Michael's Abbey Bible Study - Romans Chapter 3

1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? This rhetorical question refers to the end of chapter 2. Paul made it clear that the outward signs of being Jewish and circumcised are pointless unless it is matched by the inward person. In fact, it is self-conviction for the faker as it shows they should know better. But for the Jew whose circumcision is not just physical but is also of their heart there is an advantage.
The same goes for fake Christians and fake Christian leaders today. That they claim to be Christians shows they know the truth they reject in their heart. It is worse for them than for the atheist who doesn't claim to be a believer. But for those whose faith is real and penetrates their heart there is an advantage.
2 Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. The oracles of God is a reference to the word passed to Moses on Mount Sinai. Stephen the martyr used the same language during his defense in Acts 7:38. This can also refer to all that the Jews received including the whole law, the prophets, and the writings. Thus the Jews had the advantage of being the people entrusted with the words from God that we know as the Old Testament. This was part of the covenant with Abraham. Christians today have the entire Bible as our advantage, the entire word of God.
3 What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? The context here is the covenant with Abraham. God promised the land of Israel to him and his descendants. But if they rebelled against God He also promised they would be taken from the land. The two promises are not incompatible, as the historical record shows. Their unbelief required God to discipline them by allowing them to be taken from the land. But He restored them to the land of Israel and thus God was faithful to the covenant while still dealing with their rebellion. God is both just as well as merciful.
4 May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, "That You may be justified in Your words, And prevail when You are judged." God's judging and punishing the rebellion of the Israelites did not negate God's word in the covenant. God's words were true as well as His judgment righteous. It should be noted that after the Babylonian exile the Israelites never had a problem with worshiping pagan idols and gods again. But those are blatant and easy to see, which makes their pre-exile worship of them inexplicable. After returning from exile they still had a problem with self-idolatry and making up their own version of Yahweh.
The quoted passage is from Psalm 51:4. The NASB translates this from the Greek in this verse very differently than how it translates the original Hebrew text being quoted. The NASB of Psalm 51 says, "blameless when You judge." While the translation in this verse is a possible translation from the Greek, it doesn't fit the context, nor the quotation, nor the Hebrew text. A more accurate translation into English in the context of Romans would be, "prevail when you judge." It is God that is judging, not being judged.
Psalm 51 is a sinner's prayer for forgiveness where the sinner is fully and humbly acknowledging their sin and dependence on God's mercy. It acknowledges that God is both righteous and merciful. Most notable is the end of the Psalm that states the sacrifice of an unrepentant person is meaningless without a broken and contrite heart. This is a direct contradiction of those that preach a false gospel where no one should feel bad or guilty. When we do bad things we should feel guilty. It is one of the things God put in most of us to help us follow Him. Only psychopaths have no guilt. These deceptive preachers should reread the Great Commission. Jesus called on us to make disciples, not make psychopaths.
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.) 6 May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? Some people get hung up on the word "wrath". They take a childish oversimplified definition of wrath then use that incomplete or even incorrect definition to prove some point against God that is not true. People who are triggered by a word usually have a childish or incorrect understanding of that word. Oprah Winfrey and many if not most of the Charismatic tradition churches make ridiculous statements like they will not accept a wrathful God. Since God's own word says He is wrathful, to say that is to contradict God. That is a very dumb thing to do. Ironically, these same people who say it would be wrong for God to show wrath do it themselves on a daily basis. If someone does something they don't approve of, like pointing out their error and bad behavior their wrath will show for all to see. Let me be clear, even though they are hypocritically doing what they say God would be unjust and unrighteous for doing I am not saying that it is actually wrong to have wrath.
The word "wrath" is orge in Greek. Biblically there are three definitions. The most common is anger. The second is strong indignation towards wrongdoing. Only a person who is mentally ill is not wrathful about a criminal getting away with a vile crime and escaping punishment. For God to have no wrath would require Him to have no justice either. Only those who want to keep their sin want an unjust God.
The righteousness of God is demonstrated through the unrighteousness of humans by God's justice in punishing that unrighteousness. The rhetorical question of verse 5 asks if God punishing sin is unrighteous. Verse 6 makes it clear that if God cannot punish sin then God has no basis to judge anyone. And it could not be clearer in scripture that God does and will judge the world. Sadly, many people who claim to be Christians say that it would be wrong of God to punish sin, which is utterly ridiculous, delusional, and anti-Christian. People cannot hold this demonically false belief and be Christian. I am not being hyperbolic. This is a lie of Satan to motivate people to reject the real God in order to justify their desire to sin their brains out. It is choosing sin over God.
