Good morning! Please open your Bibles to Romans 3. I appreciate Lauren reading the Scripture passage for us earlier. You guys should be proud of Lauren. This year she is taking leadership in the State of Alabama as one of the emerging leaders identified by the Alabama WMU, and this past weekend was involved in leadership the the Complete conference for teen girls. So, Lauren, we are so proud of you, and Cody, thank you for the leadership you are giving to our students.
Speaking of Cody, I want to thank him again for bringing the word and providing leadership for our students during their DNow two weeks ago. Cody, you handled a tough passage really faithfully, and I am thankful to serve with you.
And when I asked Lauren to read Scripture a few days ago, I wouldn’t have blamed her if one of the first thoughts that went through her head was, “Hey, are we still talking about circumcision?” And the answer is no. But we are still talking about the wrath of God. Paul is continuing to make the case that no one is righteous on their own. The second half of Chapter 1 is all about how Gentiles are not righteous. But then chapter 2 is all about how the Jews aren’t righteous either. That just because you have the law, just because you’ve been circumcised, just because you are part of the people group that is identified in Scripture as God’s chosen people, those things don’t give you any more standing before God. And so chapter 3 begins with the question, “Is there any advantage to being a Jew?”
And you might expect Paul’s answer to be, “Nope—no difference. No advantage. But let’s look at verse 1:
3 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way.
So there is an advantage. There is something that makes the Jews special What is it?
Before we look at the answer, I want to ask you, what is the coolest job title you have ever heard? What’s something you’ve seen on a business card that has just made you say, “Dude—that’s the job I want.”
And I’m not talking about goofy job titles that just try to make something boring sound cool. Like an accountant that has “Number Ninja” on her business card. Or a middle manager that put “Master of Minions” on his card. I’m talking about cool job titles that are actually for cool jobs.
Something like, oh, I don’t know, “Commander of the 187th Fighter Wing.” Doug—that’s a cool job title, because you’ve got a cool job.
But if you look at verse 2, I think the Jews are given a job title that even beats “Wing Commander.” Paul says that the Jews have the coolest job ever. Let’s look at it again:
3 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
See, here’s another place where Paul says, “first,” and there’s not even a second. It’s like, what else can I say? You’ve been entrusted with the oracles of God. You are a Trustee of Oracles.
Sounds like a character in Harry Potter, working at the Ministry of Magic—“I’m a trustee of the Oracles.” What in the world does that mean?
Other translations say that the Jews were entrusted with the “very words of God.” And that helps us understand what Paul means, but I really think “oracles” gives it the weight it deserves.
James Mongomery Boice, in his commentary on Romans, points out that there are three basic answers to the question, “What is the Bible?” There is the classic evangelical doctrine that the Bible is the Word of God. There’s the liberal doctrine that the Bible is a collection of the words and ideas of men. And then there’s the idea that the Bible is some combination. Some things that are really the words of God, and others that are the traditions and opinions of men.
But Paul argues in Romans 3:2 is that these words are the words of God. They aren’t human opinion. In Baptist life we say that the Bible is “truth without any mixture of error.” So “oracles of God” is the phrase that expresses this. Another translation says, “they have been entrusted with the very words of God. And in verse 2, Paul says that the great advantage of being a Jew is that the Jewish people were entrusted with the oracles of God. Not some of the words of God. It isn’t like the Jews have some, and the Buddhists and Hindus have some, and then when Mohammed came along six hundred years after Jesus, he got some more, and then Joseph Smith got a whole ‘nother testament in 1823 when he dug up some golden plates in his backyard in upstate New York. No. God chose the Jews, out of all the people on earth, to be entrusted with His words. All His words. And no one else.
