It is a good basic summary of the situation. In talking about the Gentiles, Paul stated,<\/p>\n
“For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel<\/em>” (Romans 2:12-16).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThough the Gentiles did not have Moses’ Law to consult, they still knew right from wrong on at least a basic scale. As an example, I doubt you will find many who don’t understand that murder is wrong, or that stealing another person’s possession is wrong, etc. Paul’s point is that even holding people to those basic standards still resulted in everyone being guilty of sin. A bit later he shows that having the law spell out right and wrong for men didn’t improve the situation all that much. People still continued to sin.<\/p>\n
Cornelius was a good man and he apparently was learning from the Old Law and trying to follow it even though he wasn’t a Jew. For that, he was commended by God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I read your article on Cornelius was a devout man. I have been taught that Cornelius, a Gentile, was still under the Patriarchal law since the Law of Moses was give to the Jews. This was the beginning of the change when the gospel was offered to both Jew and Gentile. Is this correct?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[276,177],"class_list":["post-24952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-gentiles","tag-law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6796,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-were-the-patriarchs-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":24952,"position":0},"title":"How were the Patriarchs saved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How are those in the patriarch times saved if there was no hope for them? Was it because of Jesus' death that all (who tried to live good unto God) were saved before Moses and the Ten Commandments? Please explain. Answer: \"And for this reason He is the Mediator\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48075,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-law-of-moses-applicable-to-gentiles\/","url_meta":{"origin":24952,"position":1},"title":"Was the Law of Moses applicable to Gentiles?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about the passage in Colossians 2:11-14: \"In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87285,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-romans-argument\/","url_meta":{"origin":24952,"position":2},"title":"The Romans Argument","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Scripture shows that one of the earliest and potentially most devastating problems faced by God's people in the first century concerns the question of how Jews and Gentiles should relate to one another. After Peter taught Cornelius and his household, some among the Jews demanded answers from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15782,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-law-of-moses-in-effect-while-melchizedek-lived\/","url_meta":{"origin":24952,"position":3},"title":"Was the Law of Moses in effect while Melchizedek lived?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was the Law of Moses in effect while Melchizedek lived? Answer: Melchizedek was a contemporary of Abraham (Genesis 14:17-24). Moses was a descendant of Abraham who lived about 500 years after Abraham died. Therefore it would be impossible for someone to live under a law that was not given\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47096,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-the-gentiles-be-guilty-of-sin-when-they-did-not-have-the-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":24952,"position":4},"title":"How could the Gentiles be guilty of sin when they did not have the Law?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was trying to figure out the comparison (or contrast) between Romans 2:12-16 and Romans 7:7-11 \"For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19892,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-about-people-who-spend-their-whole-life-following-the-wrong-religion-in-ignorance\/","url_meta":{"origin":24952,"position":5},"title":"What about people who spend their whole life following the wrong religion in ignorance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: People are born into other religions and live their entire lives thinking that they are following the correct religion. They live life doing good deeds but follow their own religion. How does God view these people? Thank you for the web site and the learning that it provides to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}