Are humans born with a set of basic laws already written on their hearts —laws which they do not have to learn but know instinctively in their conscience? What does it mean to "do by nature the things contained in the law"? (Rom 2:14).

Is God’s Law Known by Instinct?

1 When people “do by nature the things of the law” they don't use instinct

Rom 2:14-15, Eph 2:3

Certain translations, by using the word "instinct", instead of "nature" have made these verses seem to contradict others (which we quote below). There is no need to impose on these passages the notion of an instinctive knowledge. The word "nature" here refers not to instinct, but to environment, to the surroundings in which one lives and learns.

The Gentiles might not have had the law of Moses, but in the course of their lives they would still have occasion to read or be told things which God had originally revealed. God’s basic laws have always been in the world, originally by supernatural revelation, and afterward passed on by natural teaching.

2 Human instinct is like animal instinct

Jude 1:10

Jude says that what people know naturally or instinctively they know "like unreasoning animals" or "as brute beasts". Jude would be wrong about that, if our instincts included a basic set of moral laws. We would not be like the animals. Their instincts do not furnish them with knowledge of God’s moral law. But Jude is not wrong, he's right. Our instincts tell us nothing about our moral accountability to God. That accountability is something we have to learn.

3 Man was created without moral instincts

Genesis 2:17, 3:6-7

Adam and Eve were created innocent, without instinctive knowledge of good and evil. That knowledge was placed by God in a tree so that when Adam and Eve ate of its fruit they received the knowledge of good and evil by revelation. They had not understood it by instinct. Nor was it by instinct that they knew not to eat of the tree. That was revealed and taught them by God through commandment.

4 Laws are incribed on the heart by teaching

Heb 8:10 1Cor 2:10,13

The laws of the new covenant were going to be written on people's hearts through "words which the Holy Spirit teaches". This is how every covenant from God ever came, including the new covenant of the cross, the saving gospel of Christ. He revealed it in words, and his word was then taught and preached to people. The Bible tells us of no other way by which we can know God’s laws.

5 The natural man cannot know the things of God

1Cor 2:11,14

Nobody as a natural man can know the things of God. They have to be revealed and taught to him by the Spirit of God. The Bible does not make any exception to this. All our knowledge of God’s will is learned knowledge, not instinctive knowledge. We learn it when we are taught and when we hear what God has revealed.

6 Man cannot sin except through revealed law

Rom 7:7

Paul says, "I would not have known sin except through law" and he gives an example: "I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet'". Paul had to be taught from the revealed word of God before he was able to sin. He did not have a pre-programmed conscience.