Romans 3:9-20
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Last week, Jacob led you guys through the first few verses of Romans 3. Thank you Jacob for that. The crux of those 8 verses is Paul’s argument against the concept of doing evil so that good may come of it. There is also the discussion of the advantage that Jews have because God gave them the law. Now Paul moves to the argument regarding the necessity and the futility of the law.
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
I want you to see where this is going, so that you can better understand where we are. Right after this we get one of the most famous verses in all of scripture:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Paul is making his argument for Christ, who has fulfilled the law. But we still have to get there, so let’s dig in.
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
Paul circles back to the thought from verse 1, where he said that Jews do have some advantages. They were given the law. They were given the prophets. They were given Jesus. But we see in verse 3 that they were not all faithful to God’s law or His gifts.
Here in verse 9 we see that he comes back to the idea of equality in sin. We saw in chapter 2 that God shows no partiality, and we talked about that at length. Paul is really driving that point home here. He sort of summarizes the whole argument: “so, are Jews better?” “No, I already told you Jews and Gentiles are both under sin!”
That phrase “under sin” carries the connotation that we are beneath this destructive and depraved condition as, “a slavemaster doling out payment with the currency of death and decay.” (Logos dictionary)
That phrase actually ties to several passages:
22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
9 Who can say, “I have made my heart pure;
I am clean from my sin”?
We see both in that small phrase and the sort of corresponding verses that the idea of being under sin is a big deal. How big of a deal, well, Paul tells us in the next few verses. In fact, Paul gives a master class on how to teach a New Testament idea with Old Testament scripture.
Why would he do that? Why would Paul use the Old Testament here?
Because the New Testament wasn’t written yet, or at least not fully written. We know that several books have not been written, because Paul still hasn’t written them at this point. We also know that John hasn’t recorded his gospel or his epistles, or the Revelation. Paul didn’t really have the New Testament (although we will see in a minute, he had some parts of it, in a way).
So, let’s start with verses 10-12
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Paul is arguing his point by using scripture. You see that he lets them know these are not his words (“as it is written”). But we have to ask, “where was it written?”
Verses 10-12 are quoted from two places in scripture, and they say basically the same thing:
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
there is none who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3 They have all fallen away;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
Paul quotes this, but it doesn’t look exactly like the verses. This could be for a couple of reasons. 1., Paul was (I am sure) quoting from memory, and we all know that when we do that, we might not pull the text exactly correctly. Now we have to understand that in the ancient world, the capacity for memorization and repetition was much higher than now, because the culture was oral. But still, Paul doesn’t necessarily have the scrolls in front of him. 2., Paul was paraphrasing to get the general idea. My guess is that it is mostly this. Paul was giving them the gist of the idea while also quoting the passage. He was boiling it down to get to the point.
And Paul continues his walk through the Old Testament in verse 13:
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
This passage comes from a few different sources:
9 For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue.
The idea of the “open grave” also shows up in Jeremiah
16 Their quiver is like an open tomb;
they are all mighty warriors.
And the last part of verse 13 comes from Ps 140:3
3 They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s,
and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah
I mean, I think we can surmise that Paul knows his scripture, right?
He continues on:
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;
under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
Interestingly, he is quoting more of the Greek translation of that passage.
Verse 15:
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
comes from Pro 1:16
16 for their feet run to evil,
and they make haste to shed blood.
If we look at the broader scope of those verses 15-17:
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
We see they come from Is 59:7-8
7 Their feet run to evil,
and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
desolation and destruction are in their highways.
8 The way of peace they do not know,
and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked;
no one who treads on them knows peace.
Interestingly, the idea in verse 17:
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
implies the opposite of Luke 1:79
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Men are wicked and do not know peace, but Jesus will guide us in the way of peace.
And finally, verse 18:
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
1 Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in his heart;
there is no fear of God
before his eyes.
Now, I said earlier that Paul may have had parts of the New Testament in a way. I want to look at that here.
Paul probably wrote Romans from Corinth, on his third missionary journey, in A.D. 57 (Acts 20:2-3). Having completed his work in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, he hoped to travel to Rome and then on to Spain; but first he needed to go to Jerusalem to deliver the money he had collected for the church there (Rom. 15:19–32; see Acts 19:21). Paul commends Phoebe (Rom. 16:1–2), and she was likely the person who brought the letter to Rome. She resided in Cenchreae, which was near Corinth and was one of its port cities. Furthermore, Gaius was Paul’s host (16:23), and this is likely the same Gaius who lived in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:14). Finally, two fairly early manuscripts of Romans have subscriptions (brief notes that a copyist added to the end of a document) which say that the letter was written from Corinth.
(ESV Intro To Romans)
The external and internal data most convincingly point to Rome as the place of composition and a date for Mark in the mid- to late-50s A.D....The argument in favor of the mid- to late-50s is that the book of Acts ends with Paul in prison c. A.D. 62, leading many scholars to believe that Acts was written around that time....If Acts was written in the early 60s, then Luke’s Gospel was written before Acts (cf. Luke 1:3 with Acts 1:1), sometime in the early 60s. And if Luke depends on Mark’s Gospel for much of his material and overall structure (the clear majority view among scholars today), then Mark was written before Luke. This would place Mark in the mid- to late-50s. In fact, such a date fits with an early church tradition that Peter was in Rome in the early- to mid-50s
(ESV Intro To Mark)
The main indicator is the lack of reference to the Jerusalem council (Acts 15). Although this is an argument from silence, many commentators have regarded this as a “deafening silence.” It would have been enormously helpful to Paul’s argument if he could have mentioned the decision of the council that Gentiles should not be circumcised: this, after all, appears to be a major point of contention between Paul and the false teachers influencing the Galatians. Since the council took place in A.D. 48/49, and Paul evangelized South Galatia in A.D. 47/48, some time around A.D. 48 is a plausible date for the composition of Galatians.
