This series covers our study through the book of Romans. These sermons with careful and slow exegetical expository coverage move through each chapter and verse following the theme and thesis of the book that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. These sermons were primarily preached by Pastor Duane Smets from April 2005 to November 2008 at The Resolved Church, San Diego, CA in its first three years of existence. Audio from the first year is unavailable.

   Audio & Manuscripts Below

The Gospel Thesis
 Listen     Read    1:1-7 |  An Introduction To Romans
 Listen     Read    1:2-6 |  The Validity, Content & Effect of The Gospel
 Listen     Read    1:7-15 |  Romans Is For God
 Listen     Read    1:14-15 |  Romans Is For Us
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  The Gospel Is The Power Of God Unto Salvation
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Thank God For Jews
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Justification By Faith
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Justification & Habbakuk
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  We Are Beggars. This Is True

The Problem Of Sin
 Listen     Read    1:18 |  The Wrath of God
 Listen     Read    1:18-21 |  What Is Plain About God
 Listen     Read    1:18-32 |  The Suppression of Truth and Consequences
 Listen     Read    2:1-11 |  Seek Glory (Part I)
 Listen     Read    2:5-11 |  Seek Glory (Part II)
 Listen     Read    2:11-16 |  The Impartial God
 Listen     Read    2:17-19 |  Circumcision of the Heart
 Listen     Read    3:1-18 |  Moribund No More
 Listen     Read    3:19-20 |  Put Your Hand Over Your Mouth
 Listen     Read    3:21 |  Righteousness From Without
 Listen     Read    3:21-23 |  No Distinction

The Promised Savior
 Listen     Read    3:24-25 |  Propitiation
 Listen     Read    3:25-26 |  Righteousness Demonstrated
 Listen     Read    3:27-30 |  One God & One Salvation
 Listen     Read    3:31 |  The Law Upheld
 Listen     Read    4:1-12 |  The Imputation of Righteouness
 Listen     Read    4:13-17 |  The Promise Secured
 Listen     Read    4:18-22 |  The Heritage of Hope (Part I)
 Listen     Read    4:18-22 |  The Heritage of Hope (Part II)
 Listen     Read    4:22-24 |  The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
 Listen     Read    4:25 |  Who Killed Jesus?
 Listen     Read    5:1 |  Peace With God
 Listen     Read    5:2 |  In The Throne Room
 Listen     Read    5:2 |  Rejoice In The Hope Of The Glory of God
 Listen     Read    5:3-5 |  Rejoicing and Suffering
 Listen     Read    5:6-8 |  Love and Some Verses
 Listen     Read    5:8-10 |  Salvation In Jesus Christ
 Listen     Read    5:11 |  Joy In God
 Listen     Read    5:12-14 |  We Are From Adam
 Listen     Read    5:15-17 |  Jesus Is Better Than Adam
 Listen     Read    5:18-19 |  The Guilt & The Gift
 Listen     Read    5:20-21 |  It’s All About Grace

New Life In Christ
 Listen     Read    6:1-4 |  Baptism: The Life of the Buried Dead
 Listen     Read    6:5-7 |  Sin & Union With Christ (Part I)
 Listen     Read    6:8-11 |  Sin & Union With Christ (Part II)
 Listen     Read    6:12-14 |  God Reigning In You
 Listen     Read    6:15-18 |  Master Jesus (Part I)
 Listen     Read    6:19-23 |  Master Jesus (Part II)

Bearing Fruit For God
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part I
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part II
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part III

Law & Gospel
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 1
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 2
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 3
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 4

Inner Confliction & The Gospel
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 1
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 2
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 3

No Condemnation In Christ
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 1
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 2
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 3
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 4
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 5

Walking According To The Spirit
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 1
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 2
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 3
  Listen    Read    8:9-13  |  Part 4
  Listen    Read    8:9-13  |  Part 5

The Jesus Family
  Listen    Read    8:12-13  |  Jesus Family Does Not Lose the Battles Which Count
  Listen    Read    8:14-15  |  Jesus Family Welcomes Members and Leads Them
  Listen    Read    8:14  |  The Family of Old
  Listen    Read    8:15-16  |  Adopted Forever
  Listen    Read    8:15  |  The Great Father We Call Abba
  Listen    Read    8:17  |  The Future of the Family

Suffering And The Glory Of God
 Listen     Read    8:18-25  |  Natural Evil & Moral Evil
 Listen     Read    8:18-25  |  The Groaning of God’s Spirit
 Listen     Read    8:26-27  |  Prayer & Suffering
 Listen     Read    8:28  |  How God Works it For Good
 Listen     Read    8:29  |  The Image of Christ
 Listen     Read    8:28-30  |  Predestination
 Listen     Read    8:31-39  |  Evil & The Existence of God
 Listen     Read    8:31-39  |  Barriers for the Believer

The God(ness) of God
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part I)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part II)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part III)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part IV)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part I)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part II)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part III)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part IV)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part V)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part I)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part II)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part III)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part IV)

Viva La Vida Christus: Living The Life Of Christ
  Listen    Read    12:1-2  |  All of Life is Worship
  Listen    Read    12:3-8  |  Humility, our Gifts, and Real Life
  Listen    Read    12:9-21  |  The Life of Genuine Love
  Listen    Read    13:1-7  |  Life Under Temporal Law
  Listen    Read    13:8-10  |  Life Under Eternal Law
  Listen    Read    13:11-14  |  Living in Light of the Day
  Listen    Read    14:1-2  |  The Principle of Preference (Part I)
  Listen    Read    14:13-15:3  |  The Principle of Preference (Part II)
  Listen    Read    15:4-13  |  The Principle of Preference (Part III)
  Listen    Read    15:14-33  |  Fulfilling the Mission
  Listen    Read    16:1-27  |  Entrusted to God

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The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

:: The Resolved ::

Justin Bragg (elder)

Romans 3 “The Law Upheld”

27 then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 or is god the god of Jews only? Is he not the god of gentiles also? Yes, of gentiles also, 30 since god is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Remember the function these verses serve – vv 21-31 is the proclamation of justification by grace through faith.
21-26 is the positive affirmation, and 27-31 serves to uphold this justification against critics who presume justification by faith alone to be erroneous
27-28 proved that justification by faith alone excludes boasting from the life of the believer
29-30 proved that justification by faith alone means that all can be saved, and are in fact saved in only one way – namely by faith
And 31 is going to prove how justification by faith alone actually confirms the law, rather than overthrow it is many assume that it will

Our focus tonight is going to be on v 31 alone.
Where does this question come from?
“Do we then overthrow (nullify) the law? What kind of question is this?
Why did he ask this? There must have been somebody thinking that Paul was doing this in his teaching – nullifying the law

Romans 3:31 “do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.”

Or in different language – “but by shifting our focus from what we do to what god does, don’t we cancel out all our careful keeping of the rules and ways god commanded? Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting that entire way of life in its proper place, we confirm it.” (The message)

Someone is saying, ‘Paul you are overthrowing the law. What you are teaching abolishes the law of god.”
Paul obviously does not agree with this. But before we see why he does not, it is important to ask what causes this question to come up?
Why would anyone accuse Paul of nullifying the law?

It helps to get the context. When you come to a text like this, it helps to remember that a lot has been said leading up to this point, so let’s go back and look at some of his statements that might warrant this accusation

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.”
He says that nobody will be justified by doing commandments of the law like “do not work on the Sabbath,” “be circumcised,” don’t lie, steal, commit adultery, or kill” – no sinner can get right with god by doing the “works of the law”

Then 3:21 “but now the righteousness of god has been manifested apart from the law”
God’s righteousness is given to us “by his grace as a gift” (24) through Christ apart from the law of commandments.
Keeping commandments is not how you and I get made right with god

3:27 “then what becomes of our boasting? It s excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.”
Again, Paul seems to trash the “law of works” it can’t get rid of boasting, only a “law of faith” can get rid of boasting – so what good is the law anymore?

Notice 3:28 “for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law”
There is again. Paul is not satisfied to just say “a man is justified by faith” – he insists on trash talking the law again “apart from works of the law”

This is what is getting his critics so pissed off – there is no doubt that Paul is saying that the law cannot set us right with god.
We get right with god by faith “apart from the works of the law”

Now with this context in mind, when we come to v 31 and he asks “do we then overthrow the law by this faith?” It isn’t really a surprise that Paul is getting asked this question.

“you keep saying that a person gets right with god by faith apart from ‘works of the law’ and the ‘law of works’ can’t overcome boasting, so it seems that you are virtually throwing out the law – you are saying that all those commandments in the moral law of god have no authority and are no good for salvation and can just be ignored by god’s people. You are commending a ‘lawless’ Christian life.

To which Paul emphatically responds – ‘may it never be!’ absolutely not. That is in no way what I am doing.
It may look like that on the surface, but don’t jump to conclusions, dig deeper, follow the entire argument – all the way to the end. One should not press his/her assumptions on the argument without hearing it out. Paul claims that he is not overthrowing the law when he preaches justification by faith alone apart from works of the law.

In fact, he goes on to say, “on the contrary, we uphold (establish) the law.’
This is incredible. He turns the tables on the critics. He says ‘not only do we not overthrow the law when we teach justification by faith alone apart form works of the law, but we uphold and establish the law in our teaching. Justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law, does not destroy the law, it builds it up.
Getting right with god by faith, not works, establishes or upholds the law.

What does this mean? – that you can get right with god by faith, and apart from the law actually upholds the law.

First and foremost, the doctrine of justification by grace through faith upholds the law in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

I believe Paul is affirming that the law is upheld and established by what we do as saved sinners by the power of the new life of god within, more on that in a moment, but primarily, because context shows the emphasis to be justification rather than sanctification, it is that the lord Jesus Christ has established the law in the process of providing salvation for us by his death on the cross.
Boice: “god has established the law by seeing that the demands of the law were met in the way he provided salvation for us.”

Three thoughts here on why this is crucial:
1. The law is so perfect, so high and holy that we who are sinners could never have fulfilled it. If god deemed it unnecessary for Christ to die for sins, if he just allowed us to do good deeds and try to keep the law, and set up some sort of passing grade for entrance into heaven, then he would not have not upheld the law – but rather would have diminished or nullified it.

We, as sinners, do not keep even the tiniest part of the law perfectly, and god would be required to actually set aside the entire law – declaring it to be an unimportant standard. But the doctrine of justification by faith alone establishes the law because it shows that god takes each and every requirement of the law seriously, even though nobody can fulfill it. Remember – the law is god’s perfect revelation of himself to his people – he must value it and uphold it. And letting people into heaven for fulfilling 20 percent, or 50 percent, or 70 or even 98 percent of it would be god, in effect devaluing his own law, and thus, devaluing himself.

2. Punishment of sin by death, as required by the law, has been completed
The law had two chief spiritual functions aside from the basic role of regulating civic life in the Jewish nation
It taught that all are sinners,
And it taught that the punishment for sin is death
Again, suppose god said that he knew nobody could keep the law, and exercised grace in simply ‘loving’ sinners into heaven. If he did this, he would have dispensed the whole law, showing the punishments for disobeying to be arbitrary and meaningless. The only way the law can be established in the case of a speeding motorist is for him to get a ticket and pay the necessary fine. God took the law serious, in full measure.

By basing salvation on what was accomplished by Jesus’ death rather than on what we could or could not do, god established the law while at the same time providing a way by which sinners could be saved. 3:31 is a natural expression of the principle announced in 26 he did this, “it was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” God upheld the law by having Jesus bear the full penalty of the law for those he was saving.

3. It is on the basis of true righteousness, as required by the law, that we have in fact been justified. Christ fulfilled the law perfectly, and it is faith in his righteousness that we are saved. Having become man, he willingly submitted to the righteous demands of the law of god – he deliberately set himself under the law as a man, setting out to fulfill the law in each of its particulars.

God saves us by imputing to us this actual righteousness of Christ. It is given to us
This righteousness is nothing other than true righteousness, achieved in full by Jesus Christ. In saving us through this righteousness, and not by any lesser standard, god establishes the law that defines this righteousness

So Paul is saying primarily, that the law is upheld by faith in Jesus Christ fulfilling the law, and bearing full penalty of the law on our behalf, and this is why the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone establishes the law.

There is also a meaning, in part, that what the moral law of god requires of us, we do in faith –as people who are already justified – not in order to get justified.
There is a big difference.
If we get right with god first, by faith alone, we can then live in that freedom of acceptance and love and we will be changed from the inside out and will actually begin to love the very things the moral law requires so that they become established in our lives – not as meritorious works, but as the products of faith

Remember the objection at hand: if salvation is apart from the law, doesn’t the doctrine of salvation by grace set god’s law aside and show it to be worthless?
And if it does, shouldn’t Paul’s gospel be rejected as being false?
Shouldn’t we reject any doctrine that would nullify the revealed law of god?
If this objection is true, then yes, it would be a false gospel and rightly to be rejected.

The first error in this thinking is psychological, and the second theological.

1. Think about the imagined negative impact of the teaching of salvation by grace on the Christian life (dealt with fully in Romans 6) The argument goes like this: “if we do not have to keep the law of god in order to be saved, why should any of us want to keep it? If we are saved by grace apart from obeying the law, we must be free to sin. So let’s all sin. Let’s indulge ourselves by doing any and every sinful thing we want to do – because after all we will get to heaven anyway.”
This argument is wrong simply because it assumes that the only motivation for right moral conduct is fear of hell or of losing heaven, when actually those are the least significant motivations. It is erroneous to suppose that a person will live a moral life only if by doing so he or she can earn heaven. The highest motivation for godly conduct comes not from fear of hell but from love of god. It is because of what god has done for us, and because he is so wonderful that we want to know, please, love and worship him.

The parent who instills fear in his or her child in order to ensure desired behavior will be disappointed to learn that the child will respond much more to love and care and encouragement than fear and negative consequence.

2. The second error is theological because it falsely assumes that when a person is justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, he or she is personally unchanged in that process. It supposes that one can be justified without be regenerated, or in silly church language – born again. The one who is justified always shows it by striving for righteousness.

This is a big issue within religion and personal faith. I have spent time talking to many people struggle with this very issue. Many people will look at Christianity, and if they come from a background of believing that works somehow save, or assist in saving a person, they will reject the doctrine of justification by grace through faith because they fear it will produce people who say they are saved, but sin like hell, knowing that the consequences will never come their way because they are saved, and god’s grace is guaranteed. This thinking is, to put is simply, a blatant distortion of the doctrine of grace, and shows that a person has not understood and comprehended who god is, and the grace that he has for his people.

