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ROMANS: Intro: Chap. 1 Chap. 2 Chap. 3 Chap.4 Chap.5 Chap.6 Chap.7 Chap.8 "In my own words" Ch 9 Chs.9-11 text
ROMANS: Intro: Chap. 1 Chap. 2 Chap. 3 Chap.4 Chap.5 Chap.6 Chap.7 Chap.8 "In my own words" Ch 9 Chs.9-11 text
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CHAPTER 3
1What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 2Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. 3For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 4God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged. 5But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? (I speak as a man) 6God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? 7For if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? 8And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. 9What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. 13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17And the way of peace have they not known: 18There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19Now we know that whatever things the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus. 27Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 29Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 30Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. 31Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. |
Chapter 3.
The Final Verdict.
Here is our next illustration from the scriptures. The bucket on a chain which has ten links. If only one link is broken, the bucket falls. So we can see that Man is truly condemned from the three Laws mentioned. He is guilty on all counts. It is a just verdict. Even if every person in the world rejected God's assessment, then God would be true and every person a liar. In chapter 3 v 7 we have the ultimate excuses for sin. It is a fine example of man’s futile attempt to balance the scales with philosophical excuses. He claims that God should be grateful to him as a sinner because his sin surely contrasts and magnifies his righteousness. In our modern day thinking, they are pathetic excuses, but maybe there is an element here of Jewish philosophy, for in the Hebrew language, the same word is used with two opposite meanings, and discernible only within the context. One example is in John ch 21, where the word "devoted to" also means "accursed". For to be devoted to Christ means that other "things" ( "do you love me more than these" asked Jesus) will be counted as accursed. However, there are still many people today who would suggest that much good comes of their evils, especially in the realms revelry, alcohol, lotteries, draw tickets and other such things which encourage envy and covetousness. People living on the proceeds of prostitution will present some case for their business to be a benefit to society. As in the case set before Judge solomon, by two women who each claimed they were the mother of the live baby and not the dead one, so no-ne desires to be responsibility for the dead babies in society. all claim to be benefactors. Much immorality today is justified on democratic grounds. If the majority say such behaviour is acceptable then apparently in this 21st century it must be O.K. But morality is not a question of democracy. In God’s world, God’s vote out-votes the world. “Let God be true and every man a liar” So then we reach a just verdict – All guilty. We accept a just penalty- Death - or separation from Life (which is God.) Which of us would not protest loudly if we did not receive our wages for work, and rightly so. It would not be right. Everyone should be paid their wages. The wages of Sin is death in God’s account book. None can argue that this is not a just verdict and right condemnation. This is the God of the Bible. To believe in any other God, is surely to believe in a god of one's own making. Words are not enough.
Hebrews tells us about the "dead works of Conscience.
Man has endless excuses for his sinful behaviour. In chapter three we have the outrageous suggestion that God should be glad of man's unrighteousness because it then emphasises the righteousness of God Should God even consider such mitigation would be a compromise with evil. He would be calling black to be white. How then would he be righteous enough to judge the world? Guilty Verdict
That is the BAD NEWS. All are guilty, not one single person has walked fully in the Light that God has revealed through Nature, Conscience, or the Law of Moses
Love found a way.
God has found a way to justify the sinner,
without man having to do anything at all to level the scales. Firstly, God cannot justify the persons who continues to justify themselves. We must first genuinely accept the guilty verdict and confess our Sin. If we ask for forgiveness God points us to the cross. Significantly the cross looks like a pair of scales - Two arms outstretched to save. On a personal level each believer is able to say; Christ died in my place. He took the penalty of the Law for me. He did not have to die for he never sinned. He kept all the Law. As a man, He satisfied his God. He is the only one who has glorified God with his life on earth. (John 17) The rest of us are nothing like what God intended us to be. If we ourselves were to create or make something of which we were not proud, which did not glorify us in any way, then we would hesitate to have our name upon it. Likewise by our sinfulness we bring no glory to our creator. But Jesus did, and God thundered it from heaven at his baptism “This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” Jesus took our wages, which we had earned and deserved, which was - death, and God now freely offers to all who will wholeheartedly believe that this is true, immediate forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life. In this way the Law of God is not violated. The justice of God is balanced, For the Law says I am a sinner, and I must die. Therefore I believe God’s word that says that when Christ died, I died, as far as God is concerned. He accepts Christ’s death as mine. Paul says in Galatians ch 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ”. If we are dead, we are free from the Law. Sin cannot condemn us any longer, for Sin is powerless to bring condemnation without the Law. The cross is the place where heaven's Love and heaven's Justice meet. Identification.
