Exposition of Romans 3:9-20
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Welcome!
Welcome!
Good Morning!
So glad to see all of you here this morning.
Challenge
Challenge
Internalize the word: “always be prepared to explain the hope you have in Christ.” By taking the word of God into your very inner-person, his light guides your witness to the world.
Reading Assignments
Reading Assignments
Romans 3:21-26
Introduction
Introduction
As we approach today’s text it is clear that Paul begins a summary and application of the prior arguments that began in 1:18. The opening questions we encounter today parallel the style and form of 3:1-8, but draw forward his main arguments that God’s wrath justly falls on both Gentiles (1:18–32) and Jews (2:1–3:8). Everyone is “under sin”.
So I think it is appropriate before we move on into the next sequence of arguments next week, to point out from 1:17–18 how God’s righteousness is dependent upon the revelation of his wrath. In the same way as God’s promises secure our deliverance through his judgment (not from it), so divine judgment is the vehicle by which his promises are secured.
Israel’s failure to believe the divine oracles does not abrogate the faithfulness of God, but rather establishes it through his faithfulness to judge rightly. There exists some contention between God and humanity as to who is speaking the truth. God’s charge that human beings are “liars” is proven true through Israel’s disbelief. But because of God’s goodness, he will ultimately overcome even their unbelief, which is the theme of Rom. 9–11. So the triumph of God necessarily takes place in the context of human sin (3:4). If God is going to save the world, he must do it through fallen people and deal with human corruption through his righteous judgment.
So the whole of Paul’s argument up to this point is summarized in this statement, in which our confession of guilt (1:18–2:29) confirms the word of God that has pronounced us all guilty of sin (3:1–8).
Now Paul will prove this conclusion with Scripture (3:10–18) and apply the principle to Jews (3:19–20).
Given this setting, we remember that Paul has acknowledged the tremendous ongoing advantage of the Jewish people in 3:1–3, which stimulates the question we now deal with today: “are Jews any better?” Their advantage is not in righteousness but in their proximity to Christ. So the answer that he gives is not intended to retract what he said just previously, but to guard against the conclusion that God’s gifts to the Jews give to them any advantage in God’s judgment. Everyone is under sin. And to be "under sin" means not only "to be a sinner", but also to be a helpless slave to the power of sin (cf. 6:15–23).
Exegesis
Exegesis
When we look at how this summary progresses, we’ll see a series of short questions from which Paul’s conclusions arise. And the significance of these questions can be as easy to miss as their meaning is difficult to translate.
We have one standalone question: “what then?” Which tells us that Paul is summarizing and essentially asks “what are we to make of our situation?”
This question is followed in Greek by one passive verb: “advantage”. What’s quite telling is that depending on how one translates this verb, Paul is either asking “are Jews any better off because of their advantage?” Or, when translated passively - which matches the form of the Greek verb - one might translate this as “are Jews in a worse position than Gentiles?”
So the question is calling for a final assessment about the condition of the Jews. And Paul’s answer fits either sense of this question, depending on whether or not the Jews felt that Paul’s argument might suggest either their “superiority” or “inferiority”.
The phrase “what then?” (τί οὗν) is translated in conjunction with the following verb: "What then do we plead in our own defense?"
So we need to read this summary as answering the burning question, “what defense do we have on our behalf?”
Paul uses passages — mostly from Psalms 14, 5, 140, 10, and 36, along with Isaiah 59 — in a three-tiered structure:
3:10–12
3:13–14
3:15–18.
You’ll want to look down in your Bibles and follow with me.
3:10 essentially functions the thematic header, to which 3:18 returns in conclusion; 3:11–12 describes the general universality of human sin with a series of five synonymous repetitions that there are none righteous
3:13–14 describes the sinfulness of human speech
3:15–17 focuses on sins of violence, concluding that the human depravity and suffering depicted in these verses arise from the lack of a fear of God mentioned in 3:18
Most telling about the meaning here is how the second and third sections, by focusing on various parts of the human body, convey the idea that not only are all people sinners, but every part of every person is involved in sin.
The Whole World Guilty
The Whole World Guilty
I suppose by this point it’s become clear how the logical and theological implications of the gospel are not flattering to our self-perception. God has pronounced the whole world guilty and made the case that our conduct is indefensible. And we do not like to hear this. We look at our life and those of the people we love, and we see some good. We want to defend ourselves, but God warns us not to try because if we do, we will become guilty of suppressing the truth to cover our unrighteousness.
