Romans
Notes
Transcript
Criminal Minds
Romans 3:9-28
Criminal Minds
Romans 3:9-28
The book of Romans is considered Paul’s greatest theological work. It is almost impossible to live a victorious Christian life in today’s world without understanding the revelation of grace that Paul presents in this letter.
The apostle Paul was a man formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a Jew of Jews, as he called himself. He was a man who followed the Torah and was very zealous about protecting the Jewish religion from the teachings of the people called the Way. He imprisoned Christians, and he held the coats for the men who stoned Steven. He was on his way on the road to Damascus with papers in hand to imprison and possibly kill more Christians when he came face to face with the resurrected Jesus who he hated.
Through this single encounter, Saul became a man who was radically transformed. He went from hating Jesus and hating Christians to being commissioned by God to go and preach Jesus as the Christ to the Gentile nations.
If God can save a man like Saul who was killing Christians and change him to Paul the Apostle who would establish churches and lead countless people to Jesus Christ not only in his time but throughout the next 2000 years, and he can save a man like me, he can save anyone. There is nobody outside the reach of God’s grace. Jesus died on the cross to save every person who would be willing to come to Him.
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
“Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
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 says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
Audience - Church in Rome made of both Jew and Gentile Believers. The Jews were expelled from Rome by Emperor Claudius in AD49 because of the increased tensions between the Jewish and non-Jewish believers. They returned 5 years later when Claudius died but the tensions were still there.
Jewish believers - raised in the synagogues, taught the Torah from an early age, still holding to both the Law and the traditions of their religion.
Non-Jewish believers - came out of wicked, vile pagan lifestyles into Christianity, never been to synagogue, never learned to follow the Torah.
Two groups with extremely different backgrounds, raised in two very different cultures, now attending church together and there is tension and disagreement about how to serve and worship God and even about how to become righteous and please God. Both groups wanted to please God but they did not agree on how that happens.
TODAY
Spent life in church, grew up in the pews every time the door was open. Know all of the lingo, speak in King James.
Suit and tie, dresses, red back hymnals, traditions, set itinerary, hour long services
Never been to church, parents were drug addicts, never even heard John 3:16 before being saved. Cannot read or understand the King James.
T shirt and jeans, worship music, no set itinerary, don’t care how long the service goes. They just want Jesus.
In the essentials, unity. In the non-essentials grace. In all things, charity, or love.
Paul starts his letter by telling the Roman church how he desperately wants to come visit them.
For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.
WE NEED EACH OTHER!!!! You were never meant to walk this Christian life alone, apart from the local church. How can people say they love God, love Jesus but want nothing to do with his Church?
Paul, the Prosecutor - proving the guilt of all mankind before God, the righteous judge
Thankfully, Paul does not end with proving us guilty. He goes on to show how Jesus dropped the charges and gave us grace and righteousness when we deserved hell.
The first two chapters are written mostly to and about the Gentile believers who have come from the most vile pagan backgrounds and are now saved and in the Church.
Romans 1:19-20 shows how God is made known since the beginning of creation through His creation. Paul does not mince words. He comes out and states that since God has made himself known, there is no excuse.
Talking to people in Rome, known for its debaucherous lifestyle.
Pagan nations were the ones known for sexual immorality.
Romans 1:21 “The knew God” - this word means to understand, not to know by experience. This does not mean they knew God but only that they knew about God.
Read Romans 1:22 “Professing to be wise, they became fools,”
Romans 1:23–27 “and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”
Don’t see your sin listed? Keep reading!!!!
Romans 1:28–32 “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”
WE ARE ALL EQUALLY GUILTY
The cost
But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
Paul switches his focus in the middle of chapter 2 to remind the Jews who think they are righteous by their works and their moral religion, that they are equally guilty before God.
He points to their first step of keeping the Law, circumcision. He tells them, sure, your circumcision is valid of you keep the entire Law but if you break even one Law, then your fleshly circumcision is of no value.
Keeping the requirements of the Law cannot save you. Your moral religion and requirements cannot save you. Paul goes on to say it is the circumcision of the heart that matters. Without Christ, all of our righteousness is filthy rags. You can work all of your life, trying to keep all of the rules and regulations and die lost without Jesus.
Religion is a treadmill!!! You work, you sweat, you wear yourself out and at the end of the day, you have gone nowhere.
This is why we have so many people in Church who say they are living for Jesus, doing all kinds of things, working hard all the time but they have no joy.
When your focus is always on trying to do more and more and trying harder and harder to get God to like you, all you will ever do is end up exhausted and frustrated. The good news of the gospel is not that you need to do more, it is that Christ has already done it all. Nothing you ever do could make God love you more than He loves you today.
In Romans 3:9, Paul begins to confront the the thinking of Jews who think they are more righteous than the Gentile believers because they have the Law.
This is like people who think they are more righteous than someone else because they have been saved longer, or prayed more, or done more good works, or spoke in tongues more, or went to church more.
RIGHTEOUS IS RIGHTEOUS - You cannot be more righteous than righteous!!
Romans 3:9 “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.”
Romans 3:11 “There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.”
You did not seek God. God was never lost, you were. None of us spent out lives going out trying to find God. We were all born into iniquity and spent out lives fulfilling the desires of the flesh. God came looking for us!!
Romans 3:12–18 “They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.””
Paul writes all of this to remind us that we were not just a little bit messed up before we came to Christ. We were not doing ok but just needed a little help from Jesus.
We were jacked up from the floor up! Without Christ, there was nothing good about us. Jesus would not have had to come and die on a cross if all we needed was a little spiritual band-aid on our hearts. He had to come and die because we were all as lost as lost gets and on our way to hell.
A lot of people in church have forgotten how bad they were. We forget what pit God had to drag us out of and that is why we have to beg people to get up and praise and worship God. You forgot how messed up you really were. If you remembered what a mess you were before God found you and drug you up out of that pit, His praise would continually be in your mouth. You would not care who was sitting beside you or behind you. You would not care what people thought about you or thought about your praise.
When they brought the ark back to Jerusalem, David took off his royal robes and danced like crazy before the LORD. His wife became embarrassed and angry but David just told her, “You have not seen anything yet, honey. I will become even more undignified than this.”
In these first three chapters, Paul is letting us know that we are all sinners. He does not place one sin above or below any other sin. He is telling us that we are all equally guilty no matter which category you might fall under.
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
The problem in the American church is we like to categorize sin to make us feel better about ourselves. We sit up in our ivory tower and look down on everyone else, saying, “At least I do not sin like they do” and we pick on groups of people who struggle with what we do not struggle with.
It does not matter if it is homosexual sin, or heterosexual sin, or idolatry, or gossip, or slander, or lying, or stealing, or pride. They are all the same before God and unless you get it under the blood of Jesus, the hell waiting for the backbiter is the same hell waiting for the homosexual and the adulterer.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
Grace is not something you earn. It is a gift you receive. When I say stop trying to work for it, I am not saying to be lazy. I am saying we do not work for our salvation but we work from our salvation. A recognition of how screwed up and lost we were and the grace that God poured out on us should result in our desire to do good works, not to obtain righteousness but to live a life with a desire to please God because of all He has done for us.
