Romans 3 - April 20th

This morning we come to one of the greatest chapters in the entire Bible! Within Romans chapter 3, we find one of the clearest presentations of the Gospel in all of Scripture. Let us consider some of Paul’s arguments in this chapter. 

“Let us do evil that good may come?”

Works do not save us; rather, we are saved by grace. Paul says, in verse 8, that many people falsely accused him and his Gospel message of teaching a license to sin. If salvation is not based on good merits but rather on the grace of God through faith, then why not, in the words of Romans 6:1, “sin that grace may abound.” Paul seems to testify here that many slanderously reported him teaching such a message. Man’s sin and unfaithfulness do, in a sense, glorify God’s righteousness. I believe this happens in two primary ways; one is that man’s sin allows God to demonstrate his steadfast love and mercy to whom he desires. Because of the fall of man, God can demonstrate his amazing forgiveness and love in the redemption of man. I heard one commentator use the analogy of a jeweler presenting a diamond to you on a black velvet handkerchief or stars magnified by a pitch-black night sky. It serves as a backdrop. The second is that man’s sin allows God to his demonstrate his judgment. God is glorified in the salvation of sinful man and the condemnation of sinful man. But just because God can use the wickedness of man to bring about good does not justify man’s sin. Just because man’s sin allows God to redeem man does not make man’s sin acceptable nor makes God unjust for inflicting wrath on mankind. Christians are not those who seek to sin and use God’s grace as an excuse for it; rather,  we are those who seek to please God through our obedience.

No One is Righteous

Paul has spent the last two chapters showing how both Jews and Gentiles alike are guilty of sin before God. Now, to alleviate any doubt or confusion as to his purpose and to emphasize his point, he states man's condition in the clearest, most straightforward way. All men are sinners; none are excused of such a title. Men are sinners, and no good works will save them. The Law was never given so that men might be justified; rather, John Calvin states that there are three uses of the Law. One was to illumine human sinfulness (the other two purposes are to restrain evil and to reveal what is pleasing to God); that is what we find stated here in Romans 3:20, through the law comes knowledge of sin. The more we try to keep the Law’s commands, the more we ought to see our inability to do so. We are all wretched sinners who are unable to justify ourselves nor plea our own righteousness before God. Righteousness cannot come from the Law because men are sinners. According to James 2:10-11, the standard is perfection, and that is a standard far too high for us to achieve.

Righteousness Through Christ Jesus

If we are not to be justified by the law, by what then shall we be justified? By Christ! “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” We are all sinners, and God is an impartial judge who will judge both Jews and Gentiles alike. The only way any will be justified is through the gift of grace through the redemption of Christ Jesus. Understand this, men are evil and sinful, and God is good and just; this poses a problem for mankind, for God must punish sinful man. God’s wrath burns against mankind, and rightfully so. But Christ came and died, becoming a propitiation (this is an extremely important theological word, it means Christ was the atonement for sin. It means he was the satisfaction, perfectly satisfying the wrath of God for his people.) At the cross, perfect love and perfect justice meet. God’s love and mercy, as well as God’s wrath and justice, meet perfectly at the cross. How can God be just and yet forgive sinners? It is only at the cross that we see this resolved. Both God’s love and wrath could be best seen on the cross. At the cross, we now see how God can be just and yet the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:26). Because of this, there is no boasting. Salvation is not something that we merit as Christians but something that is gifted to us by God. From our election, to our regeneration, to our justification, to our sanctification, and finally, to our glorification, it is all a gift of God. We are justified by faith in Christ Jesus apart from the works of the Law. Listen to the glorious reality written in Romans 8:3-4, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. 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 requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Amen and Amen!