The World Under God’s
Judgment
Romans 3:1-20
Key vs. 3:9
“What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already
made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.”
Last Sunday we studied that the Jews were chosen by God and blessed with the law. However, they became so proud and self-righteous that they did not teach themsevles. Circumcision is circumcision of the heart, but when they did not repent of therir sins, they became useless before God. They even thought that they were automatically exempt from God’s wrath, because they had circumcision. They became so self-righteous, thinking, “If we are not exempt from God’s wrath, who else? If we are not going to heaven, who else can?” Therefore Paul indicted them by pointing out their sins one by one. Paul wanted to help them to see their wretched condition and come to know the grace of Jesus.
Today Paul raised hypothetical questions the Jews might raise. And he concluded his long discussion saying that all men are under sin. I pray that each of us may also come to know that we are under sin, and so under God’s wrath so that we can look to the righteeousness provided by God in Jesus.
1. God’s Faithfulness(1-8)
Let’s read vs. 1. “What advantage, then is there in being a Jew or what value is there in circumcision?” This is the 1st hypothetical question Paul thought the Jews might raise. it is about the advantage of God’s people. If the Jews became worthless as Paul said, what was the advantage of being a Jew as God’s people? What did Paul say? Let’s read vs 2. “Much in every way! First of all they have been entrusted with the very words of God.” Paul did not underestimate the advantage of being a Jew, nor did he ignore the value of circumcision. The Jews had so much advantage in every way over the Gentiles. Later in Romans 9, Paul lists some privileges the Jews had enjoyed. Let’s read 9:4-5, “the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” God treated them as sons; God forged very special relationship with them. God made covenants with them to be their God and his divine glory was present among them. They had many patriarchs of faith like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even Christ came from them. The Gentiles were void of everything mentioned here. There is no denying that the Jews were truly privileged and blessed people of God.
In this sense, we are also very privileged with so many blessings. Like the Jewish temple, we have the beautiful Bible house to worship; we have many spiritual leaders to look up to and learn from like Abraham, Issac, Jacob, David, Luke, Peter and so on. The whole great Bible figures are gathered here in this house. God’s words are abundant. Truly we have received tremendous blessings of God as God’s chosen. We must be thankful. Among all the privileges the Jews enjoyed, what did Paul list as the number one? Let’s read vs 2b. “First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.” He said, “First of all,” and seemed to list more one by one, but he never mentioned the rest. He seemed to realize that the words of God was the first and foremost privilege they had received. Why do you think Paul listed it as the number one privilege? By studying God’s words, the Jews could know God’s will and purpose of life. God’s words gave them strength and comfort, and wisdom to know what’s good and wrong. Not only God blessed them with the word of God, but also God wanted to use them to teach other nations. The words of God was the instrutment God wanted to use to save all nations.
When God entrusted his words to Israel’s care, he had a world salvation plan in mind. God wanted to raise Israel as a Bible teacher nation, and through Israel’s Bible teaching, God wanted to save all nations. Isaiah saw this God’s vision for Israel as a Bible techer nation in Isaiah 2:3, “Many people will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Issiah saw in the last days people coming to Jerusalem, learn the words of God; and the words of God going out to all the world from Jerusalem. I also hope that one day people will say, “Come, let’s go up to College Park to learn the words of God. The words of God will go out from College Park to 206 campuses through us.” The word of God is God’s instrument to evangelize the whole world. Therefore God entrusted his very words to Israel and us. It is the greatest privilege we can receive from God. At the same time, it is a great obligation we have to carry out.
