By Faith - Romans 3:9-20

Romans 3:9–20 CSB

What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, and the path 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 subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment. For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.

Why was the Law given?

When we talk about the law of God one of the first question we can or should ask is why was the Law given? There are a few reasons the Law was given.

Galatians 3:19 CSB

Why, then, was the law given? It was added for the sake of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come. The law was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator.

The law was given so that we would know what sin is.

The Law was given so we could understand that we need a Savior. We need Him whether we have or know the Law. Paul has already explained this in Romans. All fall short. All are under a curse. All are guilty. The Law does not make us sinful it just points out what sin is.

The Law given as a gift because God loves.

Because God loves His creation He gave the Law. Think about this. God gave the Law to a people He created for Himself. He did not create the Law and then tell people to follow it. He first created a people for Himself. Then to these people who were in relationship with Him, He gave the Law. It was a gift to those whom He loves.

The Law keeps us safe.

We think freedom is doing whatever we want, but that is not freedom that is anarchy. Freedom is boundaries and safe guards.

I can get in a car and drive however I want but if I do that chaos will happen. People will get hurt. But when I drive the way I should I have freedom.

The Law was not and is not wrong.

The laws given so that we would know what sin is.

The Law is a gift because God loves.

The Law keeps us safe.

But what is the law?

Is it the 10 commandments? The 10 commandments are the 10 sayings.

I am the Lord your God, have no other gods before me

Do not make an idol.

Do not take the name of the Lord in vain.

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Honor your father and mother.

Do not murder.

Do not commit adultery.

Do not steal / kidnap.

Do not give false testimony.

Do not covet.

There is an interesting way of reading the 10 Commandments I was introduced to a while back. It is suggested by some that the 10 Commandments are actually pairs of five and not a list of ten. So this would mean they are God telling us to how to relate to Him and others.

1 & 6 Believe in God and do not murder. To wrongly take a life is to kill one who was made in the image of God. That is not belief or trust in God. That is an ultimate blasphemy.

2 & 7 Do not make an idol and do not commit adultery. This is fidelity and loyalty. To worship an idol is to commit adultery against God. When we make a covenant with a spouse we are called to be loyal to them and in doing so we honor God.

3 & 8 Do not the name of the Lord in vain and do not steal or kidnap. To take the name of Lord in vain is to use it improperly. It is to steal His glory and associate it with something we should not. To steal or kidnap is to take something that does not belong to you.

4 & 9 Remember the Sabbath and Do not give False testimony. Remember what is true and right. To remember the Sabbath is to remember that God is the one who made everything. To give false testimony is to lie about something. Remember what is true.

5 & 10 Honor your father and mother and do not covet. To honor your father and mother to honor and appreciate what you have and let it be in its proper place. To covet is to be focused more on what you don’t have and desire that more than what is in of you.

I am not sure if this is right but it does make a lot of sense. Also it teaches us that the Law is not some abstract set of rules but it has a purpose. The purpose is to teach us how to live rightly with God and people.

The 10 Commandments are not the full law but the beginning 

Paul summarizes the law with these verses here.

The fullness of the Law has about 613 commands.  248 are positive or “do this” commands  365 are negative or “don’t do this” commands. They are specific and this is what lead to great debate because people wanted to be able to keep the law but also justify themselves. 

For example pushing a button on an elevator on the sabbath. Is that work? Some people thought so. Because of this a Shabbat Elevator runs on the sabbath and it automatically stops on every floor. 

The Law is clear but we as people like to justify ourselves.

We Justify Ourselves

One reason the Law has so many commands is because we complicate it and justify ourselves.

Think of a kid who is sent to the store. We don’t do that a lot now but when I was younger my mom sent me to the store all the time. Here’s a few dollars go to the store and get milk. 

I go to the store and get milk. There is a few dollars left over so I get some candy too.

Ok go to the store and get milk and bring me my change. Don’t but anything else. 

I go to the store and get milk and then go to a friends house for an hour or so.

Go to the store, get milk, don’t buy anything else and come straight home.

We find ways to justify ourselves and our actions. We have said it before:

We judge others by their actions and ourselves by our motives.

But the Law is Really Simple

Jesus reminds the people we can summarize the Law in this way

Matthew 22:34–40 CSB

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

Love God, love others 

We can boil it down to that and we still get it wrong, but everything fits into one of those.

The point is none of us can get it right. In some area we will all fall short.

We as human beings love to justify ourselves but the purpose of the Law is to make us see ourselves and God clearly. We just have to be honest about our situation.

God’s Law is good that is not in question.