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 Paul prays for the church “that our god may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him”

Look at the language here ‘ god makes you worthy of his calling – not only are you justified in Christ positionally – where god no longer sees you as a sinner, but as a justified child, but he will practically and progressively make you worthy of that justified calling.

He will further ‘fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power’
God, by his power will give you resolve to do good and to work in faith – this is the work of god in you, not the work of you for god – he does the work, you get the satisfaction, and he gets the glory

Now why is this what this passage is saying?
Remember the issue at hand – whether the doctrine of justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law, overthrows the law – producing lawless, disobedient Christians. Or whether it produces obedient, loving Christians is a huge deal, and it is dealt with extensively in chapters 6-8 of Romans. It seems that Paul here, in his discussion of justification, and not necessarily sanctification (the justified sinner’s life and growth in holiness) merely deflects the criticism to hold off the opponent until he gets to a full discussion of it in those chapters.

Paul does not give the full reason behind how justification by faith alone, and not by works of the law actually produces more loving and more obedient believers than a system of works and law-fulfilling – but it is present here, so I want to look briefly at what is coming later in Romans to highlight what it is that Paul is really saying in this verse. This is not a full treatment, that will come later, but it helps to clarify this important issue.

6:1-2 “what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in sin?”

Look how closely this resembles 3:31 – Paul, you teach justification by grace alone through faith alone, apart from works of the law.
So are you really saying that sinning doesn’t matter and that the more we sin the more grace will be given and the more glory god will get in forgiving it – and to this Paul emphatically says no – you are dead to sin

6:14-15 “for sin shall have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means”

Paul says this is false thinking as well because the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone does not produce sinning, but produces love.
Under the power and control of grace the law is not overthrown, but it is confirmed and upheld

8:2-4 “for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For god has done what the law, weakened by faith could not do.”
Stop the law, this perfect standard for living was not bad – it was perfect.
But how was it weak – it was ‘weak through the flesh” it wasn’t made to be fulfilled by you or I in our own efforts.
Humans, in their own flesh and strength were not designed to fulfill the law.
The law was meant to be fulfilled for you – not by you.

Now continue “by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.”
God sent Christ to execute sin so that we might be justified by faith alone, apart from the works of the law, and so that ‘the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.”

Fulfilled in us – a real and true transformation in life – that is what is confirmed in the phrase ‘who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.”
Walking by the spirit means being empowered to live a law type of life, but not by your own power. That is how the moral law is fulfilled and established and upheld.
We are justified by faith alone, apart from works of the law. And the Holy Spirit is given to us and by his power we fulfill the law – that is, we love.

9:30-32 makes the same point “what shall we say, then? Those gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching the law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone.”
The gentiles have attained righteousness because they did not pursue it by the law, but by faith.
The Jews have not attained righteousness because they strived after it by attempting to fulfill the law, not by faith,
And so true justification – through faith and not works – has become a stumbling block for them, and they do not trust god for their salvation, but they trust themselves instead

13:8-10 “owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ love does no wrong to a neighbor’ therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

So here it is, plain and simple – love fulfills, establishes, upholds the law.
And where does love come from? It is a fruit, or a product of the spirit in our lives
And how is this spirit supplied to us – by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
Gal 3:5 “does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?”
Does he come with power and give you love because you work and show yourself to be worthy, or because you are justified by faith alone?

Paul answers in Romans 7:6 “but now we are released from the law,”
You don’t have to fulfill the law – you walk away from it, you die to it.
You receive it by grace through faith, and you are given life through faith by the power of the spirit
Now the rest of 7:6 “having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the spirit.”

Yes, we serve. Yes, we love. Yes, we read our bibles and say our prayers and avoid and despise sin – but not in the old way. Not by pulling ourselves up by our moral bootstraps and sucking it in and ignoring the pain and moving forward in the power of the flesh, which is so weak
But because we are justified by faith alone, apart from works of the law, we serve and live by the power of the spirit, whose fruit is love.
And love upholds the law
And therefore Paul can say, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary we uphold the law.”

Getting right with god, living for his glory, isn’t accomplished by climbing the mountain of “works of the law.”
Trust in justification by faith alone, and be carried up that mountain by the grace of god given to you freely.

It really is a matter of trust. Trust. Again and again. Trust. Faith. Believe. Hope.
This is the life I recommend. This is the life that is worth pursuing. The life that stops attempting to solve all your problems and fix your life through your own efforts, and starts trusting Christ to save you from all your sin, and to give you the ability and desire to love. To love god and to love one another.

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The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

:: The Resolved ::

Justin Bragg (elder)

Romans 3:27-30
“One God and One Salvation”

Romans 3:27 then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Nate set up 3 implications derived from 3:21-26: salvation by grace through faith
1. Salvation by grace through faith excludes boasting (27-28)
2. salvation by grace through faith means that there is one way of salvation for everybody, regardless of who you may be or what you have done (29-30)
3. Salvation by grace through faith upholds the law of God rather than subverting it as some suppose it does (31)

Nate hit the exclusion of boasting last week, tonight focus on number 2 – one way of salvation, and next week hit the third one in v31

Paul has just made it clear that we are justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Now he asks, “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.”

There is an order of thought here. There are three steps to look at one at a time and show how they relate to the issue of salvation.
- First, there is the simple, yet massive statement in verse 30 that “God is one.”
- Second, there is the inference that since he is one, therefore he justifies Jews and Gentiles in the same way, not two different ways. He “will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”
- Third, since he is one and justifies all peoples in the same way, not different ways, he is not the God of the Jews only, but the God of the nations as well.

Paul answering the question he raised: is God only for the Jews? No, because:
I. God is one
II. Since God is one, he justifies Jews/Gentiles in one (the same) way
III. Since God is one, and since he justifies everybody one way, he is, to answer the question, God of all nations, not just of the Jews

I. God is one
Every nation has its own set of prejudices, and it is important to realize that Paul is running up against two groups of people and their inherent prejudices.
The Jew – who believe in one God, but not in salvation for anybody outside Judaism.
The Gentile – who believe in salvation for everyone (or at least its possibility) but not in one God.
The chief theological tenant of Judaism is its monotheism – the belief in mono (one) theism (God) – the belief of Judaism as found in the OT
Every pious Jew practices prayers and sayings from the Old Testament.
Chief among these prayers/sayings is the shema (Hebrew for hear), recited as a confession of faith prior to reading formal prayers in the synagogues each Sabbath. “Hear, o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (duet 6:4). This saying was to be kept before people always: (7-9)
“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Nothing distinguished the Jew from the rest of pagan world more than his fierce and uncompromising monotheism.

While the gentile nations worshiped the debased deities described in Romans – (1:23) “images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles”– the Jew maintained the highest regard of his conception of the one true God
But this conviction went to what has been called “a degenerate theocratic exclusiveness.”

A scorn of gentiles to the point of supposing them to be spurned and hated by God.
In the liturgy and morning prayers there was a sentence in which Jewish men thanked God that he had not made them ‘a Gentile, a slave, or a woman.’ the Jew said, “God loves Israel alone of all the nations of the earth.”

The gentiles had their own problems. Whereas Israel accompanied monotheism with exclusiveness, the gentile had tolerance without monotheism.
It was said of Athens that there were more gods in the city than people.
These many and diverse gods permitted and encouraged the most wicked moral practices.

Greece was a moral cesspool, and Rome was even worse.
The portraits that we have seen in Rom. 1:29-33 and 3:13-18 are no exaggeration

What is Paul and even us today to do in addressing these two serious, yet opposite fatal flaws?

If we are firm in our conceptions of one great and moral God, the source of all good, we seem to become narrow, self-righteous, and bigoted. If we are broad in our doctrines, believing that all are equally right in believing in whatever god or gods suits them best, we plunge into polytheism and depravity

In answering the question ‘is God not also the God of gentiles” Paul answers ‘yes, he is the God of the gentiles.’ in v. 30 he explains why God must be the God of the gentiles as well as of the Jews.

In quoting the Jewish motto, “there is one God” he takes the most basic Jewish belief of monotheism and turns it against Judaism for the sake of the argument
If the Lord our God is one Lord, then God must be the God of the gentile salso, else they are left without a god.

Jews for sure believe that God was the God of the whole world, but he was only the God of the gentiles by virtue of his creative work – only Jews had a meaningful relationship with God.

The Jew claimed strict religious and ethnic privileges. Adherence to the law was the dividing line between the good guys and the bad guys. Paul makes clear that the torah no longer functions as a dividing barrier between those who are outside and those who are inside the sphere of God’s people. Monotheism, seen in Christ means that there is no such barrier, that all have equal access to the one God, and this access is granted through faith alone, not by works in obedience to the Jewish law.

There are some important implications from “God is one” – what does this statement really mean?

1. Only one true God
First of all, there is only one true God, not many gods.
This is an absolutely necessary belief, in view of what it means to be God.
Paul says in Romans 11:36, “all things are from Him and through Him and to Him. To Him be glory for ever.”

If that is what it means to be God, there cannot be two of them. If the very meaning of being God is that He is the ultimate source of all that is, there can be only one. Two beings cannot both be the ultimate source of all things. One would be the ultimate source of the other, and so only one would be God; or both would be equally ultimate and neither would be the source of all things, and so neither would be God, by Paul’s definition. There can only be one God, the Creator and Sustainer of all.

2. The unity and coherence of God
Which leads us to a second implication of Paul’s statement in Romans 3:30 that “God is one.”
For Paul, the oneness of God is not simply a statement that there is only one true God, but also a statement that this God has a unity and coherence to his identity.
He is what he is and not something else.
He has identity in himself.
He has fixed attributes. He does not change.
He is not inconsistent or schizophrenic.
He does not have contradictory personalities.
All his characteristics cohere in one unified being.
He makes himself known as who he is. He is one.

3. one God, not three
there is a third implication of Paul’s words, “God is one,” but we will leave it for another time – the divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit are God, but not separate deities, making us polytheists
We do not worship three Gods, but one God.
The mystery of the Trinity is a stumbling block for Muslims and Hindus and Jews and secularists.
It always has been and it always will be.
Does it surprise you that the one true God would exist from all eternity in a way that pushes our little minds to the breaking point?
no time here to take it up, but suffice it to say now that the revelation of God through Jesus Christ is that Jesus is God, the Spirit is God, the Father is God and there is one God.
That is the first step in verse 30: God is one.

II. God has one way of saving people
One cannot deny that there are a multitude of religions claiming paths to salvation. Some are exclusive, some are inclusive. Some deny a supreme being, and others affirm one great being. Some affirm multiple deities, and some affirm the human being himself to be the ultimate reality.

It’s like watching commercials during the super bowl. Car commercials. Every one telling you their car is the best for such and such reasons. Now, you cannot buy every car, and drive every one to go to the grocery store. You must choose one.
Amidst a barrage of advertisements, you must decide which car really is the best
‘Which of the world’s religions (or none) are right and which are wrong?’ it is very puzzling.

1. Religions are more or less equal – at least if pursued sincerely
God is on top of the mountain – people take different paths to get to the top, but all end up there
2. although all religions of the world probably have some value, some are obviously better than others
It follows that one of these, whatever one it might be, must be the best of all.
This view allows everyone to believe his or her religion is the best, or at least superior to some others
3. There is only one way to come to God – through faith in Jesus Christ – and all other religions are really only ways of running from the one true God
Perceived to be narrow, bigoted, hateful, ignorant, wicked, cruel, intolerant and arrogant – the kind of thinking that leads to genocide, religious wars and witch hunts

The belief of Paul is that one God has one way of saving people; namely, justification by faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 30: ” . . . since indeed God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith, is one.”
The oneness of God is connected to the oneness of the way he makes people right with himself. This has tremendous implications for religious pluralism in the world.
It implies that not all religions are true and lead to heaven. It also implies that those who know the true God because of his gracious revelation should try to persuade others to know and trust the one true God.

And it implies that, since the true God of the Bible is a God who is known only by faith and not external coercion, no violence or force will be used to demand or restrict religious belief.

Which means, that the uniqueness and singleness of the one true God of the Bible is both a threat and protection for religious pluralism.

Pay attention here because we live in an increasingly pluralistic society.
The absolute claim of the God of the Bible on all persons and all religions is a spiritual threat to religious pluralism because it calls for repentance from all false religion and faith in the one true God through his one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

But this single, true God of the Bible is a protection for religious pluralism because he forbids that his cause be advanced by the sword or by external coercion.
Jesus said to Pilate, “My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.” (John 18:36). Christians are called to love our enemies and to suffer injustice rather than return evil for evil.

Therefore, true Christianity is both a threat and a support for religious pluralism.
It is a spiritual threat, and a political support. True Christianity will not endorse ethnic cleansing against Muslims. True Christianity does not advance by the sword or the gun. It advances by proclamation and persuasion and prayer and love and by being persecuted, not persecuting.

We must make both of these clear.

1. Our belief in one true God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ in history means that we do not count all religions equally true or equally saving. Christianity is a missionary faith, or it is false to its own foundations. People will call this arrogant and presumptuous and offensive.

2. So the other thing we must also make clear is that it is a loving thing to plead for people to know and trust the one and only living God through Jesus Christ. And the spread of our faith is not by violence or coercion. That would be self-defeating. No one is saved by a forced act. Faith is cultivated in others by proclamation, persuasion, prayer and love.

God threatens religious pluralism with the glorious freeness of grace. He comes to every world religion and every personal religiousness or irreligiousness and says, I offer you the good news that you may have forgiveness of your sins and be reconciled to your Creator and have everlasting life by grace alone through faith alone in my Son Jesus Christ. I have already acted in history to remove my wrath and to take away human guilt. If you will have it as your loved and trusted treasure, it is yours.

Now you can call that arrogance and presumption, but a better name for it is love.

Christianity does not come to other religious systems and try to replace one way to work for God with another way to work for God.
The one true God has made a truce at the cost of his Son’s life.
He offers pardon to every person freely and everlasting joy to those who will trust his Son.

The oneness of God means that there is one way to salvation, not the way of works, but the way of faith. Because it is a way of faith it cuts across all ethnic and political and language and cultural barriers. Verse 30: “God will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.” “Circumcision” stands for any religious or ethnic trait that you might think would commend you to God.
“Uncircumcision” stands for any trait, or missing trait, that you think might keep you from God.

The gospel of Jesus Christ comes and says, “Justification (getting right with God) is by faith, not works. Having certain ethnic or religious advantages prove to be of no advantage. Not having certain ethnic or religious advantages proves to be of no disadvantage. the reason is that faith in Christ, by its very nature, looks away from distinctive (positive or negative) that you have in yourself, and looks to God’s free grace in order to be justified and have eternal life.