7 But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), "Let us do evil that good may come"? Their condemnation is just. The corollary lie to verses 5-6 is another false excuse to sin one's brains out. This one is that the more sin we do, the more grace we receive. And therefore it is a good thing that we sin more so more good can come from God. Few are so blatantly ridiculous as to say this out loud. But various slightly less crazy versions are common, such as saying that sin doesn't matter since God's grace will cover it. That is a lie. Living this way deliberately is to reject God and His commandments in scripture. It is an outward sign of a rebellious heart that doesn't know Jesus. Worse, Jesus doesn't know them and by His own words in Matthew 7 they will not get into heaven. Sadly, most people who call themselves Christians today will be very unpleasantly surprised by what Jesus says to them on Judgement Day.
9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; Those who know Jesus, follow Him and His commandments are His disciples. But even if we are are His disciples, we are no better than those that are deceived. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But for those who acknowledge their dependence on Jesus it will show in their actions. Sin is incompatible with God and heaven.
10 as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one; 11 There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one." This is from Psalms 14:1-3 and 53:1-3. These are both Psalms of David about the wickedness of humanity and begin with the same words. But they have different endings. They are slightly hyperbolic, but not by much. Even the best human is selfish, self-centered, unrighteous, evil, and has turned away from God. Less bad is still bad. The perfect good of God is like a flawless castle made of gold. And by comparison we are pond-scum. Our best isn't good enough. Worse, we have no clue how bad our sin really is. It's as if we were to travel to the far side of the moon, further from the surface of the earth than any other human has been, then tried to touch a star. It would be futile as they are so far above us we couldn't reach one in our lifetime. That is still closer than we are to the goodness of God.
13 "Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving," "The poison of asps is under their lips"; The beginning of this verse is from Psalm 5:9. And the ending is from Psalm 140:3. Both are Psalms of David and are prayers for protection from the wicked.
Lying is strong evidence of a wicked heart. Satan is the father of lies. The worst of human liars is a false prophet. This is one who claims they are speaking for God when they are speaking their own thoughts and words. You cannot comprehend how heinous this sin is. Making false prophecy is literally trying to be God. There are lots of offenses in the Law of Moses where the penalty is death, such as cursing one's parents. However, the historical record strongly indicates that the death penalty was not carried out for almost all of them. It is possible that this was because the written penalty was hyperbolic to get the Israelites to understand how bad their sin really was. But there was one death penalty that was consistently enforced. The death penalty for false prophecy was applied for even a single false prophecy. This was and is blasphemy beyond blasphemy.
Many false prophets will use an equivocation fallacy by redefining prophecy to mean speaking or teaching good things. That is a blatantly anti-scriptural lie. This definition contradicts both the Old and New Testament. Words a person comes up with on their own can be words of wisdom and/or words of knowledge if they are true. Those are also gifts of the Spirit that are completely different gifts from prophecy. But if they are untrue they cannot be from a gift of the Spirit. They are from the father of lies, Satan. And so is false prophecy.
14 "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness"; This is from Psalm 10:7 which is most likely a psalm of David. This psalm is a prayer for the overthrow of the wicked. The quote is from the part of the psalm that describes how the wicked behave. In Matthew 15:11 Jesus said it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out. Cursing does not mean speaking in coarse or bad language. It specifically refers to saying or calling for bad things to happen to another, which may be appropriate. Cursing and bitterness means speaking anger and hatred so as to wish bad or evil things to happen to another with the implication that it comes from a hateful and wicked heart rather than a justified response to real evil. A mouth full of cursing and bitterness means one who has that as their default language. A person who speaks curses and bitterness once is not who is being described here, especially if it is justified or they regain control and repent. It is the one who lives this way so that it is the normal mode of speech for them which demonstrates a wicked heart.
To be clear, coarse language is not cursing. Cursing in a biblical sense is to curse someone to wish or pray for bad things to happen to them, such as that they would die and/or go to hell. Whereas simply using words like "shit" is not cursing. Paul used that word in scripture to make his point with emphasis. Most translations take the wuss-route and translate it as "rubbish" or some such nonsense. Paul deliberately used the most vulgar term for human excrement that existed in Koine Greek. But that doesn't make it a curse.
15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood, 16Destruction and misery are in their paths, 17 And the path of peace they have not known." This is from Isaiah 59:7-8, which is part of a passage on sin separating us from God. It goes on to describe humanity as both transgressing against and denying God. The two go hand in hand. This is all humanity. We have all sinned. And it reminds us that God will punish evil because He is just. The passage in Isaiah finishes with a prophecy about a Redeemer, (the Messiah,) coming to those in Israel who will turn away from sin. It also tells that the Messiah is the fulfillment of the covenant with Israel.
