Can God be Trusted?

Introduction

Today we are beginning a new chapter in the book of Romans. At heart in the first 8 verses of chapter three is a defense of the character of God. When push comes to shove can God be trusted? During good times, we might all say of course God can be trusted; but sometimes when we face difficult times, bone rotting, gut wrenching moments in our lives, we ask that question. Things don’t seem to be going the way God said they would. Didn’t Psalm 1:3 promise that whatever I do would prosper. I have been here before.

I read a story by Taylor Cage that many can relate to.

How will I ever trust you again? I hurled the question at God from the floor of my closet. I pressed my head into the carpet, unable to face the task of getting dressed. Just weeks prior, I trusted God implicitly. I never could’ve imagined questioning him this boldly or speaking to him this angrily. But that was before. Before the hospital, before the unfinished nursery, and before the worst day of my life. It was before God listened to me plead for my daughter's life and still allowed her heart to stop beating. Before my trust in God was shattered.

Now, lying on the floor in a puddle of tears and an old pile of unsorted laundry, I was brutally honest with the God I’d committed my life to serve, the same God I used to trust wholeheartedly. I feel like you let me down. I trusted you and you didn’t come through for me.

So, now what?

Hearing what Paul has just said about coming judgment on the Jews, they can’t make sense of God’s trustworthiness either. They looked through scripture and seemed to see all kinds of great promises for all the Jews and yet this message of judgment doesn’t seem like it jives with God’s faithfulness. This morning I want to follow a similar pattern to another message I did recently, I am going to begin by focusing on what the text means and then make an application to our broader question.

The Four Questions

When faced with something that doesn’t make sense, we often are left with questions. The Jews heads are spinning. Imagine growing up your entire life being told that your are the cream of the crop, God loves you and someday you will be with him in heaven; only to have a preacher come along and say you aren’t as good as you think you are and you are going to face God’s judgment.

I have seen this in academic circles where a student was the best student in high school but then he gets to college and runs into a hard teacher. He is failing in the class and the teacher tells him he is going to have to retake the class. I shakes his identity. He is confused, frustrated even. So the Jewish listener might be tempted to ask these four questions about God’s faithfulness and righteousness.

What benefit is there to being a Jew?

Paul has just said that being a Jew is not going to help them escape judgment. If you grew up in Judaism, you would have a strong sense that the Jews were God’s chosen people; so the obvious question is what advantage is there to being a Jew then? If there is not benefit, then why did God call us out from the nations, why did God deal specifically with us, why did God work so many miracles on our behalf? Surely that must be evidence that being a Jew matters. After all even Jesus said John 4:22 “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.”

Paul’s answer is found in vs 2. Paul affirms that there is a great advantage to being a Jew. The first and foremost benefit of being a Jew is that God entrusted them with His word. The word oracles- comes from the word for word in Greek. Think about it, this was the people that God spoke to. He gave them the law, He gave them the scriptures. God revealed Himself directly to them. Not everyone had that. That is a great advantage. Later in Romans 9:4–5 “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” Paul lists other benefits, but according to this verse this is the chiefest benefit.

Deuteronomy 4:8 “And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?”

The opportunity to have and know the word of God is a great benefit. There are nations around the world who still do not have access to the scriptures in their own langauge. We are privileged to grow up in America where we have multiple bibles and can freely go to church. But with greater privilege comes greater responsibility.

If some Jews don’t believe doesn’t that mean God didn’t keep his promise?

The second question they might ask is, if some Jews don’t believe and will be judged doesn’t that mean God doesn’t keep his promises? Paul asks if some don’t believe does that make the faith of God without effect or does God’s faithfulness fail. The root word for trust is used four times in these two verses. “God trusted the word of God to Israel, but what if some do not trust in God. Shall their lack of trust make the trustworthiness of God useless.” 2 Timothy 2:13 “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” We all know something doesn’t sound right with that logic.

Their mistake was to think that all the unconditional promises made to the nation of Israel guarantee the individual deliverance. Isaiah 55:6–7 “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, Call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts: And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Calls for individual repentance.

Paul does not use the word some accidentally. Not all the Jews had rejected Christ. As we will see in Romans 9-11, God has not cast off all the Jews. Romans 11:1 Paul and the 12 apostles are prime examples that God still had Jews who believed. Because of that and God’s future restoration of Israel Romans 11:26, God still is faithful to keep his promises.

