requires.” In other words, being the kinds of beings that we are, namely humans who are created by God in the image of God, humans have the knowledge of and the ability to do what the law requires. It’s written into our very nature, where “nature” means that which makes us what we are and not something else. We can infer, I think, that part of what it means for all humans to be created in God’s image means that they have as part of who they are an intuitive sense that loving others is the greatest good of human life.

Paul goes onto say that when we come to knowledge of the law through our very nature, we become a law to ourselves. We command ourselves to do what is good out of our very nature, out of who God created us to be. Does this not contradict the idea that we are also by nature sinful, incapable of doing what is good because of original sin? This tension in Paul’s theology between the sinfulness of our nature and the nature that gives the law to itself can point to a more nuanced understanding of human goodness and human sinfulness. The idea that original sin is a stain on our nature that makes us incapable of doing good obscures the truth that each sinful human is created by God as good with the law of love written on their hearts. If this is true, what then constitutes our sinfulness, the effects on our nature of original sin?

It is beyond the scope of this daily reflection to fully answer that question, but whatever original sin might be, it must allow for this truth that each of us is a law to ourselves because of our nature which was created good and holy. Original sin did not undo that fact that each of us can intuit the law of love simply in virtue of being the kind of beings that we are. Whatever original sin is, it is not a negation of that fact that God created each person in God’s image and created them good. Love sums up the law, and each of us knows this law by nature. Our freedom, our salvation, and our joy is being able to live in love through the risen Christ, treating each person with that love that meets their needs in ways that are just and sustainable for all.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for 7/9/2026:
Isaiah 48:1-5
Romans 2:12-16
Psalm 65:9-13

Reflections of a Dionysian Lutheran, comments on the daily readings of the Revised Common Lectionary by Justin Marquis