God’s oneness means that there is one way of salvation for all.
because this one God is the great sovereign, self-sufficient God who can’t be worked for, but overflows in grace, the one way of salvation is by grace through faith, and that is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone – any culture or race or ethnic group – should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

That’s the second step: since God is one, he justifies Jews and Gentiles in the same way, not two different ways. He justifies the circumcised (Jews) by faith and the uncircumcised by faith (Gentiles).

III. God is the God of the nations
now the third step: since God is one, and justifies all peoples in the same way – by faith alone in Christ alone – not different ways, therefore, He is not the God of the Jews only, but the God of the nations as well.
Verse 29: “is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also.” and “Gentiles” refers to all kinds of ethnic groups.

So what does it mean for us today to say, God is the God of the nations, the God of every ethnic group?

John Piper offers four implications:
1. That God is the God of the nations means that God created all the nations.
Acts 17:26: “He made from one every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth.”
Ethnic differences are God’s doing.
Beware of your prejudices. Look at God for the love that he has for the nations.

2. That God is the God of the nations means that he will redeem a people for himself out of every nation.
Revelation 5:9: “they sang a new song, saying, ‘worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for you were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.’”
God means to have a redeemed people from every ethnic group. Therefore, none is to be despised, but loved and pursued with grace.

3. That God is the God of the nations means he will justify anyone, anywhere, from any nation through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
There is one way of salvation for all the nations. God is God of the nations because he has made a way for them all – the same way and it is a way of grace.

4. That God is the God of the nations means that God desires to be known by all the nations.
Psalm 96:1-4: “O sings to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.”

Do you see where the text is leading us: “declare his glory among the nations” – and the neighborhoods.

Application/conclusion
What is it that this verse is teaching us? Where does it stop being an intellectual exercise and start making a difference in our lives? Do you look at this verse and think it makes strong points against pluralism, and affirmative statements for God’s oneness and the exclusivism with which he saves people? Is that message going to make a difference in your life? Will that message be the one you declare to your family and friends? I don’t believe we’re quite there, we need to see what it is that these verses really accomplish.

Who may come to Christ?
The gospel of Jesus Christ, vv 21-26 is for everybody, because Christ has removed any barriers that might have prevented any person from entering his kingdom family.
The gospel is about one God, who offers one salvation for everyone who believes

Escape the crippling sins pride, murder, stealing, and adultery. Jesus says whoever comes to him he will never drive away (Jn 6:37)

forget about your profession, your income bracket, your social status, your identity as a student, a skeptic, a religious person, black, white, Hispanic or Japanese, a moralist, a partier, a loner or a geek… forget it all. There is one way of salvation, and it is offered to everyone.

Is God the God of Americans only? Is he not the God of the Asians too? Yes – since there is only one God, who will justify the American and the Asian through that same faith. Is God the God of the Catholics only? Is he not the God of the Protestants as well? Yes – since there is only one God who will justify the Catholic and the protestant through that same faith.

Is God the God of the upper-middle class people only? Is he not the God of the working class and the poor too? Yes, since there is only one God who will justify all persons of all financial backgrounds through that same faith. Is God the God of middle class white people only? Is he not the God of children and poor post college students too? Yes, since there is only one God who will justify all persons of any age through that same faith.

That God is one, and that he saves every person in the same way and that this salvation is available to every single person in the world – is the message of the gospel. Take it. You are not prohibited if you seek and desire to find your joy in Christ alone.

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:: The Resolved ::

Justin Bragg (elder)

Romans 3:21-26

“The Good News of God’s Righteousness Demonstrated”

At the heart of the gospel there is a truth, which if we merely glance at it, offends our judicial sense of what is right and what is wrong.
We agree in our hearts and minds with what is written in proverbs 17:15, “he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord” or 24:24 “whoever says to the wicked, ‘you are in the right,’ will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations.”

We love justice when we can use it to look down on others. We can’t stand it when the guilty get away. We are outraged when we don’t get what we deserve, and when people get what they don’t deserve
We do not tolerate judges who acquit the guilty. Our moral sensibility is outraged when wrong and guilt are condoned and given sanction. Yet at the heart of our gospel stands the sentence:
God justifies the ungodly that trust in Him.
God acquits the guilty.
That IS the gospel. But how can it be right for God to do that?
This goes back to what Nate preached on a few weeks ago – we want to do it ourselves. The thought that God does it all for us is insulting in many ways

what we are going to see, what is happening in vv 25-26, is penetrating through the issue of ‘justification‘ (v24) and through the issue of ‘redemption’ or ransom (v24)
To what CEB Cranfield calls “the innermost meaning of the cross.”

… Whom [referring back to Christ] God put forward [displayed publicly] as a propitiation [atoning sacrifice, expiation – ‘the turning away of wrath] by his blood through faith. this was to demonstrate his righteousness [note: this is the purpose of Christ’s death that hasn’t been mentioned yet – to demonstrate God’s righteousness. now why does God need to demonstrate his righteousness?], because in his divine forbearance [patience] he had passed over former sins [sins previously committed] [then he repeats this aim so we don’t miss is] for the demonstration of his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Strip that down to the most basic problem the death of Christ is meant to solve:

God put Christ forward (he sent him to die) in order to demonstrate his righteousness (or justice) [same word justice/righteousness].
The problem that needed solving was that God, for some reason, seemed to be unrighteous and wanted to vindicate himself and clear his name.
v26 says that he would have been unrighteous, or unjust, in justifying sinners, if Christ had not been put forward as a propitiation by his blood: he put Christ forward “…so that he would be just…”
That is the most basic issue. God’s righteousness is at stake. His name and reputation or honor must be vindicated.
Before the cross can be for our sake, it must be for God’s sake

Now, why does he need vindication? What created that problem? Why did God face the problem of needing to display a public evidence of his righteousness?

The answer is in the last phrase of v25 and at the end of v26: “because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;”
And because he is “the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

What do these two phrases mean? They mean that for centuries God has been doing what Psalm 103:10 says, “He does not deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities.” he has been passing over thousands of sins. He has been forgiving them and letting them go and not punishing them.

King David is a good example.
In 2 Samuel 12 he is confronted by the prophet Nathan for committing adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband killed. Nathan says, ‘why have you despised the word of the Lord?” (2 Sam 12:9)
David feels the rebuke of Nathan and in v 13 says, “I have sinned against the Lord.” to this Nathan responds, “the Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.”

Just like that! Adultery and murder are simply passed over. It’s ludicrous. It’s preposterous. Our sense of justice screams out, “No. you can’t just let it go down like that. He deserves to die or be stuck in a jail cell his whole life.
But Nathan says the opposite, “the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.

That is exactly the kind of thing Paul is talking about in Romans 3:25 by the passing over of sins previously committed.
But why is this a problem? Is it felt as a problem to the secular mindset, those who don’t love God – that God is kind to sinners?
how many people outside the scope of any sort of biblical influence wrestle with the problem that a holy and righteous God makes the sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and unjust (matt 5:45)? Who struggles to understand the apparent injustice that God is lenient with sinners? Or even Christians, how many of us wrestle with the fact that our own forgiveness is a serious threat the righteousness of God?

There are two types of people, or two mindsets. Secular/biblical
The secular mindset doesn’t assess the situation the same way the biblical mindset does. Why is that? The secular mindset is coming from a completely different starting point. It does not start with the ‘rights’ of God – the right to uphold and display the infinite worth of his glory. It starts with man and assumes that God will conform to our rights and wishes. But here in Romans, the issue is: how has the glory of God been treated and what is God’s response to that?

Remember v 23: ‘all have sinned and fall short [or lack] the glory of God.” what’s at stake in sinning is the glory of God. We’ve been here before. When Nathan confronts David, he states that David has despised God. I imagine David saying, ‘what are you talking about I despised God? I didn’t despise God – I wasn’t even thinking about God. I saw a hot chick taking a bath and I wanted her, then I was scared to death that people were going to find out so I tried to make it all go away. God wasn’t even in the picture.

but God would respond to David – I am the creator of the universe, the designer of marriage, the one who gives life, the one who sustains your every breath, the one who made you king. You, David despised me by trying to get me out of the picture.

All sinning is a despising of God before it is an offense against man.
All sin is a preference for some fleeting pleasure of the world over the everlasting joy of community with God.

David demeaned God’s glory and belittled God’s worth. He dishonored God’s name. That is the meaning of sin – failing to love God’s glory above everything else. ‘All have sinned and exchange the glory of God’ (FURTHER CHAPTER 1)

Back to the problem at hand – when God passes over sin it is as if God seems to agree with those who spurn his name and demean his glory.
It is simply not important that his glory is despised.

He seems to condone the vandalism of his worth. That is what the passing over of sin – forgiving sin, justifying the ungodly (Romans 4:5) communicates: by itself, God’s glory and his name and worth are not valuable.

And that is the essence of unrighteousness. So God appears to be, and indeed would be unrighteous if he passed over sin without saving us in a way that demonstrates his passion for his glory – which is his righteousness.

Apart from divine revelation, the natural or secular mind doesn’t see or feel the crisis God was dealing with in the cross. What secular person loses any sleep over the apparent unrighteousness of God’s kindness of God’s kindness to sinners? And I ask those of you who call yourselves followers of God – do you lose sleep over the apparent unrighteousness of God in justifying sinners? Do you even care? What kind of God do you love and serve and trust? If God is unjust, then he is not worthy to be worshipped, followed and adored.

But according to Romans, this is the most basic problem that God solved by the death of his son.

Let’s read it again: “he did this [put his son forward to die] to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his divine patience he had passed over sins previously committed; for the demonstration of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

God would be unrighteous if he passed over sins as through the value of his glory were nothing.

To maintain his righteousness (which is crucial if he is glorious and perfect and holy) God basically had two options:
1 – God could have settled accounts by punishing all sinners with eternal punishment for their sins in hell. This would have demonstrated that he does not minimize our falling short of his glory and belittling of his honor. God would be completely right and just if we all were destined to hell for our transgressions against us
2- But God does not delight to destroy, John 3; 17 “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” so we have the gospel. We have the solution that God chose to preserve his righteousness and show mercy and grace – the sending of his own Son to be the wrath-bearer for us.

So God is in between a rock and a hard place so to speak, a catch 22. Wrath or love. Wrath or love. Which is it going to be?

At the end of v 26, Paul shows what God’s two goals were met in the death of Jesus. Why did Jesus die? It was ‘so that God would be just [wrath – punish sin] and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus [love – saving the guilty].’ To be righteous and to reckon as righteous those who don’t have their own. These seem to contradict each other.

God’s righteousness would dictate: pour out your wrath on sinners who exchange your glory for themselves. Or: have no wrath against the ungodly – that would be unrighteous.

But if God demonstrates the infinite value of his glory and he justifies the ungodly, then someone – namely Jesus Christ – had to bear the wrath of God to show that God does not take lightly the defamation of his glory. That’s why the word propitiation in v 25 is so crucial. Christ bore the wrath of God for our sins, and turned it away from us.

The death of Christ is the solution. According to verse 25 God put Christ forward as a propitiation. How could God maintain the value of His own glory and be righteous, and yet justify the ungodly whose sin has belittled and depreciated that glory?

The answer – verses 25 and 26 is: by sending Christ to die and demonstrating the righteousness of God.
But how did the death of Jesus Christ demonstrate God’s righteousness, his faithfulness to the value of his own glory?

Paul doesn’t spell this out for us, in detail, but let’s go to the gospel to put the pieces together. Everything Jesus did in life and death he did for the glory of His Father. For example, as Jesus approaches the hour of his death, he says, “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say, ‘Father save me from the hour?’ no! For this purpose I have come to this hour: Father glorify your name” (john 12:27, 28). Then when Judas had left the Last Supper and Jesus’ death was imminent, he said “now is the Son of Man glorified and in him God is glorified” (John 13:31).

Finally in Jesus’ great prayer in john 17, he views his death as virtually complete and says: “I have glorified you (Father) upon the earth having accomplished the work you gave me to do: (17:4).

What we see from these texts is that everything Jesus suffered, he suffered for the sake of God’s glory. All his pain and shame and humiliation and dishonor served to magnify the Father’s glory because it showed how infinitely worthy God’s glory is that such a loss should be suffered for his sake.
God glorified himself in the life and death of Jesus.
And so he shows himself to be righteous in justifying the ungodly

John Piper – “When we look at the death of the perfectly innocent and infinitely worthy Son of God on the cross and hear that He endured it all that the glory of His Father might be restored, then we know that God has not denied the value of His own glory, He has not been untrue to Himself, He has not ceased to uphold His honor and display His glory, He is righteous. The awful death of the Son is the means whereby the Father can be both righteous Himself and the one who justifies the ungodly who have faith in Jesus.”

Christ bearing the wrath we deserve makes it plain that we are “justified by his grace through the ransoming in Christ Jesus (v24)
God will be just/righteous in counting those who trust in Jesus as righteous

Let’s bring this all together by making it painfully clear how you and I can receive, and get connected to this great work of God in Jesus. Three times in this short paragraph (21-26) Paul says it. Work backwards

22 – …even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe
The righteousness of God is for all who believe. The righteousness that you yourself cannot ever have is given to you as a gift – by his grace, through your faith. Trust Jesus. This is what he calls for – not a payment, nor works to put him in your debt, but as we will see in the coming weeks as Paul writes in Romans 4:5 “trust in him who justifies the ungodly”
25a – …whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith”
The wrath that we deserve is bore by Jesus so we do not get what we deserve. It is a beauty and grace to be marveled at – marvel and wonder by trusting Jesus to do what he said he would
26b – …so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
It’s all faith in Jesus, trust in Jesus

Time and time again it seems that the point of application, the thing that we really try to tell you is the message of faith. Every week: “God is righteous, you are unrighteous, have faith that God gives you righteousness in Jesus Christ.”
Guess what people – I know we say it over and over again. We do this because Paul says it over and over again.
There are no new formulas.
The message isn’t being updated for the new millennium.
It isn’t a culturally relevant message.
It’s not postmodern, modern or premodern.
The message doesn’t change. It stays the same.
Faith has always been, and always will be trusting Christ to be the only means for salvation and satisfaction in life.

It is all faith in this life. I wish that I could stand up here and preach as if I understand and live this… but I can’t. I suck at faith. I let so many things get in the way:

Faith is the answer to your unworthiness
(It used to be that preachers always appealed to the people who would object that they are too unworthy to receive salvation. I believe that the more accurate appeal now to people is that they believe themselves to be worthy enough, without biblical saving faith.)
All are unworthy, and it is in the awareness of your unworthiness that it is possible for you to truly know your need for a savior

The other response to faith used to be ‘but my faith is so weak.’
I feel this one more than anything.
Your faith, your love and your hope and everything else are weak.
But it does not take strong faith to be saved. Just faith.
Spurgeon ‘the weakness of your faith will not destroy you. A trembling hand may receive a golden gift’
Reach out your hand.

