When John the Baptist saw Jesus walking towards him, he cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  That was a statement of tremendous significance. On the one hand, he was saluting Jesus as the Savior, as the One who came from God, the Messiah.  And in that, he was indicating the true mission of the Messiah.  Not a military mission, not a political mission, not a mission of social activism, but a mission to save sinners. 

And additionally, John was referencing a prophecy that was typified by a Jewish holiday which was known as the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That was the beginning of the Jewish New Year, and it had been celebrated since the days when Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery to Egypt. It’s interesting that Jesus began His ministry with this clarion call of John that the Passover Lamb had entered on the scene of Jewish society, and 3 and a half years later Jesus would be crucified on the day of Passover.

What is also interesting is that this week, starting on Wednesday is the beginning of the celebration of the Jewish Passover according to the current Jewish observation of it.  Christians today do not celebrate Passover per se, but we do celebrate the Lord’s Supper, which is the Christian celebration of the Passover.  In Luke 22:15-20  Jesus said to the disciples, “With [fervent] desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”  Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide [it] among yourselves;  “for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”  And He took bread, gave thanks and broke [it], and gave [it] to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise He also [took] the cup after supper, saying, “This cup [is] the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”  So with that meal, Jesus transformed the Passover into the Lord’s Supper which we celebrate today.

The Old Testament Passover which Jesus and His disciples were taking part of, finds it origin in Exodus 12. I’m sure you are very familiar with the story of how God delivered the children of Israel from captivity and from the angel of death.  You will remember that God had exercised a series of judgments upon Egypt who had continued to harden their hearts against Him.  Finally, Moses announced to Pharaoh that God would execute the first born male child of all the families in Egypt at midnight. 

In preparation for this judgment, God told Moses to instruct the Jewish people to take a lamb, spotless and without blemish, on the 10th day of the month, and they were to live with it until the 14 day of the month,  then at that time to slay the lamb and put the blood upon the door posts of their house.  That night they were to roast the lamb and eat it with bitter herbs.  And at midnight the angel of death would pass by throughout all of the land of Egypt, and if he saw the blood on the door post, he would pass over that house and they would be spared the Lord’s judgement. And of course all that transpired just as the Lord said it would, and the Israelites who had the blood on the doorposts were passed over, but for those who had not done so, the first born son died.

Now as I said, the Passover was a type, a foreshadowing of what Jesus Christ would do on the cross.  Jesus was the Passover Lamb, whose blood was shed so that the judgment of God might pass over us, we who had the condemnation of death upon us.  Notice the parallels of the Passover lamb to Jesus; first, Jesus lived on earth with man as a member of the human family before He was sacrificed for them. Second, the sacrifice of Christ has to be appropriated personally to each home, not simply on a national or community scale.  Third, Jesus was the spotless, perfect Lamb of God, not stained by any sin or moral failing. Next, it was only the blood of Jesus, His sacrificial death, that could atone for sin.  Then, in His death, Jesus drank the bitter cup of God’s judgment against sin. Another parallel is that the work of Jesus, as with the Passover meal, has to be taken in full, without leaving anything out. And finally, the Passover of Jesus for those who believe in Him and have appropriated His sacrifice for their sins, provides deliverance from death/wrath, and deliverance from the enslavement to sin.

Another important element of the Passover is the Feast of the Unleavened Bread.  On the day of the Passover, the Jews were to make careful search of their house for leaven.  And they were to expunge any old leaven from their homes and not eat any thing that was leavened for 7 days afterwards.  And what we learn from the New Testament especially, is that leaven is symbolic of sin.  Paul said in 1Cor. 5:6-7  “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump [of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are [in fact] unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”  

So in the Passover feast, the Jews were to, in effect, repent of sin and be cleansed of sin, which is analogous to what transpires in our salvation. 

Now in this passage in which we are focusing today, Paul is expressing the characteristics of our justification and particularly that which in theological terms is called “substitutionary atonement.”  This principle is illustrated by the Passover lamb in which the innocent is slain for the guilty. It’s the principle that one person dies as a substitute, or in place of, another.  The blood of the innocent lamb was a substitutionary atonement for the Israelites living under the condemnation of death in Egypt.

Paul spent the first three chapters of Romans showing that all men are under the condemnation of sin, and were due the wrath of God, which is death.  And then Paul showed that though no one is righteous on the basis of their own merit or works, yet by faith in Jesus Christ and His righteousness, we might be made righteous in Him and by His work on the cross.  So now Paul wants to explain how that is accomplished.  How sin is dealt with by God so that He might be holy, and just, and yet merciful and loving.  How God can reconcile sinners to Himself without denying justice and the law of God.

The point of why Jesus came to earth was to save sinners.  He said so Himself. He came to die for sin, and from the beginning of His ministry He set His face resolutely towards that hour that was predestined and prophesied, the hour of His crucifixion, when He would offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin.  But not only a sacrifice for sin, but a substitute for sinners.  Isaiah 53:5 says, “But He was wounded[a] for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”

Christ died for sinners, thus it is necessary that to be delivered from death that one must first recognize he is a sinner.  James said, “Confess your sins one to another that you may be healed.”  Christ died for the sins of the world, but all the world is not saved; only those who confess and repent of their sins and by faith accept the substitutionary death of Christ for their sins.  Remember the serpent that was raised on the pole by Moses after the nation of Israel was bitten by vipers.  Whoever looked at the serpent on the pole was healed, but he who did not look at it perished.  The one who looked must first recognize that he has a disease unto death, he must believe the message that if he looks to it he will be healed, and then he must turn to it, look to it, to be healed.

Now as we go through this passage before us then I just want to use some words to act as headings for the principles of our salvation, so that it might help us to learn the essential elements of our justification as laid out in this passage. And the first word I would like to suggest is the word motivation.  What was the MOTIVATION for our salvation? 

The answer is, that God’s motivation for Christ’s atonement is love. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)  Paul says in vs 8 of our text, that “God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love is the reason that Jesus offered Himself in our place.

It’s interesting that in describing the condition of those who Christ came to save in vs 6 is that Paul says God loved us when we were powerless. Not only did He choose to die for sinners, but for those who are powerless, that is helpless and hopeless.  The corona virus that has paralyzed our country is stark evidence that we are powerless as humankind to really determine our safety or insulate ourselves from death and disease. It should heighten our recognition of our need for a Savior.  I only pray that it does.  

Mankind is powerless to help ourselves from the effect of the fall. Mankind is hopelessly, helplessly bitten by the sting of death and we cannot heal ourselves.  Because of our sin nature we are powerless to be righteous according to the standard of God’s righteousness. We are estranged from God, we cannot reach up to God, so God had to condescend to us.  And so Christ, motivated by love, stooped to become man, to dwell among us, to live a perfect life without sin, and yet die for our sins as our substitute, so that we might be healed.

Christ’s love is even more significant because it is given not on the basis of our deservedness, but even when we were undeserving.  Paul says that it’s possible, though not likely, that someone might offer to die for a good person.  But Christ’s love is so remarkable because He chose to die for the unrighteous.  He chose to die for His enemies.

So the first word is motivation.  The second word I would like to give you is PROPITIATION. Propitiation means to satisfy or appease. At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died to satisfy the wrath of God against sin. Paul says Christ died at the right time,  The right time was the time which had been prophesied.  It was the time which was typified by the Passover.  Christ died on the Passover at the appointed time.  And in dying for sinners, Christ satisfied the justice of God. 

Around the turn of the 20th century, Dyson Hague, an Anglican theologian wrote this about propitiation, or satisfaction. “As sin is debt, there are only two ways in which man can be righted with God; either by incurring no debt, or by paying the debt. But this, man cannot do, and herein comes the glory of the Gospel of the atonement, securing at once the honor of God and the salvation of the sinners. No one ought to make satisfaction for the sin of man except man, and no one can make satisfaction except God Himself. He who makes the satisfaction for human sin must, therefore, be man and God; and so in wondrous love, the God-Man of His own accord offered to the Father what He could not have been compelled to lose, and paid for our sins what He did not owe for Himself.” Jesus satisfied, propitiated, atoned for our sin.

1 John 2:2 says, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for [those of] the whole world.” All who would come to Him for salvation He will in no wise cast out.  He alone could satisfy the demands of God’s holy law, and pay the penalty for the sins of the world.

The third word is SUBSTITUTION.  Another word for substitution which you may have heard before is vicarious.  Vicarious means to experience for yourself what is done by another.  Vicarious is from the Latin word vicarius which means substitute. Paul says four times in vs 6-8 that Christ died for sinners, that Christ died for us. He uses the Greek word “hyper” which means vicarious, or about, in the place of, for the sake of, or on behalf of. And in the KJV of 1 Cor. 5: 7 it says, “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us.” The word translated as “for” there is the word “hyper.”  And Peter states the same principle of substitutionary atonement in 1 Peter 3:18, saying, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, [the] just for [the] unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”

And so as the Passover lamb was slain as the substitution for the children of Israel, so Christ was slain as a substitute for  those who would believe in HIm.  2 Cor. 5:21 says, “[God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  Christ died for your sins, so that you might be made righteous with His righteousness, and that He might pay the penalty for your sin, if you will just believe in Him, and receive His atonement on your behalf.

The next word that we should consider is DEMONSTRATION.  Actually, Paul uses the word “demonstrates,’ present tense in vs8.  What he means is that though it happened in the past, it remains an ever present reality. The object of this word really is the same as the object of motivation.  God’s motivation was love. And God demonstrated His love, or God manifested His love. How did God demonstrate His love?  By sending Jesus to die for us, even while we were yet sinners.  Jesus said “Greater love has no man than this, than a man lays down his life for his friends.” But what Paul indicates is so astonishing about God’s love is that He laid down His life for His enemies. When man was in rebellion against God, still Jesus loved us so much He was willing to die for us.  He demonstrated His love in a way that is beyond comprehension.

The next word I want you to notice is JUSTIFICATION. Vs9, “Since then we have been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”  Justification is our legal standing before God. Believers are those who by the gift of God received righteousness from God, a right standing before God. The demands of God’s justice concerning our sinful condition is the wrath of God, which is death.  And that death was satisfied by the death of the Lamb.  The blood points to an offering, a sacrifice, so that we are saved from God’s wrath.  We escape the judgment of death that has been pronounced upon all men, even as Israel escaped the  death on all of Egypt which was pronounced as God’s judgment. 

The next word I want you to consider is RECONCILIATION. In vs 10 it says,  “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Reconciliation means to make friends between warring parties, to make peace between two opposing factions. God loved us so that He might make us His friends, HIs people, His family, who formerly were His enemies. We were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son.  

Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:10, “Be reconciled to God.” That indicates there is human responsibility to respond in faith and repentance, to surrender to Him, to love and obey Him. It requires obedience.  Phl. 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for [His] good pleasure.” To be reconciled to God is to surrender your will to God, to claim a new allegiance, and submit to His authority as Lord.

The next word should need little explanation.  And that is SALVATION. In vs 10 Paul says we shall be saved through His life. The Spirit of God works in us to complete in us the work of salvation, from justification, to sanctification, to glorification.  From beginning to end, salvation is of the Lord.   

In vs 9 Paul says having been justified we are saved from wrath. Then in vs 10 he says having been reconciled by His death, we are saved by His life.  What’s the difference?  That by His death we vicariously died to sin, and by His resurrection He lives, and because He lives, we live and shall live with Him forever.  And then for the second time, Paul uses the phrase “Much more then.” It means, if this is true, then how much more is the other true?  So if God justifies sinners by HIs death, how much more will He certainly save His friends, His family by the power of His risen life. Because Jesus said after His resurrection He would ascend into heaven, and then send His Spirit to dwell in us, so the Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies.  We live, because He lives in us. That is the power of Christ in me and in you, that we now have the Spirit of God living in us, giving us the power to live the new life He gave us.

