Point Proven

Study of Romans: Message Five

Wednesday Nights MFBC

Romans 3:1-8.

ETS: Paul concluded that God’s faithfulness and righteousness were no reasons to continue sinning.

ESS: We should not continue in our sin using God’s righteousness as an excuse to do so.

OSS: [Devotional] [I want the hearers to commit to living rightly before God.] Cognitive: I want the hearers to know that the Jews had faulty understandings of their relationship with God. Affective: I want the hearers to feel the great weight of responsibility they have to obey and to live the Gospel. Psycho-Motor: I want the hearers to commit to living rightly before God.

PQ:

What points is Paul making?

UW: Points

Intro.: [AGS]: Have you ever had a conversation with someone or presented to a group on a topic or subject that you knew would involve controversy or objections? Perhaps that challenged you to prepare ahead of time how you would respond to the objections that might be presented. (TED Talks) [TS]: That’s what Paul did. He anticipated that the Jews would have questions and objections to the doctrine and beliefs he was establishing. Thus, his familiarity with them caused him to prepare ahead of time responses to common objections he expected. Paul concluded that God’s faithfulness and righteousness were not reasons to continue sinning. [RS]: We should also be careful to conclude that God’s faithfulness and righteousness are not reasons for us to go on sinning. We should be careful to serve the Lord in obedience and with great gladness.

TS: Let us examine a few points concluded by Paul in response to the Jewish questioning and objections now:

The Jews had questions and objections. [vv. 1-8]

It is not that Paul is actually having discourse with a particular person or group within the Jews. Rather, Paul, as any good presenter, in anticipation of their objections because of his familiarity, addresses the known objections. [1] The objections addressed each come in form of questions. They are as follows:

What advantage is it to be Jew or circumcised?

Will Jewish unfaithfulness cancel God’s faithfulness?

If our sin commends His righteousness, how can He judge us?” [2]

The issue behind it all, as we have already become familiar with, is that the Jews, at least a portion of them, did not really have a healthy understanding of their relationship with God pertaining to the law. Barclay commented, “The difference was that Paul believed that their special position was one of special responsibility; the Jews believed it to be one of special privilege.” [3]

The first question or objection is dealt with: Paul responds by affirming that it is in every way a considerable advantage to be a Jew.

He asserts the primary and most important advantage was possessing the law, the Words of God. The word he used communicates that Paul understood Jewish responsibility with being entrusted (ἐπιστεύθησαν) with the words of God. Some translations render it as the oracles of God. McArthur argues this is not a sufficient translation because of the “pagan” affiliation with oracles. He argues that it is better to translate it as words communicating that they were entrusted with “the very words of the one and only true God…[giving them] unimaginably great privilege as well as equally immense responsibility.” [4]

Additionally, he commented that the Jews unfortunately paid more attention to their lofty privileges rather than their high responsibility. He reported that at one point they even misplaced the written record of the law. [5]

APPLICATION: We should welcome and expect questions and objections when we speak the truth, both from those outside the church and those inside the church who are perhaps prideful and boast privilege. We should be careful to not claim special privilege with God because of some outward possession or symbol without acknowledging and adhering to the responsibility given within it.

God is faithful. [vv. 3-4]

The next objection is asserting that Paul perhaps attacked the promises of God by asserting that if there were some among Jews who did not obey or adhere to the law, would God be unfaithful to fulfill his promise to them?

It is important here to understand that “God never promised that any individual Jew, no matter how pure his physical lineage from Abraham, or from any of the other great saints of the Old Testament, could claim security in God’s promises apart from repentance and personal faith in God, resulting in obedience from the heart.” [6]

Additionally, he wrote, “As in the passage from Amos 3:2 mentioned above, many of God’s greatest promises were accompanied by the severest warnings. And most of the promises were conditional, based on His people’s faith and obedience.” [7]

Adam Clarke wrote, “We must ever maintain that God is true, and that if, in any case, his promise appear to fail, it is because the condition on which it was given has not been complied with;” [8]

Even still, Barnes agreed suggesting that the condition of obedience was implied. In the condition that disobedience was present among them, “they would be cast off; Gen. 18:19” [9]

As such, Paul answered with “Absolutely not!” (μὴ γένοιτο) which McArthur claimed, “was the strongest negative Greek expression and usually carried the connotation of impossibility.” [10]

Further, as top principle, it should be regarded that God is true and faithful. It was that man was not, and such should be acknowledged just as is exemplified in David’s acknowledgement in Ps. 51:4 as cited here. The acknowledgment of David is this: God is right in judgement.

