God's Perfect, We're Not

Romans 1-2 Recap

As you recall we’ve been working our way through Romans

Romans 1 focused in on the gentiles, and the problems that they encountered through history, specifically the way they turned away from God and worshipped their own idols

Romans 2 turned the focus back on the Jews to remind them that they aren’t perfect either.

In fact, the way that they were judging the gentile believers and by not practicing what they preach, they were even worse!

We now will dive into Romans 3, where Paul begins to tie things together and answer some questions that might be raised based on what he said

Romans 3

We’ll begin our reading in with verse 1 in Romans chapter 3:

Read Romans 3:1-10, 19-20

So we see here through the first several verses of this chapter what writing technique he is going to use to get his point across.

He begins asking questions that might be considered rhetorical, but immediately follows them up with the answer

This prevents us from jumping to any conclusions by just taking his question and running with it

An added layer of confusion though is that he links these questions together one after the other

This is a problem for someone like me who likes to dissect each verse to find the meaning or thought behind it.

While studying for this sermon, that actually got me in trouble at times because I became confused on what the verse was saying without reading it at the same time as the previous verses.

But as we work our way through this passage we will uncover what Paul’s main point is, and how we should think about it.

Let’s start with verses 1 & 2

Legacy Standard Bible CHAPTER 3

1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

2 Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

So, we have to remember that the entire previous chapter in Romans was all about tearing down the importance and exclusivity that the Jews thought of themselves.

Yet here we are in chapter 3, and the very first question that he asks here is: “So, is there any benefit to being a Jew?”

And in our heads, after reading chapter 2, we are probably thinking: “Of course not!” “You just told us there isn’t!”

But, he answers his own question with “Great in every respect.”

Huh?

Has Paul gone crazy here?

Of course not, so what’s his angle?

Well he continues on by saying: “that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.”

We have to remember that his point with the previous chapter was that, when it comes to salvation, it doesn’t matter what bloodline you were born into

We are all equally sinners in need of salvation through faith alone

What he’s getting at here is that their advantage has nothing to do with salvation.

Their advantage is that they were the one’s that were given and entrusted with the oracles or scriptures of God through all of their generations

They are the one’s who’s culture had been shaped around those scriptures

Who had developed a religion, and read those scriptures weekly for thousands of years

The advantage that they have is that they know God’s word

They know what sin is, and more importantly, why they are in need of a savior

They’ve had the opportunity to read through the prophets

To see how there is a savior that has been promised to come to them

It’s the same place that many of us are in having grown up in the church

We went to Sunday school

And then youth group

And now that we have kids, we bring them to church and start that process all over again

We know right from wrong because of the Bible

We know about Jesus because of the stories and lessons that were taught about him as we were growing up

Now take all of that, and imagine not having any of that in your life

It’s hard to do right?

And unfortunately, if you don’t grow up with the Bible like many of us did, it usually takes some tough times, and some sort of crisis in our lives to wake us up to Jesus and the Bible

And even after that, it takes a lot of time and work to get to a level of understanding that those who grew up in the faith have

So, just like the Jews of that day, us being able to grow up with the scriptures is a big advantage

But, going back to chapter 2..... it doesn’t mean our ticket to eternal life gets automatically punched because we were born into the Church

So, after getting that point out of the way, he moves onto a question that kind of evolves out of that first one:

We read in verses 3-4:

Romans 3:3–4 LSB

What then? If some did not believe, does their unbelief abolish the faithfulness of God? May it never be! Rather, let God be true and every man a liar, as it is written, “That You may be justified in Your words, And overcome when You are judged.”

Paul brings up a good question here:

“If these Jews who were chosen by God, and were given his scriptures, still don’t believe: does that show that God isn’t faithful to his word because they won’t inherit all of the things promised to them?”

I mean if God truly is all knowing and can see the end from the beginning, couldn’t he see that they Jews weren’t going to accept Jesus as their messiah when he chose them to be his inheritance?

Well, the answer is “Of course not!” as Paul puts it

Because it doesn’t show that God is unfaithful, it shows that humans can be so stubborn and sinful, that they still choose unbelief over saving faith

He chose them over all of the nations in the world to be his people

He was patient with them over and over again, giving them innumerable chances to remain faithful to him

Yet they still chose to do things their own way

So with that question in mind, he moves on to the follow-up question in verses 5 & 6

Romans 3:5–6 LSB

But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is the God who inflicts wrath unrighteous? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?

In layman’s terms what this is getting at is “So, Israel’s unbelief is actually a good thing because it highlights how righteous God is, and how unrighteous mankind is, so why would God judge Israel for something that actually makes him look good?”

And Paul’s follow-up answer brings up a really good point:

He says “May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?”

In other words, if he excuses any sin, no matter if it quote unquote makes him look good, then he wouldn’t be a righteous judge.

