The Law of the Heart: Romans 2 and Men Without Chests

Paul regularly condemns the Jews for focusing on the letter of the law and ignoring the spirit of the law. Countless times we see the Jewish people, especially the Pharisees, elevate the law above all else, and use it as a tool to condemn the Gentiles as well as their own people. In Romans 2 Paul discusses the idea of “interior law”. This interior law refers to that goodness instilled in man which guides him towards God. In verses fourteen and fifteen, Paul explains the relevance of this law to the Gentiles, in regards to their salvation. “For when the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature observe the prescriptions of the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or defend them” (Romans 2:14-15). This idea that the demands of the law are written on the hearts of man is central to C.S. Lewis’s essay, “Men Without Chests,” and by discerning his message we can come to a deeper understanding of Paul’s message in Romans 2. 

In his essay Lewis states, “The head rules the belly through the chest” (Lewis, pg 11). In this simple phrase, he is communicating the centrality of the chest as that which unites the intellectual side of man with his animal side. The chest for Lewis is the heart for Paul, that where the interior law resides and guides humanity towards God. 

“Men Without Chests” also deals with the formation and education of people in the modern world, and how there is a general movement away from objective truth and an objective perspective on reality. He utilizes examples from an introductory English textbook to show that, on a fundamental level, there is a misunderstanding about how we see the world. Seemingly insignificant details compound over time in forming a subjective worldview which leaves truth on the wayside. Lewis’s essay is a warning about the eventual result of such an education. “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise,” Lewis says. “We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful” (Lewis, pg 10). 

Paul recognizes the chest/heart, as the guide for the Gentiles. They are at an immediate disadvantage, without the letter of the law. Yet the spirit of the law is not only available to them, it is immediate to them. It is “written on their hearts”. Paul’s problem is similar to Lewis’s in that his people, the Jews are in their own way, spiritually castrated. They claim allegiance to the Law and objectivity, but lack in reality what the Law speaks of. They claim to have chests, but beneath their robes there is a gaping cavity of which they are ignorant. Lewis brings to light this distinction towards the end of his essay when he gives an example about playing cards and cheating. He says, “ I had sooner play cards against a man who was quite skeptical about ethics, but bred to believe that ‘a gentleman does not cheat’, than against an irreproachable moral philosopher who had been brought up among sharpers” (Lewis, pg 9). Paul says in verse thirteen, “For it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; rather, those who observe the law will be justified” (Romans 2:13). Action is necessary, not merely knowledge of the law, and without the truth held in the spirit of the law, how can one really act rightly? 

Paul and Lewis both address the roles of educators in the formation of their respective societies. Paul asks, “if you are confident that you are a guide for the blind and a light for those in darkness, that you are a trainer of the foolish and a teacher of the simple, because in the law you have the formation of knowledge and truth—then you who teach another, are you failing to teach yourself?” (Romans 2:19-21). Lewis similarly calls out the writers of the English textbook, whom he calls Gaius and Titus, for their unawareness in forming what he calls the “coldly vulgar” youth. It is remarkable that both authors recognize how essential the role of an educator is, and how a mistake on their part not only condemns the educator themselves, but comes at the great cost of the souls of those they teach. In Romans, Paul examines the cost at one step further. “For it is written, ‘Because of you the name of God is reviled among the Gentiles’” (Romans 2: 23). He recognizes that the example set by the Jewish educators and eventually their students which breeds immorality causes the Gentiles to rebuke God. 

Paul speaks of the heart within Romans 2 and the greater context of God’s justice in judgment. The Jews are held, in a way, to a higher standard because they have access to the Law directly, and are made immediately aware of its meaning. Paul chastises them for committing the very actions that they condemn in the Gentiles. “Therefore you are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment. For by the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the very same things” (Romans 2:1). Paul makes clear that the Jews will be judged by the Law because of their access to it, but the Gentiles who do not still can obtain Salvation through God’s judgment by the interior law. This is the same law that Lewis desperately holds on to and tries to protect in “Men Without Chests.”

Both the strict Jewish authorities in Romans and the contemporary secular educators in Lewis’s essay tore the hearts out of men’s chests, sometimes unknowingly. C.S. Lewis is addressing the misunderstandings about objective truth in regards to its effect on society, while Paul addresses a similar topic in regards to the salvation of humanity, in particular, the Gentiles. Though their purpose is apparently distinct, they both grasp at the same truth. The law of God is written on the hearts of Man, and by that law too, Man will be judged.