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Good morning friends,
Most of us have had the wonderful feeling of being handed a title-deed and a receipt marked “paid in full”. Perhaps after your final car payment, or final mortgage payment on your home. Remember the sense of freedom, from a heavy load of a long-standing, large debt, removed from your shoulders? That experience is the theme of Romans chapter 3 which we’re reading today.
Paul is writing to Christians in Rome, whom he had never met. I doubt any of us can imagine what it was like living in the shadow of the Emperor, in the capital city Rome. Not unlike the Pharaoh of Egypt, the emperor had unquestioned authority. His word was law across the entire empire. His soldiers who enforced his will, were ruthless.
In Acts 18:1,2 Paul met a couple named Aquila and Priscilla, when he arrived in Corinth the first time remember? They were Jewish Christians who had relocated from Rome to Corinth, since the Emperor Claudius had issued a decree in 49AD, expelling Jews from Rome. That’s one example of life in Rome in the first century.
Now, 5 years later, the question of Jewish spiritual privilege with God, was still an issue across the Empire. So Paul puts the question right up front in 3:1 “What advantage is there in being a Jew?”
Now remember, Paul was born a Jew, and for most of his life pursued being the best possible Jew in his day… a Pharisee. He had studied with some of the most respected Rabbi’s and achieved a position of high honor among the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, before his life changing encounter with Jesus in Acts 9. So notice his partial answer to his own question, in vs. 2 “Much in every way! First of all, they (Jews) have been entrusted with the very words of God.”
As we read Exodus, we saw God entrusted His 10 Commandments and many other instructions, to His people at Mount Sinai. Do you remember they actually heard the voice of God speaks His Commandments to them? In Deuteronomy 4, Moses spends a whole chapter telling the Hebrews how unique they are, among all people in the world, because of how God has chosen them, spoken to them, protected them and provided for them. That’s what Paul is talking about here in Romans 3.
In vs. 5-20, Paul deals with the inverted logic, which some people were claiming, that our sin magnifies, by contrast, God’s holiness, and therefore God should be gracious to us sinners! Of course it’s a ridiculous logic, and Paul goes to some lengths to make the clear point, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away (from God & His truth), all have together become worthless…” (3:11,12).
As an advanced Pharisee, Paul would have memorized vast amounts of the Old Testament, and therefore he sprinkles quotes liberally in his writing. He knows them so well he weaves several together here. In Romans 3:11-18 like an attorney before a jury, Paul makes his case by quoting from many Scriptures…Psalm 14, 53, 5, 140, 10, 36 and Isaiah 59! This would have been impressive to his readers in Rome who had a Jewish background.
But Paul is writing to a sophisticated audience, in the capital of the Roman empire, the birthplace of laws for the entire Empire. so he makes his point clearly. . . “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that very mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.” (3:19)
Everyone in the vast Roman empire understood, even if they lived in a little village at the farthest corner of the empire. Any law issued by the Emperor, was to be followed without question or explanation. Thus Paul is calling his readers to understand and respect, that the laws the living, Almighty God has spoken, are far more significant than those issued by the emperor, because every living person, everywhere is held accountable to God.
In 3:20-25 Paul makes several powerful, clear statements that apply to all humanity. Look at them closely my friends, they form an important part of the foundation for our Christian faith.
1. God’s laws show us the undeniable reality of sin in our lives. “…no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight , by observing the law, rather through the law we become aware of our sin.”
It means, without a standard we have no way of evaluating our performance. That’s what report cards in school are all about, or driving tests for a drivers license. God’s holy laws, His standards, show us our evil, our wickedness, our sin, our great need for deliverance.
2. God has made a way for law-breaking, guilty sinners to be declared debt-free, forgiven. “But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known…this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.“ (3:21,22)
This statement is beyond radical. No religion in the world offers sinful people forgiveness for their sin and a restored relationship with God, without some human achievement, some sacrifice, some payment.
God’s forgiveness of our profound sinfulness demands some outrageous restitution. But what could possible be payment enough to make up for all our sin? Paul here makes it clear… this is God’s divine, holy plan. Only God could have come up with such a ransom plan. And it all hinges on Jesus Christ and our belief in Him and His accomplishments!
3. Paul makes it clear every person, everywhere in the world stands guilty before God, of falling short of God’s holy standard for humanity. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (3:23) You see my friends, Adam and Eve, the first two people, were made in the image of God, with the intention that they would be honorable and holy, like God, living in sinless relationship with God. But they failed, they invited Satan and sin in to their utopia, and every person born into the human race since, has inherited their sinful nature. It means we are all born with a natural bent toward evil. You don’t have to teach an infant how to be selfish… we’re all born with it, and it grows as we age. And that’s just the beginning of our human problem, right?
4. But Paul next makes the most radical statement of all… “…and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him (Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood…” This is the centerpiece of the Gospel! That God sent His Son Jesus, to pay the FULL atonement price for our sinful rebellion against God, as Jesus took upon Himself God’s full wrath punishment for our sin, when He died on the cross.
Therefore, with justice executed on Jesus, those guilty sinners, who put their full trust in Jesus through repentance of their sin, can be declared forgiven by holy God who accepts Jesus’ death payment as payment in full for our sin debt!
6. Here’s Paul conclusion: “We maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” (3:28) Justified is a legal term. It means the judge slams down his gavel and declares “no longer guilty, debt paid in full”! Paul declares that God is our ultimate judge and He declares those who fully trust in Jesus Christ are ‘justified’…’no longer guilt, their sin debt paid in full’!
That my friends, is the greatest news any human ears could ever hear. That’s why it’s called “the Gospel”, God’s good news for humanity!
Our minds cannot fully comprehend it, our hearts cannot fully embrace it. . .but it’s God’s truth for you and me and every living person today! And what is our response? I suggest you bow your head right now and express your thanks to Jesus… who made it possible!
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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