We are hopeless without the Redeemer, Jesus. It is Jesus and only Him that saves us from the justice we deserve. He willingly took what we earned upon Himself, satisfying justice. All we have to do is turn from our sin to Jesus. Those that do not turn to Jesus as well as those that turn to a false idol continue to cause destruction and misery. They do not walk the path of peace. This is shown by their deeds for all to see. Their false prophecy and false religion comes back to bite them. And instead of repenting they try to cover it up, excuse it, or deny they were part of it. But anyone who is not a fool can see they were walking in sin.
18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes." This is from Psalm 36:1, a Psalm of David about the wickedness of men and the lovingkindness of God. There are several key points in this psalm. Sin speaks to the heart of those who do not know God. They flatter themselves in their own eyes. They lie and deceive. They cease to be wise and do good. They do not despise evil.
One of the most important points is they do not fear God. The lack of a fear of God is the root cause of false Christian pastors and leaders. False prophets and fake Christian leaders lie and distort the truth. They depict God as a buddy who lets your sin go because that's what buddies do. Of course, scripture is clear that if your earthly buddy really loved you he would turn you away from your sin as it is leading you to death and destruction. God tries to turn us away from sin, but most do not listen or even notice.
The other important point in this psalm is that God's lovingkindness is for those who know Him. Those who don't know Him receive condemnation. The real Jesus is a friend to those He knows. But He is not the kind of friend the lying fake pastors and leaders claim. We are like the friend of the medieval king who has the power of life and death over everyone in the kingdom, including his friends. It is a true friendship, but with the respectful fear that the king can have us executed at his whim. Jesus is the friend who can squish us like a bug or wipe us from existence. Jesus is the one who will judge humanity. The wise person is carefully respectful of the King of kings.
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; 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. These verses put the law into proper perspective. The purpose of the law was not to save people. It cannot justify anyone who follows it. Its purpose was to convict people of their sin. True Judaism acknowledged that we need the grace of God to save us. But following the law was the right thing to do under Judaism to nomistically identify as God's chosen people. To westerners who have no frame of reference, nomism looks like legalism. But it is not. It completely denies justification by works. The false Judaism of the Pharisees dipped into legalism while trying to stay nomistic. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD Phariseeism completely took over Judaism.
As 19 and 20 are on the heels of a series of quotes from Psalms and Isaiah on how wicked all of humanity is, this reference to the law most likely refers to all of the Old Testament rather than just the Law of Moses.
21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, Apart from the law refers to all who have not had the law which is the non-Jews, a.k.a. Gentiles. The righteousness of God refers to how God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham and the prophecies that the Gentiles will be saved through that covenant. That the law and prophets witnessed this refers to how they were to make Israel ready for the coming of Jesus. The law and prophets did this by convicting Israel of its sin, push them towards righteousness, and tell about his coming. Without the Law and the prophets Israel would have become like the horrifically sinful nations around them, sacrificing their own babies to Molech and worse instead of just drifting towards them again and again.
Isaiah 49:6 He says, It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
This was the purpose of the Law, to prepare the way for the Messiah who would then be a light to the world.
22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; The righteousness of God in verse 21 refers to God's actions demonstrating His righteousness. In this verse it refers to the righteousness that we get from God when we follow Him. Faith in Jesus not only saves us from the penalty of our sins, but saves us from the sins themselves. We still have free will, and therefore are still capable of and prone to sin. But faith in Jesus works on us and changes us to want to do better.
That this is for all who believe. And that there is no distinction refers to that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile as every human can be a part of this if they will believe and have faith in Jesus.
Some take the "for all who believe" out of context of the rest of the verse, trying to assert that all you have to do is believe and nothing else. This false teaching is to try to justify their desire to continue to sin their brains out and ignore all the commandments and instructions in the New Testament. Just this verse by itself shows this to be a false belief as it specifies that this is through faith in Jesus, not just a belief without any relationship with God. And there are many scriptures that clearly state that mere belief does not make us disciples.
James 2:19-20 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
Works do not save us. They do not add to our salvation in any way. But they are external evidence of our internal faith. And they are the natural result of a true belief that Jesus saved us. When someone says they believe but it makes no difference to their life then they are going to be surprised when Jesus says, "I never knew you" as He said in Matthew 7.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, This is a repetition of verse 9, which is an indication of how important the statement is. This is why everyone needs grace. No one can do enough good as a Gentile or follow the Law of Moses perfectly as a Jew.
