The Laser Light of the Gospel
(Romans 3:1-20)
1. Laser lights are useful as pointers. I have one, but only rarely use it.
2. They are not toys. [https://phys.org/newsstory below:]
3. Concern is growing over the safe use of small, battery powered, hand held lasers. For example, there are now thousands of incidents every year of aircraft pilots being targeted by lasers from the ground close to airports, with some suffering serious eye damage.
This wilful and illegal misuse highlights the potential for accidents too. Our eyes are highly developed to see in great detail and also in very low light, but these very qualities make them vulnerable to damage from light, too…
For airline pilots, hazard comes even without permanent eye damage. A bright light entering the cockpit during take-off or landing can cause a distraction – and even a brief distraction during these crucial parts of a flight has the potential to cause serious consequences.
4. Laser lights are focused and strong, and that is how the Gospel is. It is central to Scripture, while the scarlet thread of redemption is a central them of the Bible, so is God’s faithfulness to the nation of Israel. One does not preclude the other.
Main Idea: The New Covenant Gospel is not a competitor with God’s plans for Israel, but there is a difference between the Old and New Covenants: The Israelites became part of the Old by birth, we become part of the New Covenant only by second birth.
I. The Gospel Respects God’s COVENANT with Israel, His Faithfulness, His Justice, and His Glory (1-8).
Since most Jews were not responding to the Gospel, does this mean God wrote the Jewish people off, as Paul was accused of teaching? Paul gives short answers to these objections here, but more detailed ones later in Romans. This is what the Gospel does not change.
This passage is filled with midrashim and quotations from Psalm 51:4; Psalm 14:1-3; Psalm 53:1-3; Psalm 5:9; Psalm 140:3; Psalm 10:7; Isaiah 59:7-8; Psalm 35:2, Psalm 13:1; Proverbs 1:16; Psalm 26:1; Psalm 143:12; Psalm 63:11,
A. His covenant with Israel STANDS (1-2).
1. Details picked up later in chapters 9-11.
2. Our daughter-in-law is expecting her third baby. It will be quite an adjustment for the other two children. But adding a baby does not mean loving them less.
B. His faithfulness to ISRAEL is solid (3-4).
Romans 11:25-29, “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
“As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
C. Since God is glorified through saving us by grace, this does not imply we should sin MORE: God still hates sin and loves righteousness (5-8).
Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”
The same argument could have been levelled when Jesus, referring to the sinful woman in Luke 7:47, “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
1. Is God a universalist? He will judge the world!
2. Our sin does stand in sharp contrast to God’s holiness, and thus even sin –indirectly glorifies God. But that is a byproduct. An atomic blast will relieve a city of its rats, mice, roaches, fleas and ticks; but it also takes out people.
II. The Gospel Focuses Upon Individual SINNERS, No Matter What Their Backgrounds (9-20).
A. On an INDIVIDUAL basis, no one has a “people group” advantage (9).
1. Jews and Greeks (gentiles) are under SIN.
2. The Jews and religious people in general cloak their sin with religion.
3. That is why we must individually covenant with God.
4. The medieval church did not get this (church replaced Israel; the church has a covenant, so you become part of the new covenant by being part of the church).
B. Jews and Greeks (gentiles) are under SIN (9) and GUILTY before God with no defense possible (19).
1. That is why we must individually covenant with God.
2. The medieval church did not get this (church replaced Israel; the church has a covenant, so you become part of the new covenant by being part of the church).
C. The crucial conclusion: NO ONE is righteous (10).
1. Sin is universal to the human race.
2. Godly Isaiah saw the Lord in Isaiah 6, he said, “Woe is me….man of unclean lips”
3. In the later 4th century a debate between Pelagius and Augustine. In the Council of Carthage, church leaders ruled that, “Without God's grace it is not merely more difficult, but absolutely impossible to perform good works” and “not out of humility, but in truth must we confess ourselves to be sinners.”
4. Although some of the teachings of the church had become corrupt by then – including the idea of infant baptism to grant forgiveness of original sin – leaders agree with Augustine who held the line based upon these passages in Romans. Semi-
5. Ecclesiastes 7:20, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”
6. The omelet illustration
D. Paul strings PEARLS, demonstrating from the Old Testament that every part of who we are has been corrupted by sin (11-18).
“The prevalence of crime among men is a legitimate proof that the [human] race is apostate, though every man is not a shedder of blood, or guilty of robbery or violence.” [Romans, Charles Hodge, p. 78]
Every mass shooting, every terrorist act, every dope deal, every instance of adultery bears testimony: the human race is in a bad way.
1. Our MINDS (11); may seek religion or a false god, but not Yahweh…
2. Our ACTIONS (12)
3. Our THROATS (13)
4. Our MOUTHS (14)
5. Our FEET and direction (15--17)
6. Our EYES (18)
E. Obeying the Law (Torah) cannot justify anyone it can, however, diagnose our SIN problem (19-20).
1. The Law has many purposes.
2. But being a path to justification is not one of them.
“According to a Pew Research Center study, roughly seven-in-ten (72%) Americans believe in heaven as a place “where people who have led good lives are eternally rewarded.” Another recent poll discovered for every American who believes they are so bad they are going to Hell, there are 120 others who believe they’re good enough to go to Heaven.
There are some problems with that view: How do you know when you’ve done enough? How good do you have to be? What standard do we measure ourselves against?
…[According to] to Romans 3:9-20… good works are not good enough ... The gospel will only be good news when we first understand the bad news... Grace is amazing only to those who are annihilated by guilt.” [Brian Bill, Sermoncentral].
3. God has removed all pretexts: every mouth stopped.
F. We enter the New Covenant – and salvation – by personal (not group) CONVERSION.
