Romans: Part III
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Paul is laying the groundwork for everything he is going to be dealing with throughout the book of Romans here in these first three chapters. In chapter one we talked about how Paul was unashamed of the Gospel and how the Gospel had the power to change even the darkest heart. We talked about the world and how mankind turned from God to pursue their sinful passions and how God gave them over to their sin and desires, but He didn’t leave the world without hope. The world stands guilty of sin but Jesus makes a way for the world to be made new. For us to have a new identity.
In chapter two Paul goes from addressing the nations and those outside the house of Abraham and focuses in on Jews specifically. Paul’s address to the Jewish believers helps to shed more light on what it looks like to live under this new covenant. We know what people are like who didn’t grow up under the law, but what about those under the law? What about God’s chosen people? Well Paul tells us that having the law became a point of pride. They used it to elevate themselves and judge others while failing to live up to its standard. While seeking to fulfill the law they became law breakers and were found to be guilty under the law.
So for all people, those in the house of Abraham and those outside the house of Abraham, are found guilty. Dead in their trespasses and sins. Condemned to spend eternity separated from God who is holy.
It is important as we move into this third chapter that we have an accurate understanding of just how bad our sin problem is. There was an old preacher in the 1700’s who said,
“Sinners deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God’s using His power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, ‘Cut it down, why should it waste the soil?’. The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God’s mere will, that it holds back”.
Sinners deserve justice and God’s wrath hangs like a sword over the guilty soul. There is no security for the guilty. No hope in a safety to be earned by their own hands. No assurance of tomorrow. Our sin makes us to be dead bodies in the morgue waiting for disposal. Eternal souls waiting to be cast into darkness for eternity. In the darkness of sin there appears to be no hope for us. Without the law we are found guilty and under the law we are proved to be guilty.
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”
The first question Paul asks is, “Does man’s faithlessness to God make God faithless? His answer: no.
You might say, well God’s standard is too high. It isn’t fair of Him to make perfection so complicated. It is true that the Law of God is complicated. But God is not unjust in giving the Law. In fact the Law points to the justice of God and the sinfulness of mankind. If you think about it, God only gave one request to Adam and Eve and still their hearts turned from God. They had everything they could ever want or need and yet they chose to rebel against God. The problem is not that His standard is too high, the problem is that our hearts are wicked and would rebel against anything God commanded us to do. Though we are unfaithful God remains faithful. God does not withhold His justice against sinners. That would make God unjust. To overlook sin would be like a judge who, although the defendant is guilty on all accounts, he lets the man go free. That is the opposite of justice. Even if everyone were a liar, God has an obligation to the truth because He is the Truth. And so, our sin demands justice.
But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world?
The second question Paul asks is, “If I can’t do anything but sin is God unjust in punishing me? His answer: no.
You might say, if I can’t stop myself from sinning than why does God hold it against me? The consequences of sin are great. We are broken people. We are born into brokenness and that effects every aspect of our life. Our thoughts are broken, our actions are broken. The Bible even says our righteous acts are done in brokenness. We are broken people, and in that brokenness we have sinned against God. Even as sinners we know, to rebel against a king brings consequence. How much more so the King of all kings? If it were unjust for God to punish sinners what authority would God have? His glory demands worship and obedience. He is worthy of every one of our thoughts and actions. God commands we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But, because God is holy, all powerful, worthy of our worship, because He is God, He must have justice against sin.
But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
The third question Paul asks is, “If God is glorified in His judgement towards sinners should I continue to sin so God may be glorified? Paul’s answer: no.
Just because God’s justice is a good thing doesn’t mean we should do more wrong. That’s a flawed view of justice. The purpose of justice is repentance. Justice is used to create justice in people not to inspire more injustice. God will punish sin, and He will receive glory for it, but that doesn’t mean hurting other people and rebelling against God is a good idea.
So what is the point of it all?
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, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 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. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
This is true of all who are under the law, whether the law of conscience or the law of God. All under the law are found to be sinners. Not one of us is righteous under the law. Under the law we are a people without hope. No amount of working hard, no picking ourselves up by our bootstraps, no amount of self indulgence, self help, or self righteousness can fix our problem.