There is a weight in these verses. Paul, coming from this legal background understands the seriousness of an accusation that God is unrighteous in saving sinners.

You and I – we don’t get it. We don’t care. I don’t care about God’s righteousness. I care about getting a paycheck every two weeks so I can pay rent, go to movies, buy beer, get some new clothes so I can look good and hopefully catch the attention of a pretty girl that I can maybe get to like me and make out with me. I care about myself. God fits in that he seems to give me what I want, he gives me comfort, and I can feel good going to be at night believing that I’m not going to hell.

What we must understand from these verses is this: your salvation, your ‘get into heaven free card’ isn’t worth anything if God is unrighteous.
God must show himself to be righteous, which he does, and we must believe him and trust him to give us this righteousness.
Somehow – this has to mean something to us.
I don’t know how.
I don’t have the answers – but I know there is something there
There must be something in what God has done for us.
There must be a substance to our faith.

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The Resolved
Sunday, December 11, 2005

“Propitiation”
Romans 3:24-25a

Duane Matthew Smets (elder)

INTRODUCTION

God, you are beautiful in majesty and might, the most glorious being we could ever conceive of. And this text is the blazing center of that beauty. In it our ugliness, your wrath, and the cross of Christ come together and give us reason for hope. And the hard thing about that is that you and that story have become too familiar to some of us here, especially me. And then it is also hard because there are some here who may not believe in any of this and perhaps for good reason. So what I ask of you God is for help. Help us with this text, to know it and understand it, and that through it may we see you and be extremely delighted and convinced of what we see. You have made us as beings that want to be happy and we look to you through the foundation that this passage lays in order to find the satisfaction that we long for.

Last week we studied Jesus’ teaching in Matthew about how being righteous or justified has to do with the affections. This week we look to the foundation of that which gives us reason to have God thirsting affections at all. D. Martin Lloyd Jones called this verse the Acropolis of all Scripture. the Acropolis, known as the “sacred rock” since ancient times has sat above the most important city in Greece, Athens and it sits today as some have said, as a symbol for the artistic, cultural, and philosophical foundations for the western world. and not only is it the centerpiece for Paul’s argument in Romans, which is why Martin Luther and many others have called it the most important verse in the bible, but not only that, but this verse has been the gateway through which many people throughout history have first come to begin to believe that there is something to this Christ, to this Christianity. People like William Cowper, who wrote that wonderful hymn we sing sometimes here called “there is a fountain.” William Cowper suffering an intense battle with depression and sin to the point that he was committed to an insane asylum and while he was there one day he was out in a courtyard and there was a bible and he opened it up and he read “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.” It was after that that he wrote these words…

There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. Dear dying lamb, they precious blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more. Ever since, by faith, I saw the stream thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die. When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave, then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing thy power to save.

Oh that God would grant us such a love for Him tonight. This text is a mountain, a Mount Everest, but it has streams of water that flow from its snow capped peaks that can fill our souls. A friend wrote me this week some words to encourage me and they have been ringing in my head over and over again. His name is B.J. Stockman, a good scholar and a good friend of Justin’s who lives up in Humboldt County. This is what he wrote, “Duane, the essence of Christianity is looking away from oneself to another. Christ bids us to look at ourselves and get disgusted and look at him and get happy.” And that is what tonight is about. Tonight my goal is to present Christianity to you, to present Christ to you, that we might see the glory of God and be happy in him.

So here is the plan. As I said in my prayer, this text is wide and it is deep. I could very easily preach on it for the next month. Every word is loaded with theological richness. It is like Paul, the human author of Romans, took all these huge, extremely significant things, and put them all together in one verse and tied them all together to the point where they are almost inseparable. This text is wide and deep. And then there is the difficulty that like most things that really matter, most things that have any real value or truth, there ends up being debate and strife over them. And there is much debate over the things that are said in this text. and then added on top of that there is the difficulty that since we preach through books of the bible, things are constantly building on one another and at this point in Romans, Paul assumes certain things that he as already talked about. So here is what I am going to do. rather than to take you down into the thick of each of the roads of controversy, I’m just going to point them out, tell you what we believe here at the resolved and then give you some quick reasons why we believe what we do and then we are going to go to Christ and his cross because that is the heart of this text and the ground of any hope for happiness.

First, the word “whom” refers to “Christ Jesus” from the end of verse 24. So Christ Jesus is the subject of this verse. which is significant because Paul hasn’t said anything about who Jesus is or what he did since the beginning of the book and he is about to make some huge huge claims about him that made a lot of people uncomfortable back in his day and they continue to make people uneasy today. Paul makes four uncomfortable claims: here they are: 1 God put forward Christ Jesus; 2. God put him forward as propitiation; 3. this propitiation is by Christ Jesus blood; 4. the benefits of this propitiation are received by faith.

God put forward Christ Jesus
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this because Justin will be addressing it in depth next week. But I will make some brief comments. The overarching issue that stands over this text is God and his glory. Romans is a book about God and his glory and there is a reason for why God did things the way he did in Christ Jesus. So that is next week. For this week, notice this phrase, “God put forward.” What this does is set up the whole scene. Paul is about to talk about the death of Christ and its significance and he sets that up by saying, God did it. God put him forward; he put this whole thing together. And this is the first area of contention, because automatically it makes people uncomfortable for a number of reasons. If God did it, if the one who killed Jesus was not necessarily the Romans, or the Jews, but as Is 53 also says, that it was God himself who “crushed him,” then is this divine child abuse? What about human free will? How can this be true or good? And the questions and challenges and debates start rolling. And I could preach a whole sermon on this. But I’m not going to; we will get into the thick of it once we get to Romans 9. but this is what I will say, the picture of God throughout Romans and throughout the entire Bible is one that views him as the ruler over the universe and its inhabitants and that one of the things that makes God is his unique ability to govern the decisions of men for his purposes. You ask how? Think about it…every decision that you make is influenced, or we could even say controlled, by a slew of past experiences and decisions. So much so that when you make a decision or an act of the will, there is no way that it is free but rather determined by all that has come before it. And what the bible universally teaches is that God orders both the circumstances of our lives and the affections of our hearts that cause us to make the decisions that we do. Now you may question whether he is good or does what is right in the way that he orders things, but that is for Justin next week.

I’m going to move on and trust that what I’ve said does the text some justice, but if you want to read more on this go to the resolved website and read Jonathan Edward’s book, “the freedom of the will” and if you want I wrote an interpretive outline because it is considered by most all philosophy departments across the world as the most significant philosophical work to come out of America, and it is hard reading. if you want something a little easier, there is a book on our book table, called “beyond the bounds” which specifically responds to the concept of open theism, the idea that humans have a free will and therefore God cannot know the future, it is open, because human “free will” decisions have not yet been made. Now if in the last five minutes you have been scratching your head and are like, “what?” That is okay don’t worry about it. This is the point, Romans 3:25 begins by saying that God set up and purposed the death of Christ.

God put him forward as a propitiation
So God put Christ forward. But forward to what? If you have an NASB or ESV translation bible, like the ones we have here, and then it says God put him forward as a “propitiation.” If you have an NIV it says, “atoning sacrifice.” Here is the deal. Nobody ever uses the word propitiation. I don’t think I have ever heard it or read it in any conversation outside of the bible. There are probably only a couple of you here that if I asked you if you knew what it meant that you could give an answer. There are some words that we can do without, we can do away with them, like thee and thou, and shant, and speaketh, and then there are words worth fighting for. Words like justification, sanctification, and propitiation. We, the leaders here at the resolved, want you to know and love this word “propitiation.” The NIV translates the Greek word hilasmos here as “atoning sacrifice” in large because they know that most people don’t know what propitiation is. And the problem isn’t that Paul doesn’t have a concept or a picture of sacrifice in his head when he is writing this. There are relevant historical/cultural backdrops concerning ancient sacrificial systems and the behavior of Greek gods, but the main issue here is what hilasmos means. I could launch into the thick of another debate here and preach a whole sermon on this as well, but again I am not going to do that. Most of you would be bored out of your minds if I started talking about the issues of expiation and the hilak cognates and the Septuagint usage and C.H. Dodd’s theory and Leon Morris’s refutation. So I’m not going to do that, if you want it go read Leon Morris’s or Douglas Moo’s commentary on Romans.

here is what I want you to get, hilasmos, “atoning sacrifice” in the NIV, “propitiation” in other translations means this here, “the turning away or the removal of wrath.” Propitiation means “the removal of wrath.” Wrath is the issue here. as we have taught over and over again, that the Bible is to be treated like you treat any other book in that you read things in context of what comes before and what comes after. You can’t rip out a sentence or a paragraph and not consider what has been said before and what is said after. And the most important thing for us here in Romans, is that ever since chapter 1 verse 18 until now, the issue has been God’s wrath.

Let me summarize the last seven months of studying Romans for you. There is a God. There are reasons and evidence to think he exists and that he is a magnificently beautiful and good and glorious being. And there is us, human beings he made to enjoy him in his wonder and goodness and glory. And all of us rather than doing that have refused to be happy in him. Instead we have wanted glory for ourselves, we have wanted and tried to find other things to make us happy than him. And in doing that we have offended this God and in response his wrath stands over the human race. And since this offense comes from a deep down wickedness inside us, we can’t stop offending him and could never do enough good works to satisfy the infinite debt we owe. So all there is, is his just wrath standing over us. Every person in here is ugly in their core and deserves the hellish unleashing of God’s horrendous wrath. That is the last seven months in a paragraph. then we come to Romans 3:21, follow along with me, “but now the righteousness of God, to be right, to be happy in God, has been manifested apart from the law, or we could say the way to be right or happy in God has been made known to us not because of doing any good works of the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it – to what? The righteousness of God, that getting right or happy with God, that comes 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, meaning this is available for everyone and everyone needs this, we are all jacked, and are justified, or made right with God, by his grace as a gift through the redemption, redemption is the price or the cost, that is in Christ Jesus, what price? What cost? How does this work? What about God’s wrath we deserve? Listen, vs. 25. Well, God put him, Christ Jesus forward as propitiation, as a thing to turn away his wrath.

Do you get it? The issue is God and his glory and us and our messed up selves and the wrath we deserve because of it and the price God paid in putting forward Jesus Christ as a propitiation. So this is what you should get, Jesus Christ is our propitiation. He turns away God’s wrath, he does something about God’s wrath. We have a problem with God and God does something about it in Jesus Christ. Do you see why we love that word? I don’t want wrath. Nobody wants wrath. That is why people try to get it away from this passage and get it away from the idea of God. They only want to think of him as this teddy bear in the sky that just loves everybody and everything and doesn’t care when people refuse his love and despise everything he is and does for them. I don’t want wrath, but I don’t want some pansy God who just sweeps wrong doing under the rug and doesn’t care about when people wrong him. That’s not a loving God; all he is then is a whore who prostitutes himself away to his creatures. And that is the beauty of Christ. That he is a propitiation, wrath is dealt with but not at the cost of sacrificing the goodness and love and justice of God. But how? How is Jesus Christ a propitiation? How does God in Jesus Christ turn away his wrath?

This propitiation is by Christ’s blood
The answer is by his blood. Christ is a propitiation by his blood. And when Paul says “by his blood” here it is a direct reference to the whole crucifixion event wherein Jesus Christ suffered and died. I am going to return to the crucifixion story in a couple of minutes. But first I want to explain Paul’s logic here. He says Jesus Christ is a propitiation; he takes on the wrath of God, by his blood, his death. There are two things Paul says in Romans that make this work. First, in Romans 1:4 he says that Jesus was “declared to be the son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.” So first, Paul argues that Jesus Christ is divine. He is a God-man. in his letter to the Philippian Christians Paul explained it this way, “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even on a cross.” So the first thing that makes Paul’s logic work is that he claims that Jesus is divine. Second, is that Jesus never sinned; he obediently glorified God for the entirety of his life. Romans 5:19 “by one man’s obedience (Jesus Christ) many will be made righteous.” So the second thing is that Jesus, the God-man, never wronged God, so he never deserved God’s just wrath. Now the idea that Jesus is a God man and never did anything wrong may seem really far fetched to you. And that is fine, it is something to think about and look into. Again, a major point of debate. I would submit that if there was evidence that Jesus did in fact raise from the dead then this could be sufficient ground to consider these claims. If you want to look into this you can download a work I did on the resurrection of Jesus Christ that addresses this issue and provides numerous other sources to look at.

But right now what I want you to get is Paul’s logic. So think with me…God is glorious, mankind trades away this glory, an offense against the eternal God, thus deserving an infinite or unending outpouring of His wrath. but Paul says here in verse 25 that God puts forward Jesus Christ, who is both man, really human, and God, fully divine and thus of an infinite worth, and he puts him to death. Death is wrath for those who do wrong. And then, since Christ did no wrong and yet died, he is sufficient to suffer death in our place. And since he is God he can satisfy the demands that the death be of an infinite or eternal quality. Do you get the logic? So Christ death is sufficient both for mankind, in his place, and for God, and his just wrath. And this leads us to the final uncomfortable claim. How does mankind receive this great gift of God, the propitiation of Christ Jesus?

The benefits of this propitiation are received by faith
We have explained before that faith has three elements: 1) an intellectual element. 2) An emotional element; and 3) a volitional element. The intellectual element is that you have reasons to believe what you believe. It is a widespread thought today that faith means believing something that there is no reason or evidence for it to be true. But faith in the bible is the exact opposite. If you have not been convinced in your mind of certain essential truths then you do not have Christian faith. The emotional element is that you feel it. Faith is more than just a philosophical position. There is a love and adoration and feeling of thanks toward God that constitutes biblical faith. And lastly the volitional element. Volitional means act of the will, it means that when you believe something it has an effect up the decision of the will that you make, the way you live your life. If I believe I can fly I will go jump of a cliff and if I really believe in any of this stuff it will affect the way I live my life.

Maybe that kind of scares some of you. It scares me sometimes. And it is okay to doubt whether you have faith. In fact the bible commands us to doubt our faith. I don’t know where all of you are at with God and this whole Christianity thing, but I am guessing that there is at least one of those areas that every person here is lacking in.

