Romans 3: Universal Sinfulness of Mankind
1. What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
a. Paul is going to address the benefit of the law and truth in our sinful lives.
2. Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
a. Psalms 19 (The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.)
3. For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
a. Isaiah 55:11 (“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.....so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.)
4. God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
a. Matthew 5:18 (“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.....so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.)
5. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
a. The law shows the contrast of how HOLY God is and how SINFUL we are
6. God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
7. For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
8. And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
a. Grace does not become a license to sin
b. This is critical to grasp so that the TRUTH of Christ does not become twisted by our sinful minds to justify ungodly behavior
c. Three dimensions of SIN –
i. Sinful Acts – breaking God’s law through commission and omission
1. James 4:17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
ii. Sinful Estate – born into state of rebellion
1. Psalms 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
iii. Sinful Nature – we are broken with a proclivity toward sin
1. Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
d. You can see that without the intervention of grace, we are hopelessly bound, broken, and rebellious
9. What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
a. NOT just guilty of sin, but under the powerful dominion of sin – the slaves of sin
10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
a. Some ministries call themselves “Seeker”, but we should recognize without the work of the Holy Spirit in grace, NO ONE SEEKS God on their own
b. We can never reach our full capacity because of sin – we are impaired, stunted, handicapped
12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15. Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16. Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17. And the way of peace have they not known:
18. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
a. So Paul is showing how depraved and wrecked we are without grace – unprofitable, liars, cursers, murderers, destroyers, without the foundation of wisdom – Fearing God
b. With Paul culminating with this, which we know is the beginning of wisdom, he is showing we are helpless in our sinful state
c. Paul is now going to shift to the root of the sin problem – the fall in the garden
d. If you see man and creation at its apex in the garden – Adam naming & classifying every living creature, an eternal being without weakness, sickness, or corruption
e. All creation under his dominion, the lion grazing on straw, plants growing without thorn
f. You will find that power of sin has corrupted all the created order – the lion is thirsty for the blood of its prey, the garden choked by weeds, and Adam’s sons and daughters born into slavery with the taskmaster of sin
g. Our mind in bondage, our will shackled, our emotions prisoner to the powerful tempter from the Garden
19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
a. Paul is going to show that both sin and salvation are universal – sin is universal to the descendants of Adam and salvation is universal to the seed of Christ by faith
23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
1. All persons are condemned before God and need to be justified freely by His grace (3:23, 3:21-26)
a. Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
i. What is the theological significance of the verb tense here?
ii. All have sinned -- the capstone to the argument on the universality of sin
b. God is no respecter of persons because there is no difference-- all have sinned
c. Sinned -- hemarton (aorist-punctiliar) -- the sin problem is a historical fact of the past which involves all of humankind (the fall)
2. How may this relate to the sin of Adam?
a. Paul will drop in a theme that he will develop in much more detail later on -- the fall of man in the sin of Adam
b. Romans 3:21, "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets."
c. How does 3:21 serve as a "pivotal point" in Paul's argument?
d. Paul has argued that all the Gentiles are depraved by nature and that the Jews do not have a solidarity in keeping the law
e. He has reached the bottom of the apex of the human condition and now he starts the upward road on how to be justified.
f. How may the phrase "righteousness of God" be interpreted?
i. The Righteousness of God is a Subjective Genitive -- God communicates/ imputes righteousness
3. What is the theological significance of the phrase "apart from"?
a. Choris (apart from) -- it has no basis in the law, has nothing to do w/ the law
b. Obedience to the law isn't taken into consideration for this righteousness
c. Revealed -- pephanerotai (Perfect Tense) -- describes a past event whose effect abides until the present
d. The revelation began at the cross and its impact abides until the present
4. Romans 3:22, "Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;"
a. What is the importance of the prepositions here?
b. This verse is a further explanation of 3:21
c. The righteousness of God comes (dia -- through, by means of, agency) faith
d. What is the meaning of the phrase the "faith of Jesus Christ"?
e. Some translate it, "faith like Jesus had"
f. Some translate it, "because of Jesus' faith we receive righteousness"
g. The faith of Jesus Christ is a Genitive Objective -- faith with Christ as its object; believing in Christ
h. Upon all who believe -- believing is the sine qua non of salvation
i. There is no difference -- everyone is in the same boat -- we are all sinful and must have faith to be saved
5. Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
a. Why is there no difference of persons with regard to faith?
b. God is no respecter of persons because there is no difference-- all have sinned
c. How may the "sin" here relate to Paul's argument in Romans 5?