Now that realization that the Spirit of Christ lives in us should bring rejoicing.  That rejoicing is articulated in what Paul describes as EXULTATION. That’s the last word I want you to consider, exultation.  Look at vs 11, “And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” This is the third time Paul uses the word exult. In vs 2 he says, we exult in hope,  speaking of the coming glory of the Lord in which we joyfully look forward to.  And then in vs 3, we exult, or rejoice in tribulations, because though we suffer tribulation now, we know that tribulations are the fiery trials which are used by God in our lives to refine us as gold.

And then now in vs 11, We exult in God through Jesus Christ, because of our reconciliation.  Because of our reconciliation through the death of Christ we are now the friends of God, we are the family of God, we are the chosen seed which God has promised to bless and love forever and secure forever.

What a tremendous blessing it is for those who have been reconciled to God. Just think of it.  God loves the unloveable.  God loved us even when we were sinners. How much more does He love us now that we are adopted into His family?  Not only has our legal standing been changed from guilty to righteous, but our relationship to God has changed.  Justification, as I said earlier,  speaks to our legal standing before God. But reconciliation speaks to our relationship to God. Through Christ’s death His former enemies are changed into friends, and adopted as His children.  So if God is willing to die for His enemies, then how much more is He willing to do for His children?  He will certainly deliver us from the wrath to come, He will certainly give us all that we need for life, and He will certainly give us the inheritance in glory that He has promised us. And for that we should rejoice, even though now, for a little while we may suffer tribulations.  But for the joy set before us, we endure the shame and hardship of this fallen world, looking for that blessed hope of the glory of Christ revealed at the end of the age. 

I pray that you have turned and looked to Jesus. Heb. 12:2 says, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” I pray that you have trusted in Him for your salvation.  Be reconciled to God.  He has offered you peace with God though His sacrifice.  I pray that you receive that gift of salvation. Look to Jesus and be saved.

In preaching classes, they teach you that illustrations are essential to a good sermon.  I tend not to use them as much as many other pastors do.  Last week I used one regarding the great chasm between man and God, and I think I can say confidently that it was not a good illustration.  I find that the best illustrations for a sermon come from the Bible itself. And in Paul’s message on Romans we come now to an illustration from the life of Abraham.  You might say that Abraham is the best personal illustration of the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith and I think we will see that as it is presented in this passage.

Now Paul has already established in Romans 1:17 that the righteous man shall live by faith, which is a quote from Habakkuk 2:4. Then Paul thoroughly evidenced that there is no one who is righteous on the basis of his own merit, not even one person. And finally, in our last passage we studied, Paul showed that there is a righteousness which comes from God, apart from the works of the law or our human merit, which was spoken of in the Old Testament scriptures, and it is available to all men through faith in Jesus Christ.

Now to illustrate this faith that results in righteousness from God, Paul presents the faith of Abraham.  And you should understand some things regarding Paul’s decision to chose Abraham as the illustration of saving faith.  Abraham, of course, was considered the father of the Jews.  And we would agree with that. But the Jews went much further in their adulation of Abraham than what we believe.  They taught that God chose Abraham to be the father of their nation because God found him righteous above any other man on the earth. They taught that he began to serve God at the age of three, and that his righteousness was completed by his circumcision and his fulfillment of the law by anticipation.  They taught that though the law had not yet been given, Abraham anticipated it, and kept it and therefore because of his righteousness, he was deemed worthy of God’s favor.  So for anyone who was either Jewish or knowledgeable of Judaism, Paul choosing Abraham as an illustration of righteousness would have been very significant, because they held that Abraham was righteous, and therefore selected by God, the very opposite of what Paul was arguing.

And it’s apparent that the church at Rome probably had a large number of converted Jews in attendance, especially in light of the fact that Paul uses the title regarding Abraham as “our forefather according to the flesh.” The Jews would have agreed with that as they saw him as their forefather. However, it should be noted that God promised to make Abraham a father of many nations, which included his offspring that became the Ishmaelites and Edomites, so in a sense he is the father of both Jews and Gentiles.  And as we progress in this passage we will see that Paul considers Abraham to be the forefather of all who have faith.

So Paul says in effect that given the divine blessings upon  Abraham, what can we learn from the life of Abraham about how to be righteous before God?

And Paul begins to answer that question in vs2 saying that “if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about.” However, previously in chap.3 vs 27 Paul said boasting was excluded, because God justifies on the basis of faith and not because of works.  But as I pointed out a moment ago, the Jews believed that Abraham was righteous on the basis of his merit, particularly by keeping the law of circumcision. 

But notice how Paul phrases it, “If Abraham was justified by works, then he has something to boast about, but not before God.” In other words, from God’s point of view Abraham had no reason to boast in his own merit.  As the author of Hebrews indicates, Abraham was called by God’s sovereign grace even while he was living in Ur of the Chaldees, among a pagan people. It was Abraham’s faith, not his works, which was the thing which God rewarded.  Listen how Hebrews summarizes Abraham’s life. Heb. 11:6, 8-12, 17-19 “And without faith it is impossible to please [Him,] for he who comes to God must believe that He is and [that] He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. … 8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.  By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign [land,] dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;  for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, [as many descendants] AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN IN NUMBER, AND INNUMERABLE AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE. … 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten [son;]  [it was he] to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.”  He considered that God is able to raise [people] even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.”

Now back in our passage in Romans Paul goes again to the Old Testament scriptures for validation to his argument that Abraham was righteous by faith.  And ironically, he goes to the very one his Jewish opponents might have also claimed.  The scripture he references is found in Genesis 15:6.  Paul says in vs3, “For what does the Scripture say? ‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.’”

The principle of saving faith in this verse is so important that it is repeated in a couple of other epistles, namely, Galatians 3:6 and James 2:23. And so I would like to examine this statement thoroughly. First of all, please notice that Paul says Abraham believed God, not that he believed in God. Abraham was not justified on the basis of believing in God’s existence, but by believing God.  Look at the context of Gen. 15:6 and it’s apparent that Abraham had already exhibited that he believed in God.  He had followed God’s command to leave Haran and go to a country that God would show him.  The context of Genesis 15:6 shows that God is making specific promises of a son who would come from Abraham’s body.  And so in regards to God’s  promises Abraham believed God.

And I think that is an important distinction. Because James 2:19 says the devil’s believe in God, and tremble. So merely believing in the existence of God does not save, it is believing in His word.

The other important thing we need to understand is the principle of reckoning, or credited, or accounted, depending upon your translation.  What this means is that God counted as righteousness what Abraham appropriated by faith, which was the righteousness of Christ. The Lord reckoned, or credited this unrighteous man, Abraham, to be righteous, even though he was not.The Lord was able to do this without himself being unjust, because of the certainty that Messiah would come and voluntarily sacrifice himself for all those who would have faith in Him. He would be Abraham’s substitute, paying the penalty for Abraham’s sin, and transferring His righteousness to Abraham in exchange.

This great exchange is spoken of in 2 Cor. 5:21 which says, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  So we see that it’s not a degree of righteousness which has to be added to, and added to, in hopes of obtaining enough righteousness to please God, but it’s the full measure of God’s righteousness which is applied to our account.  But our justification is not God making us perfectly righteous, but counting us as perfectly righteous. And after we are counted righteous, then God begins making us truly righteous, culminating at our resurrection.

So in other words, God put to Abraham’s account, placed on deposit for him, credited to him, righteousness… Abraham possessed righteousness in the same way as a person would possess a sum of money placed in his account in a bank.  Furthermore, we should understand that righteousness is  more than the absence of evil and guilt. It is a positive good, meaning that God does not only declare us innocent, but righteous.

And Paul makes sure that we understand it is credited to us on the basis of faith, not works or merit. He says in vs 4 “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.  But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.”

The word translated as favor in my version is the Greek word “grace”.  You may remember we talked about grace last week and described it as unmerited favor. The point is, if you work, you expect a paycheck for your labor.  But if you don’t work, then what God gives you is grace, unmerited favor, which is credited to you as righteousness.  A lot of people today get their paychecks by direct deposit into their bank account.  But God gives us a divine deposit of righteousness, for which we do not work, for it is a gift of God deposited in our account.

The Greek word charis was used in those days by secular authors, usually referring to a spontaneous gift or favor given to a friend.  But in the New Testament, charis takes on a new dimension, in that God is not giving grace to his friends, but to his enemies.  And Paul echoes that in the use of the description of the recipient of grace being the ungodly.  He says, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.”   As the Jews thought concerning Abraham, they might expect God would only justify a godly man, but because of what Jesus did on the cross, God can justify the ungodly. Jesus came to save sinners.  No one is godly on the basis of their own merit.

Imagine having a large sum of money, and you spent it foolishly.  You wasted it on every luxury and trivial thing until you had none left.  And furthermore, you then went into debt for much more besides until you were way over your head in debt and absolutely broke, with no hope of paying it back.  And then imagine someone wiping out your debt, paying it in full, and then depositing an immense sum into your bank account.  That is what God has done for us.  Not on the basis of whether we deserved it or not, but on the basis of His mercy and grace.

So from start to finish, right standing with God is a gift of God.  And it is appropriated by faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore all the glory for our salvation belongs to God. There is no room for boasting in human works or merit.

Now to this illustration of Abraham, Paul adds another well known Old Testament figure, and that is of David.  All of us I’m sure are aware that though David was called a man after God’s own heart, and he achieved great things for the Lord, yet he was a man who fell into grevious sin. And so no one could make the claim like they did with Abraham that it was David’s inherent righteousness that gave him a right standing before God.  

But Paul emphasizes David’s righteousness  in vs6, saying, “just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.”  And then he quotes David from Psalm 32:1,2, saying, “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.”

David is joyful because he knows that his sins are forgiven. But he also indicates the same blessing is available for all those who partake of God’s grace.  David knew the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.  

Some commentators believe that Paul, who studied under Gamaliel is using a method of interpretation called “analogy” favored by the school of Hallel, which basically said that an earlier interpretation of a word connects to a later use of the same word, so that you may interpret the later usage by the older usage.  I have often referred to a similar method of hermeneutics which is called the principle of first mention.  For instance, if you want to know what Romans 12:1 means when it refers to worship, then go to the earliest use of that word and it will help you to understand the later usage.  In that example, the first use of worship is found in Genesis 22:5 when Abraham is taking Isaac his son to be offered as a sacrifice in obedience to God, and Abraham says to the men with him,  “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”  So by that hermeneutic we learn that worship involves sacrifice.

The similar point  that commentators are making in regards to our passage in Romans is that the use of “reckon” in the verse concerning Abraham, instructs us in the meaning of the word “reckons” in the quote from David in vs8.  He is showing a connection. The phrase rendered “take into account” is the same word “logizomai” which is translated “reckoned” in Genesis 15:6. Therefore, what David is saying by means of the correct interpretation of that word, is that God credits or reckons righteousness apart from the law.  

David speaks of the blessedness, not of the one who is justified through works, but of the sinner who is cleansed through imputation. The emphasis is on what God places upon us  (which is the righteousness of Jesus), not on what we do for God.  Paul will go on to elaborate on the point of our unworthiness in the next chapter, saying, Rom 5:6-9 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath [of God] through Him.”

Having confirmed the justification that comes from God through grace and not from works by the passage from David,  Paul goes back to the example of Abraham to make another correlating, important point. He says, Abraham was counted righteous before he was circumcised; therefore he was not counted righteous because he was circumcised.

Let’s read the text in vs9 “Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, ‘FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.’  How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised;  and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them,  and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.”