Some of us got to see this firsthand a couple of weeks ago when we were in Israel. And if you are ever able to go to Israel, whether its with me or with some other group, you’ll visit Qumran, the ruins of an ancient monastic Jewish community on the shores of the Dead Sea. It was there that in 1947, a Bedouin shepherd threw a rock into a cave and heard the sound of breaking pottery. He went into the cave to investigate and found that the cave was full of clay jars containing ancient scrolls. These were the first of what would eventually be 900 fragments of manuscripts that came to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls contain portions of every Old Testament book except Esther, including a complete scroll of the book of Isaiah.
We visited the museum of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem, and I saw the Great Isaiah Scroll scroll with my own eyes.
Now why does that matter? And what does that have to do with the Jews being “entrusted with the very words of God?” Well, there’s two things I want you to think about. The first is that when you study the Dead Sea scrolls, many of them dating from almost TWO HUNDRED YEARS before Jesus was born, you find that there’s not that much difference between them and the Bible we have today. There might be some tense shifts here and there, but nothing that alters the meaning of the Scripture. That means that God has been faithful to preserve His word through the generations. We can have absolute confidence that the Old Testament scriptures we have today are essentially the same as the Scriptures Jesus read from!
But second, let’s think about this Scripture that says the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God. You really cannot overstate how careful the rabbis and scribes have been through the centuries to preserve the words of God. To copy them correctly and accurately.
Think about Qumran itself. Qumran sits in the desert at the edge of the Dead Sea, about 20 miles from Jerusalem. The Temple was destroyed in AD 70, along with the rest of Jerusalem.
From Jerusalem, the Romans began the march south to Masada, a fortress stronghold just down the road from Qumran, where a group of zealots were still holding out in rebellion against the Romans. In AD 71, the Romans began a siege of Masada that would last for three years.
Now, it was during this time that the Essenes who lived in Qumran began storing the scrolls in caves in the hillside. They believed (correctly, as it turned out) that the Roman Empire was on the verge of wiping out all traces of the Jewish religion. And so they said to themselves, “God’s Word must be protected. It must be preserved.”
Now, let’s fast forward back to that Bedouin shepherd in 1947. He was an illiterate Arab, which means that not only could he not read the Hebrew writing, he also couldn’t have cared less that these might be the oldest copies of the Hebrew Bible in existence. All he knew was that he and his tribe could make lots of money by selling them.
Now think about this. This was the year 1947. When was Israel constituted as a nation? That’s right. 1948. May 14, 1948. And what was the first thing the baby state of Israel did after they became a nation?
Well, yeah. They fought a war with the Arabs, who all decided to invade the next day, May 15, 1948. But the SECOND thing the baby state of Israel did after they became a nation was to establish a board of antiquities, which started to round up all these Dead Sea scrolls so they could be preserved.
Do you see how God has faithfully protected his word, even up to the twentieth century, through the Jewish people? I would actually go so far to suggest that the REASON God allowed Israel to be established at this particular time was so that these Dead Sea Scroll could be preserved. Or, if you like, God kept the Dead Sea Scrolls hidden until they could be preserved by the Jews.
The Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God. They are the trustees of the oracles.
Best. Job. Ever.
Okay, so once Paul establishes that the great advantage to being a Jew is that they are entrusted with the oracles of God, he then goes into a section where he answers a series of rhetorical questions. And I’m pointing this out because you are going to see this A LOT in Romans, where Paul anticipates the questions his readers will ask, and then he answers them.
And so here’s the first question, in verse 3:
3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?
In other words, if these Jews have been entrusted with the words of God, then why didn’t it change their behavior? Why were some of them still unfaithful? Doesn’t that mean that God’s Word really isn’t all that after all?
Can I stop here and say, that’s a really good question? And it’s actually the same question people ask about Christians today. Christian, you say you believe the Bible. Well then how come you’re just as stressed out as I am?
You say you’ve built your life around the teachings of the Bible? How come you laugh at the same racist jokes that people who don’t believe the Bible laugh at? If the Bible is supposed to be the ultimate guide for wisdom, how come you’ve got just as much credit card debt as I do?