(ESV Intro To Galatians)
Since James died in A.D. 62, the letter had to precede that date. Further, if this had been written after the apostolic council in Jerusalem (A.D. 48–49), it surely would have mentioned the issues from that momentous occasion. Thus the letter was most likely written in the early to mid-40s.
(ESV Intro To James)
Finally, from John MacArthur’s website:
James--A.D. 44-49
Galatians--A.D. 49-50
Matthew--A.D. 50-60
Mark--A.D. 50-60
1 Thessalonians--A.D. 51
2 Thessalonians--A.D. 51-52
1 Corinthians--A.D. 55
2 Corinthians--A.D. 55-56
Romans-- A.D. 56
Luke--A.D. 60-61
Ephesians--A.D. 60-62
Philippians--A.D. 60-62
Philemon--A.D. 60-62
Colossians--A.D. 60-62
Acts--A.D. 62
1 Timothy--A.D. 62-64
Titus--A.D. 62-64
1 Peter--A.D. 64-65
2 Timothy--A.D. 66-67
2 Peter--A.D. 67-68
Hebrews--A.D. 67-69
Jude--A.D. 68-70
John--A.D. 80-90
1 John--A.D. 90-95
2 John--A.D. 90-95
3 John--A.D. 90-95
Revelation--A.D. 94-96
Now, I realize that was a lot of dates and you may ask yourself, “what is the point of all of this?”
The point is that it matters. It matters that we put the pieces together. It matters in how we see the Bible, because there are some who will disregard the Bible on “scholarly” grounds because this book borrows from that book, and there is no way that they could actually have written that, because this one would have had to been written first....etc.
For example, some say James couldn’t have written as early as we have here because he is interacting with Paul’s teaching. But they neglect the idea that he may have been addressing the same issues in his church that Paul was addressing in his own; moreover, Paul seems to have written Galatians about the same time, and it is possible they read each other.
The main issue for some of the dates centers around the gospels, especially Mark. Most scholars agree that Mark was the first gospel, and that Matthew and Luke were written after, and use Mark as a source.
Mark, it is argued, is from Peter’s perspective. This makes sense, because we see that Mark traveled with Peter.
12 By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. 13 She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. 14 Greet one another with the kiss of love.
Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
Peter sees John Mark as a son.
We also know that John Mark was one of Paul and Barnabas’ early companions, but he deserted them. Paul took this harshly, and didn’t want to work with Mark later (see Acts 12-15), which caused Paul and Barnabas to split, sending Barnabas with Mark and Paul with Silas (who as we just saw also traveled with Peter).
Now, scholars will also argue that both Matthew and Luke use another outside source known as “Q” (from the German word for source) for the stuff they agree on but is not found in Mark. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called “synoptic” Gospels because their narratives are so similar. John is different, and most agree that it was written toward the end of the first century (late 90s AD).
Here’s where I want you to think. We’ve just been studying other Pauline documents, right? We went through Philippians in here, we just finished Colossians on Sundays. I hope something has jumped out at you that, for whatever reason, scholars seem to avoid.
7 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9 and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.
10 Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him), 11 and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. 12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. 13 For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. 14 Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. 15 Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16 And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. 17 And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”
18 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.
Philemon:
23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
2 Timothy
9 Do your best to come to me soon. 10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
As we can see, at some point, Mark went from being a headache for Paul to being an indispensable partner. We also know from the inferences in Acts, from Paul’s own words in his letters, and from historical record that Luke was a faithful companion to Paul.
In fact, Paul has been traveling with some combination of Luke and Mark (sometimes separately, sometimes together) for at least 5 years. Colossians was written in the early 60s AD, 2 Timothy (largely recognized as Paul’s last letter) was written in 66-67 AD.
Now, if I was trying to compile all of the stuff that I had seen about Jesus and the church, and another guy who I’m traveling with is also compiling his own chronicle, don’t you think we’d talk? Especially if, by the time Mark got back to Paul, he had already gotten a chunk of his gospel written from Peter’s accounts?
Paul is literally sitting with two of the Gospel writers. It is no wonder that he is using language and inferences that appear in the Gospels at a later date. He’s getting it from the source, as it were.
OK, let’s wrap this up.
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
Paul circles back to the law again, and reminds us that the law holds us accountable to God. I love that phrase “so that every mouth may be stopped.” That’s like when you want to argue with your dad, but he just gives you that look, or puts up his hand. And you just stop, like the air went out of the room.
You aren’t arguing your way out of the law, sonny. The whole world is accountable to God.
What does that mean, “accountable?”
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Paul lays it out. No human being can be justified before God based on works of the law. Why? Because all have sinned (Rom 3:23). We’ve broken the law.
The law cannot save us. It just shows us that we have sinned.
That is why we need Jesus. The law isn’t enough. The law only convicts, but Jesus saves. We’ll see more about that next week.