Romans 3:1-20

What about those who are not upholding what God has commanded?

Last week we discussed God’s Judgement is on everybody. We discussed that we are all under the condemnation of sin and that no one can ever be good enough to inherit salvation. The only way to salvation is through Jesus. Even the people that look spotless on the outside and seem like perfect Christians, if they do not have a relationship with Jesus they are as lost as anybody else. You can fool humans with your spirituality but you cannot fool God.

In these next couple of verse Paul is bringing up questions that the people were asking. Paul was bringing up rhetorical questions that he was then going to answer.

Romans 3:1–4 ESV

1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”

Paul is pointing out questions that Jews were asking that differed God’s Righteousness on Jews and Gentiles. The Jews were asking what benefit some of their cultural biblical examples that they have been doing for years compared to the Gentiles who just all of the sudden were under God’s grace.

The Jews have been following food law and personal laws for years given by God. They were upset because since Jesus died they felt as if these years have gone to waste and we would feel the exact same way.

Paul does admit that there is a significant advantage to them keeping the law and that advantage is that the Jews were entrusted with the Word of God originally. So they have been able to grow in their faith where as the Gentiles have not.

Paul then goes into asking the question about the unfaithful Jews. He asked to group if the unfaithful Jews negated the faithfulness of God. The reason he asked this is because there were a lot of Jews who had the scriptures and memorized them but what if they did not believe what the scriptures say. If they have the scripture but do not believe it does that make God unfaithful?

There are many people in Winona that have a bible and they may read it but unless they believe it then it does nothing for them. Essentially he is asking if every Jew (Jews can be born Jewish) are saved because they are a Jew. The answer is no unless they believe in Jesus.

The answer is a resounding NO! God is faithful regardless of if we are faithful or not. In today’s culture everybody is a Christian. But there aren’t many true Christians in the World. Since there are a lot of unfaithful Christians in the world does that make God not Faithful?

That is the exact question Paul was asking to the Romans.

Unbelievers do not make God unfaithful. God is faithful even if there is not a single believer in the world. God’s Word is alway true and God is alway perfect despite what others are doing.

Through our unrighteousness God’s Righteousness is revealed and that brings about the next set of questions the Jews ask.

Romans 3:5–8 ESV

5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

Paul write the question essentially that if God’s righteousness is revealed through us being evil then we should continue on in our wickedness so that God’s love and grace can be displayed more openly. He also asked if God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on to humans.

The immediate response is ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Paul is rhetorically asking, Since sin makes God’s Glory evident then why is the sinner punished for his sin.”

God is perfect and God judges when comparing to his standard of living. Sin is the blight on humanity and with us being sinners then we do not line up with the perfectness of God.

Paul explains that all sin no matter how big or small is under the condemnation of a Holy God.

Sin all are sinners and all are under the condemnation of God then that means that everybody is also unrighteous.

Romans 3:9–18 ESV

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, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Romans 3:9–20 ESV

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, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 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. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Paul then lumps all people in one bucket. Everybody is under the condemnation of sin. There is not a single person that is purified in the eyes of God. Paul even includes scripture from Psalms to signify the importance of scripture but also to reiterate the idea that everyone is under sin. All of us are sinners.

Paul is explaining that in our natural state of life without any outside influence we tend towards evil. We tend towards selfishness which puts us before everyone else when we are selfish we do not show love to anyone except for personal gain. Even when we are following Christ we still have a tendency to fall back into our selfish ways. When we do this though we are then acting out our sinful nature rather than our Godly nature.

This signifies the problem that everybody faces all points back towards sin. Imagine a world without sin how perfect that would be. There would be no selfishness, murder, stealing, gossip, political unrest, death, depression, bullying, or even punishments. That is how the world was originally until Adam and Eve ate of the fruit.

Genesis 3:1–7 ESV

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Gen. 3:

All because Adam and Eve were tempted by the master of sin. The entire world was then condemned to be under sin. Satan’s whole purpose of getting Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit is the exact same reason Satan got kicked out of Heaven. Satan wanted to be like God and deceived other angels as well to try to over throw God. Satan used this same tactic saying that if they ate of the fruit then they will be like God.

The punishment for this was :

Gen. 3:

Genesis 3:16–19 ESV

16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Because of the disobedience and the temptation from Satan our lives became infinitely harder. Imagine having no pain or hurt that is what this world was created for. When Adam and Eve sinned it caused all to be under the condemnation since everybody initially descended from them. We all sinned through the sin of Adam and Eve.

Since the fall we all endure the consequences that followed. We have all turned away from God from this moment forward. As seen in we are rebelling from God. We rebel through our sinning which breaks the relationship we have with a Holy God.

The major consequence of sin is that we all die. We die spiritually and physically. Without sin there would be no separation from God. There would be no physical death.

Before Adam and Eve sinned they would personally walk in the Garden with God during the day. They were able to have a conversation with Him and have a personal relationship with Him. Because of sin this is no longer the case there is not a single one of us who has personally physically walked with God.

This also means that there is not a single person who can work hard enough to be righteous. You cannot bet the best second of your life to get you into Heaven.

Romans 3:19–20 ESV

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. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Rom.

When God gave us the Ten Commandments He did so that we can see our unrighteousness. Remember the never have I ever game with the 10 commandments and we figured out that there is not a single person in the room that has kept 60% of the commandments that its impossible.

This is extremely hard for us to comprehend because we think that everybody is “Good”. The only problem with goodness and badness is that they are completely relative. We are all good when comparing ourselves to murderers or people like Hitler. But when we compare ourselves to God who is perfect we are all bad. Righteousness and unrighteousness is compares us to what God’s standards are and we cannot compare to these standards.

We must realize that we are unworthy and unrighteous to truly see the love of God. We do not deserve any kind of forgiveness but when we realize that we can’t do enough good to inherit heaven God’s love becomes so much sweeter.

We need to be praying for our lost friends. Read ENGAGE. Do activity.