Romans 3:1-20 All are Under Sin
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We finished up last year by going through chapter 2 today let us begin reading in Romans 3:1-20
Then what is the advantage of being Jewish? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Much in every way. First of all, they were entrusted with the sayings of God. So what if some did not trust? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? May it never be! Let God be true even if every man is a liar, as it is written, “that You may be righteous in Your words and prevail when You are judged.” But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? God is not unrighteous to inflict wrath, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if by my lie the truth of God abounds to His glory, why am I still judged as a sinner? And why not say, “Let us do evil, so that good may come”—just as we are being slandered and as some claim that we say. Their condemnation is deserved! What then? Are we better than they? No, not at all. For we have already made the case that all—both Jewish and Greek people—are under sin. As it is written, “There is no one righteous—no, not one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks after God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless. There is no one who does good—no, not even one! Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of vipers is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of shalom they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever the Torah says, it says to those within the Torah, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become accountable to God. For no human, on the basis of Torah observance, will be set right in His sight—for through the Torah comes awareness of sin.
The Advantage of Being Jewish
The Advantage of Being Jewish
After reading the first 2 chapters of Romans some of Paul’s Jewish audience might be asking the question: What is the point of being Jewish then? Paul begins to answer that question here. The Jewish people were entrusted with the Word of God.
Later on in Rom. 9:4-5 Paul adds to this list,
who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Torah and the Temple service and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs—and from them, according to the flesh, the Messiah, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
and then in Rom. 11:28-29 he continues:
Concerning the Good News, they are hostile for your sake; but concerning chosenness, they are loved on account of the fathers— for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
So to list the advantages, the Jewish people:
Word of God
Adopted by God
Glory of God
Covenants and the Torah
The Temple service
Prophetic promises
Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, ...)
The Messiah
Loved by God
And based upon that last verse we read, are these promises to Israel revocable? No! And these are some amazing gifts. I remember having the opportunity of telling a Jewish person, that everything I value most in life has come from the Jewish people: The Scriptures, Davidic Worship, their Messiah, ...
God’s Faithfulness
God’s Faithfulness
Just because there are some Jewish people who do not follow their Messiah, or do not follow the Words of God or do not dance before Adonai as David did, does that mean that Adonai will not be faithful to keep His word? On the contrary, Adonai says that even after bringing judgement on Israel after they had been unfaithful, He would restore Israel as a nation in Ezekiel 36:22
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘I do not do this for your sake, house of Israel, but for My holy Name, which you profaned among the nations wherever you went.
And not only would Adonai keep the covenant that He had made with Israel, but this passage in Ezekiel goes on to give the Jewish people a new heart to follow after him. Eze. 36:24-28
“ ‘For I will take you from the nations, gather you out of all the countries and bring you back to your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. Moreover I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the stony heart from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Ruach within you. Then I will cause you to walk in My laws, so you will keep My rulings and do them. Then you will live in the land that I gave to your fathers. You will be My people and I will be your God.
God’s faithfulness extends to the rebuilding of the Land of Israel, causing the ground to be prosperous, rebuilding the desolate cities. And in all of these areas, Adonai declares that He will do this for His name’s sake, not because Israel was faithful.
And this is exactly what Paul is pointing out. Adonai is faithful. People may lie and break faith, but Adonai will never break His word.
Righteous Judge
Righteous Judge
There are some who teach that we do not have freedom of choice. Firstly anyone who says that, does not actual live that way. Whether that person is an atheistic materialists, that thinks that their genes automatically make their decisions, or if they are an individual who believes in the predestination of specific individuals to God’s wrath, both of these types of people still choose what clothes they put on in the morning.
We all choose what we will eat, and what sort of work we will do. And if we make small decisions like this, how much more deciding to live righteously in accordance with God’s Word? We choose how we will act, we choose which passions we will feed, we choose whether or not we will speak the truth or a lie.
Therefore Adonai is fully justified to judge each one of us for how we have acted, what we have chosen to do, what we have neglected to do.
And even through we are saved by the merciful grace of Adonai, and not by our legalistic observance to the Torah, we must never say “Let us do evil, so that good may come!”
The Word of God defines what Adonai considers good and evil, right and wrong, pure, holy and wicked. Paul points out that Adonai is fully within His rights as the creator and judge of the universe to hold us to account.
Now some people have tried to say that Paul claims that we should act contrary to God’s commandments simply so that we can experience God’s grace. Paul, here in vs 8, calls this slander!
All are Under Sin
All are Under Sin
Now we get to the climax of this whole section. From Rom. 1:18 to 3:20, the entire point that Paul is making is summed up here in Rom. 3:9b
Romans 3:9 (TLV)
… all—both Jewish and Greek people—are under sin.
And just in case you think that Paul is simply making this claim up, he quotes from multiple different passages in the Tenakh. Instead of reading Paul’s summary again, let’s go and read each of the passages independently starting with Ecc. 7:20
Surely there is not a righteous person on earth who does what is good and doesn’t sin.
Lead me, Adonai, in Your righteousness, because of my enemies. Make Your path straight before me. For nothing upright is in their mouth. Inside them is a ruin— their throat an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Declare them guilty, O God! Let them fall by their own schemes. Banish them because of their many transgressions— for they have rebelled against You.
The wicked one, with his nose in the air, never seeks Him. All his thoughts are: “There is no God.” His ways are secure at all times. He haughtily disregards Your judgments. He snorts at all his adversaries. He says in his heart: “I’ll never be shaken! From generation to generation nothing bad will happen.” His mouth is full of cursing, lies and oppression. On his tongue are trouble and iniquity. He lies in ambush near villages. In hidden places he slays the innocent. His eyes watch in secret for the helpless. He lurks in a hiding place like a lion in a thicket. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the unfortunate one, dragging him away in his net. The victim is crushed, brought down, and falls into his mighty claws. He says in his heart: “God has forgotten. He hides His face—He will never see it.”