You know we are so blessed with words of God. These days many people taste the sweetness of God’s words by memorizing Romans. I always thought Romans was difficult to understand, though I was saved by studying Romans in my college days. But surprisingly this time as I struggle to memorize each lesson, I understand it by heart. Actually I do not need to answer the questions. As I memorize the text, I know it so clearly. The word of God is like a spring of water welling up to eternal life. We study God’s words on Fridays, listen to message every Sunday, write testimonies on the message and share them at the fellowship meetings. On top of these, we study daily bread every day. The words of God are abundant here. We are called University Bible Fellowship. Without the Bible study, we will be called University Fellowship, which means nothing. Our mission is the Bible study. God entrusted his very words to our care. So if someone statys with us for a year or so, she or he becomes a Bible teacher. Do you know how old Jay is? She is just Sweet sixteen and she has been with us for a year and half. She has already become a Bible teacher. Sadly when you go to other churches, even many leaders are not equipped to teach the Bible as Jay does. We must appreciate the words of God and the Bible teachers who teach us the word of God. The words of God is our great blessing from God, but also it is our mission to teach the words of God and raise reliable Bible teachers for 206 campuses. Paul says in 2Tim 2:2b “Entrust the words to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” It means to raise up Bible teachers. Paul believed that world mission was possible through raising the reliable Bible teachers. Let us pray that we may rasie up Bible teachers by God’s grace and send them out to all nations.
The 2nd hypothetical question is about God’s faithfulness. Despite this blessing of God’s words, if the Jews did not believe, wouldn’t God fail and become faithless? Let’s read vs 3. “What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?” What was Paul’s answer? Let’s read vs 4. “Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: So that you may be proved right when you speak, and prevail when you judge.” Whether people believe or not, Paul said, God remains always faithful and right. Whether people sin or not, God has always shown us that he remains faithful. God finds always the way to prove that he is right and faithful. The fact that God remains faithful gives us great comfort and hope, despite our unfaithfulness. For example: Abram failed during the famine in Gen 12 and even lost his wife to Pharaoh. Later he got a concubine in Gen 16. But God was faithful to his promise and made him a father of many nations. When Israel failed. God’s work seemed to have failed. But God called the Gentiles to become his people, and continues his salvation work. God never fails. God’s work is not limited to men’s failure or success. God is sovereign. He carries out his work always. There is no need to worry about people’s weaknesses or unfaithfulness as long as we know God remains faithful. When Adam failed, God sent his Son Jesus to save sinners. God remains faithful to his promises whether we men turned away from him or not. Because God remains faithful, even if we sin, we don’t need to be fatalistic. We can come back to him like a prodigal son. As I prayed for this messsage, God revealed my sins of over the past 10 years. I was a hired hand, only for self-seeking, abandoning God’s calling. When I repented of my sins, I felt God opened his arms to welcome me with a big hug. When you believe God’s faithfulness, we can endure hardships and weaknesses of others. We can find strength and hope. But if we do not believe in God’s faithfulness, we despair easily and give up. Whether people turned away from God or not, God remains faithful always yesterday, today and forever.
The 3rd question is about men’s justification of sins. Despite our sins God looks more and more faithful. So Paul anticipated another crazy hypothetical question from the Jew. Let’s read vs. 5. “If our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bring his wrath on us? I am using a human argument.” People would say God’s judgment is not fair. Then some will even go further. Let’s read vs 7. “Some might argue, if my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and increases God’s glory, why am I condemned as a sinner?” They now presumptously think that their sins have glorified God, saying, “Shouldn’t I be rewarded because my sin has glorified God?” Some stretches this human arguments even further as in vs 8. “Let us do evil that good may result.” We human beings are very good at justifying and rationalizing our sins. We call good evil, and evil good. Sin is called human freedom. Perverse way of life is called born that way. When people don’t want to repent, they rationalize their sins or blame God or blame others. But it is not new. Adam and Eve did the same things. No matter what we call sin, sin is sin before God. We cannot escape God’s just judgment. Therefore we must repent of our sins and come back to God who remains faithful always.
2. No One is Righteous(9-20)
Paul started his long discourse from chapter 1:18 through up to now. He reaches his conclusion. Let’s read vs. 9. “What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.” Like a prosecutor, he brings his charge before the judge of the living and dead in the God'’s courtroom. Paul brings one by one in the courtroom and leads each and every individual to walk by, and charge him or her, saying “guilt! guilt! guilt!” “Elijah! Guilt!” “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Let’s read 10-12. “As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Paul emphatically says, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” No exception.
