Romans 2:12

2:12 For all who have sinned apart from the law 1  will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

Romans 2:14

2:14 For whenever the Gentiles, 2  who do not have the law, do by nature 3  the things required by the law, 4  these who do not have the law are a law to themselves.

Romans 7:6

7:6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died 5  to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code. 6 

Romans 8:5

8:5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by 7  the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit.

Romans 10:14

10:14 How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them 8 ?

1 sn This is the first occurrence of law (nomos) in Romans. Exactly what Paul means by the term has been the subject of much scholarly debate. According to J. A. Fitzmyer (Romans [AB], 131-35; 305-6) there are at least four different senses: (1) figurative, as a “principle”; (2) generic, meaning “a law”; (3) as a reference to the OT or some part of the OT; and (4) as a reference to the Mosaic law. This last usage constitutes the majority of Paul’s references to “law” in Romans.

2 sn Gentile is a NT term for a non-Jew.

3 tn Some (e.g. C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:135-37) take the phrase φύσει (fusei, “by nature”) to go with the preceding “do not have the law,” thus: “the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature,” that is, by virtue of not being born Jewish.

4 tn Grk “do by nature the things of the law.”

5 tn Grk “having died.” The participle ἀποθανόντες (apoqanonte") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

6 tn Grk “in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

7 tn Grk “think on” or “are intent on” (twice in this verse). What is in view here is not primarily preoccupation, however, but worldview. Translations like “set their mind on” could be misunderstood by the typical English reader to refer exclusively to preoccupation.

8 tn Grk “preaching”; the words “to them” are supplied for clarification.