Let me get more specific. Vs.25 says “faith in his blood.” That means I must be convinced in my mind that Paul’s argument is true and that Jesus is God and never sinned and that he died in my place satisfying the wrath of God that I deserve. It means I should have an emotion of thanks and love for that blood that grants me such a wonderful gift. And then it means that I must live my life always looking to and counting on his blood for my righteousness, for my happiness in God.

Conclusion
There are four claims that give us a foundation for joy:
1. God put forward Christ Jesus
2. God put him forward as a propitiation
3. This propitiation is by Christ Jesus blood
4 The benefits of this propitiation are received by faith

Here is how I want to conclude tonight’s sermon. I quoted my friend earlier that, “the essence of Christianity is looking away from oneself to another.” Christ bids us to look at ourselves and get disgusted and look at him and get happy.” And that tonight my goal was to present Christianity to you, to present Christ to you, that we might see the glory of God and be happy in him.

So here is how I want to conclude. I want to tell the passion story. The movie, the passion of the Christ made much of the human suffering of Jesus. But thousands and thousands of men in the first century were beaten and crucified. The only thing that makes it significant is if Jesus was God and if he never did anything wrong and if he propitiated the wrath of God for us in our place. I want us to see the beauty and the brilliance of the gospel in the face of Christ. I need to see the lines on his face as he writhes in agony. I need to hear the mighty hush that booms when he whispers his name. I need to feel the sores from where the flowing blood scarred his body. I need to smell the smoke of sacrifice that pleased and appeased the one to whom the debt was owed. I need to taste the richness of what is freely given until I am left with nothing but thanks. I need Christ again for he has become too familiar to me.

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The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

:: The Resolved ::

Justin Bragg (elder)
Romans 3:21-23 “No Distinction”

Romans 3:21-23 “but now the righteousness of god has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and prophets bear witness to it – (22) the righteousness of god through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: (23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god”

In all of life there thing more important than what Paul is saying here in this section of scripture.
But really, who thinks this way? Who is willing to acknowledge what Paul is stating in an age when abstract thought – even thinking itself is suspect? Who, even among “Christians” really appreciates what Paul is saying here? Ours is an age when people are self-absorbed and focus on immediate gratification. We tend to evaluate any religious teaching according to its apparent relevance to our present needs and short-term goals.

I know, we come up here week after week and lay on the serious nature and vast importance of what Paul is communicating in the first-century letter… but is it getting through? Do we believe what we are hearing? Do we believe what we are preaching? I have told you, several times, from this pulpit that the message I am preaching is vital, and of utmost importance to your life. But do you believe it? Do I believe it?

When am I going to stop screwing around in my life as a justified sinner, and start getting serious about a pursuit of fulfillment in my pursuit of god? What’s it going to take to wake me from my spiritual stupor and apathetic indifference to the words of the god of this universe? When am I going to get it? When are we going to get it church of the resolved? When does it stop feeling like an act and a performance, and start feeling like a campaign for the glory of god and the salvation and satisfaction of his people? When are we going to embrace our justification, and truly live the justified life?

Here is the message for tonight. Begin with my own translation of the passage:
But now the righteousness of god has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction: for all sinned and are falling short of the glory of god

Pinnacle of this passage – there is no distinction (differentiation):
Surrounded by the two “for all’s” – for all who believe, and for all have sinned

Righteousness of god manifested showing that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god (condemnation) – all, w/ or w/o the law, are guilty of unrighteousness.

Righteousness of god manifested to those who believe Jesus Christ by faith
(Justification) – All, w/ or w/o the law are justified by faith in Christ’s righteousness

The righteousness of god, his perfection, holiness, glory, etc. Has been manifested and revealed to everyone.

Jews and gentiles are both silenced in their sinning and falling short of god’s glory
Jews and gentiles are both saved in their believing and putting faith in Jesus Christ

This famous verse, ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god.’ When I first started studying, I couldn’t help but think that this verse was in the wrong place. Didn’t we have the gigantic ‘but now’ at the beginning of this section? Didn’t we exasperate the sinfulness of all humans and our rampant unrighteousness in 1:18-3:20? Why isn’t this verse included in that section? We’re done with the bad news – isn’t it good news now? Paul has moved on to the solution, why restate the problem again here. It seems out of place.

I believe that this verse says more about grace, the unmerited favor/gift from the offended god offered to his offenders, than probably any other verse in the entire bible. Here, amidst the most clear teaching about the god who gives us salvation, us who have committed infinite wrong against god, we who have sinned, offending the holy god, failing to glorify him as we ought, we find grace.

Let’s look closer at the actual verse 23. Two statements:

All sinned
The verb in the Greek is in the aorist tense. In Greek there are 2 past tenses. Imperfect describes a continuous action occurring in the past (I was sinning). Aorist describes undefined action occurring in the past (I sinned).

Without trying to read too deeply into Paul’s statement, we can simply state that Paul is saying that everyone sinned. Taken with all of 1:18-3:20, and the rest of the bible’s teaching, we understand that sin is our nature. It is not just that we have committed several sins, we screwed up x number of times, and that makes us guilty, but rather that we are sinners. Adam sinned, and we all sinned with him. It is our birthright, it is our heritage. We are offenders against the creator of the universe

Fall short of the glory of god
First the root of this word for fall short is to lack. We lack the glory of god. Paul adds on a genitive, and creates this idea of falling short. Second, the verb is in the present tense. A concise and perfect description of the state of mankind – falling short in every respect concerning the glory of god. This second verb (fall short) is the explicit consequence of the first (sin).
Because all have sinned, all are falling short of the glory of god. The tragedy and crime of sin is a failure to display the glory of god. By sinning, we show our lack of glory, our inability to share in the glory of god.

Glory – magnificent presence of the lord. The consequence of our sin is our defamation and inability concerning being made in the image of god, and partaking in his magnificent presence. We have failed to display the true glory of god as his creation, and we lack his glory, and have no ability to take part in his presence, because of our sin.

If we take the statement that all sinned, and put it next to v 21, “the righteousness of god has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it – what do we have? A summary of all of 1:18-3:20. Paul explicitly references the righteousness of god manifested apart from the law and prophets to designate that he is again destroying the separation between Jew and gentile concerning guilt for the failure to glorify god.

The Jews with the law and prophets have sinned and are falling short of the manifested righteousness of god. The gentiles, without the law and prophets, have sinned and are falling short of the manifested righteousness of god. We’ve been through this before. Every single human being is in the same boat heading straight for destruction.

God has revealed (1:16-17) and manifested (3:21-22) his righteousness. He has shown his glory. He has shown it in creation, he has shown it in our morality and conscience, and he has shown it in his law given to the Jews. There is no excuse – all have failed to acknowledge his righteous glory. All have sinned and are falling short of god’s glory. There is no distinction!

So back to my original suspicions – why here? Because Paul is showing in these verses why righteousness is available to all – that is what is coming explicitly in the coming verses, and found implicitly here. Paul is also showing, because we don’t ever seem to get it, why also all people need this righteousness.

It’s as if Paul knows that he is presenting an airtight and marvelous case for why and how the righteousness of god is available to human beings. But he knows, because of our stubbornness and blatant stupidity as a result of sin, that we aren’t even going to listen.

We will never care about the righteousness of god offered to us, unless we can see and believe that we really need it. Grace isn’t gospel – it isn’t good news, if we don’t see our need for it.
God saves us by grace… who cares! I don’t need to be saved.

Paul knows that he is answering the question that nobody is asking. So, as I said earlier, this verse tells us what is most vitally important about grace because this verse, in the midst of telling us how we can be saved, tells us why we need to be saved. Listen to it. If you didn’t get it in 1:18-3:20, here it is in the cliff-note format. You’re a sinner, and you fail to glorify god, so you are, as 1:18 told us, an object of god’s furious wrath, and burning anger.

There it is. That’s grace. In the manifestation of god’s righteousness – punishing evil sinners for failing to honor god, we find grace. The reason that we do not appreciate grace is because we do not truly believe Romans 3:23

If the first chapters of Romans meant anything to us, they have show that spiritually there is no difference between us and the most destitute as far as god’s requirements are concerned – there is no difference. If you want to be saved by god, you must approach god on the basis of 1:18-3:20, on the grounds of your utter ruin in sin, and not on the basis of any supposed merit in yourself.
The marvelous doctrine of grace serves to humble you, to destroy your pride and sense of accomplishment, to take away your sense of being right. To tell you that you are a sinner and fail to glorify god.

That is where grace begins – because until you get that, until you get your utter worthlessness, you will never receive the glorious gift of the righteousness of god manifested in Jesus Christ

Which brings us back to the good news, or the positive side of no distinction.
Vs 20 – now the righteousness of god has been manifested
Vs 22 – the righteousness of god through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe

Here we see the other side of ‘no distinction’ concerning the righteousness of god manifested. Where vs. 23 serves to show universal condemnation, without differentiation, vs. 22 serves to show universal justification, without differentiation. That sounds a bit off theologically; we are not Universalists, so allow me to try to explain a few things about what Paul is saying.

V 20 – the righteousness of god has been manifested…
Then explanation of apart from law, though law and prophets bear witness to it.
V 22 – repetition – the righteousness of god
De in Greek – but, and, even… the repetition of the phrase “the righteousness of god” with this preposition serves to introduce an amplification, and an implicit contrast. We would translate: ‘even a righteousness’ or ‘a righteousness moreover.’ Paul repeats the phrase for clarity because of distance from first stated. In a sense, Paul seems to be investigating the righteousness of god from the human perspective now (through faith in Jesus Christ) Remember, Paul has stated in 1:17, and 3:20 that the righteousness of god has been manifested in Jesus Christ.

Picking up what Paul introduces in 1:17 “in the gospel the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘the just shall live by faith.’ He restates that faith is the means by which god’s justifying work becomes applicable to individuals.

The righteousness of god is the justifying activity of god. In 1:17, the righteousness of god is constantly revealed through the preaching of the gospel. Here, Paul is stating how this revealed justification is received by those whom god has performed the work of justification for

If Paul mentions human faith in this phrase (through faith in Jesus Christ), why add “for all who believe?” It’s the same verb faith/believe, why the repetition?
On one hand Paul is highlighting the universal availability of god’s righteousness revealed. Even 22b-23 supports this (all have sinned in light of god’s revealed righteousness and are falling short of this righteousness). God’s righteousness is available only through faith in Jesus Christ (the first phrase). But god’s righteousness is available to anyone who has faith in Jesus Christ (second phrase)

This is the universal availability of justification I was talking about: the means by which any person can be saved is by faith alone. Remember the huge emphasis Paul has been placing on getting all Jews and gentiles in the same boat. His intention is to remove any thought that there is any way for a person to receive the righteousness of god and be saved from his wrath other than by simple faith and trust in god’s provision of his own righteousness: Jesus Christ.

There is no distinction. Everyone who believes will be justified. Only those who place their faith in Christ will be justified. This is really good news, but I can’t help but think that the first natural reaction to such news is revulsion. We want to save ourselves. We are Americans, independent, hard-working, don’t take handouts, and earn it for yourself. If you get me a Christmas present, I am going to feel guilty if I didn’t get you one, I cannot receive a gift that I did not earn because I am proud, and have no understanding of what it is to receive grace.

Anything that suggests that we can’t do it for ourselves, that we can’t save ourselves is abhorrent. We don’t want a religion that demands we throw ourselves entirely upon the grace and mercy of the god who will not accept our efforts to save ourselves.

But if we will accept this, there are three things that we can know if salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, with no regard for human effort

1. If salvation is a gift of god apart from human doing, we can be saved now
Salvation is based on what god has already done for us.
Jesus Christ, dying on the cross, proclaimed with full authority “it is finished”
His finished work is the sole grounds for our being declared righteous
Salvation is ours now, by the application of Christ’s righteousness to us as god’s gift
2. If salvation is a gift of god apart from human doing, salvation is certain
If salvation is by human works, then human works (or lack thereof) can undo it
If I can save myself, it is certain that I can unsave myself. I can and will ruin everything
But if salvation is from god alone, the god who all-knowing, all-powerful, and does not change, then my salvation is sure and everlasting

3. If salvation is a gift of god apart from human doing, then human boasting is excluded and all glory goes to god
Imagine how offensive it would be is we could boast about earning heaven. Imagine looking down and saying, “Poor Nate, he just wasn’t good enough to make it up here to heaven. I am glad that I got it right and did enough to get here.”
Imagine the arrogance, and pride, and utter perverse revulsion that heaven would be if we were not all there as recipients of god’s grace. That is why all glory goes to god. That is why we will worship him, and partake in his glory forever, and it will be wonderful

There is no distinction. God’s grace, his unmerited favor apart from human merit granted to any person who will trust him to provide that which they do not deserve

It is favor when we deserve the precise opposite
D. Martin Lloyd Jones “there is no more wonderful word than grace. It means unmerited favor or kindness shown to one who is utterly undeserving… it is not merely a free gift, but a free gift to those who deserve the exact opposite, and is given to us while we are without hope and without god in the world.”

Grace is given to those who have sinned, who are falling short of the glory of god. We deserve hell and wrath people. But we receive salvation, satisfaction, and eternal pleasure in the presence of the god of glory.

There is no distinction. God’s grace, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest good news in the world. You sinned. You are falling short of god’s revealed righteous glory. But you can receive his grace. Your sin has been removed from you, and placed upon the broken body of the lord and savior Jesus Christ who was beaten and broken and died in your place. You have a vicar, you have undeserved grace in place of deserved wrath.

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The Resolved
Sunday, November 5, 2005

“Righteousness From Without”
Romans 3:21

Romans 3:21 ESV But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it

Introduction
- Tonight is going to be a little different than usual. Those of you who have been around a little bit know that it isn’t the usual Duane, to sit here in a stool and just talk…and don’t worry I’m still the preacher that you know me to be. There is nothing I love more than standing behind a pulpit and being gripped with the word of God and preaching my heart out. And don’t worry, I’m not going to just sit up here and tell stories and talk about myself. I personally give you the right to stone me if I ever do that. We are going to exegete the text for sure. I am just tired, physically and emotionally and I really don’t have it in me to stand up and rant and rave and cuss and threaten hellfire like I usually do. When we started this church, we made a commitment to be honest. that was easy when it was just a few of us in our apartment, but now that we are here and there is all of you, there is like this pressure to perform and to meet your expectations and have everything the same every week. But life really isn’t the same every week is it? Sometimes it is but other times stuff happens and life is hard. I’ll say a little bit more about that in a few minutes but we need to get into the text, so let’s read it again and we’ll start working with it.
- read text again.