An oracle of Transgression— within my heart, to the wicked one: “There is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes, too much to notice his iniquity —or hate it. His mouth’s words are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and do good. Even on his bed he plans sin. He puts himself on a path that is no good, never refusing evil.”
Behold, Adonai’s hand is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. Rather, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. No one sues justly, and none pleads a case honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They hatch adders’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web— whoever eats their eggs dies; crack one open, a viper breaks out. Their webs will not become clothing, nor will they cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are works of iniquity, an act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run after evil. They rush to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Violence and ruin are on their highways. They do not know the path of peace, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have made their paths crooked. Whoever walks in them will not experience shalom.
And one more passage from Ps. 53:2-4
The fool says in his heart: “There is no God.” They are corrupt, commit vile injustice. There is no one who does good. God looks down from the heavens on the children of men, to see if anyone understands, who seeks after God. All have turned aside— together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good— no, not even one!
Legalistic Observance of Torah
Legalistic Observance of Torah
Since Paul has already pointed out that he is not saying that people should break the Torah, then how do we unpack what he is saying? Specifically what does Paul mean when he says in Rom. 3:20?
For no human, on the basis of Torah observance, will be set right in His sight—for through the Torah comes awareness of sin.
David Stern interprets the phrase “Torah observance“Works of the Law” it, “legalistic observance of Torah commands.”
Does this mean that a person is not considered righteous by God who does the good works that the Torah requires?
Obviously not. The greatest commandment in the Torah is quoted by Yeshua in Mark 12:28-30
One of the Torah scholars came and heard them debating. Seeing that Yeshua had answered them well, he asked Him, “Which commandment is first of all?” Yeshua answered, “The first is, ‘Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
So obviously it is a good thing to keep the commandments of God, especially this one.
Does this mean that it is too difficult to live up to the requirements of the Torah?
Initially we might think that this is the case, except that Adonai says in Deut. 30:11-14
“For this mitzvah that I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far off. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who will go up for us to the heavens and get it for us, and have us hear it so we may do it?’ Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross over for us to the other side of the sea and get it for us, and have us hear it so we may do it?’ No, the word is very near to you—in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.
So if it is not too difficult to keep the commands of God, then why do we not do it? The answer is both simple and should prick our hearts: we don’t keep God’s commands because we don’t want to, because we think that we know better, and we are not interested in having someone else tell us what to do.
Does this mean that the Torah commands are actually not good but bad?
Of course not! The commands of Adonai are Right and Good!
David Stern points out that:
Theology based on one or the other of these misinterpretations has taught some Christians that the Jewish Law is inferior, inadequate, legalistic, a producer of pride, something separate from God’s grace, superseded now that Yeshua has come, and of value only insofar as it points to the Messiah. If this was true, anyone who would uphold such a Law must obviously be blind, foolish or misled.
This sort of misinterpretation leads directly to replacement theology, removes the Jewishness of the Good News, and hinders Jewish evangelism.
Instead:
Instead:
Paul seems to use the term “Works” negatively to refers to:
Actions stemming from a boastful, self-righteous belief that by doing them, by following a set of rules in one’s own strength, without any trust in God or faithfulness towards Him, one can earn God’s praise and applause and obligate Him to grant [that person a place] in heaven.
Or put another way:
[When Paul uses the term “Works of the Law” he is referring to] bad, self-strength, works produced when sinful people misuse and pervert the Torah, so that instead of regarding it as God’s gracious gift intended both to orient people toward righteousness, God-motivated behaviour and at the same time to show them how far short they fall of achieving it, [instead] they regard the Torah as a rulebook containing requirements they can meet mechanically, without trusting God or even caring about Him, and can therefore take great pride in their own achievements and have great self-satisfaction over how much they have pleased God.
Application
Application
At the end of the day, we are all made painfully aware of how sinful we are whenever we read the Torah. Most of the prophets are trying to remind Israel and Judah to go back to a repentant, trusting of God and go back to keeping the Torah. The Psalmists (especially David) shine a light on their own inability (or should we say unwillingness) to keep the commandments and by reading them we are reminded of our own failings.
Sin is an archery term, and means that we “miss the mark” but it assumes that we are aiming at the target.
Transgress means to deliberately cross the line,
Iniquity refers to a twisting or corruption and means that we deliberately choose to do evil and involve others in our lifestyle,
So regardless of whether we are trying to be a good person, or not, deliberately living a selfish life or attempting to meet God’s righteous commands, we have all fallen short. We fall short, not because the Commands of God are wrong, nor because they are too difficult, but as we mentioned before,
We don’t keep God’s commands because we don’t want to, because we think that we know better, and we are not interested in having someone else tell us what to do.
Yeshua shows us the way in Luke 5:30-32
The Pharisees and their Torah scholars began murmuring to His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Yeshua answered and said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a doctor, but those who are sick do. I did not come to call the righteous, but the sinful to repentance.”
Yeshua is calling those who recognize that they are sinners to repentance. And after he was raised from the dead it says in Luk. 24:45-49
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “So it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for the removal of sins is to be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
And so we declare, just as Peter did in Acts 2:38-39
Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be immersed in the name of Messiah Yeshua for the removal of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Ruach ha-Kodesh. For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far away—as many as Adonai our God calls to Himself.”
