Our Sin Vs His Righteousness| Romans 3:9-26
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Intro: Good evening everyone and welcome back to our Sunday nights. Thank you so much for being with us. I truly do miss when we aren’t together on Sunday nights and I am glad that you are here. This semester we are taking another break from the book of Matthew. We will pick that back up in the fall. This semester, each month is going to be its own series. This month we are going to be looking at what is known as the Roman road. Tonight we are looking at Romans 3:9-26.
I want to see how many of you in here are law breakers. So let’s just go through some laws that are commonly broken. Don’t raise your hands or anything, but I think we will have an idea. In the state of Georgia, murder is a crime. Yes, I know, shocking. Robbing a bank is also a crime. In all seriousness, here are some. Sharing someone’s streaming password is a crime. Holding your phone at a stop light if you are driving a car, that is a crime. Trespassing is a crime. If you go on land that you are not permitted to go on or drive on land that doesn’t permit driving on it, that is a crime. Lying about age online is a crime. If your social media account says that you are older than you are, you are a lawbreaker. Using a fake name on an account is a crime. Any lawbreakers in here. Even if you think it’s small, and even if you justify it by saying it’s not that many, you are a law breaker.
The same goes for sin. We are all sinners because we have all sinned. We have sinned against a Holy Righteous God. That’s a big deal. When we look at tonight’s text, we will see that we are sinful and deserving of punishment, but God dished out that punishment on Jesus so we could could receive his righteousness. We will see two different themes in tongiht’s text. Our sinfulness, and his righteousness, will you please stand as we honor the reading of God’s Word.
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, 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 speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Verses 9-20
Exposition: Tonight’s passage starts with verse 9. Romans 3:9
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
Exposition: To understand what is going on here, we have to understand some context. Paul has just spent some time speaking about how there is advantage that Jews have because they are God’s chosen people. But he also is letting his readers know that when it comes to eternity, not side is in a better spot, because all are under sin.
Explanation: Nobody knows who started the Roman church. Most likely it was started by Jewish people who heard Peter’s sermon in Jerusalem you can read in Acts 2 and were saved and then went back to Rome and started the church. Overtime, Gentiles in Rome started to come to know Christ, but the churches were mostly Jewish. Then, the Roman emperor expelled Jews out of Rome for a while, at this time the churches would have been mostly gentile. Over time, Jews returned to Rome and now churches were mixing and there was a great cultural clash. Paul is making sure they understand that one’s background and customs were not important because everyone had the same problem. That problem is sin. In fact Paul demonstrates this in verse 10 when we read Romans 3:10
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
Exposition: Quoting from the Psalms, Paul makes the case that there is no one that is good. No one is righteous. Now Paul is not saying that no one does good things. That’s not true. But because we are all sinners, we all are naturally not righteous. No matter how many good things we do, we cannot make the sins we do go away. And he is going to demonstrate that using a variety of Old Testament passages. Starting with verses 11 and 12 he writes Romans 3:11
no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Exposition: And we all know this is naturally true. We all have a God sized heart in our hearts. There is a hole that only God can fill. But He is not the thing we are naturally going to fill it with. And we see this time and time again. People who don’t know Jesus, don’t just wake up and seek after Him. Sin has corrupted that. Paul goes on and gets more specific in the following verses. Romans 3:13-14
“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
Exposition: Paul uses two metaphors here that help us understand how sinful the words we use are. He compares ones throat, where his or her voice originates to that of an open grave. Think about what an open grave would be like especially in the first century. There was no embalming and there were no caskets. They also were not down in the ground. They were usually some kind of cave or structure that was above ground. If one were to walk past an open grave, that person would have been able to smell and possibly see the decomposition of the body. I know, gross. Paul also said that under a person’s lips was the venom of a super venomous snake. He’s showing just how evil the words we use are.
Application/Illustation: And we all know this to be true. Think, the thing that gets most of you in trouble with your parents more than anything is your mouth. That moment where you should have kept it shut but you didn’t and then it’s all over. But let’s get more serious. The things you have said to others and and others have said to you are the things that still haunt you. The friendships you have lost have probably been over words. Our words reveal our sinfulness. Some of you probably struggle with sin more than anything in the language you use outside of the church setting.
Exposition: Paul goes on to show that our sinfulness is just our natural setting. HE writes in verses 15-17 Romans 3:15-17
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.”
Exposition: You know how we know that man’s natural inclination is to sinfulness. How many of you have taken a world history class or studied world history of some kind in Social Studies. Yea, you don’t see a lot of people getting along when you study world history. in Federalist paper 51, one of the essays written by founding fathers to convince people to accept the U.S. Constitution as the law of the land, he writes "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." Men are not angels.
Illustration: There is no better demonstration of this than when a teacher walks out of a classroom and is gone for more than about two minutes. Y’all know what I’m talking about. We have all been in a classroom when a teacher walked out and chaos breaks out. That is our natural state. We are not naturally righteous. And Paul diagnoses the ultimate reason why in verse 18. Romans 3:18
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Exposition: This is the ultimate cause of sin. We do not see God as authority. We lack reverence to who He is and this leads us to go our own way. We can see this in our own sin patterns. We can tell the difference in our attitudes towards God in worship at Move Conference and our moments of sin. There is just a lack of reverence.