But Now
- Nate preached an excellent sermon last week and if you weren’t here you should get online and download/listen to it. The only bad thing about his sermon is that he did such a good job with “but now” that he kind of stole my thunder. I can’t really improve on what he said but I am going to briefly revisit the context of this passage and say a couple of things about why we are going to spend a number of weeks on 3:21-26.
- The two words, “but now” mean that before the “now” there was something else, and “now” something has happened or something has changed. so the question is what was before the “but now” and what we find is that there is a theme that Paul has been talking about ever since the beginning of the book where he made a thesis statement, a proposal of what he believes to be true.
- This thesis statement was in Romans 1:16-17, “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes; first for the Jew and then for the Gentile. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “the just shall live by faith.”
- And ever since then we have not heard or read about the gospel or salvation. Right after this he launched into what is both an argument and a story at the same time. If we look at it as an argument, his argument, what he has presented to the court to defend is that all humanity is messed up deep inside the core of who they are and can do nothing to fix themselves. If we look at it as a story, his story is that since the beginning of human history mankind has been messed up and been trying to fix themselves but it has not worked, for as he concluded right before this “but now,” “no one is righteous, no not one.”
- so if you are wondering why we spent seven weeks on Romans 1:16-17 and why we are about to spend 7 weeks on 3:21-26, it is because these two passages hold within them the heart of what Christianity is all about, that is why Martin Luther said they were the two most important passages in all of the bible. 1:16-17 is important because it tells us that there is a righteousness that we can have that is not our own and 3:21-26 tells us how or why that can be.
- with the words, “but now” Paul follows his claim and his story that creation, conscience, and chosen people all demonstrate to us that humanity is messed up and hopeless. If we were to stop right here, or if Paul was just to close and end the book here, he would make a great nihilist. Him and Nietzsche could be best friends and agree that there is no reason or purpose to anything. Everything is just meaningless and there is no hope. Everything is just screwed up and that is the end of it.
- Instead, Paul follows with, yes, that is true, “but now” something has happened. God has done something in time and history. I’m sure that to the first readers those two words made everybody’s ears perk up. After three long, dark, depressing chapters, you feel almost ready to shoot yourself and then Paul says, “But now…!” (I guess, I am preaching a little tonight)
- But now what? Let’s look at what he says here. “The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it.”
- what I am going to do is revisit what we have said, righteousness is, what law and prophets are, then say some things about prophecy because of those words “bear witness” and then I am going to talk from my heart about how this illustrates gospel.

Righteousness
- Here are some of the things we have said about this word, dikaiosune. We have said that it is “right standing” before God. One of the pictures of what is going on in Romans is that of a courtroom and God is the judge and humanity is on trial and the question is how can we have a right standing, an innocent standing before him? So there is a strong legal sense to the word.
- But the legal sense is not everything. Righteousness at the same time has to with rightness. What is right and wrong. Morality. And we have talked about a universal morality, sense of right and wrong we all have and talked about where that comes from. It can’t just be animal instinct or we would never do anything good for anyone. It can’t come from another human person because that is just ridiculous, but it has to do with personal relationships. And to recognize that we learn it from our parents and/or society doesn’t really help us because they had to learn it from somewhere. And we have concluded that this morality must come from an eternal personal source who is totally good and upright, totally righteous. So righteousness is something that God is. It is even his name sometimes in the bible, “the righteous one.” All that is right or wrong flows, or emanates out of his being. He doesn’t not follow some moral law, he is morality itself. It is his being.
- when we began Romans, one week when we were studying the thesis and we looked at Isaiah chapter 6 where there is this picture of God seated high in the heavens and angels call out holy holy holy unto him. In that passage we learn that God is perfect. His righteousness is a perfect purity. He is totally pure and right in all that he is and all that he does.
- righteousness is something God has and as Paul has shown in the last three chapters humans do not have it and can do nothing to earn it or make themselves have it. And that they don’t have it and do awful things out of their unrighteousness is a violation or an offense, a personal wronging against God who is righteousness. And that brings us to law and the prophets.

Law and the prophets
- I preached a number of weeks on Romans 2:25-29 and we dealt exhaustively with the law there. I summarized with an overview of the word “law” and gave five main ways that it is used. One way was as “torah” which is the first five books of the bible. That is the kind of law being referred to here. We know that because he says, “law and the prophets.” That “and the prophets” is an unquestioned reference to the “prophetic books or writings” of the Old Testament, there are 17 of them. I am going to say some things about prophecy as foretelling in a few minutes. But just as a side note, the “prophetic writings” consisted of both “forth telling” and “foretelling.” Forth telling being, just straight out telling it like it is, which is what most of the prophetic writings are. And then foretelling, where sometimes the prophets will predict things about the future. End of side note. The main thing here that we need to know is that “prophets” signifies to us that he as certain writings in mind. Thus, what he is saying is that there are passages from within the body of writings in the Hebrew bible known as “torah” and the body of writings known as “prophets” (kittivim) that both say something about this righteousness.
- So what do they say? Undoubtedly, Paul had certain passages in his head, but apparently, quoting right here was not significant. He has already quoted the law and the prophets several times here in the first three chapters. So perhaps he has those passages in mind, but more so it seems that Paul wants to say two really important things about the way righteousness relates to these documents.

Apart from
- look at the words, “apart from.” That is the first way righteousness relates to these documents. It is “apart from” them. I take that to mean that righteousness cannot be earned or had or gotten by following the instructions found in these documents. in them there are many many rules, 637 to be exact, but I take the words, “apart from” to mean that if anyone follows them perfectly, that will not make them righteous. Here is why I say that…
- read vs.20 of Romans 3. The verse that comes right before the one we are studying tonight. “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.” That word “justified” is dikaiothesetai, it is the same word as “righteousness” dikaiosune. The reason it is a different word in English, “justified” is because the word “righteousified” isn’t a word. 3:20 could be read, “For by works of the law no human being will be righteous in his sight.”
- So that is the first way righteousness relates to the law and the prophets. It is apart from them in that it does not come by doing the works that they call for.

Bear witness to it
- The second way righteousness relates to the documents of the law and the prophets is that they “bear witness to it.” Look at those words, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it.”
- So what does it mean? Here it what it means, those two words “bear witness” come from the one Greek word martureo which means “to give testimony” or “to give evidence” or “to bear witness.” It is another one of those courtroom words.
- just as today in a courtroom trial witnesses are called to the stand to give testimony of what they witnessed, here Paul claims that the law and the prophets give testimony to this righteousness of God than can be ours through no doing of our own.
- A couple of minutes ago when I said that the “but now” signified that something had happened, something in the story of human history happened that changed everything and makes righteousness for humans possible. That is what the law and the prophets bear witness to.
- In the next few verses we will be studying what happened over the next few weeks here at the resolved. And that is, namely, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. If you have ever had questions about how you know if that really happened and even if it did what is so special about somebody getting beat up and crucified in the first century, when that happened to a lot of people in that time, then be here.
- but for tonight, since we are just dealing with this one verse I want to say some things about how the law and the prophets could bear witness to this historical event and then I want to share some things about the significance of this for us in our lives.
- So first, how can the law and the prophets bear witness to this historical event, the death of Jesus Christ on a cross? Let me make the problem a little clearer. The law, torah, was written up to potentially 1500 years before the death of Christ and the prophets, the last prophetic book being Malachi, was written about 200 years before the death of Christ. So here is the question, how could these writings provide evidence, or witness, or testimony about something before it happened? This is that foretelling kind of prophecy.

Foretelling prophecy
- at this point it is kind of difficult about where to go or what to say because he does not specifically reference any writing here and then there is also the question of why would anyone care? The second question is a little easier to answer so answer so I’ll deal with that first.
- Who cares whether the law and the prophets bear witness to this righteousness provided for by the death of Christ?
- Jews. Remember the two main groups of people this letter was originally written to were Jews and gentiles, non-Jews. And for the Jew, the law and the prophets provided their whole paradigm for understanding reality. If it is not in the law and the prophets then they don’t and cannot believe it.
- Gentiles. The gentiles of the first century in Rome were Greco-roman. And if you grew up in public school you learned about these types of people when you talked about Greek mythology. The Greek gods…Zeus, … and Greeks were very interested in things that were “supernatural” or “mystical” and “miracles.”
- So I am guessing that this idea that writings from a couple hundred to a thousand years before could say something about a current event is something that both of these groups of people, Jews and gentiles, would be really interested in, though both for different reasons. And that answers the second question about why anyone would care.
- the first question, how to deal with this reference to foretelling prophecy since no specific writing referred to in some ways is a question about why this is significant to us here. If there was certain writings we could, in the scientific way of our culture, analyze them and then consider their merit. and there are passages in the bible that are like that, that you can do that with…things like foretelling prophecies about the place and time and way of Jesus’ death.
- But here we don’t have that. So what I am going to do is consider the potential for something like foretelling prophecy to be true because I think that for many of us that probably seems kind of far fetched. both because there are these wackos today, like bible code and left behind people and other freaks who are trying to predict the future, and also because we live in the western world where there is this sort of anti-supernatural, naturalistic culture that buys into empiricism wholeheartedly without even giving much thought to it. I know I just said a lot of big words. what I mean is that there is this sort of underlying notion that if I can’t see it, feel it, taste it, smell it, hear it…it is not and cannot be true. So God, and miracles, are just sort of mythology or wishful thinking.
- Now I know I just kind of created a mess for myself and we could spend a whole night talking about this. But here is what I want to say, I think there are amazing things about the world we live in. Science fascinates me in what it is continually discovering and how deep and intricate everything is. But I don’t thing that for anyone that settles reality for us. I can know that my body has DNA, and that there is a double-helix inside of it, and the ladder rungs have code, A, T, C, G, and that my cells have a flagellum that propels them around in my blood and on and on.
- But none of that answers the questions that all of us think about deep down. Like who am I? My person? What is reality and life really about? And I just can’t buy that there is just all this stuff and that is just it, there is no meaning or purpose in anything. I just can’t buy that. I think there are things like love and truth and meaning and none of those things are scientific. And those things are the things that are at the core of reality. They are at the core of how I see myself and the world. They are at the core of how I decide what I believe and what decisions I make.
- so if at the core of how I decide what is real and what is not are non-supernatural, non-material or physical things, then why would I ever rule out that something supernatural like foretelling prophecy, could not be true and perhaps be significant for my life? Because when I read this book, written 1900 years ago, and I read about not having righteousness. There is something deep in me that nods it head and is like, yeah I know that is true. And then when I hear that there is a righteousness that I can have, there is something in me that is like yeah, I need that and I want that. There is something about this book that resonates with my soul. And that is what I want to talk about for the rest of our time here, how this message resonates with my soul in how I experience the gospel.

Righteousness from without
- I titled my sermon “righteousness from without.” I titled it that because, when we look at just this verse. That is the main theme, the most significant thing he says. That righteousness comes “apart from.” It comes from without. I said in the beginning of my message tonight that I wanted to sit because I am worn out physically and emotionally. And it is weird because for me, it seems like I kind of go through different phases. I am sort of up and down. I don’t really know if that if it is the same for everybody, but that is how it is for me. And lately, God just seems pretty distant to me. Just sort of out there. Detached from this world and from me.
- I mean, I’ve studied all these things and I believe them to be true in my head. When I look at them on paper and I consider the arguments and think about them honestly, Christianity wins hands down. But the truth is I don’t feel like it is true much of the time, or at least lately. Sometimes life is really hard and really confusing and things just get all messed up in my head and I lose passion for everyone and everything. And I just feel like smoking myself to death or drinking a handle of whiskey just to make it all go away.
- the truth is I really did not feel like studying for this sermon or even preaching tonight because it is really hard for me when God feels so distant. But then I got to thinking that maybe that is sort of an illustration of this text. The point of this passage is that there is a righteousness that is apart from our experience. Apart from whether we follow the law and the prophets. Apart from anything we ever say or do or feel. It is a righteousness that God does and secures and grants unto us. And it is ours no matter what. And I think that is pretty awesome. That really does give me comfort and assurance and security, to know that the God of the universe cares about me. And that makes me love Him and makes me grateful. And I think that is the gospel. Gospel is good news and I think that is good news. That God gives us righteousness freely, based on the person and work of Jesus Christ, and that it is not based on anything we do and that it is fixed no matter how we ever feel.

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The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
October 16, 2005

“Put Your Hand Over Your Mouth”
Romans 3:19-20

Romans 3:19-20 ESV
“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.”

Prayer

Almighty God, judge of the universe, I come before your court tonight with a plea. My plea is that you would not give me my due but rather give me what I do not deserve. We as a people are quick to deny that at slightest movement you, in all justice, may send a meteor to take out the earth, or a hurricane or earthquake to rampage our land, or a cancer to cause our insides to break down and kill us. We are quick to picture you as a loving God before first remembering that you are God of justice and we that we have violated your being. Our corruption is deep. So much so that we cannot understand the words of the Bible we just read unless you do that thing inside of us where able to think right, and feel accordingly, so that we get it and adore you for it. My petition for myself is that you would enable me to speak tonight with my hand over my mouth. I will attempt to justify my sin and get glory for myself unless you stop me. So I cover my mouth and beg you to speak tonight and allow us to hear your word as you intend it. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen.

Introduction

You may have noticed that whenever we begin a sermon we sort of quickly try and review what has been said in Romans so far up until the passage that we are studying. We do that for a couple reasons. First, you wouldn’t like it if someone just sort of picked out a couple sentences out of a letter that you wrote and didn’t even consider the rest of what you said, and the Bible is not different. God, the divine author, doesn’t like it when we do that with His word either. There is a context in which things are being said. The second reason is that Paul, the human author of Romans was a lawyer of sorts and he is carefully forming a tightly knit argument in this book. He is presenting a case before you, his hearers in order that you might listen, and he hopes be convinced of what he has to say.

This passage is particularly important in that regard because in chapter 1 verse 18 he began a certain line of reasoning that he has been continuing for three chapters now. He has been presenting evidence and then more evidence and more evidence and now here in verses 19-20 he in a sense summarizes what he has said so far because he is about to move into his next line of reasoning.

The place of 3:19-20 in Romans

So quickly, let us review where we are at in the book of Romans, the book about God and his glory. Paul began the book by introducing the divine son of God Jesus Christ who is the gospel, and then he made a thesis statement in 1:16-17 saying that the whole of this book was going to be about how righteousness can be received through faith in this gospel. Then in 1:18 he began to show why we need this righteousness and now for 27 weeks, that is nearly 7 months, we have been exploring the dark caverns of human depravity from 1:18-3:18. So what I want to first is to look at tonight’s passage and then see what of it we have seen in 1:18-3:18.

Romans 3:19-20 “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.

There are six key elements in this passage that are found in various places throughout Romans 1:18-3:18. Law, mouths, the world, being held accountable to God, and works.