How come the rate of divorce among self-proclaimed Christians is just as high if not higher as it is for people outside the church?
How come 40% of women who’ve had an abortion were attending church regularly when they ended their pregnancy?
The question behind the question is this: Why should I trust the Bible, when I can’t tell any difference at all in the lives of people who say they trust the Bible?
Which, wow. First, let me deal with the question the way Paul does. Paul asks, “does the unfaithfulness of God’s chosen people, the Jews, nullify the faithfulness of God?” And you see Paul’s answer in Verse 4:
4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,
“That you may be justified in your words,
and prevail when you are judged.”
Let God be true and every man a liar! In other words, every single Christian can mess up on obeying every single one of God’s commands, and that doesn’t make God’s commands any less true.
And I can say this with confidence because we have. We have messed up on obeying every single one of God’s commands. Every day. Several times a day. We sin. We fall short. We disobey. We rebel. And none of that nullifies God’s faithfulness. Years after writing Romans, Paul will put it this way in his second letter to Timothy:
11 The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:11-13)
Our absolute, complete, total failure to keep God’s commands doesn’t nullify the truth of God’s word. It just highlights our need for it. It highlights the desperation of our condition. We know the law. We have the law. We’ve been entrusted with the Law.
We just can’t keep the law.
Look again at Romans 3:4:
as it is written,
“That you may be justified in your words,
and prevail when you are judged.”
Here Paul quotes from Psalm 51, which you may recognize as the Psalm King David wrote after he got caught in adultery with Bathsheba. What a brilliant move. Paul gives a shoutout to the greatest king in Israel’s history. The man who wrote a third of the Psalms. The man who was described as a man after God’s own heart. And by reminding his readers of David’s greatest failure, Paul is just underscoring the fact that not even King David could keep God’s law. After David is confronted by the prophet Nathan, he writes this Psalm paul quotes here. Look at the line Paul quote in context: David cries out,
51 Have mercy on me,[a] O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
All my sins. All my failures. All my iniquity. All my shortcomings. All my rebellion. All they do is point to the fact that God Is holy. God is right. God is just to judge me and to punish me for all my sin.
Which brings Paul to his second hypothetical question: Verse 5:
5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us?
This is another great question. Here’s the argument. If we can’t help but sin, then is God just to punish us for our sins? Isn’t it kind of unfair for God to judge us for what we are helpless to avoid?
It’s like beating your dog for barking. Or cursing the rain because it’s wet. It might make you feel better, but you can’t really punish your dog for being a dog.
But here’s what Paul knows about human nature: we might want a pass ourselves, but if someone else sins, especially if they sin against us, we want that person judged, don’t we? When it’s our sin, we want God to be merciful. It’s just my sin nature. The devil made me do it. You can’t judge me for just doing what comes naturally?
But how many people are watching the news every night and really hoping that God will smite Vladimir Putin? How many see the refugee crisis in Ukraine, and the fact that Russia has nukes and seems to be edging closer and closer to using them, and you’re like, “Someone needs to take him off the board. Let’s pray for an assasination. Let’s hope there’s a coup that will put this madman out of commission.”
You wouldn’t tolerate a news anchor or an opinion piece or a pastor that said, “Look—we’re all sinners. Putin’s just being Putin. He’s acting according to his nature.”
No—the fact that we want to see justice done proves that God is right to judge the world. And if sin is sin, and “one dark blot” on our soul is enough to disqualify us from righteousness, then there’s no difference between Vladimir Putin and me. If God is justified in judging Vladimir Putin, then God is right to judge me.
Which means, the reverse is true.
If God can forgive me of my sin, then God could forgive Putin. God could forgive the worst dope dealer or sex trafficker or murderer.
I know we’re not there yet in the book of Romans, but we are coming close to the turn, where we go from this devastating description of the wrath of God to the amazing truth of the grace of God.
