¹² For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without [regard to] the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged and condemned by the Law. ¹³ For it is not those who merely hear the Law [as it is read aloud] who are just or righteous before God, but it is those who [actually] obey the Law who will be ^[a]justified [pronounced free of the guilt of sin and declared acceptable to Him]. ¹⁴ When Gentiles, who do not have the Law [since it was given only to Jews], do ^[b]instinctively the things the Law requires [guided only by their conscience], they are a law to themselves, though they do not have the Law. ¹⁵ They show that the ^[c]essential requirements of the Law are written in their hearts; and their conscience [their sense of right and wrong, their moral choices] bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or perhaps defending them