Law. What has been said about law? in Romans 2:14-15 “ when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”

Mouths. What has been said about mouths? In Romans 1 humans do not “give thanks” to God and instead are identified as “gossipers and slanderers.” And more recently in 3:13-14 humans throats are “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.”

The world. What has been said about the world? In Romans 1:20 “For [God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

Being held accountable to God. What has been said about that? In Romans 2:2-3 “we know that the judgment of God rightly falls…do you suppose, o’ man…that you will escape the judgment of God?” Or Romans 2:16 “on that day when, God judges the secrets of men.”

Works of the law. What has been said about humans doing good works? Romans 3:10-12 “none is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Law. Mouths. The world. Judgment. And worthless works. These have been the key elements in Paul line of reasoning intended to convince us that we are unrighteous human beings. tonight we will see how Paul in a masterful and very unique way both summarizes in a very succinct way what Paul has said in Romans so far and also takes each of these key points to collectively make a powerful indictment that effects everyone here in this room.

The Picture of 3:19-20

To begin our exegesis of the words of this passage tonight we need to get a picture in our head because there is a specific picture it has in mind and if you don’t get that picture you will miss what is going on here.

Since we began studying Romans we have continually said that the overarching picture in the entire book is one of a courtroom, that humanity is on trial before God, and here in our passage to night we get an explicit references to that truth.

Notice three different phrases with me. We will deal with the whole passage and its logic but right now just look at the phrases, “so that every mouth may be stopped,” “held accountable,” and “justified in his sight.” Do you see those phrases? Let us look at them one by one.

“So that every mouth may be stopped.” Here we have a direct reference to a judicial court where a person on trial would be prosecuted and the accused must attempt to clear himself of the charges. But if he has been successfully proved guilty his mouth is stopped and he no longer has any excuse or any defense. The picture here is of a court.

Let’s look at the next phrase, “held accountable.” These two words actually come from the one Greek word hupodikos, which literally means “carried or brought to trial.” This word is used in classical antiquity in the story where Plato is hupodikos, brought to trial. The picture here is of a court.

Lastly, look at the 3rd phrase “justified in his sight.” We have said much about this word, “justified.” It is the same word as “righteous” in the Greek and what it means is right standing. What is signified here is a party who stands before the “sight” of a judge. And the question is what the judge will see. Will he see rightness, the person justified? Or will he see unrighteousness? The picture here is of a court.

“So that every mouth may be stopped.” “Held accountable.” “Justified in his sight.” The picture here is clearly of a courtroom. So who are the people in the courtroom? Who is on trial and who is the judge? Well, the judge part is easy because that phrase “held accountable” ends with “to God.” So God is clearly the judge. And the people on trial? Three indicators. “Every mouth,” that’s one. “Every mouth” where? Keep reading “every mouth may be stopped and the whole world.” “Whole world,” that’s two. And then in verse 20 “no human being will be justified in his sight.” “No human being,” that’s three. So who is on trial? Every mouth, the whole world, all human beings. Do you get the picture?

I want you to get this. Listen. God stands over this place tonight and He is a judge. And we are on trial. Every single person in this room is on trial before Him. There are charges being made against us. So let’s turn now we’ve got the picture of this passage in our heads and let’s re-read the passage and see if we can understand the logic of the charges being made against us.

The Logic of 3:19-20

Romans 3:19-20 “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.

“Now we know whatever the law says.” What law? Remember Paul uses the word law in different ways in different places in Romans. So what law here? Well, he tells us…”whatever the law says is spoken to those who are under the law.” So this implies that there are some people who are not under this kind of law. So we know this. Paul does not have the universal moral law in mind here.

Remember in Romans chapters 1 and 2 Paul argues that there is this universal sense of right and wrong woven into the fabric of who we are as human beings. There are certain things right and wrong, true and false, for all people in all places in all times. There is such thing as a conscience revealing a universal moral law.

But that cannot be the kind of law he has in mind here. Because everybody has that and here, this kind of law, some are not “under.” So what kind of law then? Look back with me to the beginning of chapter three. Let’s read the first two verses, “then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision (one of the Jewish laws)? Much in every way. To begin with Jews were entrusted with the oracles (or the Jewish law) of God.” We learned studying this passage and others in Romans that there is certain group of people, the Jews, whom at various points in history God chose to reveal Himself to in written words called law. If you want to learn and understand and know about that more go read or download the sermon on 2:25-29. But for our purposes tonight what we need to recognize is that law here in 3:19-20 refers to this Jewish law, the 637 commandments found in the OT or Hebrew bible.

So let’s read the passage like that. Both Jews and gentiles in the 1st century reading the passage we are tonight would know exactly what kind of law Paul was referring to. “Now we know that whatever the Jewish law, those 637 commandments say, it speaks to those who are under the Jewish law, those 637 commandments. So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the Jewish law, those 637 commandments, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the Jewish law, those 637 commandments, comes knowledge of sin.” Does this seem weird to you? How is every mouth stopped and the whole world held accountable to God by what is going on with the Jews? What do the Jews and their laws have to do with me? What is the logic here?

Here it is, follow closely. Humanity is on trial. The charge is that humanity is guilty and corrupt. in Romans 1:18-2:11 Paul said there is all this beautiful stuff in the world and instead of seeing that it comes from a creator our warped minds have disregarded Him and not given Him the thanks and honor He deserves. In Romans 2:12-29 Paul has said that our conscience or heart bears witness that we all do things we know are wrong. in Romans 3:1-18 Paul has turned specifically to the Jews and pointed out their unfaithfulness to the law concluding that there is no one righteous not one. So how does their failure to keep the law shut my mouth? What is the logic? this is it…if this is the Jews had the advantage of having God tell them exactly what he wanted so that they could be right with him and they could not do it, nobody can. my mouth is shut because I cannot argue, “well sure all this stuff must come from somewhere but it is hard and confusing, and sure I’ve felt bad for things I’ve done wrong at time, but if God was just not so detached. If He would just tell us what He wanted. Make it a little clearer then we wouldn’t mess up.” No you can’t argue that because He has done that.

You see what Paul is doing here is making a grand claim. For those of you hip to the postmodern asphyxiation of today…what Paul is saying is that there is a metanarrative. There is an overarching purpose to all of history. And he had done something with a particular group of people, the Jews, so that we would learn something.

And now, here at the end of Paul’s charge that humanity is corrupt we have no leg to stand on. Creation condemns us. Conscience condemns us. And the Jews condemn us. The verdict is handed down, guilty. We have no excuses left. Nothing left to say except to put our hand over our mouth and be afraid of what He is going to do to us.

and just to drive it home…to follow his logic all the way through Paul makes this final statement, “since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” This last statement answers the question, “why did the Jews fail?” Why with God giving the perfect law, did humanity still fail? Stay with me, follow the logic. Because “through the law” or in other words “the purpose of the law” humanity comes to “the knowledge of sin.” the reason why the Jews fail, why humanity fails, why we cannot get right with God ourselves, even with God’s perfect law, is because we are sinful in our core. How can imperfection, us, fulfill perfection, the law? That is impossible and absurd. Let me quote John Calvin here, “law convinces of sin and condemns. Life and death cannot proceed from the same fountain. The law indeed teaches us what righteousness is…but our depravity and corruption prevent it from being any advantage to us.” The intent of the law of this book is to cause us to fall on our faces into the dirt and plead with our maker for mercy. To put our hand over our mouth and admit our guilt and beg for mercy.

Now, we are going to move to the theology of this passage in a moment, but before we do I need say a few things that may not make a whole lot of sense to you and that is okay. I’ll try to simply it as much as I can, but we as the elders of the resolved, Justin and I, are commanded by Scripture in Titus 1:9 to point out false teaching. And this passage Romans 3:19-20 has come under attack in recent years by a false teaching called “the new perspective of Paul.” So if you don’t understand what I am about to say, that is okay. Just know that your leaders do and we are able to refute this false teaching. I know we look young, so for those of you that are older, know that we are not as young as we look, we have been in ministry for a long time and are seminary graduates and are well-equipped for this task.

So the “new perspective”…a couple of its primary representatives of this “new perspective” teaching are James D.G. Dunn, E.P. Sanders, and N.T. Wright. The heart of this “new perspective” teaching is that the historical reformed understanding that salvation, or justification, or righteousness, cannot and does not come through doing works is wrong. Those of the “new perspective” camp want to say that it comes through being part of a new covenant community. There is much more that could be said and if you download the pdf to this sermon there is a web-link to a good article (www.covenantseminary.edu/news/NewPerspective.asp) on the new perspective. But I bring it up here, at this place in my sermon, because teachers of this “new perspective” the way they interpret this last sentence is vastly different than what we have discovered in our study tonight. When they come to the phrase, “by works of the law no human being will be justified” they say it is “a Jewish identity marker of covenant” and that covenant is a relationship in a community which is not a justifying thing. Again, if that doesn’t make sense to you, that is okay, part of the problem is that this thought doesn’t make sense because you must completely disregard the actual words of the text. It is our contention along with Douglas Moo that “’works of the law’ are inadequate not only because they are ‘works of the Jewish law’ but, ultimately, because they are ‘works.’” This brings us to the heart of the theology of this passage.

The Theology of 3:19-20

When we ask the question, “what is the theology of a passage?” What we are asking is what does this say about God to us? What does it say about mankind? And what does it say about how mankind has related, does relate, and is supposed relate to God? They are questions that drive at us to answer the question of how to put all of this, all of reality together. If you are here tonight then my guess is there is at least some part of you that is trying to figure life out and you know in your life there is something that is not right. If we wanted to ask the question in a different way we could say, what is the doctrine presented here.

God. What does this text tell us about God? Mainly, it tells us that He is the judge of the universe. He is the judge of every single human being. The Bible teaches us that there are two parts to the unified person of a human. A physical part and a non-physical part. The non-physical part is your spiritual and moral make-up, your person. And when the physical dies that non-physical will live on and you will stand before almighty God and give an account. He will look into your eyes and see into your soul. That is what it means here when it talks about his “sight.” Hebrews 4:13 says “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” There is a judgment day and every person in this room and in this world will bow their knee before the almighty judge and He will see the thoughts and attitudes and actions of your heart. Nothing will be hidden. The pure blackness of our hearts will be laid bare.

Mankind. What does this text tell us about mankind? Three main things.

One, our mouths are quick to justify ourselves. I suspect that even in the last few minutes there have been many of you in this room who thought things like… well what about this? Or I am not really that bad. Maybe some people’s hearts are black but not mine. Or how is that fair? How is a God that judges good? Our reactions are quick to condemn us. Notice how we are not quick to put our hand over our mouth but to start rebutting. Think about it. Think about times that you have in love tried to point out to someone where they have wronged you or another person and right away the answer is. Yes, but… or well, you… because of our depravity our first reaction is to think. No I didn’t do that. That person is the one that is wrong…I didn’t do anything. No, most often if someone has to come to us and gets enough courage to say something to us, there is something wrong we have said or done and the biblical command is right away consider your fault. In psalms 141:5 says “let a righteous man strike me – it is a kindness; let him rebuke me – it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it.” Oh for us to be a people that are quick to admit fault and to confess sin. Neo-phariseticalism has become rampant in the church and I am on a mission against it, in my own life and in yours. By and large I believe that a major part of the quote “church” today has just become modern Pharisees. People who constantly are thinking that they are better than other people. That Christians are better than non-Christians. And that among Christians there are good Christians and bad Christians. I’ve said it before and I am going to say it again right now because I know last time I said it, it made some of you uncomfortable, and if I haven’t made you uncomfortable I haven’t done my job. Listen, there are two kinds of people. There are jacked up people and there are jacked up people who know Christ and are being saved. And if you are squirming right now and can’t handle that statement, then I would be scared for your soul that you are a legalistic Pharisee who does not know or understand the gospel. So put your hand over your mouth. Christ stands before you now as he did before the Pharisees of his day and calls you a viper, a serpent, a devil, who outwardly looks good, but inside is full of dead man’s bones. Put your hand over your mouth.

That was one. Humans are quick to open their mouths to justify. Two, humans cannot earn righteousness. That word, “justified” in vs.20, the same word “righteousness,” is dikaiosune and it is the most important word in Romans. To be right with God. God is a perfect, infinitely beautiful, and wonderfully loving being and we have shit on graces time and time again and instead of admitting our fault and turning to him we try to fix ourselves. We try to do “works” or good things to make ourselves better. We’ve said it before, but we must here it again and again, sin is not the violation of some code or rule. It is personally wronging or offending the infinite God of the universe which deserves an infinite unleashing terror and wrath and hell or He is not a good and just God. Tell me, how could you ever do an infinite amount works? Because that is what it would take to balance the scales. And yet, we can’t seem to stop trying to earn favor with God. Thinking that if we just do enough good things or if we just do the right things then God will look with that “sight” and be pleased with us. No. There is no kind or amount of good work that can gain you righteousness, justification with God. E.P. Sanders, and N.T. Wright, and James D.G. Dunn and many dispensationalists and neo-pelagian Armenians who have thought that works could ever have gained righteousness have got it wrong. Finite human beings could never satisfy the debt they owe to an infinite God. Our works are blood-stained filthy rags. And we stand before the judge of the universe condemned.

That is two. Humans cannot earn righteousness. Three, humans are guilty, law-breaking sinners. The doctrine of this passage is total depravity, that humans are completely deplete of any right standing and instead throughout the whole world stand condemned. the Westminster catechism, which we affirm here as a reference to our reformed convictions, defines sin as this, “whereby man is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all that is spiritually good.” And if you are here and you are thinking, well, what about other religions? I cannot say it any better than our beloved John Calvin in the Institutes of Christian Religion, “expereience testifies that a seed of religion is sown in all…mingled vanity and pride appear in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher than themselves, as they ought to do, they measure Him by their own carnal stupidity, and neglecting solid inquiry, fly off to indulge their curiosity in vain speculation. hence, they do not conceive of Him in the character in which they may attempt to offer in the way of worship or obedience can have any value in His sight, because it is not Him they worship, but, instead of Him, the dream and figment of their own heart…it makes little difference whether you hold the existence of one God or a plurality of gods since in both cases alike by departing from the true God, you have nothing left but an execrable idol. No religion is genuine that is not in accordance with truth…the law is a kind of mirror. As in a mirror we discover any stains upon our face, so in the law we behold, first our impotence; then in consequence of it our iniquity.” We are guilty friends. The law of God is written on our hearts. No one is able to erase that sense of ought we have all violated. Our law-breaking demonstrates we are guilty unrighteous sinners.