Ill: If I promise my kids that if they clean their rooms, I will take them to get some ice cream and one of them does not clean their room; does that make me a promise breaker if that one kid doesn’t get ice cream.

The answer is given in vs 4. That is ridiculous. Rather God will be true even though every man is a liar or unfaithful. God being true in scripture usually refers to God being dependable. The Hebrew word in the OT emeth refers to a sturdy foundation. God can be depended on.

Paul then quotes Psalm 51:4 “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done this evil in thy sight: That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest.” If you go back and look at the passage Paul is quoting, David is declaring that God is justified in judging Him. I think Paul’s reason for using this verse is to show that God is faithful to keep his promises of blessing as well as his promises of judgement. If we are going to argue about God’s trustworthiness to keep his promises of blessing, we ought to also discuss his promises of judgment.

If my sin makes God look good, why does he judge me?

Paul will revisit this question as it pertains to the Christian in chapter 6, but here the Jew might think that their sins magnifies God because it makes His mercy and love stand out. Our sin certainly does reveal God grace and mercy, but that does not excuse our sin. Paul knows that this argument is absurd, but it logically flows from the Jewish understanding of God’s covenant.

This question is really about the fairness of God or His righteousness. If God judges his people, is he being fair? After all my sin makes him look better. The argument forgets Genesis 18:25 “That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Ill: Parent who robs banks for a living to pay their kids way through school. Kid works hard, makes straight A’s graduates and then finds out how her parent paid for school. Just because their parents sin, aided her does not mean they are exempt from her anger, and from punishment.

Paul’s answer to this argument in vs 6 is that if God is not fair to judge you because your sin manifests his glory, then how can God judge anyone else. The question is a two edged sword and it does not get the Jews off the hook. If this is how things worked, then God would let everyone off the hook.

Don’t the ends justify the means?

Vs 7-8 in some ways seem to be a rewording of vs 5, but there is another truth here I want us to see. The argument is not one the Jews actually believed, but some people had actually accused Paul of making: let us do evil that good may come of it. If you are thinking this sounds a lot like an argument made in politics and society today. In modern words: the ends justify the means.

This is the logic that Jesuits used in killing apostates. The goal was the glory of God, so whatever means necessary I should pursue that. Paul argues that this is a slanderous lie and those who believe and say such things will be justly judged.

The Application to our lives

Ultimately the question we are asking is God fair and trustworthy? If God didn’t keep his promises and treat the Jews fairly, then how can I guarantee that he will keep his promises to me? Going back to our story in our introduction, it is often during times of severe pain, that these questions come to mind. We are tempted to ask:

God I thought you were good but this hurts.

What about your promises of good and not of evil?

Has God forgotten me?

Has God forsaken me?

God I feel like you let me down.

The truth that Paul wants them to get is that no matter the questions they have God is true and righteous. William Gurnall once said I will drown your sins in My mercy and spend all I have, rather than let it be said that my good is overcome by your evil. Even when we are unfaithful, God will still faithfully keep his promises.

Like the Jews, we often have questions. But where did these questions come from? They arose from a misunderstanding of what God had said. I think many of our feelings of hurt and betrayal by God come from a misunderstanding of what God said. We see verses that promise prosperity, but we forget when Jesus said in this world ye shall have tribulation. Much like these Jews, we struggle because we don’t understand God’s word properly. The solution is to go back and study what God actually said.

<<<<Talk about the promises of God>>>>

But theological answers don’t always comfort our hearts. I think at root in this whole discussion is a knowledge of God Himself. Paul could be confident even without seeing the results of God’s promises because he knew who his God was.

Conclusion

I have seen this in academic circles where a student was the best student in high school but then he gets to college and runs into a hard teacher. He is failing in the class and the teacher tells him he is going to have to retake the class. I shakes his identity. He is confused, frustrated even. So the Jewish listener might be tempted to ask these four questions about God’s faithfulness and righteousness. the path ahead is dark; every doubt that Jesus loves me was settled on the cross. I can look back at that moment and I know God will be faithful to me. I can look back at that moment and know that he loves me. I can depend on him. I can trust him. If I could trust him with my eternal soul, should I not be able to trust him with this moment in my life.