What is the problem with breaking God’s law? 

Love God with all your heart soul and mind. 

First is that God is not just an idea or concept He is the boss. The earth and the fullness thereof belongs to Him, Psalm 24:1

He is the one who has set the moral code of the universe and it is to Him we are accountable. 

God has created and established a moral law that must be followed. To fail, to not acknowledge Him in His rightful place is sin. To not obey His law is sin.

We ignore God and His law for a variety of reasons. Maybe there is a particular thing He commands that we do not want to do. Maybe there are prohibitions that He has given and it is something we want to partake or enjoy. We pick and choose the parts of God’s ways that we decide are best.

We say ok love God and love others, that’s fine but I get to define what that means. Heaven’s no. The Law and the Prophets are summed up in love God and love others but there are some important details in the middle.

Now, as an aside you might have heard what about this law or that law why don’t we keep those. Well as a quick rule of thumb here is the rule. Some laws were for a particular time and place and some are universal moral laws. We have to look to the New Testament to see what is required.

But that is hard, so we as people create our own laws and rules. We place ourselves as the determiner of good and evil. We decide right and wrong. The problem of course is we are almost always ok in the new system. We base it on not as bad as someone else. 

The system brakes down. 

When the system we create without God fails we blame God. We create a broken system and then blame God.

But His Law, is right, His ways are true. I don’t understand all of it, and I don’t even like all of it. But my issues with God’s perfect law tell me more about me and my brokenness than anything else.

Love your neighbor as yourself 

This should be pretty easy except I don’t think we love ourselves well and we are pretty selfish.

SELF TALK

If you spoke to other people the way you speak to yourself would you have friends? We put ourselves down and lambast ourselves constantly. We call ourselves names and refuse to forgive ourselves.

Why do we have a hard time loving our neighbor well? Because we do not love ourselves well. Now I am not talking about being narcissistic. That is another issue all together. I am just saying ask yourself, would I treat someone else or say to someone else what I say to myself?

But second we are selfish.

What’s wrong with being selfish? When we are selfish we inevitably end up using people instead of loving them. We see them as means to an end. They become objects instead of image bearers of God. 

When people stop being a priority and become objects we can use to get our own way we have failed.

Self Justification

Again we are people love to justify ourselves. We love to decide what is right and what is good. We love to determine good and evil based on whatever standard feels good at the time.

This past week I decided I wanted to add in reaching 10k steps a day. On Wednesday I was about 1k steps short. My goal on my app is only 7k for some reason. So I tried to justify and say well I reached a goal.

We want to justify ourselves and our actions but the Law exists to show us that we are wrong and we cannot be made right by our own actions.

The Law is meant to show us the truth. But like James says,

James 1:23–24 CSB

Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.

We are to look into the Law and then reflect on what we see and it should break us.

Because as we mentioned the Law is meant to break us we are supposed to hear and be broken.

We are supposed to weep, lament, and cry out. We are supposed to feel a certain amount of despair. We are supposed to feel the discomfort.

Have you ever wept over your sins? Has the weight and gravity of your selfishness and sin ever caused you to weep?

That is the purpose of the LAW.

We feel the despair. We feel the judgement of God. We feel that we are broken.

We see how we have been selfish.

We see how we have used people as objects.

We see how we have hated our neighbor.

We see how we have squandered the good gifts of God.

We see that we are sinners bound for hell.

Then we see Jesus. We are going to talk about this more next week, but in short Jesus is our way out.

It is About More Than Just Salvation

Jesus offers salvation but it so much more than that. It is more than just being saved and not going to hell. The Gospel is not fire insurance. It is a call to something greater.

We come to the Father and get reconciled when believe and repent.

Acts 2:37–38 CSB

When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We believe, that belief causes a change so we repent of our former way of living and then we get baptized to show our faith.

The Kingdom of God

When we become God’s children, people empowered by the Holy Spirit, we not only desire to keep God’s law and live rightly He empowers us to do so knowing we will still fail.

Interpersonal Relationships

We also now have the ability to live rightly with those around us.

Ephesians 4:28–29 CSB

Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.

Because we walk with Jesus we should be different. We should no longer do the things we did before. We become new people. We quit getting drunk, we stop using people as means to our own end, we stop steal, we get help where we need it. We desire to love God and serve other people.

Alter Call

John 10:27 CSB

My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.

Is this you? Have you heard the voice of the Savior sweetly calling your name? If so then respond.

How do we respond?

If you have never received the salvation He freely offers than accept it now. Pray with me.

salvation prayer

Have you received Him before but are not walking in His fullness? Then pray with me.

Prayer