Romans 3:1-20

“Together in the Same Boat”

Romans 3:1-20 (Message #7)

February 28, 2016 (Sligo, Ireland)

INTRODUCTION:

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early morning of 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. The sinking resulted in the loss of more than 1,500 passengers and crew, making it one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history. The RMS Titanic, the largest ship afloat at the time was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast and was operated by the White Star Line. On her maiden voyage, she carried 2,224 passengers and crew.

Under the command of Captain Edward Smith, the ship’s passengers included some of the world’s wealthiest people, as well as some of her poorest, mostly emigrants from Great Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia seeking a new life in North America. Although Titanic had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, there were not enough lifeboats to accommodate all of those aboard due to outdated maritime safety regulations and the belief that Titanic was unsinkable. In fact, Titanic only carried enough lifeboats for slightly more than half of the number of people on board.

After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic touched port at Cherbourg in France and Cobh in Ireland before heading west to New York. On 14 April 1912, four days into the crossing and about 600 km south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 PM ship’s time. The collision caused the ship’s hull plates to buckle inwards along her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea; the ship gradually filled with water. Meanwhile, passengers and some crewmembers were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partly loaded.  By 2:20 AM, she broke apart and foundered, with well over 1,000 people still aboard. Just less than two hours after Titanic disappeared into the sea, the Cunard liner, RMS Carpathia, arrived on the scene where she brought aboard an estimated 710 survivors. In all, 68% of the Titanic’s passengers and crew were lost. 

TRANSITION:

            In Romans chapters 1-2 Paul explains that all men are sailing on the SS Unrighteousness. Traveling through the Sea of Life it has already hit the iceberg and is going down. It doesn’t matter if you are a first-class passenger or a lowly steerage stowaway; we are all together in the same sinking boat.

            Paul’s Jewish friends found this concept extremely hard to swallow in that they saw themselves as God’s Chosen People and therefore not governed by the same rules as the heathen Gentiles. They laboured under the misconception that they were each the “apple of God’s eye,”—in a sense, “Teacher’s pet.” They recognized and agreed that the other end of the boat was sinking but felt that their end of the ship would never sink because they were too good and too righteous and too beloved of God for Him to let that happen. Paul quickly bursts this bubble by showing from Scripture that Jewish sin is just as damning as Gentile sin in the eyes of God.

            When we come to Chapter 3, Paul anticipates the logical question: “Then what’s the point of even being a Jew, of following the Law, or of being circumcised?” Let’s see what he has to say about those things in today’s text.

MAIN BODY:

Verse 1: “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?”

·        Naturally, Paul’s Jewish hearers would ask this question because at first glance based on Paul’s statements leading up to chapter 3 they would conclude that he is saying that being Jewish means nothing to God. But that is not what Paul is teaching. In this whole passage he makes a clear distinction between advantages in regard to personal salvation versus the national advantages of the Jewish people. In terms of getting to Heaven, being Jewish means nothing, in the same way that being Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, American, Filipino, male, female, or intelligent and talented means nothing. Every person has to come to God in the same way, on the same terms. Yet, Israel as a nation had and still has great advantages. Look at the next verse.    

Verse 2: “Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.” 

·        In chapter 2 Paul attacked the two great Pillars of Judaism: the Mosaic Law, and the rite of Circumcision, which was the sign of Israel’s covenant relationship to God. However, he was not saying that these are worthless, but rather, powerless to SAVE a person from eternal damnation! There is a great difference!

·         Paul himself was a Jew and considered himself blessed to be one. Here in verse two, Paul is focusing on the fact that God Himself established Judaism. We, as Gentile Christians should never forget this fact. Israel was the world’s first and only theocracy and God was their King and Christ will one day rule on David’s throne. And God is still not done with Israel. Her national covenants with Him were unconditional. God will fulfill every promise He ever made to them. We, the Church, have not replaced them and thus inherited all those promises for ourselves, despite the claims of some.

·        I know there are many who teach this but it cannot be supported from Scripture. Many Christians have the idea that Judaism merely prepared the way for something better, i.e. the Church. However, the Scriptures tell us that we were “grafted into the trunk” of Israel by God’s grace. We did not take their place and God has not turned His back on them. God made precious personal promises to Israel, which were not made to any other peoples, including the Church. Later on in chapters 9-11 Paul deals more fully with the Jew’s place in God’s plans, but here he simply has to make his case that Jews are just as sinful as Gentiles and just as spiritually bankrupt before God as far as salvation is concerned.