APPLICATION: We should be careful to live obedient lives acknowledging that faith- exemplified and supported in obedience- is the condition of salvation. We should be careful to acknowledge that God is right in judgement.

God’s righteousness is proven in man’s unrighteousness. [vv. 5-6]

Points three and four should be taken together, really. As such, I will treat them accordingly. [see notes under 4 for this comment]

Yet, this is no excuse to go on sinning. [vv. 7-8]

The objection is this: “if our sin commends His righteousness, how can He judge us?”

Better yet, the questions could be paraphrased, “If his glory resulted from it; if the effect of all was to show that his character was pure; how could he punish that sin from which his own glory resulted? And this is a question which is often asked by sinners.” [11]

Paul’s point of saying “I am using a human argument” is to suggest that he does not believe this; rather, he is responding to human logic used by others against him. [12]

Paul also asks the question, “If it is an understood principle among you- undoubted- that God will judge the world, then why am I still being accused of heresy?”

McArthur commented, “That was clearly a charge of antinomianism (disregard of God’s law) of the worst. The critics were accusing Paul of teaching that the more wicked a person is, the more he glorifies God; the more faithless a person is, the more faithful he makes God appear; the more a person lies, the more he exalts God’s truthfulness.” [13]

Further, it is understood that fallen men often try to justify or “rationalize” sin. As such, Paul was being accused of this.

Yet, let us understand, “For a professed Christian to live in continual, unrepentant sin is a certain mark that he is not saved. To be a Christian s to be under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and genuinely desire to serve Him.” [14]

Thus, Paul concluded in answering this objection that those who teach or practice this are deserving of condemnation.

Barclay wrote, “Once people have sinned, they display an amazing ingenuity in justifying their sin. Here, we come across an argument that reappears again and again in religious though- the argument that sin gives God a chance to show at the same time his justice and his mercy and is therefore a good thing. It is a twisted argument. One might as well argue- it would, in fact, be the same argument- that it is a good thing to break people’s hearts, because it gives them a chance to show how much they love you. When anyone sins, the need is not ingenuity to justify the sin, but for humility to confess it in penitence and in shame.” [15]

APPLICATION: We should be careful to not rationalize our sin. Rather, we should be careful to live obediently. Yet, when we fail almighty God, we should humbly confess and repent of our sin.

Takeaways:

[1] Does your life reflect obedience to the Gospel? We have been entrusted with this great responsibility. Let us not focus more on the privilege than the responsibility.

[2] Do we truly believe that God is faithful even when we are not? Of more importance, do we believe that our faithlessness and disobedience do not in anyway discredit or void God’s faithfulness?

[3] Do we live worthily of the Gospel not using God’s grace as an excuse to go on sinning?

Bibliography:

[1] William Barclay. “The Letter to the Romans” in The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017), 60.

[2] Warren W. Wiersbe. “Romans” in Be Right (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2008), 38.

[3] Barclay, 61.

[4] John McArthur. “Romans 1-8” in The McArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 1991), 168-169.

[5] Ibid., 169.

[6] Ibid., 170.

[7] Ibid., 170-171.

[8]Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible with a Commentary and Critical Notes, New Edition., vol. 6 (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation, 2014), 54.

[9] Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Romans, ed. Robert Frew (London: Blackie & Son, 1884–1885), 73.

[10] McArthur, 172.

[11] Albert Barnes, 75.

[12] McArthur, 173.

[13] Ibid., 173.

[14] Ibid., 174.

[15] Barclay, 63.