Paul will offer one final argument for humanity’s guilt based on God’s word - which is the highest authority he can appeal to - before he moves into explaining how God will resolve our guilt and restore us to righteousness, just as he promised to do.
9 What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin,
“What then?” (v. 9): This question is asking for the conclusions of the previous arguments, which Paul will provide from Scripture. And this question also gives us hope, for the conclusions given are themselves not the end; there is more, and this “more” is where the gospel fills in our understanding of God’s salvation that has been long since obscured from our view.
“Are we any better off?” (v. 9): Taken without any interpretive license, Paul is simply asking has anyone gained any advantage or suffered any disadvantage in God’s sight?
At the heart of this question is the very human idea that one person is fundamentally better than another. We are always looking for ways to stand over others, but the most fundamental truth of the gospel is that no matter how far you try to ascend over others, you are still hopelessly under water, chained there in the dark abyss of death by your sin.
“Not at all!” (v. 9): How is one sinner any better off than another? Will someone boast, “my crime warrants only 15 lashes before execution, and yours warrants 19!”
“For we have already charged” (v. 9): We find another indicator that Paul is summarizing both of his previous arguments. And, most importantly, we discover that his two previous arguments are simply two sides of one coin.
This gives us an important clue to the interpretation and application of Paul’s text. Showing how he wants to apply these arguments.
“That both Jews and Greeks are all under sin” (v. 9): Both arguments run together like the two sides of a double edged sword to the inevitable and lethal conclusion that the whole world is guilty of sin before God.
We don’t like to look this fact in the face, especially when things are going well for us, because that spoils our fun, nor when things are hard, because that overburdens our troubles; basically there is never a good time when we want to come face to face with this reality. But this is the single most important truth that every person needs to face because this truth deals with what stands between us and God.
Our sin is the essential reality that separates us from God:
2 But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen.
In our very human eagerness to avoid dealing with the consequences of sin, just as Adam and Eve tried to hide their nakedness, we cast aside the most sacred thing of all: our relationship with God.
The sum of Paul’s arguments here can be understood as demolishing our attempts to force our relationship with God on human terms. We cannot have God and our sin. And those who attempt to enter his presence, insisting that they are righteous while still sinning will be judged by his wrath.
I understand that what I just said might raise a lot of questions, and that is good, for those will be the questions Paul will works out in his series of arguments from chapters 4 to 8.
10 as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.
“As it is written” (v. 10): Paul will refer to a series of Scriptures, mostly from Psalms and Isaiah, to establish his point that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. This is important to recognize because it gives apostolic recognition to Old Testament use in Christian living.
“There is no one righteous, not even one” (v. 10): To make the arguments that Paul has made, he must ultimately prove them based on the authority of God’s own pronouncement and not mere human reasoning alone. Otherwise one might say that this is just Paul’s opinion.
For this point, Paul turns either to:
1 The fool says in his heart, “There’s no God.” They are corrupt; they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good.
3 All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.
Given the latter’s use in verse 12, it is likely that Paul is drawing from Psalm 14:1, but you will notice that he has interpreted “good” as “righteous” here, since it is impossible to be “righteous” if one is not also “good”. So this choice to supplement "righteous" for “good” carries the specific nuance of what scholars call “forensic righteousness”; that “righteousness” must be evidenced by good.
So we have no right to stand before God based on our righteousness.
“There is no one who understands” (v. 11): Both the Jewish and Gentile cases to defend their own righteousness demonstrates humanity’s universal ignorance of God. And this is of chief concern given that we were created in the likeness of God and charged to fill the world with the knowledge of his glory. Who is going to take the knowledge of God into the world if they are all so ignorant of his ways? We have already intimated last week how God has been faithful to do exactly this in the person of Jesus Christ even when we were faithless with this charge.
So we have no right to stand before God based on our wise understanding.
“There is no one who seeks God” (v. 11): This is likely drawn from Psalm 14, which reveals the secret unbelief of our hearts, saying “the fool says in his heart ‘there is no God’”. To defend oneself based on the authenticity of one’s “quest for truth” necessitates a life that is both devoted to the pursuit of God and responsive to divine revelation. Yet, when we hear God’s divine pronouncement of our guilt, we argue with him, demonstrating that we were not really seeking God, but our own self-interests!