·        By saying “the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God” Paul of course refers to the OT Scriptures. The word “oracles” means the utterances from God. God gave His Law to the nation of Israel through Moses and the prophets, instructing them, in turn, to proclaim the Good News to the whole world. They were to be “a light unto the Gentiles.” [N.B. For the word “entrusted” see Paul’s repeated use of the word in I & II Timothy, starting with I Tim. 1:11.]

Verse 3: “What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?”

• The fact that some Jews were unfaithful and did not believe God’s promises could not change God’s mind or cause Him to revoke His sincere promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. In fact, Abraham himself was unfaithful, but God kept His promise in regard to giving him a physical son, Isaac. Also, in Moses’ time Israel was unfaithful, but God later on brought them into the Promised Land. In Jeremiah’s time infidelity was nearly total but God did not revoke His promise on that account. Likewise, spiritual infidelity and rejection at the time of Christ did not nullify God’s promises to Abraham’s seed to send the Messiah. 

Verse 4: “By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar, as it is written, ‘That You may be justified in Your words, and prevail when You are judged.’”   

·        “By no means!” In this verse, to make his point, Paul quotes from the Greek version of Psalm 51:4 and he uses the strongest negative construction that exists in the Greek language. It can also be translated, “Not at all!” or, “God forbid!” He leaves no door open to even consider for a moment that God could possibly ever be unfaithful because it is totally foreign to His character.  

·        Paul defends God’s faithfulness because it is inseparably linked to His righteousness. God cannot lie and His Word must be regarded as true, even if you have to call every man a liar. [Notice the interchange between “some” in verse 3 and “everyone” here in verse 4.] This is true in regard to the Bible and science, psychology, philosophy, ethics, or any other subject on which the Bible speaks. Human knowledge is at best incomplete, and is often totally off base, and it behooves us to give God the benefit of any doubt, for His Word is Truth and He has proved it countless times. Christian students in secular classrooms are often confronted with ridicule because they choose to believe God’s Word rather than the “theory du jour” being promoted on any given day. Yet time and experience have proven over and over again that God’s Word is indeed trustworthy.

Verse 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? (I speak in a human way.)”   

·        It is true that the ugliness of man’s unrighteousness clearly reveals, by contrast, the glorious beauty of God’s righteousness, but that fact in no way justifies man’s sin. God is not manipulating men into sin in order to use them as an object lesson. However, apparently some were saying just that and claiming that therefore God is unjust to punish us.

Verse 6: “By no means! For then how could God judge the world?”    

·        Here once again Paul uses that same strong Greek negative he used up in verse 4. “By no means!” “Certainly not!” “In no way!” “God forbid!” God can never be accused of unrighteousness just because He judges sin and sinners. God must always deal righteously because it is His character to do so. 

Verse 7: “[Someone might argue] But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?”   

·        Paul here anticipates the Jews’ argument, which goes something like this: “Our rejection has ultimately brought God glory, hasn’t it? So why then should He take vengeance on us? We’re actually doing Him a favor by sinning!” So Paul refutes the idea that Israel should be exonerated on the grounds that her rejection of Christ ultimately brought salvation to the entire world. It is a specious argument. 

Verse 8: “And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.”   

·        Paul has to deal with this same basic idea again later on in 6:1 where he confronts the question: “Why not continue to sin that grace may much more abound?” The fact that God is able to bring good out of evil does not justify evil itself. Karl Barth, a famous Neo-orthodox German theologian, tried to use this argument to suggest that Judas Iscariot was justified in his betrayal of Jesus and that likewise, all sinners will one day be justified before God. He, along with Paul’s Jewish friends, totally misunderstood the Bible’s teaching on grace. In essence they were saying that we should sin abundantly and frequently so that more grace will have to be showered down, thus doing God a favor by providing Him with yet another opportunity to reveal His amazing grace and mercy. Paul absolutely denies this, maintaining God’s righteousness to be pure and disassociated with evil. Evil does not contribute toward anyone’s salvation, in any way, shape or form. 

Verse 9: “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under [penalty of] sin,”   

·        Here Paul returns to his argument of 2:1, that all sinners are without excuse before God, whether they be heathen Gentile idolaters, or self-righteous Jewish Law-keepers. Before God, all men are equally sinful, equally depraved, and equally lost. 