Paul then writes in verse 19 Romans 3:19
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
Exposition: The Jews were the ones under the law. They were the ones to whom it was given so they could see their need for a savior. Paul addresses this throughout Romans. But if the people who had the law have sinned, how much more the people that don’t even know it. Therefore, as Paul is saying here, every mouth will stop in trying to explain away sin because the whole world is going to be held accountable. Even the ones that think they can point to good things they have done. Why, Paul tells us in verse 20. Romans 3:20
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Application: We have talked about this, nobody looks at the law and sees how righteous he or she is, because as we saw at the beginning, we see how much we have done wrong. The Jews wanted to point to following ceremonial law as what made them righteous, when the law really showed all the other ways they were sinful. Young people, doing Christian things is not what makes us right with Christ. You can’t go to church enough, you can’t read your bibles enough. You can’t go on enough youth trips. All of these things just reveal how much we fall short.
Transition: We’re all terrible people deserving of the eternal fires of hell. If that doesn’t get you excited about life I don’t know what will. But this isn’t where the passage ends. Our sin makes us deserving of hell, but it doesn’t mean it makes us destined for hell.
Verses 21-26
Paul begins to turn the page in verse 21 when he writes Romans 3:21
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
Exposition: the word manifests has the idea of something being revealed. The righteousness of God was been revealed apart from the law. It’s been revealed apart from what we can do or try to do. The law and the prophets, what we read in the Old Testament speak about the one that would reveal it, but that’s not what reveals it. How has it been revealed, read verse 22. Romans 3:22
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
Exposition: The righteousness of God is made known in the person of Jesus. For who? For everybody who does enough good things. No, for all who believe. It says through faith it is revealed to us. It is made manifest to us. And who is it available to? It is available for all who believe. Why? how could this be possible. If we are all sinners. if we are all so deserving of wrath, how can we all know the righteousness of God? Paul tells us in verses 23 and 24. Romans 3:23-24
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Exposition: Verse 23 says all have sinned. The distinction Paul is making is Jew and Gentile, which was the one he understood best. But that means there is no distinction. Churched or unchurched. Rich or poor. All have sinned. All fall short of the glory of God. We all do. You are no better than anyone and there is no one better than you. We are all sinners. But just as all are sinners, all are justified in Christ Jesus. All have sinned, but all can have hop in Jesus. That means no matter who you are, you count in all.
Explanation: The word redemption there is from the root of the word to pay a ransom. Because of our sin were punishers, but God paid a ransom so that we could be free of the punishment of sin? But we are sinners How is this even possible? Paul tells us in verse 25 Romans 3:25
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Explanation: We have to understand the word propitiation. I imagine that’s not a word that many of you use very often. It’s not in your text conversations, as I’ve been told their not called threads anymore, that I need a translator to read. The word propitiation means to satisfy the demands of an angry deity. Jesus was a propitiation by His blood. Why? Well Romans 6:23 reads Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Explanation: The just punishment for sin is death. You know why God wasn’t wrong to flood the earth in the story of Noah’s ark. You know why God wasn’t unjust to tell Israel to wipe out everybody from the land of Canaan, because the deserving punishment of sin is death. There has to be death to atone for sin. And there was death. But it wasn’t our death, it was the death of Jesus. God’s wrath was satisfied when it was poured out on Jesus on the cross. And those who have faith in Him have their debt paid by the blood of Jesus. This shows God’s righteousness. How, because he could have just poured out his wrath on the world at any point. Forbearance is to extend the time until a debt is owed or has to start being paid back. God waited until a time of his choosing. And he sent Jesus from heaven, to live a perfect life, and die on the cross for our sins. That was when he chose to pour out his wrath. It could have been us. It should have been us. But he chose Jesus so that all those who place their faith in Jesus could not be defined by their own sin, but by His righteousness. But why? Why did God show it this way? Paul tells us in verse 26. Romans 3:26
It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Exposition: He wanted to show his righteousness at the present time. Paul would have been writing about 25 years or so after Jesus died and rose again. He was seeing the message of Christ spread. He was writing in fact to a church in Rome a place he had never even been. The gospel was spreading. And he chose that time to do this. He chose that moment. Why did he do it this way. He wanted to be both just and the justifier of the ones who had faith in Jesus.
Explanation: The word just is also a legal word. It means to be seen as one’s punishment having been paid. For God to be just he had to punish sin. God would not be a just God if he let sin go unpunished. To excuse evil is not to do justice. It may be mercy, but it’s not justice. So sin had to be punished. But God also wanted us to know of his love and mercy for us. For this reason, he put Jesus on the cross. For those who believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. And I don’t mean believe as in you’ve heard that before and think it could be true. I mean that you are ready to rest your eternity on it. That you think that you are ready to be all in on this, God says your punishment has been paid.
Conclusion: If you were here for the last time we met, I said then that we often have two natural ways we view sin. One is that we act like it’s not that big of a deal. We act like it’s not that bad because we feel that overall we are good. As long as we feel our good stuff, which we want to be the judges of, out numbers the bad stuff, we are ok. But that’s not true. It’s not the amount of sin that makes us sinners. It just the sin. And we all have sin, so we are all sinners who are deserving of God’s wrath. The other view is that feel like we can’t let go of our sin. There’s something that we feel is so bad that we are paralyzed by it. We think that God forgives, but we have a past that is really too bad. That is also untrue. What is true is that we are sinners deserving of God’s wrath. But that wrath has been poured out, and it was poured out on Jesus. God loves us so much that he poured his wrath on Jesus, so that all who place their faith in Him could have their sins forgiven and have a hope to spend eternity with Him. Are you ready? Are you ready tonight to place you faith in Jesus. Are you ready to admit that you are a sinner, but through faith, receive the righteousness of Christ. If so, when we go into our discussion groups in a minute, I want you to come find me and let’s have that discussion. Let’s pray.