He wouldn’t be fit to judge the whole world because he would be showing favoritism

In the same vein we read in verses 7 & 8

Romans 3:7–8 LSB

But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”? Their condemnation is just.

In other words if our sin allows good to prevail, then isn’t it actually a good thing in a way that we are sinning?

Otherwise, good wouldn’t have the opportunity to prevail and to be seen as being good

The sad thing is there are probably people out there who believe this

That they are proving that God is good by themselves being bad

One thing that not many people know about me is that I’m a huge comic book fan

It started off with me coming home from school as a kid to a new episode of Batman or Spider-man or X-men on tv.

And Batman quickly became my favorite comic book hero

And I think this is because first of all, he had no real super powers. He was simply a rich, driven person who wanted to save his city.

But, he also had the best villains

And the most famous villain that Batman had was his arch-nemesis the Joker

And one thing Batman is famous for is that he will never kill any of the villains

It’s what keeps him from turning into a villain himself

And the Joker knew this, so he would always find a way to keep pushing Batman farther and farther, just daring him to cross that line

Because he knew that if he could get him to cross it, then he would win the game

And that’s what it was to him: a game that they were playing

And he even confessed to this at one point in time when he had captured Batman, and could have very easily killed him

But at the last second, he didn’t

He let him go instead

And what he said after doing this always stuck with me

He said, I can’t kill you, because I need you, just like you need me

You see in his twisted world, he thought Batman needed him, because if it weren’t for villains, then there wouldn’t be heroes

And if he killed the hero, well then the never ending game of cat and mouse that they played would be over

He wouldn’t get another chance to force Batman over the line, and that’s the only way he could truly win.

But what he didn’t realize is that good isn’t good because evil exists

Evil wasn’t created first was it?

Good was first, followed by a rebellion which created evil

And what Paul is saying here is that no evil or sinning, no matter what good may come out of it, is acceptable

I believe there is a root cause to these couple of questions that Paul raises here

And that is what it really comes down to not understanding how perfect God really is

And a misunderstanding of how sinful we are as humans

We can be arrogant at times and think that we aren’t really that bad

A little sin can’t be that bad can it?

But the truth is, the only amount of sin that is allowed to enter the presence of God is “0”

Any blemish at all automatically disqualifies us from dwelling with him in eternity, so we have to take our sin seriously

It’s at those moments in our life where we think we aren’t that bad

Those are the moments where we don’t realize how much we need Jesus

And that’s a dangerous place to put ourselves in.

Finally, Paul wraps up his line of questioning by tying everything back to what he’s been saying through the first two verses of this chapter, and really, the first two chapters of his letter to the Romans

Verse 9 & 10 say:

Romans 3:9–10 LSB

What then? Are we better? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;

In other words: “So, if sinning is bad, and the Jews have grown up with the Law, and try to sin as little as possible, that DOES make the Jews better right?”

And Paul answers with the next 9 consecutive verses being quotes from the Old Testament stating how everyone, no matter your genealogy, is born a sinner in need of a savior

Finally, Paul puts a bow on this thought and reinforces that idea in verses 19 & 20 where it says:

Romans 3:19–20 LSB

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are in the Law, so that every mouth may be shut and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

In other words, because the Jews had the law to look to, they know right from wrong.

And because they can’t save themselves by doing good works, it ends up just magnifying how imperfect they are

And this is one of the most important aspects of the law and why I think it’s important to regularly read through the first 5 books of the Bible where the law is contained

Because it shows us right from wrong

It shows us what God actually expects of us so that we can ask him to help us get rid of those sins

And in doing so, grow closer to him

But it’s also a good reminder for us as we read through those laws, that there’s no way we could ever be perfect

There’s no way we could ever live the rest of our lives and never mess up

And even if we did, what about everything that we did in our past life?

We need a savior

We need Jesus and his sacrifice to atone for those past sins

And we need his perfect righteousness that he was able to attain for us by doing what we can’t

He was the only one that could read through all of those laws while he was hanging up on that cross and confidently say:

“Yes, I have never broken one of those.”

It’s the reason we gather once a month to remember that sacrifice that he made for us

To take our place up on that cross

Let us pray:

Lord’s Supper

· At this time I would ask the ushers to come forward as we partake in the Lord’s Supper

· Bread has been passed

o We remember now how Jesus took this bread, the bread which they call the afikomen, during his last Passover meal and blessed it. He then broke it saying “this is my body, which is broken for you” eat this now in remembrance of me.

· Juice has been passed

o We now recall Jesus taking this cup, the third cup in the Passover meal, after they had finished eating and blessed it, saying “this is my blood which is shed for you, drink as a covenant for the forgiveness of sins”

· Let us pray………..

Benediction

May we go out today with a renewed reliance on Jesus. A renewed understanding of just how perfect our God is, and how our faith in Jesus is the only thing that will allow us to share in that perfection so that me way one day dwell with him for eternity. Amen.