The point Paul wants to make is the blessing of righteousness is all the more significant because Abraham could not have earned it.  And another tremendous aspect of the blessing is that it is not only given to the Jews, but to the Gentiles as well, even to all who believe.

Now the standard Jewish belief was that God’s blessing came only to the circumcised.  Even as the first church was being formed, there were some who came from Jerusalem to the Gentile churches and tried to get them to become circumcised, saying that they could not be saved without adding certain laws to their faith.  So Paul wants to put that false doctrine to bed.  And he does so in a masterful way by showing that Abraham was declared righteous and credited with righteousness before he was circumcised.  In fact, it was at least 14 years after Gen.15:6, Abraham being then 99 years old and Ishmael was 13 years old when he and Ishmael were circumcised according to the command of God.  When God credited him with righteousness in Gen.15:6 Ishmael had not even been conceived.  And so Paul is able to show chronologically that righteousness is not based on the works of the law because Abraham was uncircumcised at that time.

It’s also important for application to us that we notice that Paul refers to “the sign of circumcision.” A sign indicates a later reality.  Thus in the cutting away of the flesh in circumcision it typifies the excision of the guilt and corruption of sin, which is a picture of justification and sanctification.

Paul also referred to circumcision as a seal. To Abraham it was the mark or seal of a guarantee that God would keep His promise. Sins and seals can be very helpful in our faith. But it’s also possible to over emphasize them. In the old dispensation there was the rites of circumcision and the Passover.  And in the new dispensation there is the rites of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  But those rites to do bring about justification, but are merely signs pointing to it.  They are a great educational value to our faith, and a great way of reminding us and testifying of what God has done.  But they are not the means of justification, only the signs of it.  So never should they be overrated and given the promise of removing sin.  They merely are outward signs of an inward transformation.

So Paul makes an important point by the fact that circumcision does not justify anyone.  They are justified by faith alone, through grace alone.  And by extension we need to understand that observing signs and seals does not impart righteousness. In fact, Abraham, the father of all those who believe, was declared righteous while he was still uncircumcised. Therefore, how could anyone then say (as some did in Paul’s day) that Gentiles must be circumcised before God would declare them righteous? Or how could anyone say that without baptism no one can be saved as certain churches today teach? 

The Jews of Paul’s day thought circumcision meant they were the true descendants of Abraham. But Paul insists that to have Abraham as your father, you must walk in the steps of the faith that Abraham walked in. Look at vs 12, “and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.”

As Paul stated in Gal. 3:7 “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.” That directly corresponds to the statement in chapter 2, vs 28, where Paul said, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”

It is faith, then, not a ritual, that saves. It is faith, not ritual, that makes people right with God. And it started with Abraham in the sense that he’s the father of the faith. So we can share the faith of Abraham, whether circumcised or uncircumcised, whether you’re a Jew or a Gentile. Faith is the operative principle of salvation, and Abraham is the model of salvation by faith apart from any ritual. There are no rituals or observing of signs or sacraments that can save, only by faith, through grace.

I pray that you have appropriated by faith in Christ the righteousness of God that you may be counted as righteous in the sight of God.  It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.  It has been paid for by Jesus Christ.  Simply believe in Him as your Lord and Savior and you will be justified, credited with the righteousness of God, that you may become sons and daughters of God, an co heirs with Christ, guaranteed the blessing of God. 

The thesis of Paul’s message in Romans is found in Romans 1:16-17. He says there, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it [the] righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS [man] SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

This message is the gospel, the good news, that the righteousness of God has been manifested to man on the basis of faith. Paul gives us in that statement a synopsis of the gospel. God is righteous, and in order to have life from God we must be righteous as He is righteous, and that righteousness is accomplished by faith. But then almost ironically, he spends the next 2 1/2 chapters talking about the fact that all men have failed to measure up to that standard of God’s righteousness, and that all men are sinners, and thereby condemned to death. Rather than focusing on the good news, Paul first focuses our attention on the bad news. All men are under the judgment of God because of their sinful nature and their unrighteousness.

But in the passage which we are looking at today, having shown that all men are unrighteous, Paul presents a series of principles of righteousness which by believing we become righteous in the sight of God. And he starts by defining the righteousness that God requires by the law. He has already shown that all men – the pagan, the moral man, and even the religious man – are sinners under the condemnation of God’s judgment. So in vs 19, Paul presents the principle of righteousness defined. “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.” Paul says the law defines righteousness, God’s standard, and all men are held accountable to that standard.

This condition of man’s sinfulness and hopelessness is described in Isaiah as the whole world being in darkness. In Isaiah 59:9 it says, “Therefore justice is far from us, And righteousness does not overtake us; We hope for light, but behold, darkness, For brightness, but we walk in gloom. In vs2 Isaiah said, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden [His] face from you so that He does not hear.”

So our sins mean that righteousness has been denied to us on the basis of keeping the law. Paul says in vs 20, “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law [comes] the knowledge of sin.” The second principle then is righteousness denied. Righteousness has been denied because of our sin against God’s law. We cannot attain to His standard of perfect righteousness. And so we are all denied the righteousness that God requires, and condemned to the penalty of sin, which is death. Notice the phrase, no one is justified in His sight, because of their sin as attested by the law.

But as Isaiah prophesied, God’s hand is not so short that it cannot save. Isa.59:15, “Now the LORD saw, And it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. And He saw that there was no man, And was astonished that there was no one to intercede; Then His own arm brought salvation to Him, And His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.”

Then in Isaiah chapter 60, the light shines forth in the darkness of man’s despair and depravity. 60 vs 1, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you.”

This ray of hope in a dark world, this radiance of the Son of Righteousness that appears, comes not from below, not from the world, not from man’s efforts, but from above, a righteousness from God which is revealed to a world in darkness. So in vs21 we see the principle of righteousness manifested. Vs21 “But now apart from the Law [the] righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”

Notice, that though the law defined righteousness, this righteousness which comes from God comes apart from the law. That is, it is not attained by keeping the law. We have already seen that if we could not keep the law. The law condemned us as unrighteous. So righteousness comes apart from man’s efforts. God comes to the rescue. God accomplishes what man could never do. His own arm, or God’s own efforts, brought about salvation.

Another point that is made in that verse which is important is that this righteousness which comes from God was attested by the scriptures. Paul is speaking of the Old Testament scriptures, which were referred to by the Jews as the Law and the Prophets. What Paul is saying is that even in the law, the Old Testament scriptures, it was revealed that righteousness comes through faith. Now we have already seen that evident in Romans 1:17, which says, “THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” That is a quote from Hab.2:4. It’s also referred to in Genesis 15:6 which says “Then [Abraham] believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” It’s also found in Psalm 32:1,2. “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!” So, in the law and the prophets righteousness is manifested, from God, apart from the law.

But though righteousness comes from God apart from keeping the law, righteousness must be received. This principle of righteousness is shown in vs22. “Even [the] righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction.” This righteousness of God apart from the law must be received through faith in Jesus Christ. We receive righteousness through faith in what Christ did on our behalf. All those who believe in Christ’s righteousness are given the righteousness of God. Now faith, Paul says, is believing, but it’s much more than just believing in Jesus’s existence. It is believing in who He is, and what He accomplished, and what He promises to do. Faith is believing and then putting that belief into practice. Acting on that belief in who Christ is, and what He has done, and what He promises to do.

2 Cor. 5:21 says. “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” So faith is believing that transaction of our sins to Christ and God’s righteousness to us was accomplished for us by Christ. And Paul adds, there is no distinction. Or there is no exceptions, everyone must appropriate God’s righteousness. No one comes to God on his own merit or by his works. No one comes on the basis of his nationality or race or religion. They must come by faith in Christ in order to appropriate the righteousness of God.

On the basis of our own merit, Paul says all fall short of the glory of God. Vs23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In this verse we see the principle of righteousness defaulted. On the basis of man’s efforts, or man’s nationality, they have defaulted in meeting that righteous standard which God requires. Sin in the Greek language is hamartanō, which means to miss the mark. It’s a reference to shooting an arrow, in which one misses the target.

But here Paul uses another analogy; that of falling short. It’s as if he is saying that between us and God there is a great chasm, which no one can leap and everyone falls short. The other day as I was flying out to LA for the pastor’s conference, I started thinking about this verse. And I began to imagine a fictitious scenario as an illustration of how we all fall short of the glory of God. I began to imagine a scenario in which all our church were lined up on a high cliff overlooking this great chasm between us and God. And as I began to imagine various people in this congregation trying to jump this chasm I started laughing out loud, and I think other passengers were starting to get worried that I was losing it or something. For instance, I thought of Bill, and how we might think that he looks fit, he seems athletic, a team captain kind of guy, and if anyone could jump that chasm then I guess Bill could. And I imagined all of us lined up on this cliff overlooking this giant chasm between us and God and cheering Bill on. So he flashes a smile, walks back 25 yards, and then takes off running for the cliff to the sounds of our cheers. And in my mind’s eye, Bill makes a grand effort, and he manages to fly really far through the sky, but he falls far short of the other side and he’s gone. Very sad. He really looked like he could do it.

Then I imagined we called up Nick. After all, he was the goat herder. Nick though didn’t seem too confident. He complained about his back not being right. But we pressed upon him, and finally Nick took a running start and he sailed through the air as we cheered him on. Maybe it was the bad back, I don’t know. But he didn’t get as far as Bill got. He too crashed and burned.

Then just when it seemed like all hope was lost, Lou showed up. I didn’t have a lot of hope for old Lou, seeing he was kinda short, but then I figured, well, at least he is enthusiastic. Lou was all excited about an idea he had. He had cut down a really long bamboo pole. He said “Pastor, I”m going to pole vault that thing.” Well, it was a good idea, but though Lou got really high, he didn’t get very far. Poor Lou.

Now, I am being silly. I hope I’m not being sacrilegious. And I probably managed to hurt at least 3 people’s feelings. That’s why I don’t normally use illustrations. But I hope you at least get the picture. All of us have sinned and fallen short. No distinctions. Even the best of us fall far short. Even our best efforts fall short of God’s glory. It’s hopeless in our own efforts to attain to the standard of righteousness.

But it’s interesting to notice the flow here in these verses. Paul was just talking about the righteousness which comes from God by faith, and then he mentions believing in Christ, and then for some reason he goes back to this idea of man’s sin. You would think that he has already exhausted that subject. Why bring up man’s sin again now that the conversation has moved on to the principle of faith? And I believe the answer is that there are two aspects of faith. One is believing, the other is repentance. And so when Paul tells us in vs 23 that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God it is to emphasize the need for repentance, a confession of our sin, a desire to be forgiven, a desire to be freed from sin. Repentance is a necessary part of what it means to have faith. And so I think that is why the text flows as it does in vs 22 and 23. Faith is believing and repentance which appropriates the righteousness of God.

The next principle builds on that by saying that though righteousness is defaulted on our part, it is nevertheless granted by God as a gift of grace. I call this principle, righteousness declared. That is what happens when God justifies us. He declares us as righteous by the transference of Christ’s righteousness to us, and our sin being transferred to him. Let’s see how Paul phrases this principle of righteousness declared. Vs24, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”

In response to our faith in the atoning work of Christ on our behalf, God looks at us and declares us to be righteous, just as if we never sinned. That’s what justified means. God declares us righteous on the basis of what Christ did on our behalf. It’s not something that we earn, or merit, as we said earlier, but because of what Christ did. Therefore, it is called grace, “charis”, which means a gift. Grace is unmerited favor. So justification is a gift from God.