That is three. So one, humans are quick to open their mouths to justify. Two, humans cannot earn righteousness. And three, humans are guilty, law-breaking sinners. So what do we do? We are a guilty people before the judge in the court of heaven.

Conclusion

Part of the difficulty of the past seven months as we have labored and labored with the text, going where it goes, is to restrain ourselves from jumping ahead. These messages cut to the heart with a sharp knife and then often times just sort of twist it push it in deeper. There has been a somber depressing though sometimes sweet mood these past 27 weeks. But there is a solution to this depraved condition. And it is a glorious one. But for now I am going to end where the text ends.

Paul’s thesis in this book is that there is a righteousness that may be had, by grace through faith. This is the way that it has always been. There have not been different dispensations of time when God saved one way and now He saves another. No, it has always since the beginning of human history been by grace alone through faith alone. In the Old Testament, when God’s people the Jews sinned against him by building a golden calf, smoke and fire burned on the mountain and hundreds of people died that day as God unleashed His righteous wrath. There was no such thing as reverential awe, only fear filled terror. So here is the conclusion. Be afraid. Respond like job did in chapter 40 verses 1-10.

Job 40:1-10 “1 Then the LORD said to Job, 2 “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it.” 3 Then Job answered the LORD and said, 4 “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth. 5 “Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; Even twice and I will add nothing more.” 6 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm and said, 7 “Now gird up your loins like a man; I will ask you, and you instruct Me. 8 “Will you really annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified? 9 “Or do you have an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like His? 10 “Adorn yourself with eminence and dignity, and clothe yourself with honor and majesty.”

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:: The Resolved ::

Justin Bragg (elder)

Romans 3:1-18 “Moribund No More”

Sarcasm – introducing a new topic tonight, speaking on something different. Change of pace, might be fun to address total depravity and the wickedness of the human condition for once. We haven’t dealt with this yet, so it should be new to you all.

We are coming to the end. If we have been traversing through dark, cavernous caves of sinfulness, there is a light in the near future – the gospel is coming. We reach, tonight what I consider to be the climax – Paul’s brazen and unabashed condemnation of the human race. This is as clear as it gets, this is as bad as it gets.

It is clear that Paul is moving toward a summary and application of the teaching he has been developing since 1:18. The entire section we are dealing with tonight can be summarized as an accusation, in which Paul charges all people, Jew and gentile, with being under the power of sin, stringing together a list of OT quotes to confirm the universality of the description of the human condition.

The condition of every human being apart from the grace of God in Jesus Christ is not a pretty picture. Jews are not better than gentiles, and gentiles are not better than Jews – all are alike and under sin, and all are thus subject to the wrath and final judgment of the God almighty. – There is none righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

All of them – all people – are “under sin.” under the power of sin. Not just sinning occasionally, but enslaved to sin.

This is one of the weightiest truths that the church must hold up in the modern world. In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul calls the church of the living God “the pillar and bulwark of the truth.” this is one of those truths that the church must hold up .

There are constant pressures throughout history on persons and institutions and cultures to build life around wrong ideas. God has appointed the church of his son Jesus to speak boldly as the voice of truth to this sinful world.

It begins with your view of humanity: is man well? Is man sick? Or is man dead?
Much of liberal theology and secular theology will tell you that man is good, we are ok, maybe just not fully healthy, but the only thing we need to get better is a little exercise, spiritual vitamins and perhaps a psychiatrist. Checkup once-a-year. We are just ‘slightly flawed.’ – We say in everyday conversation that “nobody’s perfect,” but deep down we believe that we are pretty close.

Most people who think seriously about, reject that man is good, and will say that we are obviously not all good, people die and hurt each other, so we can’t be good, this view is more pessimistic – why can’t people get along, why is their starvation in a majority of the earth, why do father’s molest their children? Why do we bomb innocent people in the name of wars against terrorism? But the situation isn’t hopeless. There is good in people, and though we may be ready to blow ourselves off the face of the earth, all is not lost, the situation is not helpless.

That’s not what the Bible says about you and me. It doesn’t say that we are well, or even sick. We are dead. We can’t do anything to please, understand, or find God

One of the most important truths to hold up in the world, if the church is a pillar, is that all human beings, even though created in God’s image (gen 1:27), are corrupted by the power of sin. We are not morally good by nature. We are morally bad by nature. In Ephesians 2:3, Paul says we are all “by nature children of wrath.” the attitudes and thoughts and actions that deserve the wrath of god come from us by nature.

In Colossians 3:6, we are called “sons of disobedience.” we are so disposed to disobedience against God that it is as though “disobedience” is our father. We don’t just do sins, we are sinful. We are “under sin,” as verse 9 says. Sin is like a master or a king, and reigns over us and in us. Not that it coerces us to do what we don’t want to do, but makes us want to do what we ought not to do.

We are not innocent victims of sin. We are co-conspirators with sin against God.

From God’s point of view, the only one that matters, we are not good, we have no righteousness whatsoever. Don’t look at the human condition from the human perspective, Paul already told us that we can’t think right about it. Our entire problem is that we think we are good, or can do good, and that our righteousness is worthless in God’s eyes when in fact we cannot, as humans, ever please God

It’s not just that you aren’t perfect, or that you mess up sometimes. You are not righteous. You are depraved. You are devoid of spiritual understanding. You pretend to seek God, but in reality you are running away from him. Without an accurate knowledge of our sin, we will never come to know the meaning of God’s grace.

The human condition is not that you are well, with a few flaws, it is not even that you are sick, and in need of a doctor. The problem is much worse than that. The problem is that we are dead in our ability to do anything to please, understand find or glorify God. We are, as God declared when he warned Adam and eve against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, dead. (Genesis 2:17) “…you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” And not just Adam and Eve, for we know from Paul’s letter to Ephesians that every person who has been born are “dead in our transgressions and sins.”

If I tell a corpse to get up and sing me a song, the corpse would not be able to. The corpse is dead. In our spiritual death, we are unable to do anything that God requires if not for God acting on our behalf to give us righteousness through his son that we can never have, that we might glorify him as we should.

This is not a popular message. It is no more popular than the doctor’s words: “your tumor is malignant.” But it is vastly more hopeful. “Your tumor is malignant,” may or may not be hopeful news, because the doctor may or may not have a cure for your cancer. But “you are under the power of sin and a child of wrath” always has a cure. That is what the book of Romans and what Christianity and the bible are all about.

I really want this message about sin and about your sinful condition and mine to be hope-inspiring. We should find a deep satisfaction in knowing that Paul is describing your flaws to the deepest level of your being – knows your worst condition – and says, “God loves you, and I know a way that you can be set right with Him and right with others.”

Isn’t that much more hope-giving than someone who makes small talk and gives you little placebos to make you feel good, when deep down you know things are not good. I’m talking about churches that refuse to talk about sin and the depravity of humanity, and instead hold weekly self-help seminars that offer ten steps to becoming a better Christian, and four ways to be a more loving spouse. I’m talking about the brand of watered-down, good-for –nothing except making you feel good about yourself type of message that attempts to transform the words of holy scripture into four-step formulas to improve your life and silly prayers that will make you famous, rich, wealthy and happy.

I’m tired of it. I started a church with others who were tired of it because I fear that this teaching is setting up millions of souls for an apocalyptic devastation come the final judgment.
All of this pop-Christianity self-help talk may sound more kind and gentle and loving than hearing that you are a sinner and sick unto death, but it is a deadly kindness – the kindness of a doctor who will not tell you the truth about your cancer in its curable stage, because he doesn’t want you to be discouraged or scared. You want a doctor to tell you the real condition, why wouldn’t you want your preachers and teachers to tell you the real condition as stated in the Bible?

As we look at Paul’s summary accusation, keep thinking: this is good, this is good. Because for all this bad news about my true condition, there is a remedy. And the only reason for telling me the bad news is so that I will understand the remedy and take it – namely, the righteousness of God, freely given to those who really trust in Christ.

There are two main questions I want to try to answer in verses 9-18.

One is: how does Paul support verse 9 and the sinfulness of all men on the basis of the Old Testament in all these quotations in verses 10-18?

And the other is: how does he describe the state of being “under sin” in these verses? Or: what can we learn about sin, and about ourselves, and about the gospel from the way Paul talks about sin in these verses?

He says in verse 9 that Jews are not really any better off before God than others, “for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.” so you can see this is a summary statement from things he has said before: “we have already charged.” this is what he has been “charging” from 1:18 to 3:8. So he has already made his point

Nevertheless, he gives one last summary argument from the Old Testament. He begins verse 10 with “as it is written . . .” then he quotes six different Old Testament sections to support his summary in verse 9 that all Jews and Greeks are under sin. For example, from psalm 14:1-3 he says (in Romans 3:10-12), “there is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for god; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.”

Paul isn’t trying to use these six quotes as individual indictments, but rather, as a collective whole, they are a massive support that all are unrighteous. It seems that the first quote (in verses 10-12), for example, from psalm 14, is mainly an indictment of the gentile world, because later it refers to Israel as the righteous generation. In other words, without the special grace of God -without the special revelation of his saving work revealed to Israel – people are not righteous, no one. Only when God breaks into our lives and gives the special grace of faith and forgiveness through a substitutionary sacrifice can we get right with God, and be called “righteous.”
So when Paul quotes the Old Testament that “there is none righteous, no not one,” he means that, by nature, apart from saving grace, we are unrighteous. He does not mean that there was no way to get right with God, and have a right standing with God in the Old Testament.

Answer to the first question: how does Paul support the universal claim of sinfulness in verse 9 by quoting these six Old Testament passages which speak of righteous people as well as wicked people?

He shows that both Jews and gentiles are characterized as deeply corrupt and that the only way out of that corruption is by God’s gracious gift of faith and forgiveness that sets a person right with God on the basis of the substitutionary sacrifice that would one day come in Jesus Christ.

Now the other question: how does he describe the state of being “under sin” in these verses? Or: what can we learn about sin, and about ourselves, and about the gospel from the way Paul talks about sin in these verses?

1. Ruined relationship with God
Being “under sin” is first and foremost a ruined relation with God. Not, first, a ruined relation with other people. Verses 10-18 begin and end with this point. Verse 10-11: “there is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God.” and verse 18: “there is no fear of God before their eyes.” everything in between these verses has to do with the meaning of sin in human relations. But at the beginning and the end being “under sin” means that we have no fear of god and we don’t understand him and we don’t seek him. Verse 11: “there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for god.”

Don’t miss this – sin is mainly a condition of rebellion against God, not mainly a condition of doing bad things to other people. This is why it is so sad and so pointless when people argue that they are pretty good people, and so don’t need the gospel. What they mean is that they treat other people decently: they don’t steal, kill, lie much, or swear much, and they give to some charities. But that is not the main question. The main question is: do you love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength? Do you love his son, Jesus Christ? God is the most important person in the universe. It is not a mark of virtue to do nice things for people while having no love or reverence or passion for God.

Sin is, first and foremost, a resistance to finding joy in God. And that resistance results in a darkened mind that then suppresses the truth and does not understand God. So the mind that is “under sin” does not seek God and does not know God and does not fear God. And it doesn’t matter what we do for people; if we treat the king of the universe with such disdain, we may know that we are profoundly “under sin.”

2. Ruined relationships with people
Being “under sin” results in ruined relations with people, even though God’s common grace may restrain us from treating people as badly as we might.

In verses 13-14, Paul describes the way sin ruins our words, and in verses 13-14, he describes the way sin ruins our actions – “throat . . . Tongue … Lips . . . Mouth.” verses 13-14: “their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” graves have to do with death and venom is poison that has to do with death, and that is what deception and cursing produce: death. The mouth was meant to give life. But sin turns it into a place of poison and death. May this diagnosis of our lives “under sin” make us want to be saved! May we long for redeemed tongues and mouths that give life and not death!

Then, in verses 15-17, being “under sin” is not a way of speaking, but a way of acting: “their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known.” this is what happens when God is not sought or known or reverenced. If God were to reduce his restraining bands in this world, it would descend into anarchy. That’s why there are governments and police and armies. By nature we would take vengeance on every offense, and our feet would run to shed blood, if we were not restrained. We see it, for example, in the looting of societies where the infrastructure collapses. And we would see it here. Because this is what it means to be “under sin.” human relationships are ruined.

3. Good news for those “under sin”
Finally, if this is who we really are by nature – people who are “under sin” and therefore, as Romans 1:18 says, under the wrath of God – then is it not the best news in the world that the entire point of the book of Romans and the whole bible and of Christianity is that God, in his great mercy, has made a way of salvation from sin – the power of sin and the penalty of sin? We are just centimeters away from it. Romans 3:21-22 – “but now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.”

If you will believe in Jesus Christ, and turn from your sin, and renounce all forms of self-salvation, the very righteousness of God will be yours as a gift, and replace your unrighteousness for which Christ suffered and died on the cross. I implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Trust him for his great salvation.

What is it we are talking about here? Confess your sin. Look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I am a jerk. I am unrighteous. I can’t do anything right. I am a failure. I am a bad friend, an unfaithful boyfriend/girlfriend, a lazy employee, a selfish husband/wife, a liar, a scandalous self-promoting, and egomaniacal, arrogant, self-promoting, back-stabbing evil person.”

Maybe you’re not as bad as the person next to you. Maybe you are a pretty good person. But your righteousness, the thought that you have more righteousness that somebody else is the root of the sin of pride in your heart. Your righteousness, whatever you rate it on a scale of 1-10 is worthless. Your righteousness is not God’s righteousness. You don’t just need Christ’s help to get you to that perfect 10 in righteousness. That is what Psalm 14:3; 53:3; Romans 3:12 teach us – your definition of personal righteousness is a negative four billion in relation to the righteousness of God. God doesn’t say that people merely fail to live up to his standard, although that is also true, but what God really says is that we have all “turned away” and have “become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

All wickedness flows from a disregard for God. 3:18 – there is no fear of God before their eyes” (compare with v10 – no one seeks God)
Proverbs 9:10 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
If you will approach God rightly, you will receive his righteousness
Naturally, those who do not fear God suppress the truth about Him, and their minds are darkened and they become fools.
So some are fooled into thinking they are good and don’t need God
Or others realize that God has to fit in the picture somehow, so they try him out in some form, but fail to fear him because of their abundant unrighteousness, and attempt to make him happy by doing good things to appease him

Don’t be those people.
Come to the table of our Lord wisely, in fear. Confess your sins to him tonight. Do not come and drink his blood and eat his flesh unless you admit that you have no righteousness in yourself. Taking communion is, at its core, the expression of receiving God’s righteousness offered in his son because you have no ability in yourself.