Romans 3: 1 – 8
Is He Talking To Himself
1 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? 2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. 3 For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.” 5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) 6 Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? 7 For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.
See that guy over there, he’s talking to himself. There must be something wrong with him. Get out the straight jacket. Take him to the ‘funny farm’.
Let me ask you then, ‘is it okay to talk to yourselves?’ The answer is, ‘only if you do not get caught.’ It is awkward to see someone talking to him or herself. Yet, many speakers and teachers talk out loud to practice their presentation. Some, if you can handle it, actually talk in front of a mirror to see how they look delivering their message.
Most of the servants of God were different. They caught the public’s attention but the way they dressed, spoke, and acted. They did not dress to look the part. They were poor and were totally at the Lord Mercy and Grace on where they went and did. They spoke when and where the Lord directed. Today, you have these actors who put a cardboard collar on a black silk shirt to play the part.
In the New Testament we see that the apostle Paul not only talked to himself, but in many instances argued and debated himself. His method was to verbalize the questions people might be thinking or saying relative to the Christian faith.
In a series of questions Paul now takes up the points just made in the opening arguments. He has already discussed the claimed advantage of being a Jew in chapter 2 verses 17-20 and also the claimed advantage of circumcision in verses 25-29. His reply is that both are true simply because it was to the Jews that God had entrusted the oracles of God. It was through those oracles that man could know righteousness. They had thus had the advantage of the given word of God, first through Moses and then through the prophets, for over a thousand years. We are going to see in this section of chapter 3 that it should have made them aware of God’s righteousness; Their own unrighteousness; and of the need therefore to genuinely seek God’s way of atonement, initially through the system of offerings and sacrifices, and now through the One Whose death has made provision for ‘the sins done aforetime’ which we will see later on in this chapter of the book of Romans. In our next study Paul will use those same oracles in order to prove that all are under sin, whether they be Jew or Greek.
However, underlying what he says here is an important principle. He does not just want to bring the Jews into the common condemnation but is also underlining the fact of God’s pure righteousness which must deal with sin as it is. Nothing must be allowed to evade the fact that God must call it into account and punish it accordingly, and that was true for all, both Jew and Gentile.
We must recognize that in the last analysis it is Paul who has framed the questions being asked. Thus we can see Paul as teaching even in the very questions.
The question and answer method is interesting. It occurs throughout the first half of the letter and suggests that Paul has vividly in mind his arguments with Jews and Christians who had brought these charges against him.
1 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
The question arises that if the Jew who is unrighteous has no special privileges because of his unrighteousness, and if physical circumcision loses its validity for man when he is unrighteous, what are the advantages of being a Jew and what profit is there in being circumcised? This is the first question put to him by his imaginary opponent. Many Jews believed that the advantage was that, whatever they might suffer in this life, they would have eternal life because God was bound by His covenant.
2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.
Paul’s reply is simple, that it was because they were Jews and because they were circumcised physically, demonstrating that they were at least outwardly within the covenant, that God had entrusted to them ‘the oracles of God’. No more amazing gift could be conceived. As Moses had said in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 4, what other nation had had such a privilege, “And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? “Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren,”
The truth was that if they had had faith in them, and had fully responded to them, all would have been well, they would have experienced the righteousness of God by faith as they truly responded to Him by obedience and through the sacrificial system and ordinances.
We come across here a word which many not be too familiar to you - ‘The oracles of God.’ This therefore indicates the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures.
3 For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?
Taking this as the question of the supposed antagonist, the questioner is now arguing that the unfaithfulness of some among the Jews did not render inoperative God’s faithfulness.
The use of only ‘some’ being without faith does of course go against what Paul has previously said. His point has been that all were faithless. Surely, they were saying, God would still be true to His word and promises even if many among the Jews failed. And in Jewish eyes this meant that He would continue to favor Jews at the judgment. So he asks, ‘Will their want of faith make of none affect (render inoperative) the faithfulness of God?’ Surely, he is saying, God will remain faithful to His covenant whatever some Jews might do. And they were right. But where their premise failed was in that they overlooked the fact that they had ‘ALL’ failed.