But notice, that though it costs us nothing, yet justification does cost something. God doesn’t just declare us righteous because He decided to forget about our sin and the payment that was due. God did not stop counting sins, He just counted them against Christ. Paul says we are justified by grace through the redemption which is in Christ.

Now what is redemption? It’s buying something back in exchange for payment. My mother, and probably yours as well, used to collect S and H Green Stamps. In those days, every time you bought groceries at the grocery store they would give you some S and H Green Stamps according to how much you bought. And when you collected enough stamps to fill up a book, you could take the book to the store and get a frying pan or something like that. That was called redemption. You paid for them, and eventually you cashed them in for the object that you wanted.

Jesus paid the price for sin. He died the death that we were supposed to die. He suffered the punishment in full for our sin. Gal 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us.” Listen, sin has a price. Romans 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is death…” Jesus paid the price of death for us that we might be set free. That’s redemption.

But there is another principle that is closely aligned with that redemption, and that is the principle of righteousness satisfied. That principle is found in vs 25, “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. [This was] to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.” This is the principle; that the justice of God demanded a penalty for sin which is death. God in His justice accepted the payment for my penalty by Jesus dying in my place. That’s what is meant by a propitiation in His blood. Propitiation means appeasement. It means God’s judgment was satisfied. Our debt was paid in full by the death of Jesus Christ. He shed His blood, He died in my place, and God’s justice was satisfied.

The next principle of righteousness that Paul presents here is that of righteousness demonstrated. This is such an important principle that it is repeated twice, both in vs 25 and 26. Let’s read them again: [Paul is speaking of Jesus] “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. [This was] to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, [I say,] of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Now there are two time frames that are indicated there. First, there is the time before Christ’s crucifixion. In the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed. I have learned about forbearance in regards to paying back student loans. If for whatever reason you are unable to pay what you owe, you can apply for a forbearance. That’s not debt forgiveness, it’s putting off what you have to pay until a more appropriate time. You still owe it, just don’t have to pay it now. And that is what happened under the old covenant. The blood of bulls and goats were not able to take away sins. They were merely an acknowledgement of the person’s sin, and an agreement that the penalty for their sin would be paid at a later date. So they were looking forward through their sacrifice to the One who would be the Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world. They still were declared righteous by faith. Faith in what was promised to come, the Messiah, who would be the Savior of the world by His final sacrifice for sin.

The second time period in the demonstration of God’s righteousness was after the cross, when those who were declared righteous by faith looked back to the death of Christ on the cross. In both cases, in both the old and new covenant, Paul says they were justified by faith in Christ. And that is important to understand, because that illustrates that no Jew was ever saved by keeping the law. He was saved by faith. And as we look at chapter 4 next week, we are going to see Abraham, the old covenant patriarch, the father of the Jewish nation, as an illustration of saving faith.

So Paul has presented this series of principles of righteousness as essential to our salvation. But in the greater context of his message, he is still delineating the difference between Jews and Gentiles in regards to salvation. And so he comes back to that argument that there is no distinction on the part of God towards the Jew’s requirements as contrasted with the Gentile. The Jews had been entrusted with the law, with the scriptures, and the promises. And so there was some advantage in that they had the word of God to lead them to salvation. Paul made that argument back in the beginning of the chapter. But greater responsibility means a greater culpability. They still had to be saved through faith, not by keeping the law. And so Paul summarizes that principle of justification by faith, in the closing verses of chapter 3, saying, “Where then is boasting? (speaking of the Jew’s boast in the law) It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God [the God] of Jews only? Is He not [the God] of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”

As Paul says in Gal. 3:24 “Therefore the Law has become our tutor [to lead us] to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” The world is under the condemnation of the law. Sin and righteousness is revealed through the law. The law teaches us the character of God. The law requires a penalty. But thank God we do not attain righteousness through keeping the law. But we attain righteousness as a gift from God through faith in the righteous sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

I pray that you have accepted the tremendous gift of righteousness that was provided for you by the death of Jesus Christ. I pray that no one makes the mistake of thinking that he will be accepted by God on the basis of how good of a person he thinks he may be, or what good work that he has done. There is no other way to be justified before God, but by faith in what Jesus Christ has done for us. Repent of the fact that you are a sinner, and trust in Him as your Lord and Savior, and receive the gift of righteousness that gives us eternal life.

We have come to the middle of chapter 3 in Romans and Paul has been endeavoring to prove that all of mankind is a sinner, and that every man is condemned without excuse before the standard of God’s righteousness. Though it’s difficult to hear, Paul doesn’t add any honey to his message to make it go down easier because he knows that in order for mankind to be saved he must be shown conclusively that he is completely without hope before God.

So in chapter one Paul has shown that the Pagan is without excuse. In chapter 2 he showed that the so-called good people or the moral people are without excuse and in chapter 3 that religious people as typified by the Jews are without excuse before God. Now there is one more class of people that Paul presents after the religious people and that group is identified by the word in verse nine which is “we.” He says “what then are we better than they? Not at all for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.” Now the question arises who is he speaking about? Who does “we” refer to?

And the answer to who he is speaking of becomes clear looking at the context. The Jew is referred to earlier in the 3rd person. So “we” is not the Jew he just got through speaking of. The clue comes in verse 8, where he says, “we are slanderously reported.” Paul is obviously talking in verse 8 about himself and other believers. Verse nine continues with the use of “we” as Paul affirms that “we charge that both Jews and Greeks are under sin.” So it seems clear from the context that the “we” used by Paul is referring to himself and other believers.

Here’s the point that Paul is making then. That we the believer are no better according to our nature then all of the others in regards to sin. We didn’t have some inherent goodness by which God chose us to be saved. As Ephesians 2:3 says that we too are by nature children of wrath. So according to our human nature, we that are Christians are sinners, under the judgment of God. In fact, I will stress the fact that you cannot be a true Christian unless you have come to realize that you are a sinner, without hope, and under the judgment of sin. All men are sinners, and there is no one that is able to come to God on the basis of their righteousness.

So in this passage we’re looking at today Paul is going to wrap up this argument. It’s kind of like a trial where the prosecution brings forth charges against the accused, provides evidence and then at the end of the trial the lawyer makes a final closing argument. That’s what we have here in this passage. Mankind is on trial before God, and Paul is making his final argument. Notice, Paul even uses court room language. He says in verse nine that he has already charged us all. This is what we’re being charged with, that man is a sinner, condemned under the law of God, and the judgment of sin is death.

So Paul’s charge against humanity is this: that all men are sinners. He says in vs 9 that “all are under sin,” or some versions say “under the power of sin.” The power of sin refers to being under the dominion of sin, and the dominion of sin includes being in captivity to sin as well as being under the condemnation of sin. Sin controls us, and dominates us, and condemns us. Now Paul is going to use a rabbinical teaching method in his argument, which is to string together a series of scriptures in order to bring his case to a conclusion. And notice that he goes to scripture for his evidence.

You know, this reinforces the fact that scripture is the ultimate authority. That the word of God is the power of the gospel. You can try reasoning with people, and you can try to convince them according to what is rational. But we must never lose sight of the fact that the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of men. The power of God’s word is greater than any human reasoning or prose, or literature. People love to try to find answers to their questions or problems in some book, even Christian books, rather than simply relying on the word of God. But since the Holy Spirit is the author of scripture, He uses scripture to convict the world of sin.

As Paul told us in chapter 1 vs 16, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. But the primary way that Satan tries to deceive men to reject the gospel is by denigrating the word of God. Ultimately, he wants to replace the truth with a lie. Satan asked Eve, “Has God really said?” And he has been using the same methodology ever since. The second prong of Satan’s deception is to attack the divinity of Jesus Christ. What makes a cult a cult is that they refuse to believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. They say He is a son of God, but not the Son of God. They say He was a prophet, but they never say He was God.

But to believe in Jesus unto salvation means that you must believe who He claimed to be. Either He was God in the flesh, or a mad man who claimed to be God. Jesus said, “I and the Father are One.” And “if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” Only by faith in who He is, and what He has accomplished, can we be saved. A mere man cannot atone for the sins of the world. Only God could do that, by becoming man in the flesh, and offering Himself as a substitute for sinners on the cross. So the basis for our faith must be grounded in scripture, and it is the power of God to bring men to repentance resulting in salvation.

So Paul gives us this string of scriptures in a pattern of stanzas, that are like a lawyer presenting evidence in the closing argument of a trial. And exhibit A, or stanza 1, is the universality of sin. And as I said, the evidence is scripture, what Paul refers to as the law, but not the 10 commandments, but texts from Ecclesiastes, Psalms, and Isaiah. And yet he refers to all of it as the law. All of it, of course, being the inspired word of God.

Paul will show that the scriptures declare the universality of sin. Sin is not just the condition of a certain class of people, or race, but it is the condition of all men. And he gives three lines or quotes to support that point. Vs 10, “as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.”

Now that is a quote from Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53. And notice that he gives five negatives here and one positive. First negatively, he says, “There is no one, no one, no one, no one, not even one.” Five times Paul says no one. I think he is trying to make a point, don’t you?. And that point must be reiterated because innately we all want to declare, “Well, I may not be perfect, but deep down I really am a good person.” But Paul says no one is good, no one is righteous, no one seeks after God, no one does good, not even one. There is nothing good in you or me. He indicts all of us.

See, the problem is that we think we are not all that bad, and so we don’t really need to be totally transformed. We think that we can just add a little good, add a little religion, and we are good to go. But the truth is that we are totally corrupt, hopelessly sinful, and we need to die to our old nature, and be reborn with a new nature, a spiritual nature, that we might be a new creation, a new person. So without complete recognition of our sinfulness, and the following repentance, which is to renounce everything about ourselves as sinful and recognizing our need to be forgiven and changed, then we cannot be actually saved. Being saved is not just being forgiven, but being transformed, being made new.

Then Paul states the positive; he says “All have turned aside.” This idea of turning is helped by looking at Heb. 4:12 which says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The scriptures are that point of the truth which pierces the heart and separates it to the right or left. That’s why it’s so important that we do not dull or blunt the word, but apply it with all it’s power to reveal the intentions of the heart. The Holy Spirit is saying that all have turned aside from the truth. Everyone has turned. And we all turned the wrong way. We all turned aside after our own desires. No one does what is right. And in our turning aside we have thwarted the purpose of God in making us. We have become worthless and worthy of being destroyed. We have become worthless because we have denied our Maker and the purpose for which we were made, which was for His glory.

The second stanza or exhibit B is illustrated by two lines of scripture regarding our speech. Man’s heart, or nature, is revealed by his speech. His sin is evidenced by his speech. Vs 13, “Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps in under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” Paul is basically saying that if you want evidence that man is a sinner, then listen to his speech. Listen to what comes out of his mouth. It’s interesting that of all the sins which Paul might have put forth as evidence of our sinfulness, what he choses to spotlight is the sins of the tongue. All of us show our sinfulness by our speech. Our own mouths condemn us.

Once again, for evidence, Paul goes to the Old Testament. “Their throat is an open grave” is a quote from Psalms 5:9. What a picture of the mouth revealing the heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick, who can understand it?” And the picture that he makes is that the heart is dead, spiritually corrupt and foul, and the mouth is like an open tomb that reveals the spiritual deadness of the heart.

“With their tongues they keep deceiving” comes from Psalm 5:9 as well. Jeremiah just said that the heart is deceitful, so the tongue is going to deceive as well because it is the tool of the heart. Literally, Psalm 5:9 says a smooth tongue. That means a flattering tongue that speaks to deceive and take advantage. Men are always looking for an angle that benefits themselves, and usually to the detriment of others. Jesus said in John 8:44 “You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature,] for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Paul’s next stanza says, “The poison of asps, or vipers, is under their lips,” which is a quote from Psalm 140:3. The words of our mouths result in the destruction of others like the way a serpent’s bite releases the poison that is in their fangs. Our words are deadly, they tear down, they destroy.

