Praying Together 14th September 2025

I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief…

Paul doesn’t try to justify his previous actions – blasphemer, persecutor, man of violence. He merely asserts that is deeds were performed out of ignorance of the truth of the incarnation of God’s only Son, Jesus, the promised Christ. Once he met with Jesus on the Damascus Road, he now knows that truth – and in accepting the Christ, through grace, his violent sinful past is left at the foot of the Cross.

Two questions, then. Is ignorance of the Law an excuse for the things people have done? In secular common law, the answer is no. The principle is ‘ignorantia juris non excusat’ – ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse.’

This is reflected in the Old Testament: Leviticus 5:17: “And if any one sin, and do any of the things which Jehovah hath commanded not to be done; though he knew it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity

And in the New Testament: Romans 1:18-20 provides a foundational text for this doctrine: “… since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
Paul admits he should have known better, but it took the dramatic Damascus Road experience to convict him.

There is no excuse, he says – God is visible in all creation, and we know it if we simply look around us. This is called ‘natural law’. Encyclopaedia Brittanica: ‘Natural law is a philosophical concept that refers to a system of right or justice believed to be morally universal and inherent to human nature, rather than established by societal rules or positive law.’ In other words, we know right from wrong. We don’t have to be told.

This is different to ‘positivist law’ – a set of rules laid down by an authority (religious or secular) which have no integral moral base and are accepted by the society they lead whether just or unjust.

Paul realised that positivist obedience to the human-derived interpretation of the Commandments will never result in salvation. He became aware that he had sinned and was called to repent and ask forgiveness. Like him, we know that the gift of freedom comes only through Christ and the Cross He climbs. The past is past. We walk away from the tomb into freedom. Every time we fail. But then we are given the opportunity to start again.

The second question is more difficult. So, if you are not ‘ignorant’ any longer, if you know the truth but continue to sin, what are the consequences? Are you refusing the free gift of Grace? And if you refuse it, what happens? Dramatic as literary depictions of the fiery furnace of hell might be, I don’t think they describe the reality. Instead, I believe that hell is the consequence of you choosing to be locked out of God’s love, for eternity – finally knowing the truth and realising it’s too late to change your mind. You had your opportunities – many opportunities – in your earthly life. It didn’t matter what you had been, said or done – like Paul, you were given the chance to repent. You didn’t.