In Romans 2:15 Sha'ul says the Gentiles show to ergon tou nomou, "the work of the law," written on their hearts, their conscience bearing witness. Note the singular: not "the works of the law" debated elsewhere, and not the Torah itself, but its single ethical effect, the bare sense of right and wrong that leaves a person "without excuse." This is the law's accusing shadow, and its whole function in Romans is to convict. It is not the promise of Jeremiah 31, where HaShem writes His Torah on the heart so that "they shall all know me." Conscience gives enough law to be guilty by, and not one word of the Father's face. To collapse ergon tou nomou into the Torah-on-the-heart is to mistake the accusation for the embrace.