Then Paul quotes, “Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” which comes from Psalm 10:7. Our speech condemns us because of the type of language we use. James 3:6 says, “And the tongue is a fire, the [very] world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of [our] life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; [it is] a restless evil [and] full of deadly poison. With it we bless [our] Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come [both] blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.” So our language condemns us because it reveals our evil heart.

For Exhibit C Paul says that men’s actions show that they are sinners. Exhibit B was their speech and so it naturally follows that Exhibit C is their actions. Verse 15-18 Paul gives another stanza of two lines. “Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known.” That quote comes from Isaiah 59:7,8. An then he says, “There is no fear of God before their eyes,” which is from Psalm 36:1.

Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” All sin starts in the mind. And as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, if you hate your brother you are guilty of murder, and if you lust after a woman you are guilty of adultery. Sin begins in the mind, and when given an opportunity he consummates it in the flesh.

The problem is that man does not fear God. Without the fear of God, a man is emboldened to act upon his baser passions. Why not? “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” They believe there is nothing after death. There is no judgment. And man’s laws are relative at best. They change from culture to culture, and from one age to another. So why worry about the hang ups of the culture? If God doesn’t exist, then there is really no reason not to do whatever you want to do. You can act out your evil heart without fear of consequences. But just denying God does not negate God. Just redefining God does not nullify God’s judgment. God will judge the world, and His law is immutable. The scripture says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So contrarily, no fear of God is the mark of a fool. The fool has said in his heart there is no God. And so emboldened by that foolish belief, he thinks he can act with impunity.

So Paul has presented his evidence. And now he rests his case. Vs.19, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God: because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.”

In other words, the law condemns us all. All will be held accountable. Whether we hold to the law or reject the law, it doesn’t matter. God’s law is immutable. It has existed before creation and will continue throughout eternity. It’s like getting pulled over by a policeman for speeding and saying, “Well officer, I didn’t know the speed limit.” It doesn’t matter if you know it or not, the law was that you were supposed to drive a certain speed, and you are responsible to drive that speed whether you knew it or not. And in the same way, if you’re going to live your life the way you want to live, you need to know that you’re going to be held responsible for breaking God’s law. And Paul said earlier that God has written his law upon our hearts so we have no excuse.

Paul says in vs 19 “that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.” Every mouth will be closed. That means there will be no defense on that day of judgment. The deeds of every man and woman will be revealed, their thoughts and their motivations, and the evidence of our sin will be so overwhelming and so condemning in contrast to the brightness of righteousness at the throne of God that we won’t be able to utter a word in our defense.

But even now, Paul has said, if we listen to our conscience, we know deep in our hearts that we are a sinner. You may not like thinking about it. You probably don’t like hearing me say it. You may try to bury it in the back of your mind, you may seek a therapist to help you forget it, or get over it. But the fact remains that all men are sinners, and all are under the condemnation of God’s judgment.

Listen, the law was never meant to be a stepladder to heaven. Vs 20 tells us that the law of God is given to show us that we are helpless sinners and in need of a merciful Savior who is able to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and make us new. Thank God that He sent Jesus Christ to save sinners, of which we are all guilty under the law. There is only one hope for escaping the judgment that is due to us. And that is found in the next verse, which will be more fully expounded in our next study. But I cannot leave you condemned without knowing the hope of the gift of God.

Vs.21, “But now apart from the Law [the] righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.” That’s the only way out of the verdict of death that is due to us at the judgment. That we might claim the righteousness of God on our behalf. And we are able to appropriate God’s righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ.

2 Cor.5:21, “God made Jesus who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” We are saved by grace, as a gift of God, through faith in Christ; who He is, and what He did on the cross on our behalf. And by that gift of God, we confess our sins, and we are forgiven, made righteous by the blood of Christ, that we might be given a new life in Him, to live for Him, and with Him, forever.

Paul has shown that we stand condemned as guilty sinners under the law. But there is a way out. [ohn 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

It’s evident from the way Paul has written the book of Romans, that Paul expects Christians to be interested in learning theology. Theology is the study of God. And so I hope you are prepared to put on your thinking caps this morning as we study the nature of God and His gospel of salvation. I make no apology for the fact that it is somewhat heavy lifting for so early in the morning. But God calls us to reason together, to study His word, so that we might know Him and come to be known by Him. It may be difficult study, but I hope it will prove beneficial to your faith.

As Peter said at the close of his second epistle, “Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord [as] salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all [his] letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as [they do] also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2Peter 3:14)

Now in Rom. chapter 1, vs 16, Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Salvation is available to all men, regardless of race, religion or nationality. But the caveat to salvation is that one must first come to realize that he is lost, that he is a sinner, and that he is under the condemnation of death and the judgment of God, BEFORE he is able to come to salvation.

It’s as if you were swimming in the ocean during the summer time, just enjoying the water, and the lifeguard swam out to you yelling for you to grab hold of the buoy so that you might be saved. You would probably not appreciate his efforts, and would in fact think he was being embarrassing and insulting, by insinuating that you were drowning, when in fact you thought you were doing a pretty good backstroke. But if in fact you realized that you were caught in a riptide and helpless to swim against the current, and the lifeguard swam out to save you, you would be grateful and grab hold of his buoy without hesitation.

And so to that end, Paul has been arguing that all men are lost, all men are sinners, and all men are condemned to death under the judgment of God and in need of salvation. He has shown that the pagan is a sinner and under the judgment of God, he has shown that the moral man is a sinner and under the judgment, and finally he is in the process of showing that the religious man, as exemplified by the Jew, is a sinner and under condemnation as well.

But Paul’s point is not just to condemn men, but to bring them to salvation, which only can come when man recognizes that he is a sinner, and repents of his sin. I would point out to you that in the next vs, 1:17, Paul says that faith is the means of salvation; the just shall live by faith. But in the next two chapters, Paul is teaching that repentance is the other leg of salvation. Faith and repentance are the two legs of salvation, and it is of the utmost importance that we stand on both of them in order to stand fast in our salvation.

So the whole purpose of this long argument regarding the sin nature of all men, is to make us cry out in repentance, “what must I do to be saved?” in order that we may be justified by faith in what Christ has done for us.

Now there are a few rhetorical theological questions that Paul wants to address regarding the objections of the religious man, particularly as illustrated here by the Jews. These questions are theological objections to Paul’s assertion that they also were sinners, and an attempt to vindicate themselves and say that they really were not in need of salvation, they were somehow better off than the pagans. And though talking about the Jews religion may seem irrelevant to some of you, I believe there attitude illustrated here which is also typical of the church age. I believe there are parallels to the modern Christian church and ancient Judaism, which was in effect, the first church of God. The Jews were the first “eklesia” the “called out” ones. We, as the New Testament church, are the second “called out” people of God. And there are many similarities and parallels between the two groups.

So the first question that the Jews might ask of Paul, as a way of defense against his charge of being a sinner is, isn’t there an advantage to being a Jew? Isn’t there a privilege that is given to God’s chosen people? So Paul writes, “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?” Is there any spiritual advantage to being a Jew, or to being circumcised, which was the physical mark of the promise of God’s blessing upon their nation.

And Paul answers that question in vs 2; “Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.” The primary privilege that was afforded the Jews, was that they had been given the scriptures. All of the writers of scripture up to this point were Jews. God had personally dictated the law to Moses, and had written it on tablets of stone with His finger. So the advantage in being a Jew is not that you’re saved by being Jewish or by circumcision but that as part of the Jewish nation you have received the Scriptures which are able to lead you to salvation. 

And I also want to point out that the word “Logia” in the Greek, translated as “oracles” in the NASB, is very important to the doctrines of inerrancy, inspiration and authority of the scriptures. It literally means unto them were committed the words of God. So we should be confident that though the words of God were penned by man, yet they wrote down the words that the Spirit of God was speaking through them. That’s one of the main reasons that we should come to church, to hear the word of God spoken to us, to be in the presence of the Spirit of God, and to be a part of the body of Christ.

Now as I said in my introduction, I believe that there are many parallels between Judaism and Christianity today. And though I don’t normally like to call out other churches by name, yet in light of the many misconceptions out there, I am going to do so today. Because the predominant church in the Christian religion in the world for the last 2000 years has been the Roman Catholic Church. And like the Jews, they claim to worship the same God as we do. They purport to teach Jesus Christ. They observe the same ordinances as we do, such as baptism and communion. They have the same Bible, for the most part, with the addition of the Apocrypha. And yet, like the Jews, even though they hold to many of the same beliefs, in actuality they teach a righteousness that comes on the basis of works. They teach that salvation is found in the church, just as the Jews taught salvation was of the Jews. The Catholics teach that righteousness is applied through baptism at infancy, just as the Jews believed righteousness was acquired through circumcision eight days after birth. The Catholics believe that righteousness is granted in communion, that is is acquired through various ceremonies and rituals such as catechism, or mass, or confession. And of course the Jews had their own rituals and ceremonies which they believed were good works which were credited as righteousness.

But the one advantage that Paul zeros in on here, is that the Jews were the custodians of scripture. The Jews mindset was that simply their possession of the scriptures ensured them that they would escape judgment. And I believe there is a parallel to the Catholic Church, and to even many Protestant churches as well. The Catholic Church in particular were responsible for translating the Greek Bible to the Latin, but though they possessed the scriptures, they kept the scriptures from being translated to other languages from the 4th century through the Reformation. In fact, they were guilty of burning at the stake such men as William Tyndale, who had translated the scriptures to English. So their great advantage was that they had the scriptures, but like the Jews, they put to death those that taught it contrary to their traditions.

So the Jews (as well as the Catholics and many Protestant churches) had the scriptures, but they did not read it. They did not read it with understanding. In Mark 12:24, Jesus said, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?” They practiced the law, they kept the ceremonies and rituals, but they failed to understand what the law and the sacrifices were teaching. And so do many churches today in their observation of communion or Lent or Advent, or baptism fail to actually appropriate the salvation that such ceremonies are meant to illustrate. If I might make a weak comparison, it’s like watching a video about a how to swim, or actually learning how to swim and becoming a swimmer. Merely being in possession of God’s word and even hearing God’s word is useless without appropriation and application. That’s what faith means. Not just hearers of the word but doers.

The advantage then of the Jews is not that being Jewish made them exempt from God’s judgment but rather that they had the Word to lead them to salvation.  That was their advantage.  And if a Jew in that age, or the church in this age, rejects or ignores the Scripture that God has given him, then he loses his advantage and in fact he is at greater disadvantage for having ignored that which God provided. In fact, he is even more culpable in the sight of God because he did not take advantage of his privilege.

Then Paul builds on that argument, and says in vs 3, “What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?” The rhetorical question that Paul asks is “what if some of the Jews were unfaithful? What if some of them did not believe the scriptures? Their unfaithfulness doesn’t nullify the faithfulness of God, does it?” See, the Jews didn’t see faithfulness or belief or obedience as something contingent for God’s blessing. They were counting on the fact that they were the chosen people of God, and that God’s promises concerning them over rode any consequences to sinfulness. And so while they might realize that they had been unfaithful, yet they were counting on God keeping His promises concerning them so that they didn’t have anything to worry about.

So Paul answers that question of God’s faithfulness by saying, “May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, that Thou might be justified in Thy words, and might prevail when Thou are judged.”

Now Paul is not saying that in spite of their unfaithfulness God will still give the Jews a glorious future, just on the basis that they are Jews. But he is saying that since God is faithful, those Jews that are faithful to Him will receive the fulfillment of the promises. And I would add to that the promises of God have been kept in regards to the Jews. The promise to Abraham that from his seed would come a great nation, and that one would come forth in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed, was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah. So God was faithful to keep His promises to the Jews.