Then he lists the evidence of a guilty sinner, one by one by quoting from the Old Testament. Let’s read vs. 13-18. These verses show the picture of human depravity. God created man in his glorious image. But since Adman sined, we men became totally depraved from top to bottom, inside and out. Paul said in vs 13, “Their throats are open graves.” Have you been to the open graves? I definitely don’t look forward to. Normally the graves are closed. But the open grave shows dirty rotten body with bad smell. Because of sin, our inside become full of death, decay and corruption. It happens when our hearts are ruled by sin. We have the stentch of hatred, bitterness, jealousy and pride stewing inside us. What’s stored inside is what comes out. Look at vs 13b-14. “Their tongues practice deceit; the poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” Due to our inner poison of sin, it makes its way out to our lips and mouths. We hurt others by what we say or how we say, destroying marriages and friendships. Jesus said, “For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.”(Mt12:34). Look at vs 15-17. From out heart and mouth sin moves quickly to feet action. “Their feet are swift to shed blood. ruin and misery mark their ways.The way of peace we do not know.” We become like Cain. Vs 18 says about the main reason of human misery. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” When men turn away from God, we only see ruin and misery.
You know we may not act like this every day. But when you get mad at someone, you will see the glimpse of what is inside you. We may act like angels when our spiritual condistions are good, but we can act like the open graves easily when we are off guard. Many people think if they work hard and mind their own business, they are pretty good. Only drug dealers and murderers are bad people. That may be true in this world where everything is relative. But in the God’s holy courtroom where everything is absolute, the Bible says, “there is no one righteous, not even one.” Is there anyone who does not agree with Paul, still thinking, “Yes, I am a sinner, but I am not that bad. I am pretty good.”? Jay is such a good student, and I asked her at the Bible study: “Jay, you look like an angel to me. Do you agree with Paul or is he too far-fetched?” She said to my surprise, "Yes, I agree with him.” I asked her again, “How come?” She said, “Ask my family members!” Even your family members may not know everything about you, but God knows even the secret of your hearts. These verses depict clearly how God looks us and finds how sinful we are. Truly there is no one righteous, not even one and no one can get right with God with what we have done. We all need God’s grace.
Now Paul declares God’s final verdict. Let’s read vs. 19. “now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.” So when we stand before God, we can not excuse at all. Our mouths will be silenced. Period. The Jews and Gentiles – the whole world will be held accountable to God, that means we are all under the wrath of God. Let’s read vs 20. “Therefore no one will be decared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become concious of sin.” If we can’t keep the law, then why did God give us the law? “Through the law we become conscious of sin.” Paul clarifies the role of the law. The law is like a mirror. When you get up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? Monster! Your hairs sticking out, and some trace of saliva flowing down on your face? But the mirror cannot fix your problem. It just shows you what you truly are. Then you go wash your hairs and face somewhere else. No matter how much we struggle to be holy, the law will simply silence you, saying, “Shut up! You’re under sin and under God’s wrath!.” I learned the role of the law is to shut up your mouth. Whether we sin a lot or little less, that does not matter. Fact is we are all ssinners and will be declared unrighteous in the God’s courtroom. Romans 1:17 says that “In the gospel a righteousness of God is revealed.” As we discover that our righteousness is like filthy rags. We need God’s righteousness, which is provided in Jesus Christ who died to pay for our sins. I cherished the phrase in Hymn 70, “My sin –not in part, but the whole – is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul.” We need Jesus. Only by God’s grace we are forgiven and saved, through faith in Jesus alone. Therefore, let us admit that we are all under sin, and accept his perfect grace. Then we can be sure of our salvation despite all our shortcomings. Praise the Lord Jesus for his grace. We will study the grace of Jesus in depth next Sunday. Let’s read key vs 3:9.