So here we stand, the sword of God’s divine justice hanging over the necks of sinners. What hope is there in a world as dark as this? Paul tells us, the hope we have is that even though we fall short, Jesus takes our place.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
We needed something apart from the law to save us. There is no hope for us under the law but the righteousness of God was manifested apart from the law. All the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi speaks of Jesus. Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets, all speak of our hope and redemption in Jesus.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
The Gospel, this revealed righteousness of God, Jesus, has been manifested apart from the law and is available to all people. Not through works of the law but by faith. For we no there is no distinction between those under the Old Testament law and those without it. Why?
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
There is no distinction because we have all sinned. More than that there is no distinction because
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
No matter what we have done, where we come from, what we look like, the grace of God has been extended to us all the same. We all have a sin problem, but Jesus offers us redemption through the free gift of His grace. By grace we have justified. We are redeemed. The sword of God’s wrath hung ready to deal with us in justice but Jesus stepped in and took our place. The punishment of our sin no resting on His shoulders. By grace Christ has set us free from the curse of the law.
Here are some of the most powerful passages in all of Scripture. They give us a new identity. They show us the power of the Gospel in our life.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
In Christ we are no longer dead in sin. We are raised to life with Christ in His resurrection. He has payed the penalty of our sin with His death and made the way for us to have eternal life with Him forever. He takes our sin and casts it as far as the east is from the west. He takes our sin upon Himself and gives us His righteousness, so now when God sees us, He doesn’t see a sinner deserving of wrath. He sees His child. Clean. Washed in the blood of Jesus.
Anecdotes and Illustrations of D. L. Moody Related by Him in His Revival Work The Fettered Bird Freed
The Fettered Bird Freed
A friend in Ireland once met a little Irish boy who had caught a sparrow. The poor little bird was trembling in his hand, and seemed very anxious to escape. The gentleman begged the boy to let it go, as the bird could not do him any good; but the boy said he would not, for he had chased it three hours before he could catch it. He tried to reason it out with the boy, but in vain. At last he offered to buy the bird; the boy agreed to the price, and it was paid. Then the gentleman took the poor little thing and held it out on his hand. The boy had been holding it very fast, for the boy was stronger than the bird, just as Satan is stronger than we, and there it sat for a time, scarcely able to realize the fact that it had got liberty; but in a little while it flew away, chirping, as if to say to the gentleman, “Thank you! thank you! you have redeemed me.” That is what redemption is—buying back and setting free. So Christ came back to break the fetters of sin, to open the prison doors and set the sinner free. This is the good news, the gospel of Christ—“Ye are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.”
This redemption that has been purchased on our behalf was not done by perishable things, but by the blood of our God.
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Propitiation is the paying of a penalty. The penalty that stood against us was an eternal one. We had sinned against an eternal God and were deserving of eternal punishment, but Jesus payed that penalty by being obedient to everything in the law. He earned the salvation that we could never come close to doing. God put on the form of human flesh and made Himself obedient to the law so that now we can be brought into a new covenant of grace. Under the law we were hopeless, but under grace we are made new.
The law serves now one purpose: to expose our sin and show us our need for a savior. But grace heals our brokenness and gives us a new heart through the salvation found in Christ alone.
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see
This grace has been shown to us in order that we might know what kind of God we serve.
It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
The Gospel shows us that God is just in His actions, but also that He is forgiving in His justification. Two attributes of God that couldn’t seem farther apart. Wrath and love. Justice and grace. Both made known to us in one great demonstration of mercy.
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
The yoke of sin is broken and we have been set free. It wasn’t by anything we have done but was solely because of the work of Jesus alone. So what is there left to do but come to Jesus. We come to Him with our failure, our sin, we come to Him with our worries and struggles, our worship and praises. We have nothing to do for salvation but simply receive the gift freely.
What do we do with this great news? Do we hide it? Or do we share it? Do we try to justify ourselves by working harder? Or do we rest in the good news of the Gospel?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Do a long prayer time