The fact is that God is faithful. In 2Tim. 2:13 Paul says, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” But His faithfulness to perform His promises of blessing is also counterbalanced by His promises to curse. When God reminded Israel of all the blessings that He had promised concerning the land that they were entering, He also reminded them of the consequences of unbelief. Deut. 11:26-28 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.” So while it may be a comforting thing to consider the faithfulness of God in regards to blessings, it should also be a frightening thing to consider God’s faithfulness to execute His word in regards to judgment.

What Paul is saying in effect, is that the unfaithfulness of the Jews, contrasted with the faithfulness of God, makes God’s truthfulness stand out in sharp relief. Even if every man on earth were to say the same thing, if it was against the word of God, then all men are liars, and God is true. Paul quotes from the prayer of David in Psalm 51, David’s great prayer of repentance after he had sinned with Bathsheba and had been rebuked by Nathan the prophet. David said, “I confess that I have sinned against You, “THAT YOU MAY BE PROVED RIGHT IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL IN YOUR JUDGING.”

David wanted to make his confession and repentance as unconditional as possible, in order that his own unrighteousness might be greater contrasted with the righteousness of God as His judge. And that is the way we should repent. Not by making excuses for our sin, but taking full responsibility for it as an affront to God. Repentance is actually agreeing with God, that I have sinned against God’s word, and I am guilty as charged and worthy of God’s judgment upon me. That’s an important principle to remember; repentance is agreeing with God. Agreeing that His law is good, and I have transgressed against it and am a sinner, worthy of the punishment that I am due.

But there is yet another extension of that argument that Paul wants to address. And that is the perverse objection that some men might make, that as David said if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, then isn’t God being unrighteous for judging me as a sinner? Listen how Paul phrases it. Vs 5 “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.)” In other words, he is speaking as a man.

We have already determined that man’s unrighteousness contrasts like darkness against the brightness of God’s righteousness. An example of that may be found at a jewelry store. They place the diamond ring on a background of black velvet so that the jewelry stands out more brightly in contrast. And that is what Paul is saying here. That man’s unrighteousness causes God’s righteousness to stand out more clearly, and so given that, doesn’t that mean that God is acting unjustly when He judges me for my unrighteousness? After all, my sin makes His mercy and grace look even better.

So theological rationalization might say, “I sin because when I sin God forgives and when God forgives He gets glory because forgiveness manifests His glory.  So when I sin it gives God a marvelous opportunity to demonstrate His grace.  When I sin it gives God a marvelous opportunity to show His love and His mercy, therefore my sin does not warrant judgment from God, and any God who would judge me for that sin, is Himself being unloving and unmerciful.” 

Now though that type of thinking actually goes on today in some churches under the guise of antinomianism, it’s a diabolical reasoning which in reality impugns the character of God. And Paul’s objection to that line of reasoning is more than a little indignant. He says, “May it never be! For otherwise how will God judge the world?” It’s as if Paul said, “What? God forbid! God unfair? Shall not the Judge over all the earth deal justly?” Even the Jews must recognize that God will judge the world. They just wanted to exempt themselves of that judgment. But as Paul has said, God is true, God is just, and God is holy. And so His judgment is true, and just, and holy. And God will judge the actions and the motives of all men, according to chapter 2 vs 6, “who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”

The next set of theological questions that Paul proposes are also the type that a religious man might ask as he tries to vindicate himself before God. Someone might ask in vs 7 “But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not [say] (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”?

Notice that this question is very similar to the previous question in vs 5, “if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?” And vs 7, if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory…” In both cases there is an attack on God’s character and justice. It’s not that dissimilar to the question often asked today, “How could a loving God allow this or that to happen in the world?” The unspoken assumption is that either He is not a loving God, or He is unjust, unloving, and uncaring. And I’m afraid that proposition is inferred more often than we might like to admit. We live in an age when we have fabricated a God out of our own imagination. We have ascribed God’s blessings and benevolence upon ourselves when we have a good day, or when we get a raise, or when we get some material thing we want. We say, “God blessed me with so and so.” When in actuality, it’s quite possible that God had nothing to do with it.

But then conversely, when our prosperity doctrine runs afoul of the reality of life, when people get sick and die, when tragedy strikes, when we lose our job, etc, etc, then don’t we often call into question the goodness and justice and mercy of God? Don’t we often by implication impugn the character of God when He doesn’t respond to our beck and call? I suggest we are not much better than these Jews who sought to extricate themselves from the judgment of God by calling God’s justice into question.

The religious man, Paul says, asks, “why am I still being condemned as a sinner?” In fact, he says, why shouldn’t we do evil that good may result? Why not do evil that good may come? They are presuming upon the grace of God. And notice that Paul indicates that they accuse his gospel of grace as taking advantage of God’s mercy. So in their argument they are presuming upon God’s mercy and love. They are taking advantage of God. The only advantage that they actually had was the word of God, the scriptures, the law of God. That should have been sufficient to call them to repentance so that they may be justified by faith unto salvation. But they have tried to gain a further advantage. They have mistaken the mercy of God for leniency. That God shouldn’t really care about sin. And to add further insult, they have insulted His character, by saying that if God were to judge our sin, then He is himself unjust.

In fact, the opposite is true. Paul says because of their attitude towards their sin, that their condemnation is just. Their condemnation is deserved, and it is the righteous act of a holy God to judge their sin and condemn them. Their sin is deserving of God’s just judgment, because they have not repented of their sin, but instead want to make excuses for it. Like the Jews were guilty of doing, It’s a common excuse when we are confronted by our sin to want to compare ourselves with others. And we seek to find some validation for ourselves by pointing out that others are worse than us. We’re not as bad as so and so. We may not be all that righteous, but we still aren’t as bad as those people. And the Jews, as the prototypical religious person, were good at doing that. He had the Gentile world living all around him with their blatant idolatry and immorality. And so he thought that compared to them, he looked pretty good.

But what Paul reveals about the religious man is that he is actually more in rebellion against God than even the Gentile. Because he had the word of God, and because in his heart he wants to somehow implicate God in his sin. It’s not bad enough that he is a sinner, but he wants to somehow blame God for it, or get God to overlook it, based on the threat that if He doesn’t then God is unrighteous. And as Paul says, for such a religious person, their condemnation is just, it is doubly deserved.

And I think along with that thought is the objection that is heard far too often today when people are confronted with their sin. And that is to say, “Well, God made me the way I am.” And I think that this attitude is reflected in Paul’s argument as well. But that too is a lie. Let God be true, though every man be a liar. When God made man He said it was good. Everything that God made was good. But man chose sin and thus incurred upon himself the condemnation of sin, and the judgment of sin which is death. One instance of rebellion opened up a Pandora’s box of every conceivable sin that progressively corrupts a man until he is totally corrupted. So God didn’t make you the way you are, sin made you the way you are. And sin deserves the judgment of God, that we may agree with God, “You are justified in your words, that you might prevail in your judging.”

But man’s unrighteousness does not annul the faithfulness of God. God’s mercy triumphs over judgment. God has provided an antidote for sin and for the condemnation that all men are under. And that antidote is appropriated by first recognizing that you are a sinner, that you deserve the judgment of God, and by faith to trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and that He has taken your place under God’s judgement for your sin. He took the lashes that were due to you. He took the suffering of the cross that was due for you. He died the death that was due to you so that you might be given the mercy and grace of God. That you might be saved.

Today the Lifeguard is calling out to you to take the buoy of salvation which He is offering to you. Do you recognize that you are perishing? If so, then I urge you to take it and receive Him as your Savior and Lord.

Romans 2:17 to 29 deals with the subject of false security. The idea of false security is illustrated by the attitude of the people who set sail on the Titanic.  They believed that the ship was unsinkable. And yet history shows that their security was ill founded. The sinking of the Titanic was the greatest maritime disaster because they failed to recognize that they had a false security.  And so even though telling someone that they have a false security may not always be welcome news, yet it actually can be the means of their salvation.

Now Paul has been addressing up to this point the fact that all men are guilty as sinners before God, and will be condemned at the day of judgment.  He has shown in chapter 1 that the pagan is guilty of sin, and in chapter 2 that the moral man is guilty of sin.  And now he is going to show that the religious man, as exemplified by the Jews, is guilty before God.  But ironically, the Jews considered themselves spiritually secure. They considered themselves the chosen people of God, and in that false security they thought they were exempt from the coming judgment.

So the kind of security that Paul is referencing here in this passage is spiritual security; having confidence in your eternal destiny, especially in light of what he has just said about the judgment which is to come.  And I think that spiritual security is considered important in our age as well.  Even though a commitment to organized Christianity may be on a downward trend, yet there is still an intrinsic desire on the part of many people for some sort of spiritual security; either through religion, or through one of the many varieties of new age spiritualism that is out there.

However, to be more precise, the kind of false security that Paul is talking about in this section was typified by the Jews of his day. They claimed spiritual security because of three things; they were dependents of Abraham, they were the possessors of the law, and they had the sign or seal of circumcision.  And while it’s important for us to understand the spiritual dynamic of these people that Paul was writing about, it’s by extension applicable to the church today as well.  Many people in our country claim spiritual security by nature of three things which correlate with those of the Jews.  Many people claim security on the basis of their nationality.  America claims to be a Christian nation under God.  They believe that God has chosen America to be the beneficiary of His blessings and benevolence.  

Secondly, just as Israel believed it was privileged by virtue of the fact that it possessed the law, the scriptures, so Americans feel that they are entitled to spiritual security due to the fact that the Bible has played such a vital part in our history, and we literally have a church on almost every street corner.  Though any real basis for it is debatable, we believe that our constitution and our founding as a country is based on the Bible and on the tenets of Christianity.   

And thirdly, just as the Jews depended upon the sign of circumcision as proof of their belonging to God, so do many people today rely upon baptism or Communion as evidence of being a Christian.  And in the same way, many churches teach that observing these “sacraments” is a means of obtaining righteousness.

So what Paul does here in this passage is debunk these strongholds of Jewish faith in order to show that there is none that are righteous, not even the Jews.  And by extension we may see that today as well, there is none that are righteous on the basis of religion, or nationality, or ceremony.

Another thing that Paul illustrates here is the principle espoused earlier in this epistle, which is that those who have been entrusted with greater revelation will be judged with a stricter judgment.  And the fact that the Jews had been entrusted with the traditions of the patriarchs, and had been entrusted with the Law and the Prophets, only served to condemn them even more, rather than being the source of their escape from judgment.

So he begins in vs 17 by attacking them on the basis of their heritage as a Jew.  And for the first time, Paul uses the word Jew.  Interestingly, the word Jew is derived from the name Judah, who was the son of Jacob.  And literally, Jew meant “praised.”  But rather than seeing their heritage, having been chosen by God, as something for which to praise God, they had turned it around to praising or glorifying themselves as something special.  As if they had some special characteristic that enamored them to God, rather than humbled by the fact that God had chosen them as the beneficiaries of His grace. 

So in vs 17 Paul begins by saying, “But if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God…”  The name Jew indicates their nationality. It’s comparable to us calling ourselves Americans. Their boasting was not from the perspective of biology, or even race.  After all, all men have descended from one human family, which was Adam and Eve, and then from Noah after the flood. And even Abraham fathered different nationalities.  The Jews though claimed a special heritage from the fact that God promised Abraham to make from his seed a chosen people of God, who would be blessed in a special way from God, but who would also end up blessing the nations of the earth.  So they are not claiming racial superiority per se, but they were claiming preferential treatment as a result of God’s grace to Abraham and His promises to Abraham.