[N.B. At this point, in order to make his case, Paul begins to string together some selected verses from the Septuagint Scriptures, the ancient Greek translation of the OT.]

Verses 10-12: “As it is written [Quoting Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3]: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹ no one understands; no one seeks for God. ¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’”     

·        Notice this word “worthless” in verse 12. Literally it means rotten or putrid. Man’s sinfulness is not something that God can simply overlook or ignore. It stinks up the whole universe! These verses, 10-12, reveal the character of man, what he is like at the core. Verses 13-17 describe the conduct of man, his actions, which reveal his rottenness. 

Verses 13-14: (Paul quotes Ps. 5:9) “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” (Quotes Ps. 140:3) “The venom of asps is under their lips.” (Quotes Ps. 10:7) ¹⁴ “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”     

·        You can’t fail to notice that verses 13-14 are about men’s speech, which is corrupt. Observe also, the anatomical progression from inner to outward—i.e. throat, tongue, lips, and mouth, the venom spewing outward.

[In the following three verses Scripture’s spotlight focuses on men’s actions, which are destructive and murderous.] 

Verses 15-17: (Quoting Isaiah 59:7-8) “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ¹⁶ in their paths are ruin and misery, ¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.”     

·        It means they run to do evil, showing no hesitation or second-guessing.

Verse 18: (Quoting Ps. 36:1) “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”   

·        This verse reveals man’s attitude, which is one of godlessness, and is the cause of man’s sin in the first place. In a way, this last verse is the most basic of them all. It reminds me of Proverbs 9:10 that says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” 

·        So to review, we see:

o   The Character of man revealed (vs. 10-12) = rotten and worthless to the core

o   The Conduct of man described (vs. 13-17) = corrupt in speech and murderous in actions

o   The Cause of man’s sin explained (v. 18) = godless in attitude    

Verses 19-20: “Now we know that whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰ For by works of the Law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin.”   

·        The primary purpose of the Law was to convict and convince men of sin. It served as a mirror to reveal their imperfections against the backdrop of God’s absolute perfection. If Israel had covenant relations with Jehovah, it also had the Law to remind them that they were sinners. The Law was never intended to justify, and indeed, was incapable of doing so. It was not a “life-saver,” but more of a moral millstone around the neck. If one would sink without this millstone, how much more with it? Therefore, if the Gentiles perish without the weight of the Law, how much more will the Jews perish with it? Thus Paul has clarified the true purpose of the Law—it is a mirror to reveal our sin; it is a straightedge to show how crooked we are; it is a snapshot to show what real holiness looks like; and it is a tutor to bring us to God Himself. 

·        Any religion that fails to convict of sin has failed in its basic function. The very word “religion” means to “bind back” to God. A true religion must first show us where we are, in relation to where we should be, if it is to point us to the path of restoration so that we can get reconnected to God. One cannot be saved of he does not know that he is lost! 

CONCLUSION:

Faith is futile without genuine repentance, or rather, it is counterfeit! To be saved one must turn from his sin as well as turn to Christ. The mistake of the rich young ruler of Matthew 19 was that he sought to follow Christ without turning from his idols, which in his case was his great wealth and abundance of possessions. For other people it may be something else, but everyone has their idols.

Many religions today (including some so-called “Christian” groups) point to a glory without a cross, a receiving of Christ without a renunciation of sin. However, Christ insisted that man cannot have two gods, God and mammon, meaning material things. One of the conditions of salvation according to Romans 10:9 is confessing “Jesus as Lord.” A wise person once said, “If He is not Lord of All, then He is not lord at all!” Repentance from sin is the common denominator for everyone who wants eternal salvation, regardless of who you are, of how you have lived your life, of what religious group you belong to, or of what star you were born under.

The Mosaic Law was given by God as one of the first elements of written revelation to emphasize for man his hopeless, sinful condition so that he might seek after a gracious God who can and will save to the uttermost all who come to Him in humble faith and repentance. No one, not even the Jews, could by-pass this essential step on the road to salvation.

Have you truly repented of your sin and turned to Christ to be your Saviour? If not, why not take that step today?

Paul says in Romans 10:8ff: “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the Word of Faith that we proclaim); ⁹ because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ¹¹ For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. ¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

FEEDBACK:

            Any comments, questions, or observations about what I’ve presented?