24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; Grace is the unearned and unearnable gift of salvation from God. God is perfectly just and perfectly merciful. The punishment we earned by our sin Jesus the Son willingly took on Himself. Thus justice is satisfied as well as mercy. This is how God redeemed us.
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; God redeemed us through the public propitiation of our sins by Jesus the Son shedding His blood on the cross. Propitiation could also be translated as propitiatory sacrifice in this context. Propitiation is also synonymous with expiation or atonement. Jesus willingly took on our punishment to extinguish the debt of guilt. This was done to save all of humanity. But it requires that the individual have faith in Jesus. Thus Jesus gave the gift of grace for all, but not all will accept it.
The precise meaning of the beginning of the last sentence is disputed. Primarily the difference is whether the prepositions mean that God's righteousness refers to the innate characteristic of God which means Paul was referring to the demonstration of God's nature, or whether it refers to the actions of God in showing righteousness which means God's righteousness here is fulfilling the covenant with Abraham and Israel. This is a difference without much of a difference. Righteousness is a characteristic of God's nature and is shown in His actions. They are two sides of the same coin. Either view results in basically the same meaning to this verse. It is both a reflection of God's nature and the fulfillment of the Covenant.
That God passed over past sins in His forbearance is a human perspective view of the sins that came before the crucifixion. For those of us who are in time, it looks like the judgement of the sins of those that came before the crucifixion were held back by God until Jesus could later atone for them. This would be forbearance. From God's perspective outside time, (God created space, matter, and time and cannot be subject to them,) the blood of Jesus covers all sins before and after the crucifixion for all who have faith in God. It doesn't matter when the crucifixion occurred in our timeline from His perspective. Think of it like paying a bill. You can pay it in advance, or you can pay it after the fact. It still gets paid.
26 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. If God simply forgave our sins with no consequence it wouldn't be righteous or just. So at some point the punishment earned had to be paid. No mere human could do this for everyone as all have sinned. Only the willing and perfect sacrifice of Jesus who was and is God and the Son of God could take on the sins of the world. His perfect innocence from all sin made him the perfect sacrifice. That He was fully God and fully man made it possible. Thus God was both just in requiring that sin be punished, and the justifier in that He paid that debt Himself.
While the sacrifice was for all humanity, it requires that we accept it by having faith in Jesus as our savior. Thus only those that have faith in God are saved.
Psalm 19:1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Romans 1:19-21 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 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. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Thus not having heard the gospel is not an excuse. Scripture is God's special revelation. Creation itself is God's general revelation, along with what God planted in every human being. That should be enough to choose God.
For those who think this is unfair, most people reject the gospel when they hear it. So the fact that most people reject God that haven't heard the Gospel should be no surprise. All have been given a way to know God. If they choose something else, that is no one's fault than their own. Yet we ought to try to share the gospel with everyone and give them a chance to hear the truth for themselves instead of having to figure it out on their own.
27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. Whether we are Jew or Gentile, we have no reason to boast. The Law of Moses does not give us a reason to boast. Works give us no reason to boast. Only the law of faith is a reason to boast because it is boasting in Jesus the Messiah and not ourselves.
28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. As many times as Paul and others foot stomp that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone, it is almost bizarre that so many deny all of those verses and create a works based religion with Christian sounding terminology. Some even try to straddle the two and say it's grace plus works. But when it comes to salvation, works is the opposite of grace. Grace is unearned by definition. Add the slightest bit of earning to grace and there is no grace at all.
29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, In other words, it is nonsense for anyone to exclude Gentiles as God is the God of everyone. It is just as much nonsense to say that God is not the God of Jews. Anyone who tries to make such a stupid argument is trying to contradict scripture. Anyone who tries to advocate for some sort of "replacement theory" is a vile racist and a either a tool of or coconspirator with demons.
30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. The circumcised is used in verses like this to mean Jews under the Law of Moses just like the uncircumcised means the Gentiles who are not under the law.
When Paul repeats himself so many times and in so many different ways, we really ought to pay attention to it. Everyone, including Jews under the Law of Moses before Jesus was crucified were only saved by faith. It was, is, and will always be God's grace that saves any human being. It is our choosing God by putting our faith in Him that brings us under His grace.
31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. As Jesus said, he didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. And He was the total fulfillment of it, the perfect sacrifice that ends the need for sacrifices. In like manner, faith does not end the Law. The Law requires we do not murder. That is still true for us today. We do not have to bring our tithe into the temple like the Law required. That is good as the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. so it's not possible. But we still are expected to give sacrificially, just not a tithe to the temple.
Jesus was the willing sacrifice to atone for our sins not so we can sin again, but so we can turn away from our sin and learn a better way that Jesus taught.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation.

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