But Paul is addressing the fact that they boasted in the name Jew because they thought they were better than everyone else.  They felt they were superior.  And you can see that evidenced in verse 17, where it says they make their boast of God.  They were boasting that they were superior because God had chosen them.

And I think a lot of people in America today have the same attitude.  Many think that God gives us as Americans a greater portion of His grace because we live in the United States.  That being Americans makes us special in God’s eyes. And you can see this illustrated in the prosperity gospel prevalent in many churches.  They think that Christians can claim a high paying job, a luxurious  house,  new cars in the driveway and all the trappings of American prosperity.  But they fail to recognize that the God of America is also the same God of China.  And Chinese Christians can’t claim the same prosperity that Americans can claim, can they?  Why is that?  Because we deserve it, because we live in America?  I tell you no, but rather we are worthy of a greater condemnation, because we have been privileged with the truth for so long, and yet we have not been obedient to the truth.

The second security the Jews had was their possession of the law. Vs. 17 says that you rely on the law.  And their confidence was that they were secure because they had that knowledge of the scriptures. But as I said earlier, that knowledge of the law just made them more culpable.  Now there are four points that Paul makes here, what they learned, what they taught, what they did, and what they caused with that knowledge of the law. 

First, what did they learn? The law refers to the first five books of the Old Testament, what we call the Pentateuch.  That represents the law in it’s entirety. But the fact is, they rested in their possession of it, rather than in their keeping of it.  So even though they didn’t keep it, nevertheless they had a sense of security because they possessed it. They were privileged to be the custodians of God’s word.

And then they also went a step further.  Verse 18, “and know [His] will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law.”  They were boasting about resting in the law and about knowing God’s will.  But to know God’s will doesn’t mean anything except you’re more responsible if you don’t do it.  They knew what God approved of, and what He didn’t approve of.  They knew what God commanded us to do, and what He commanded us not to do.  But knowing His will just made them more accountable to God.

Third, he says they approved the things that are essential. This has the sense of being an arbiter of right and wrong.  That kind of goes back to vs 1, where they are someone who judges those who sin, but in fact they are guilty of doing the same things.

Fourth, their security relied upon “being instructed out of the law.” This word instructed is the word from which we get “catechism.”  It’s a series of questions and answers for the purpose of learning.  We read from the Westminster Shorter Catechism last week.  And while such things can be helpful as a tool for learning, they can also be a means of false security. There are a lot of ministers of churches that rest upon their seminary degrees, but fail to rest upon the truth of the gospel.  So it’s one thing to say you believe something, it’s another thing to act upon that belief. The Jews relied upon the fact that they had been catechized in the law, in their oral traditions, in attending the regular synagogue services.  But that knowledge did not affect the way that they lived.  It was a head knowledge that didn’t reach their heart.

So they felt secure in their knowledge of the law.  But Paul says that there is no security in that, just a greater condemnation.  And for the church today, you may know the tenets of the gospel, you may know the facts concerning Jesus’s death and resurrection, but it’s what you do about it that is what matters.  I want to emphasize the point that we are called to be followers of Jesus Christ.  We are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ.  We are called to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  It’s not just a head knowledge, but an obedience to the truth that is the basis for our faith.

The second means of their security is not just a knowledge of the law, but the fact that they considered themselves teachers of the law.  Vs.19 and 20, “and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,  a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth.” 

So there are four ways in which they thought that their teaching of the law was a means of spiritual security. First he says they were confident that they were a guide to the blind.  Blindness in the scripture has often symbolized spiritual blindness.  And what Paul indicates here is that the Jews were blind guides for the blind. In Matthew 15, the Pharisees were trying to instruct the disciples about how they needed to wash their hands, which was a ceremonial type of washing, before eating.  And Jesus said concerning them in vs14 “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” So they thought they could see well enough to lead the blind, but in fact they were blind themselves.

Secondly, Paul says that they considered themselves a light to those in the darkness. Now that was supposed to be something that the Jews were to do.  It says in Isaiah 42:6 that “I have appointed you as a light to the Gentiles.” But though they sought out and tried to convert those in darkness, they failed to provide the light of truth that would truly set men free.  Jesus said in Matthew 23:15, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”

The third thing about their teaching was they considered themselves a teacher of the foolish. I think in that reprimand Paul is indicating their arrogance.  They thought they were wise and everyone else was fools.  They were proud and condescending because of what had been entrusted to them.

Fourthly, he says they considered themselves as a teacher of the immature. This would refer to the teaching of recent converts to Judaism.  But as James says, let not many of you become teachers, for as such you will incur a stricter judgment upon yourselves.  The fact that they thought they were teachers was only adding judgment upon themselves.

Then starting in vs21, Paul gives a series of rebuttals to their arrogance and security they had because they were teachers of the law.  “You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?  You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?  You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?” I think that the implication here is that they were breaking the law in covert ways, all the while appearing to be a teacher of the law.  For instance, the law said that it was wrong to divorce, yet the Jews in teaching that law made so many allowances for it, that according to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, they were causing people to commit adultery by allowing them to remarry.

The simple summary of what Paul is saying here is “don’t you practice what you preach?” I think this is the classic criticism of Christianity by the world.  The world’s greatest criticism of the church is that we don’t practice what we preach.  Now I cannot judge the teaching and actions of every church, or every Christian.  But it certainly seems a valid criticism.  And it goes back to what I mentioned while ago in regards to the principle that we are to not just know the truth, or teach the truth, but we are to be obedient to the truth.  We are to be followers of the truth.  Not just purveyors of it.  And that is what Paul is rebuking the Jews for doing. 

So rather than their life and teaching bringing people to God, Paul says that their lifestyle caused God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles. Vs.24: “For ‘THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,’ just as it is written.”  Paul is loosely quoting from Isaiah 52:4 in this statement.  And what that refers to is that their lifestyle was such that rather than causing people to come to their God, they instead blasphemed God because of their actions.  And this is the ultimate indictment against disobedience.  Because it puts a stumbling block in the way of others who might follow you in the way of truth to salvation in Christ.  But instead, as they watch your life, they find themselves despising your hypocrisy, to the point of not wanting anything to do with Christianity if that’s the sort of people that populate the church.

Another aspect of that is the Jews caused the world to blaspheme God because they saw a people oppressed and chastened by the Lord because of their sin.  The Jews were a people that were to be praised.  They were the chosen people of God.  They had the promises of their father Abraham as their heritage.  And yet they repeatedly despised the covenant of God.  They repeatedly turned to foreign gods, to love foreign wives, to take after the customs of the world. And so God had to repeatedly chastise them.  Eventually, God chastised them to the point that the 10 tribes were lost, and only Judah and Benjamin remained.  And even then, they lived under subjugation to the Romans.  They certainly lost the glory that should have been theirs because of their disobedience.  And so in deriding the state of Israel, the Gentiles blasphemed their God, because they associated a nation’s power with their gods, and it was apparent to the Gentile world that Israel was powerless against it’s enemies.  And so by extension, they assume that the Jewish God was powerless.  And in that way they blasphemed God.  They brought shame on their God by their disobedient lives.

In a similar way, the church can bring shame upon the name of Christ if we are not obedient to His will.  If our lifestyles deny our Lord, then that causes the world to blaspheme the name of Christ, because they see Him as powerless to affect our lives or our circumstances.  When in fact, all power for godly living has been given to us in salvation.  As the scripture says in Ezekiel 36:26-27 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”  We that have been saved have been given the power of God, the Spirit of God, to live within us, that we might be able to walk in His statues, and observe His ordinances.  In other words, the Spirit of God within us gives us the power over sin, and to live a godly life that glorifies God.  But it requires a willingness to be obedient and a desire to be obedient and to follow Him, carrying the cross upon which our flesh is crucified. But when we live for the flesh, we deny that power, and we bring shame upon the name of Christ.

There is one last security which the Jews depended upon, and that was the security they found in ceremony. Vs.25-27, Paul says, “For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.  So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?  And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter [of the Law] and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law?”  Paul is arguing here that the Jews cannot make the case for their spiritual security on the basis of circumcision.  Paul says that the ritual or ceremony of circumcision  without obedience to God’s law is of no value to them.  The same can be said of baptism or of communion if we were to compare the Jews situation to the modern church. As signs and seals of God’s covenant these things have value, but only when accompanied by obedience.

Paul is saying that the circumcision which for the Jew was thought to be a deciding factor in his spiritual condition was the same as being uncircumcised if there was no obedience to the law. There is no righteousness given on the basis of a ritual or ceremony. And in a similar respect, Paul says that an uncircumcised man who keeps the law is the same in God’s sight as a circumcised man. And rather than the circumcised Jew being the arbiter of law and the judge, Paul says that the uncircumcised man who keeps the law will condemn the Jew, who though they are the custodians of the law, yet they do not keep it.

Rituals and ceremonies are not a means of salvation, and neither are they a security of your eternal destiny.  All of these are merely outward symbols of what must be accomplished on the inside – in the heart.  The Jews taught that father Abraham stood at the gates of Hades to make sure that no circumcised man entered into hell.  But Paul here states that circumcision is nothing without obedience to the law and in fact says he will be judged by the uncircumcised man.

And that leads us to his last statement in this argument, found in vs 28, 29. “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.  But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”  This statement must have been such a stinging rebuke to the proud Jew who took his stand on the possession of the law.  To hear that he was not a real Jew, but the uncircumcised man who was obedient from the heart was the real Jew in the sight of God must have been a hard thing for him to hear.

Paul is saying that your spiritual security is not based on your nationality, or on your race, or your biology.  But it’s a matter of your heart. The heart refers to the seat of your emotions, will, and intellect.  It’s the origin of your desires.  So secondly he says that it is not outward ceremony that matters, or external things, but being circumcised in the heart, by the Spirit of God.  And Paul makes the same point that Jesus made in the Sermon on the Mount, which is that it is the spirit of the law that is important, not just the letter of the law.

And for that Jew that is circumcised in heart, Paul says, there will be praise.  That is a play on words.  As I mentioned earlier, the name Jew means praise.  And so these circumcised Jews that desired praise from men because of their self righteousness, because of their arrogant possession of the law, would instead see the praise from God go to those who were circumcised in their hearts.  

To be circumcised in the heart means a cutting away of the flesh so that you might live in the Spirit. That is what was promised in Ezekiel 36. God says, ”Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”  I would ask you today to examine yourselves in light of this passage Paul wrote to the Jews.  Examine yourself to see if you are staking your eternal security on things like national heritage, or ceremony, or church attendance. The real test is whether or not the Spirit of God has removed the dead flesh which is sin within your heart, so that you have a desire to do the things of God.  If that is not your experience, then I urge you today to call out to the Lord the prayer of David, “Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.” 

In Hebrews chapter one the author quotes a Psalm concerning the nature of the Messiah, who is Jesus Christ. And at the beginning of that book, he states that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of His nature.  So then what the Psalmist says about Jesus is also true of God.  The Psalmist says in Psalm 45:6-7 “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of uprightness (or justice) is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of joy above Your fellows.”

Justice is a primary aspect of God’s character, and thus judgment is a primary extension of His character.  Justice, or the judgment of God is not a character trait that we like to focus on.  We would much rather focus on the more benevolent aspects of God’s character like love and mercy. But understanding that God is a holy God of justice and righteousness is paramount for a true knowledge of God, and to be able to worship God in spirit and in truth.  Our faith must be informed through the truth about God and founded on the  knowledge of God as revealed in His word. 

