Romans 3:1-8--God's Righteousness Upheld

Romans 3:1-8
English Standard Version

God's Righteousness Upheld
3 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,

“That you may be justified in your words,
    and prevail when you are judged.”

​5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

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As discussed last time, Paul is going to now focus in on the question, "Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?"  Paul has laid out the case that those who die under the Law (the Jews or the circumcision) will be judged by the Law because they knew it and had that revelation.  It might seem to the outsider that this simply just made the Jews more guilty and that there would be some advantage to being a Gentile if somehow God were a "bean-counter" and we were saved or condemned by the sheer number of good or evil works that we've committed.  Paul says that to begin with, the advantage of being a Jew is that you have been entrusted with the oracles of God, that is the very Word of God revealed through the Law and the Prophets.

Paul then asks another interesting question, "So what if some were unfaithful?  Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?"  The answer to that questions should be obvious as it is the entire story of the Old Testament that God continues to keep His covenant promises for the sake of Himself and His great Name, even when the people have rebelled and betrayed Him.  Paul answers the question that should have been rhetorical by saying, "By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar," as we should already know that Truth.  See 1 John 1:5 for just one example where we see this attribute of God in another way (light and darkness).  Paul follows-up this sentiment of God being true and righteous in all things with the a quote specifically saying that God's judgment is right and true.  Compare the two quotes:

“That you may be justified in your words,
    and prevail when you are judged.” (Romans 3:4b)


Psalm 51:4
English Standard Version
​4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.

So, again, the context of Psalm 51 is that David has been caught in gross sin and rebellion as the prophet Nathan has confronted David about the adultery (and I'm sure it would be rape of some kind because of his position of power) with Bathsheba.  David had also attempted to dishonor and discredit Uriah, but he was so honorable that David had him sent back to the front lines carrying the orders that commanded Joab to send Uriah into the thickest part of the battle and then pull away from him to leave him to day--nothing short of premeditated murder--and David was too much of a coward to do it himself, but he was just as guilty even though he did it through a proxy.  There was no atonement prescribed under the Law for any of these sins that David had committed--adultery, rape, and murder were all capital offenses and the letter of the Law demanded that David would be stones so that God could judge him for doing something so flagrantly against His nature and character that had been revealed by "the oracles of God" to His people.

Paul says that even though we are unfaithful though God is faithful, this shows us that even though we are unrighteous, He is always righteous.  In fact, one of His names is The Righteous One.  What then are we to say if God's righteousness is made even more apparent by our unrighteousness.  Should we keep on sinning and rebelling so that God can receive even more glory?  Of course not!  (We'll see this exact question asked and answered in Romans 6:1, but Paul wants us to start thinking about it now as we see in Romans 3:6-7).  Should we imagine that God is somehow unrighteous by judging people for pouring His wrath out on all those who are disobedient, even His own "children"?  Paul clarifies this is simply a human argument because God is not answerable to us in this way as we saw in the book of Job.  Paul again answers pretty emphatically say that God does not answer His righteous judgments are always true which we know has to be the case since He is the Judge of the whole world.  

So then back to the question at hand--if our sin in some unexpected way allows God's truth to be seen and abound all the more so that He receives glory, then why are we still condemned?  (Paul specifically uses the example of a lie and the truth here to make his point).  Paul asks the question once again and repeats his answer, "And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just."  The ends to not justify the means.  Law-breakers are guilty of breaking the Law and will be punished by the Law.  While ignorance is no excuse, God is just a right and only charges and convicts each man base off of the truth and Law that they knew and rebelled against, but this is enough to convict all of us.

So then what advantage is there to being a Jew at that time?  You had the Word of God to tell you even more bout God's character and nature and the expectations that are put on us for our relationship that He wants to have, for we can not demand a relationship simply by demanding His unconditional surrender to our terms and conditions, but that is exactly what is required of us if we want to come to Him by faith.  We must unconditionally surrender everything to Him, to Jesus Chris who is both Savior and Lord.


2 Corinthians 5:16-21
English Standard Version
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
So, I ask again, are you a "caterpillar" or a "butterfly"?  If you died right now, by what terms and conditions would you stand before God to be judged?  Do you continue to practice and live in sin after claiming that you have been "born again"?  What does Paul's argument say about those who claim that God must wink at their sin and that they should somehow escape condemnation?  If God is impartial and will not show favoritism to the Jew or the Gentile, then what hope do we have?  We're working towards the answer to that questions as we should understand our need for the gospel soon.  The bad news has been delivered and Paul is about to deliver his "summation," but there is a glimmer of hope in what he will say, so come back so that you can hear the "good news" of the gospel.