Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 3:1-8

Read here: Romans 3

• Review
  • John Calvin on the theme of Romans: “Man’s only righteousness is the mercy of God in Christ, when it is offered by the Gospel and received by faith.”
  • Really important to connect back to Romans 1:17, righteous shall live by faith, which is connected to Habbakuk 2:4. 
  • Romans 2 hammered on sin and hypocrisy. Outward signs don’t save us. In the old covenant, signs were many and elaborate. Some were even hidden behind the temple veil. In the new covenant, signs are few and public and designed to point us to Jesus. Circumcision was an outward sign of old covenant commitment, which (thank goodness) is replaced by baptism now.
  • Avoid a reductionistic and therefore oversimplified understanding of Jesus. With Christ, there is an outward AND an inward. Not just outward only rituals, not just inward only either. “Faith without works is dead,” James 2:26. Keep that circumcision/baptism connection in mind as we read 3:1-8.
• Chapter 3 Intro  
  • Paul here anticipates how Jews might respond to Chapter 2 and his statements on hypocrisy and circumcision and previous statements on righteous vs. wicked.
  • One thing I noticed too is that Paul’s focus is on what happens to us on this side of heaven or hell, that God doesn’t wait until we are dead to bless us or give us over to our sins. He gives us a “taste of the things to come” before we get there!
• Verse 1
  • There is a balance here that Paul is trying to convey, in the same way James was regarding faith and works in verse 2:26. Good works flow out of faith. Outward commitments to God through baptism, worship, etc., flow out of inward change. God is relational, he is not separating faith and works, outward and inward, it is not one vs. the other, it is more like a dance, a give and take, separate but connected, unity and diversity, one God and three persons. These things are reflections of God’s character, his invisible attributes of Romans 1:20. Because of this connection, Paul says there is MUCH advantage to circumcision as a Jew. 
• Verse 2
  • The advantage is that they were entrusted with God’s word. As God’s chosen people, that was a huge advantage to know his Word so well and have it as a big part of daily life.
    • I watched a film on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor that was part of a failed assassination attempt of Adolf Hitler. In the film it was mentioned how Christians owe Jews a “huge debt of gratitude”, mainly because they were the keepers of God’s word for centuries. Jesus was a Jew. So was Paul. We do have to be careful (maybe more careful in America than we currently are?) of not supporting Saul-like Jews, but Paul-like Jews. After studying Romans so much, I believe a proper conclusion from Paul’s message is we need to pray for the salvation of Jews in Israel and elsewhere, avoiding other distractions and having a missions mindset instead.
    • Think about it, unlike the Babylonians, Philistines, Syrians, etc. of the time, the Jews had the Word of God, a huge advantage to those who believed! Sproul says “there is no greater advantage for anyone than to be within earshot of the Word of God.” Sproul grew up in a liberal church that denied His power, but even with heretical teaching, the Bible was still read. He says that in spite of the minister, he was sitting under the Word of God. The power is not in the preacher, the “way we do church”(the liturgy), etc. “The power is in the Word because it is attended by the Holy Spirit.”
      • Hebrews 4:12-  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 
      • Modern Jews reject the prophecies of their own books, yet the power of God in the words they read still influences them. Others have added to God’s word, like Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and Jehovah’s Witnesses. We should avoid the different gospel they teach (Romans 16:17-18, Galatians 1:8-9), while praying God’s powerful Word saves them.
• Verse 3
  • Unbelievers do not and cannot invalidate God’s word. In the new covenant, an unbelieving, baptized person does not invalidate God’s word any more than an unbelieving, circumcised Jew invalidated God’s word during the old covenant.
• Verse 4
  • SUPER important verse, God’s word is true in spite of us! Sproul says God is the perfect promise keeper, while we are all promise breakers.
    • Paul quotes Psalm 51:4, a Psalm of David, which Sproul considers “a great penitential Psalm.” This is after David’s double sin, committing adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband killed. David says his sin is always before him (v. 3), acknowledges God is the only one he has sinned against (v. 4), which has a cascading effect on everyone else he sinned against.
      • True repentance holds God blameless for His judgement. Sproul says there is no rationalization, no attempt to minimize guilt or justify our actions. Even when we confess our sins, we want to hold something back, some of the weight of it, but David is not doing that here. Verses 10-12 of Psalm 51 are great (create in me a clean heart), where David is trusting God will do this when he truly repents.