So we have no right to stand before God based on being authentic truth-seekers.
“All have turned away” (v. 12): Blinded by sin to the perfections and loveliness of God, everyone has turned from his way of life to that way of life that leads away from God. Even the Jew, though illuminated with the knowledge of the law, did not pursue God but turned away from him to follow their own direction.
So we have no right to stand before God based on our position with God.
“All alike have become worthless” (v. 12): The picture drawn here from Psalm 14 is that of milk going sour. Humanity was good but became corrupt. Not only this, but the picture is that it would make God sick to drink from our cup!
So we have no right to stand before God based on our intrinsic value. I suspect this point is most offensive to modern ears because of our philosophy that “you are worth it”. According to the purpose God has made us for, we have become worthless. In our fallen condition, we are not suited to fill the world with the knowledge of God’s glory.
“There is no one who does what is good” (v. 12): No one can claim to be truly good since there is corruption mixed in everyone. Paul does not mean to say that no one does any good deed individually, as some have tried to argue, which leads into some very untenable theologies. Instead, there is no one whose life is lived in actual goodness. And this dispels the notion that individual acts of “good” make sinners good! No! To be “good” you must actually be good.
So we have no right to stand before God based on our good works.
“Not even one” (v. 12): This reveals Paul’s intent to speak universally of human corruption. The wicked person will attempt to argue this point in an attempt to prove unrighteousness in God’s standard, but Paul’s point here is that in doing so they only prove themselves to be among those who are corrupt because God is right. If they were of fair minds, they would listen to the one whose knowledge infinitely supersedes their own!
13 Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips. 14 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Every human being is guilty of what is described in verses verses 10–12. But not everyone will necessarily be guilty of the specific sins in verses 13–18. The sins of speech (3:13–14) combine three different Old Testament passages held together by different organs of speech; the throat, the tongue, and the mouth. So these sins illustrate the depths of human depravity and their prevalence in the human race that everyone is familiar with them.
“Their throat is an open grave” (v. 13): Taken from Psalm 5:9, the description provides God’s perspective on the thoughts of humanity; they stink like a newly-opened grave. This metaphor describes that which continually produces unclean things (like a corpse). Coming out of it will be decay and death. An open tomb may be thought of as a tomb ready to receive the dead; taken this way, our corrupt speech anticipates the sins of verses 15–17.
“They deceive with their tongues” (v. 13): People prepare their wicked deeds with deception to enable their schemes to succeed. We lie, slander, and conceal so that we can get what we want. Every pretense we make to justify ourselves purposefully ignores these things in order to focus on what we think are our virtues. But virtue does not conceal vice. Goodness does not hide sin.
“Viper’s venom is under their lips” (v. 13): We see the destructive effects of the tongue, which are often designed to inflict harm on others. I’m surprised by the great deal of energy and effort scholars have wasted on trying to determine which kind of venomous snake Paul might have had in mind. The species is obviously irrelevant to the point: this metaphor has in mind the poison that lies concealed under the lips that is emitted by our poisonous words. As these venomous creatures kill with their poisonous sting, so our words are also destructive in so many ways!
“Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” (v. 14): And we are all familiar with the habitual tendency of sinful human beings to complain and curse when we fail to get our way. This is perhaps the most fitting conclusion to the “sins of speech” because it calls our attention to our rebellious nature and tendency to inflict strife and harm on others when things don’t go our way.
I suppose we are meant to reflect on how we respond to these things: do these truths fill us with rage and provoke bitterness in our hearts against God? We should see that we are humble and do not attempt to resist God!
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, 17 and the path of peace they have not known. 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
“Their feet are swift to shed blood” (v. 15): This verse is from Isaiah 59:7, and references the violence that humanity has filled the world with from Cain to the present; the pages of human history have been filled with violence, which God abhors!
And here I would be counted negligent in light of current events if I did not warn, as I am commanded to do: we are aware that the nations of this world are quick to shed blood for their cause, but we, as Christians, must not get caught up in that haste! Why should we run so quickly after them to shed the blood of our enemies, who we are commanded to love? Such violence is the mark of those who are condemned! To say otherwise requires the authority of God.