d. All have sinned -- the capstone to the argument on the universality of sin
i. Sinned -- hemarton (aorist-punctiliar) -- the sin problem is a historical fact of the past which involves all of humankind (the fall)
ii. Paul will drop in a theme that he will develop in much more detail later on -- the fall of man in the sin of Adam
iii. And are presently falling short of God's requirements (Paul shifts from the fall of man to the present)
6. Romans 3:24, "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
a. What vocabulary does Paul use to describe God's wonderful gift of salvation?
b. Paul may be quoting a creedal formula that was in existence already in the church (it is not typical Pauline vocabulary)
c. If people can't merit justification, there is only one option -- it must be a gift
d. Paul accentuates the giftedness (free nature) of justification by using:
i. dorean (gift)
ii. Charis (grace, unmerited favor)
iii. It is a gift of grace, unmerited. It is not a reward, affirmation, or honorarium
e. There is a difference between thankfulness and obligation
7. How does Paul use the imagery of the slave market to get his point across here?
a. Apolutrosis -- redemption, used in the slave trade of the price paid to either own or release a slave
b. There was a ceremony that you could set a person free to serve a god
c. We are redeemed from a harsh taskmaster of sin and the flesh
d. Christ paid for our redemption
8. Romans 3:25, "Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed."
a. How does Paul use the imagery of the 'mercy seat' to describe the sacrifice of Christ?
b. Paul has already set forth the sin of man and the wrath of God toward sin
c. Something must take care of God's wrath toward sin
d. Hilasterion -- propitiate, satisfy (used only here and in Hebrews 9:5)
e. The cross of Christ was inserted between the world and the God (the cross took on God's wrath)
f. The mercy seat was the lid on the Ark of the Covenant
g. On Yom Kippur (Covering), the high priest sacrificed on the mercy seat
h. This atoned for the sins of the people
i. Hilasterion is used in the LXX for the mercy seat
j. Paul uses hilasterion to refer to Christ
k. There had to be justice so there had to be a mercy seat (sin cannot be pardoned, it must be destroyed)
9. How does Christ's sacrifice differ from that of the mercy seat in the Old Testament?
a. Like must atone for like
b. The blood of bulls doesn't take away sin
c. Why did Jesus have to become incarnate to take away our sins?
d. There must be a divine and eternal dimension to the sacrifice
e. It must be infinitely pure and have an eternal effect
f. Thus only the God man could atone for sin
10. Were sins of old simply forgiven by God prior to the cross of Christ?
a. Paresis (only time in Paul) not remission or forgiveness but to pass over, let go unpunished
b. Prior to the cross, the full justice of God (the full manifestation of sin) had not been revealed
11. Romans 3:26, "To demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
a. How did the cross of Christ declare God to be just?
b. The first part of this verse reemphasizes 3:25
c. God did not do away with the demands of the law (pardon)
d. But the demands of the law are met through the substitution of Christ
e. The law is not moral; it is legal
f. God's judgment against sin fell on Christ
g. How can God declare sinners to be righteous?
i. Christ's substitutionary death allowed God to declare sinners righteous
ii. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to sinners and the sin of sinners is imputed to Christ
h. This exchange allowed God to declare sinners righteous
i. Paul's imagery regarding the cross:
1. Law court – justify
2. Slavery – redemption
3. Temple -- mercy seat
4. Romans 1 & 2 state that the Gentiles and Jews are lost
5. Romans 3 shows how the problem is solved--the vicarious sacrifice of Christ-Great Exchange
23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
• All have sinned shows the singular sin of Adam that condemned and enslaved all mankind
• Come short of the glory of God shows the continual confirmation of Adam’s rebellion that we all participate in.
24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
• Paul loves to show extreme contrasts and here is the bondage of sin with the greatness of grace
• Free & grace are redundant to emphasize the unmerited nature of salvation
• Paul is also contrasting the one sin of Adam bringing bondage to the race with the one person of Christ that brings salvation
25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
• Propitiation of the blood is the picture of the mercy seat and atonement of sacrifice in the Old Testament
26. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
• Justification is a picture of the legal court room – declared righteous and acquitted from sins
• “Phantom” leg syndrome
27. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
• With propitiation (mercy seat) and justification (legal declaration) all coming from God, where do we have boasting?
28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
• Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity!
29. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
• This idea that God is no respecter of persons, that all are guilty by Adam and can be redeemed by Christ
30. Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
• Faith is the only way to be made right with God
• For without faith it is impossible to please Him
• To do the works of God, believe on him that God has sent!
31. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
• Purpose of the law is not to bring salvation
o Abraham was justified by faith before the law
o David was justified by faith under the law
• The purpose of the law was not to bring salvation, it was to show our need for grace