But I think in verses 7-8 Paul is hinting at what he’s about to talk about in the next section. Look at verses 7-8:
7 But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
Verse 7 is asking the question, “Well, if God’s truth abounds when it’s contrasted with our sin and faithfulness, then should we sin more?” Jesus is God’s truth. John 14:6, you remember, Jesus said, “I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the Life.” So God’s truth—Jesus—abounds, and God is glorified—by Jesus’ death on the cross for my sin. Think about how diamonds are displayed in a jewelry store. They are put up against a black velvet background in order for the brilliance of the diamonds can be emphasized. And so Paul anticipates the question, “Well, if my sin magnifies Jesus, then maybe I should sin more!” Think about all those celebrity testimonies we used to hear about devil worshipers and drug users and gangbangers who came to know Jesus. Paul is asking, “should we go out and sin really big like that, so when Jesus forgives us, He’ll be even more glorified?”
Now, I know you’ve always heard that there aren’t any stupid questions. I’ve said it myself—I’ll be doing a Bible study and someone will raise their hand and say, “This might be a stupid question, but…” and I’ll quickly say, “no, no, no—there aren’t any stupid questions.”
But at the end of verse 8, when Paul says, “Their condemnation is just,” that’s another way of saying, “You know what? That’s a stupid question.”
God’s glory is constant. We don’t add to God’s glory either by our sin or even by our good deeds. It’s a little like believing we make the sun hotter if we wear a fur coat in July. We don’t make the sun hotter, we just sweat more.
And in the same way, God’s glory is more evident in our lives when we serve him. When we trust him. When we proclaim him. There is not a verse of Scripture you can point to that says God is glorified when we sin. And if you think you need to go out and act like some great sinner in order to prove what a great Savior Jesus is, well, guess what? You’ve already done that. It doesn’t take some great sin to prove that Jesus is a great Savior.
So let’s review what Paul has said in these 8 verses. Let’s work backwards, from verse 8 back to verse 1.
1. God is not glorified more when we sin more.
2. God is absolutely just and right to judge us for our sin. It doesn’t matter if we are Vladimir Putin or Opie Taylor, sin is sin, and god is holy, and sin separates us from a holy God.
3. God’s word is absolutely trustworthy. His word will stand forever. And God’s Word is true, whether we obey it or not.
4. The Jews have the advantage of being entrusted with God’s Word. And throughout history, even up until today, God has been faithful to make sure every generation has an accurate, complete, trustworthy translation of God’s Word that they can understand.
So now, let’s look at the last point. The Jews were entrusted with the very words of God. Paul establishes that in verse 2. But guess what? What was true for the Jews is true for Christians today.
Flip over to 1 Corinthians 4:1. Here, Paul isn’t writing to a church that is half Jewish and half Gentile, like the church in Rome was. The church in Corinth was almost exclusively non Jewish. And look what Paul says:
4 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
Highlight that phrase, “stewards of the mysteries of God.” Does it look familiar? It ought to. It is almost the exact same phrase Paul used to describe the Jews in Romans 3.
Trustees of the Oracles. Stewards of the mysteries. What an incredible job title!
And what is the one thing that is required of a steward? That he or she be found faithful.
Beloved church, we have been entrusted with the very words of God. We are trustees of the oracles. We are managers of the mysteries. We have been given the responsibility of living lives that are consistent with the words of this book.
There’s a world watching. They are asking the same question the pagans in Rome were asking: can I trust God’s word, when I see God’s people acting contrary to it?
The one thing required of a steward is that he be found faithful.
We, my friends, are stewards of the mysteries of God. What a job. Let’s do it well. Let’s be in God’s Word on more than just Sundays and Wednesdays. We have the freedom to study God’s word. To carry it openly. To discuss it together without fear of persecution. Don’t take that for granted! Don’t give up in your freedom what others have died for in persecution.
It is an unspeakable privilege to be entrusted with the very words of God. Let’s be faithful to that responsibility.