“Ruin and wretchedness are in their paths” (v. 16): Drawn from Isaiah 59:7, this calls to mind the kind of destruction that ruins one’s very substance, which is the result of our violence. These words are meant to call to mind the ideas of “physical destruction, calamity, ruin, devastation, laying waste, and scorched earth policy”. To this end, we learn that violence and suffering are the ways of evil people.
“And the path of peace they have not known” (v. 17): Their wickedness is not only evidenced by what they do, but also by what they don’t do: they are not peacemakers. Even if one argues that violence is ever acceptable, which I do not, the wicked are those who don’t exhaust every peaceable option, which I would argue by Jesus’ own example necessarily includes non-violent self-sacrifice.
What is most notable is that we see this sin corrected when Paul begins to apply the meaning of his theology in chapters 12-15.
Most notably:
19 Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. 20 But If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. 21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.
Indeed, we are called to be children of peace.
“There is no fear of God before their eyes” (v. 18): These sins are the result of having no reverence for the righteous judgment of God. Whereas the wicked take it upon themselves to kill, the righteous wait upon the Lord, who will exact vengeance upon the wicked in true righteousness and justice.
What is important at this point to understand is that this collection of passages begins to define in greater detail one of the major themes of this letter: "sin”. Sin is not only an act of wrongdoing, it is also the absence of good. Paul will progressively show how sin even appears to have power with a life of its own. He often uses ‘sin’ as a way of talking about evil as an almost personal force at work in the world. This comes out particularly in chapter 7.
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment.
“Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are subject to the law” (v. 19): This brings us to the conclusion of Paul’s second argument, where he will finalize his case that the Jews cannot boast any righteousness before God based on the law.
He does this by reminding us who the law speaks to: “those who are subject to the law”. So we should ask, “who is subject to the law?”
Elsewhere, Paul answers:
7 They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on. 8 But we know that the law is good, provided one uses it legitimately. 9 We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral and males who have sex with males, for slave traders, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which was entrusted to me.
Now a whole lot could be said about this, but, plainly stated, they are appealing to the wrong source to justify them since the law only speaks to the unrighteous.
“So that every mouth may be shut” (v. 19): There are two reasons for this: first, the law of God brings the knowledge of sin to silence anyone who might object to their guilt. And I think we have sufficiently shown that no one can rightly escape their accountability to God.
“And the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment” (v. 19): Second, the law silences our moral equivocations so that we might all be held accountable to God. This is what is meant by saying that “God’s promises secure our deliverance through his judgment (not from it); divine judgment is the vehicle by which his promises are secured”.
God will not compromise his justice for salvation, nor is salvation lost because of his justice. Instead, salvation comes through God’s justice, a point that Paul will argue in much greater detail moving forward.
20 For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
“For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law” (v. 20): So to round the matter off, he returns here to the question of the law. Still talking about Jews, he explains that ‘works of the law’ can never be the basis upon which anyone is declared to be ‘in the right’—in technical language, is ‘justified’.
Anyone who appeals to their covenant status through the law for justification will find that the law itself replies, "You have broken me."
“Because the knowledge of sin comes through the law” (v. 20): This looks ahead to Romans 5:20, which says “the law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more”, as well as looking to the whole of chapter 7, which is Paul’s greatest theological treatment of the law in the New Testament.
Unfortunately, the error Paul is dealing with here now persists in some theological circles even today. Some attempt to reason their standing before God based on their works. And the reasoning used to get around this point is remarkably convoluted. So we must not miss Paul’s point here: anyone who imagines that they can stand before God and appeal their works for final justification will discover that by their works they will be condemned because no one is righteous, not even one of us!
Therefore, the law brings the knowledge of sin.
So where do we find the knowledge of God?
The answer to this question will be anticipated in the arguments moving forward.
Conclusions
Conclusions
So all of this means that no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law. We are all “under sin’s power" to such an extent that no one can ever sufficiently obey God’s law to justify themselves before him. Rather, the law functions to make people conscious of sin. By setting forth God’s will in great detail, the Mosaic law makes absolutely clear that it is the living God whom we offend when we sin. It thus gives to humanity a clear understanding of our “accountability” before God.
And this calls for an altogether different paradigm for establishing our righteousness with God. If we are not righteous before God based on our works - what we do - then how can we be made righteous in God’s sight?
The gospel provides the answer to this question by giving us the superior righteousness that comes by faith, which is explained in greater detail in chapters 4, 6, and 8.