Consider the illustration: a piece of paper is in the book, wherever the book goes, the paper goes. Likewise you count yourself to be in Christ by faith,
Where he goes, you go. Therefore, He died- you died, He was buried- You were buried in baptism, He rose to New Life- you rose to new life. He is seated at God’s right hand in eternal fellowship- You are seated at God’s right hand in eternal fellowship Is this not good news? The Just died for the unjust: We are now Justifed, as if we had never sinned. God. To know how the train of salvation works, the believer must understand how the law and the penalty for breaking the Law was paid by the Holy sinless Life and Sacrifice of Jesus. For if by faith, we have identified with his death, God now counts us to have died. We count ourselves to be dead by faith- The law is finished with us, and finished with us. So now there is no condemnation from the Law, and there is no sin to separate us from God. Sin has been conquered and has lost its power, for it gained its power from the Law (Rom ch 7). Now we can know the presence of God continually when we live with minds that continually are aware of that fact. We now by thinking in the realm of the spirit- as we read in Rom 8 1-17 we are continually in God's presence. But that does not mean that we no longer have a sinful body with sinful fleshly appetites. So to live in the new life we have to take active steps to "mortify the flesh" as this passage says. It comes down to my old addage "Every days a chooseday". We choose to live in the Spirit or the Flesh. If we choose to life in the flesh believing that the grace of God covers any sins that come, then so be it, BUt our spiritual growth will not take place. For we grow in Grace and a knowledge of Jesus- so each day we should be asking, "would Jesus do that?" If we dont live with this kind of mind then we really are abusing the grace of God. And God can't be very pleased as he wants fellowship with us more than we want fellowship with Him. That is why He paid such a price for it to be possible. |
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Propitiation;
Why did Jesus Die on the cross?
Most will probably answer, “he died for me” or “he died for all sinners”. But the word “propitiation” tells us that essentially Jesus died for God, his Father.
For propitiation means that God is appeased or satisfied. You see, SIN is essentially God’s problem. SIN CAME BETWEEN GOD AND MAN; His love for men CONSTRAINED him, that he find a way to pay for sin. Justice demanded that the Law be fulfilled. God, being righteous and just could not simply wink at our sins and then forgive everybody.
Isaiah ch 53 tells us “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him” and tells us that the punishment due to all “we sheep who have gone astray” was laid on the one Lamb that didn't. God executed the punishment. Justice has been done. When Jesus cried on the cross “It is finished” he could well have cried “It is paid - in Full!”. God has been paid in FULL. If we consider that the Father and the Son are one then we have a situation that God took his own wrath upon himself. Ponder!
Justification
Note the good news in CH 3 Verse 24. This is the very heart of the Gospel
Rom 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Can you discern the two sides of the scales of God’s justice. On one side we have the words “justified freely by his grace”.
On the other side, “by the redemption (or price paid) that is in the blood of Jesus Christ”
The reason God justifies for free, is because of the redemption price his justice demanded and which has been paid in full BY JESUS CHRIST.
This chapter tells us that God is just and he justifies those who put their faith in Jesus. In the same way as all those who were hidden in Noah’s Ark, were saved from the judgment, so all those who enter into Christ by faith are saved from God’s eternal judgement.
Here we see the righteousness of God.
Man seeks to balance the scales by making excuses, as we saw previously when dealing with Conscience.
Also Man seeks to balance the scales with good works, or charity work. This is usually well publicised with photos in the press of giant sized cheques being handed over. In the book of Hebrews we read of such deeds, which are called "the dead works of conscience" (Heb 6:1; 9:14)
Only Jesus, by his Life and death balanced the scales
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Rom 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Can you discern the two sides of the scales of God’s justice. On one side we have the words “justified freely by his grace”.
On the other side, “by the redemption (or price paid) that is in the blood of Jesus Christ”
The reason God justifies for free, is because of the redemption price his justice demanded and which has been paid in full BY JESUS CHRIST.
This chapter tells us that God is just and he justifies those who put their faith in Jesus. In the same way as all those who were hidden in Noah’s Ark, were saved from the judgment, so all those who enter into Christ by faith are saved from God’s eternal judgement.
Here we see the righteousness of God.
Man seeks to balance the scales by making excuses, as we saw previously when dealing with Conscience.
Also Man seeks to balance the scales with good works, or charity work. This is usually well publicised with photos in the press of giant sized cheques being handed over. In the book of Hebrews we read of such deeds, which are called "the dead works of conscience" (Heb 6:1; 9:14)
Only Jesus, by his Life and death balanced the scales
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