So, God’s justice and righteousness results in HIs judgment against sin.  This subject of God’s judgment is something that Paul is addressing here in the first three chapters particularly, and he wants us to fully understand this doctrine of human sin and God’s judgment against it.  He wants to make sure that when it is all said and done, we will take refuge in nothing other than the mercy of God and the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is applied to our account by grace through faith.  He wants to make sure that we do not hold on to some measure of self righteousness or assurance due to what we think are our own merits, but will fully trust in the righteousness of our Savior.

The principle of justice reminds me of the story from many years ago of the very fashionable lady who went to a photographer to have her picture taken. She thought she was very good looking, but she really was not. She struck her best pose and said to the photographer, “Now, young man, I want you to do me justice.” And he said, “Lady, what you need is not justice, but mercy.” And so also in this passage, what Paul shows us is that we are all deserving of God’s justice, but thank God that mercy has triumphed over judgment, because if we got what we deserved, we would all receive the condemnation of death.

God’s justice and His mercy must both be satisfied.  And justice and mercy are satisfied in Jesus Christ.  As the Psalmist says in Ps.85:10, “Mercy and truth have met together;

Righteousness and peace have kissed together.” God’s justice against sin was poured out on Jesus Christ, that He might show mercy towards sinners.

Now we have already seen in the first chapter that man in his human nature is born in sin, and sin totally corrupts, and thus men are totally depraved and deserving of the judgment of God. To summarize the end of the first chapter, Paul says starting in vs28 “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,  being filled with all unrighteousness,(he then goes on to describe that unrighteousness) and then concludes in vs 32 saying, “and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”  So Paul says that they are worthy of God’s judgment against their sin, and that judgment is death.

Then in chapter 2,  Paul includes in that judgement those who judge others as sinners while they themselves are guilty of doing the same things. Rom 2:1 “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.  And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.” So he is saying that even those who recognize sin and  think they are morally superior to those who blatantly sin, are guilty of doing the same things themselves.  And so all men are sinners.

However, even though Paul wants to deal with man’s condemnation and God’s righteous judgment against sin, yet he cannot help but give a brief glimpse of God’s mercy which is salvation.  Paul says in ch.2 vs 4 that God gives time for the sinner to repent.  And we spent a lot of time last Sunday talking about the fact that the kindness of God is expressed as patience – intended to produce in sinners repentance so that they will escape the judgment that is coming upon the world.  

Then Paul goes on to reemphasize that the judgment is coming and that it is the due penalty  of God’s justice against sin. He says in vs5 “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” 

And in that statement, that God will render to each person according to His deeds, Paul changes gears in his argument.  He now begins to delineate God’s judgment on the deeds of the unrighteous as opposed to the deeds of the righteous.  Those who do good, he says get eternal life.  Those who do evil, get wrath.  And Paul adds, there is no partiality with God.  He doesn’t judge on the basis of race, or religion or position, or prestige, but he bases His judgment on their deeds.

In John 5 verse 28, Jesus said, “Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear His voice and shall come forth.  They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life.  And they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”  Jesus is saying exactly what Paul says here, that judgment will be made on the basis of their works. 

Now good works are not the means of salvation. Salvation is a gift of God, not on the basis of our works but on the basis of God’s mercy.  But good works are the evidence of salvation for in Eph.2:9 where it says “not by works lest any man should boast,” the next verse says, “we were created for good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.”  So our works are the evidence of our faith by which God will judge. Romans 3:23 says, the wages of sin is death.  And in Romans 1:17 it says, the just shall live by faith (obedience to faith).  So you have two outcomes, one for works of sin, resulting in damnation, and one for works of righteousness, resulting in life.

What Paul then is going to show here in the remaining verses of chapter 2, is that the people that considered themselves righteous, namely the Jews, because they had the law and they had been taught the law, they were in fact guilty of sin.  This argument is going to conclude in chapter 3 vs 10, that “there is none righteous, no not one.”  Both the Jew and the Gentile are sinners.  Both the religious and the pagan are sinners.  Both the moral man and the unmoral are sinners.  And so all men are sinners, all are lost, all are going to be held accountable for their sins, and they will be judged at the last judgment, and that judgment is eternal death.

Now, notice in verse 12, then, we have two distinct groups of people.  First of all, “As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law.” What law is he talking about?  The law of God, the Mosaic law.  He is describing Gentiles who did not have the written Scripture. Most people who have lived on this earth have not had the law of God.  They have not had the written Scripture.  And so the question is, what about them?  Will God judge them when they never had the law?  Yes, Paul says, but He’ll judge them as those who have never had the law. Vs 12, “For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law.”  So the punishment for sin is still the same, death is the wages of sin.  And he has already made it clear that they knew that they were guilty of sin even though they did not have the written law.

But there is another group in vs 12, and that is those who had the law. “And all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.”  This refers to those who had the Word of God, particularly referencing Israel who knew the truth of God.  But it also can be related to people today who sit in the church, people who know the truth, people who are in a Christian society.  They will be judged according to the greater light that they received. 

Someone came to Charles Haddon Spurgeon one time and said, “The Bible is the light of the world.” Mr. Spurgeon objected. He said, “No; how can the Bible be the light of the world when the world never reads the Bible?” “The Bible,” he said, “is the light of the church. The Christian is the light of the world. The world reads the Christian, not the Bible.” 

So the argument with Paul’s reasoning then that might have been made, in fact, it still may be made today, is;  “We who have been the custodians of the scriptures, we should have the higher honor, not the greater condemnation.  We who have possessed the law should be protected from God’s wrath.”  And today someone might say, “I’ve gone to church all my life, I’ve been  religious, I possess a Bible. Why should I be condemned along with the pagan?”  

And Paul gives the answer in vs 13,  “for [it is] not the hearers of the Law [who] are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.”  James says something similar in James 1:22 “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” God’s law doesn’t protect hearers from judgment.  No, in fact the more they hear, the greater the judgment. 

Jesus said in Luke 12:48 “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”  So the principle is that the more you know of God’s law, the more it intensifies the judgment unless it is obeyed.

But here’s the conundrum: you can’t obey the law in your own strength.  And so Paul’s argument literally backs them into a corner. He says, you’re constantly hearing the law but you don’t do it.  And so there is a judgment against you.  As verse 13 says,  the doer of the law shall be justified, not the hearer. 

So the righteousness and justice of God requires perfect obedience.  God requires a manifestation of righteousness but no one can do that.  Thus, the law is meant to drive us to a recognition of our need for a Savior, and to cause us to recognize our hopelessness so that we turn to God for the power to do what we otherwise couldn’t do.  To see our need to be born again, to be made into a new creation whereby we have the power within us to do works of righteousness.

So Paul says the Jew, or the person who possessed the law is under condemnation because though they knew the law, they couldn’t keep it.  Then what about that pagan?  What about that the person who never read the law of God, never read Scripture, never heard the gospel?  Can you condemn them for not obeying the written word? 

Paul answers that objection as well in vs 14. “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,  in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.”  What Paul is saying is simply this:  You do not have to have the written law to be responsible because you have a law within you manifest in your behavior, manifest in your conscience, and manifest in your thinking patterns.

Paul has given us four reasons why the pagan is lost.  Reason #1, creation. Rom 1:20 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” 

Reason #2 the pagan is lost is because of conduct.  Ch.2 vs 14, “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves.”  In other words, they don’t have an outside law, but they have an internal law that makes them a law unto themselves and it is manifest in their conduct.  Pagans naturally recognize certain things which are in the law.  Their conduct shows that they recognize right and wrong.

For instance, unbelievers recognize it is right to pay their debts. They know that children should honor their parents.  Unbelievers may love their wives, or husbands and they love and care for their children. They recognize that it’s wrong to kill.  There are many unbelievers who know it’s good to feed the hungry, who would help a man who was sick or a woman who was sick.  Pagans recognize that it’s right to tell the truth.  They may seek after justice.  They may struggle for fairness. All of these things, their conduct,  reveal an internal human code of ethics that is the law within them.

There is a third reason why the heathen are lost and that is conscience. Vs15, “in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.” Conscience means co-knowledge. 

And conscience is something in you that recognizes what’s right.  It refers to a person’s inner sense of right and wrong, the moral consciousness that pronounces judgment on thoughts and attitudes and speech and deeds. I read a quote by an 19th century theologian by the name of William Arnot the other day.  And though he was speaking of the difference between a believer and an unbeliever, I think that there is a principle in his statement that applies to conscience as well.  He said, “The difference between an unconverted man and a converted man is not that one has sins and the other has none, but that the one takes [sides] with his cherished sins against a dreaded God, and the other takes [sides] with a reconciled God against his hated sins.”  Now what he is getting at is this agreement with God, this recognition that we have about our sins which is in agreement with God.  

And I suppose that principle is applicable to the idea of conscience as well.  It is something within us that is given by God, which recognizes wrong doing and thus is in agreement with God in regards to it as sin. There’s a thought process in you that knows right and knows wrong and deals with you when you violate it. And that inner law is in agreement with the law of God. 

So the unbelievers are lost because of creation, conduct, conscience, and lastly, they are lost because of contemplation. Paul says in vs 14, “their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.” In other words, there is in us the capacity to contemplate or to reason and to determine what someone does is right or wrong.

That’s why we have a system of justice in our country, and in fact, all civilized countries have a justice system.  Because we have the capacity to accuse or excuse behavior on the basis of law. They know that there should be, or needs to be punishment to fit the crime. So all of these four reasons, creation, conduct, conscience and contemplation all show that the law of God has been instilled within them. And so they have no excuse.  Because if they would just respond to the light that they are given, then God would give them more light, even to the point of receiving the full light of Jesus Christ so that they would be saved from their condemnaton.

Now there is a final aspect of God’s judgment that we will look at this morning briefly, and that is found in vs.16.  God will not only judge on the basis of men’s deeds, but on the basis of their motives.  God will judge on the basis not only of what a man’s deeds are but what his reasons were. And at this point, I’m afraid, is where most of our works of righteousness which we think we can claim become undone – on the basis of our motives. Even our works of righteousness are as filthy rags because we do them with impure motives.  Paul says in vs.16 “on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”

So the secrets of a man are bound up in his heart.  But God sees the heart.  He knows our motivations.  Jesus said in Matt. 15:18-19 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”  

Jeremiah 17:10 puts it this way:  “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind even to give to each according to his ways, according to the result of his deeds.”  Yes, God judges deeds.  Yes, He judges ways.  But He judges the motive behind them as well. 

James says in chapter 4 vs 3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend [it] on your pleasures.”  God knows the motives of our hearts, and He will judge us according to our motives.  You either do what you do for the glory of God or you do it for the glory of man. 

I believe that what Paul is indicating here is that it’s possible to do good deeds with bad motives.  I think we see that in Christendom all the time.  That was the recurring sin of the Pharisee in Jesus’s day.  And it’s the prototypical sin of the church today.  It’s hypocrisy. The sin of impure motives.  Someone said once, that the the sin of hypocrisy is failing to live up to the truth that you claim to have.  And that seems to be true.

Paul reemphasizes in vs 16, that there is going to be a day of judgment.  “On the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”  Jesus said in Luke 8:17 “For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor [anything] secret that will not be known and come to light.”   God will judge all men, and all deeds, on that day of judgment.  All things will be revealed, even the thoughts and motives of men’s hearts. 

2Cor. 5:10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

If your sin hasn’t been dealt with before that day by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, if you haven’t confessed Jesus as Lord and accepted His sacrifice on your behalf and His payment for your sin, then you are storing up wrath against the day of wrath.  There’s going to be a judgment from God that will cause you to be cast out of His presence forever into the Lake of Fire. And no one will escape that judgment unless they can claim Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.  He alone has satisfied the justice and righteousness of God, that He might show mercy to those who are under judgment. I pray that you have claimed His righteousness and His sacrifice on your behalf that you might not be condemned with the world.