      • I keep using this word “repent,” which may be new to you, so let’s define it. Biblically, repent means to turn from your sins. To have real regret for former sins and to acknowledge those and humbly seek forgiveness before the Lord.
        • Imagine a road, and one direction leads towards you committing sins, so you turn and head the other direction. Or imagine a road with steep, muddy ditches on either side. Acts of sin send you into the ditches, so drive straight and stay focused on the heading down the road to glory. Repentance is about that daily and constant inward desire to “let Jesus take the wheel” and drive you farther and father from past sins while also keeping you out of the nasty ditches on either side. True repentance is not something you do on your own, but with the Holy Spirit leading. True repentance doesn’t just steer you towards a better life, but towards eternal life. True repentance is about driving down the sanctification road, which is something we will explore later in Romans.
• Verses 5-6
  • Our unrighteousness is because of God’s righteousness. His righteousness is the standard we are judged by. Our world is full of moral relativism though, probably because it’s easier to “let boys be boys,” than to judge. These verses are basically saying that an “honest sinner” is the wrong response. Of saying, “yeah, I sinned, let God be God and I’ll be myself,” or, “hey, I am glorifying God through my sin, so I should keep on sinning, it would be wrong for God to judge me since by sinning I am glorifying Him.” This is actually how humans behave sometimes, acting like God won’t judge us because “judging is wrong.” “Don’t judge me!” is our common cry, we are repulsed by those who judge, including God sometimes.
    • Sproul says, however, that Jesus spoke more about the certainty of the coming wrath of God than anyone did in the Bible (Matthew 10:28 etc.), AND that salvation is by Christ alone (John 3:16, etc.).
    • Sproul: Every person is going to have to face the judgment of God. We will either face it on our own or we will face it with God’s appointed defense attorney, Jesus. 
    • The secret hope of the impenitent heart is that there is no coming wrath. Possibly, one reason they think this is because God has already given them over (Romans 1), so they cannot see their coming judgment.
• Verse 7
  • Continuing what we mentioned above, some people think God is glorified through their sin, so certainly they won’t be condemned for bringing God the glory.
    • Imagine Judas saying, “You people should be thanking me that I fulfilled the Scripture and delivered Jesus into the hands of the Gentiles. Why am I judged as a sinner? Surely I won’t be.” 
      • There are people who think this way, and Paul is about to explain how wrong-headed this is (hint: see verse 10).
• Verse 8
  • Why not do evil so good may come?
    • Some had accused Paul of this (antinomianism), of despising the OT law in place of the grace of God. People were saying Paul was denying the law of God. As we will see, Paul explains this more, says those who made this story up about him denying the law have condemnation coming, and that breaking the law is something we all do. He has said this before and will say it again in Ch. 3.
    • God wants a relationship with us. This “do evil that good may come” thinking is just more reductionism by men, oversimplifying things and saying “I’ll just keep on sinning,” rather than seeing the relationship, the story God has been weaving through all of history, to bring us to him. God wants to glorify himself, not through our sin, but through our repentance and belief and faithfulness. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith (Romans 1:17).
    • What about you, where are you with all of this? Are you in or are you out? “In” meaning you are heaven-bound, repenting daily, eager to live by faith. Or maybe you are not there yet but you are ready. Well, guess what? There is no “sinners prayer” you have to pray, although prayer is never a bad idea. The Bible says repent of your sins, believe, get baptized. If you are wondering if you are saved, then pray about it. I mean, who else more than God do you need to tell that you sense an inward change, a Holy Spirit driven desire to repent of your sin and you are ready to do that now? Well, don’t wait, repent! And pray. Tell God you are sorry and what you are sorry for. Be real, be specific about what you want to repent of. Nothing surprises God, so don’t worry about that. Remember, He led you to this moment, to your salvation. Thank Him for forgiving you and saving you. Thank Him that He saved you, not your prayers or works. Tell God you believe Him, that you trust Him. Acknowledge to Him that you are a sinner in need of a Savior, in need of His son’s righteousness, imputed to you, because you have none on your own. When you pray, you aren’t talking to yourself, you are talking to the Creator of the universe. So talk to HIM, tell Him you long for Him to lead you to repent of your sins, daily. If you can pray like this, if words like this flow from your lips in humble repentance and adoration and gratitude, then brother or sister, those are signs you are saved and on “team Jesus” now!
    • Next up, Romans 3:9-20.