To show you the Great Wisdom of our Precious Holy Spirit, Paul is also arguing that the faithlessness of many Jews who did not respond to God’s revelation (and who had rejected their Messiah), did not demonstrate that God had been unfaithful or prevent His faithfulness from operating (something he will prove in chapters 9-11 where he points out that God always has His chosen remnant to whom He is faithful). Indeed His judgment of those unbelieving Jews would rather demonstrate His faithfulness, for that was what He had promised in the covenant, blessing and cursing. Write down these portions of Scripture and look them up on your own - Leviticus chapter 26 and Deuteronomy chapter 28. So the implication is that this argument basically underlined their own unrighteousness and unbelief, rather than challenging His faithfulness, for His faithfulness was still operative in salvation towards those who did believe, while it was also being operative in respect of those who would be judged. The former would be blessed and the latter cursed in accord with Deuteronomy 28.
4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.”
The thought that God might be unfaithful was inconceivable to Paul. His reply to the expressed doubt is vehement. ‘Let it not be’ (or ‘certainly not’). Such a thing could not possibly be true. For the fact was that God would be found true to His faithfulness, even if it meant seeing every man as untrue (a liar).
Indeed the assurance of God’s faithfulness was demonstrated in those very oracles which the Jews prided themselves on having received, for they declared that God Himself would be acknowledged as righteous (justified) whatever happened, and would be triumphant when He tried others (or alternately would win the case if He was brought for trial). And that could only mean that what He did was right.
The strength of Paul’s feeling is brought out by his added statement, ‘let God be found true, but every man a liar’. There was absolutely no truth in the suggestion that God had been found not to be faithful to His promises, even if it meant calling all men liars. Above everything else God was and will be true to what He is.
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)
OK, says the mystery questioner, if that is so it means that our unrighteousness is commending the righteousness of God. And that being so surely it is unrighteous of God to visit us with wrath. The idea that this suggestion could be made so appalls Paul that he immediately assures his readers that he is speaking ‘after the manner of men’. He does not want them to think that he has any doubts on the matter.
We can see here the subtlety of Jewish thinking. They considered that by their unrighteousness Jews were actually highlighting the righteousness of God, as He forgave them their sins and received them into eternal life regardless of their behavior (something already refuted in chapter 2). Thus why should God be wrath with them? One thing that they overlooked here was that God’s wrath was not just His reaction to them as such. It was His reaction to sin because of His very nature. He was of such a nature that He would not overlook sin in anyone.
6 Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?
Paul’s reply is then again to refer indirectly to Scripture. What has been suggested could not possibly be true because Scripture says that God will judge the world. And He could not justly judge the world if the argument in verse 5 was carried through. In other words God must visit all men who are unrighteous with wrath, because it is His very nature. And there can be no exceptions. The judge of all the earth must do right.
7 For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
Paul keeps thinking about how others might continue to bring up another point so he has the questioner persist in the path of wrong thinking.
This incorrect path thinks if the consequence of the Jews being untrue highlights the fact that God is true and therefore abounds to His glory, it would be unjust of God to see them as sinners, for in the final analysis what they were doing would result in something good. It is now apparent that the questioner has got away from the question of sin and its seriousness by getting tangled up in a specious rational argument. The argument is really that the end justifies the means. It revealed quite clearly that the questioner had no idea of the holiness and righteousness of the God with Whom they were dealing, a God Who must call into account people for what they ARE.
8 And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.
Paul now makes clear that he has had enough of such nonsense. Why not, he asks, then say ‘Let us do evil that good may come?’ something that was self-evidently wrong. The condemnation of anyone who spoke like that or acted like that could only be right. We learn here also that people were actually claiming that that was what Paul taught. Paul does not argue about that. He simply commits such a false claim to God. We can see how his teaching that salvation was through the grace of God, and through benefiting from the righteousness of Another, so that God was able to declare as righteous the ungodly, could have been twisted to give this significance, false though it would be.
I appreciate men and women who delve deep into the Lord’s word. However, one of the things our Wonderful Holy Ghost gives to us is ‘discernment’. This is when you sense danger or problems about someone even though you really cannot put a finger on what they are up to. Some people are not interested in just asking questions to find out about how Great our Awesome God Is. What they want to do is insult Him and you. They want to attack your faith. I end with such a one who kept asking questions with the wrong motive. Turn with me to chapter 3 of the book of Genesis. We read about this one who uses questions to trick not find out the truth, “1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Notice that the questioner has a response ready to give. When you come across people ready to bring out their point of view, please remember that they are trying to win you over to their ways not trying to find out the truth.
