Romans 3
Romans 3
[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome to God's Plan, Your Part, Year 2, where this year we're reading through and studying the entire New Testament, one chapter at a time. Thanks again for joining us in discovering God's plan and your part in it. Today we are back again in Romans. Today we're in chapter 3. And this is again, just kind of like a continuation of yesterday's chapter.
Ryan described it as a build up from the previous two chapters that we've already read and discussed. Um, but what's interesting about today is there's going to be a lot of talk about, um, again, the idea of faith versus works, um, what that looks like, kind of a continuation of that conversation we had yesterday about circumcision.
Um, so just a lot of, I guess, extra detail to what we were talking about. Even more so yesterday, when I look at Romans three, first of all, Romans three is like, if you're familiar with the Romans road, Romans three is like the first step of the Romans road. A lot of people look at it and they say the big point of it is that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of [00:01:00] God.
So there's no one that has any special standing. And when I think about Romans three, I think Paul's been kind of making this case in chapter one. That the immoral people, the Gentile people, the people far from God live a certain way, the people that are moral, that understand God, that are Jewish, they approach God a different way.
So he's made that case in chapter one and chapter two. And now in chapter three, he's going to be like, okay, you're all on the same playing field. And if they didn't understand it in chapter one or chapter two, now they understand it much more clearly in chapter three, because remember. Paul is addressing, uh, believers who would have been Gentile believers and Jewish believers.
And he does this thing where he kind of turns and addresses the group of Gentile believers, and the Jewish people might start to feel like, Ha! You are bad! Then he'll turn and address the Jewish believers, and the Gentile people might say, Ha! But you're bad! And really what he's trying to do now is like, Hey listen, You're all bad, and the only way to have the right relationship with God is through [00:02:00] Jesus.
And he's going to make that case clearer in this chapter than he has in chapters one and two. I think the emphasis should be on we are all bad. Oh, 100%. Yeah. Yeah. No, but I think it's really important that you mention that because there is this idea that you could go like this goofy, Back and forth dance of, all right, a PZU, then a PZU, then a PZU, but really he's just trying to set the tone for everybody, um, which really, like I was, I was kind of alluding to that yesterday.
It just is helpful. I think for everybody to know that there is no higher standing, there is no one above the next, like everybody's on the same playing field. Everybody approaches God. From sin and we need God to handle that sin in our lives We need to try to find a solution to that sin in our lives And that's the baseline that Paul's establishing and then he's gonna He's gonna give us the solution here in chapter 3 and he's gonna continue to build on it as he goes throughout the book of Romans [00:03:00] It's interesting too.
I think there's quite a bit of Uh Like, I don't know, rhetorical questions that he throws out in this chapter two, like just to really cause his audience to think like, because what I would assume some of the things that they are assuming about faith, um, sounds ridiculous when it's, when it's like kind of sent back to them in the same way, like, uh, for instance, in.
In verse five, even, um, what shall we say that God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us by no means. Like he has these kinds of, uh, questions. It's like, well, obviously not. So I think those kind of are helpful in this conversation too, of. Like, what do you expect? It's funny. His rhetorical questions are actually, they're, they're worded a little bit differently than what people would use today, but they're actually questions that people still ask today.
Like they're very common questions that people still ask today. So the one you just quoted, what was that? Verse [00:04:00] five? Verse five, yeah. Um, but if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? Like that's a pretty wordy way of saying like, well, how can God be a good God if he punishes people?
Right, right. Like, how can he? Cause judgment to fall on the world. If he's loving, like that's, it's literally the same question. So it's interesting to me that there really is nothing new under the sun. It just gets retooled and reworked and rebranded. It's the same questions. And basically what Paul is saying here in the first part of chapter three is no, God is a righteous judge.
And because he's a righteous judge, there is judgment. And when you're found to be unrighteous, you will come under judgment. Like we. We, I don't want to play that point out. We've been talking about that quite a bit. Um, it is kind of interesting. He continues that thought, kind of that questioning in verse eight, where he says, and why not do evil that good may come as some people slanderously charge us with saying their condemnation is just basically what he's saying is like people were accusing [00:05:00] him of saying.
You can just do evil. Like it doesn't matter, but Paul is quick to say, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what I'm saying. You're misunderstanding me. You're misrepresenting me. What's crazy is that still goes on today. And I guess what has changed is there are actually people that in some ways encourage like, well, just live how you want and God will forgive you.
Uh, that's not great. That's not a good way to live. You live your life either. Well, then the next section starts talking about like, who is righteous and he lays it flat out, like you were saying in the beginning. No one is. And is this where you were talking about? There's, um, this is the Psalm that is brought up that he, he quotes pretty extensively.
Yeah. He's going to use, he's going to use Psalm 14. He's going to allude to Ecclesiastes seven. He's gonna refer to, I think, Psalm five as well, I believe. And then some of 10. So he's using a lot of. Old Testament scriptures that would have been well known to the Jewish people in the audience, um, to teach them that no one is [00:06:00] righteous.
Everyone is sinful. No one is righteous before God. And it's important to recognize that because sometimes people are confused and they think that Paul kind of like, Created this idea out of thin air, but he didn't. This is an idea that has been put forward by scripture for a very long time. Paul's just highlighting it and then using it to say, Hey, there's literally no one is righteous.
No, not one. And so because none of us are righteous, we need a solution for our unrighteousness. Yeah. And this is kind of what I was talking about yesterday. We, like towards the end of our episode, we were emphasizing how the law of Definitely, like, it has its importance, but works is also I guess it's definitely needed as well.
And I even said at the end of the episode, like, Hey, works definitely needs to happen, but you can't just do all the things and assume that you're just in. So I think this next part really ties the two together really well because, um, it alludes to [00:07:00] how many prophets had spoke of, um, Jesus coming who were under the law.
So But then at the same time, Jesus came to fulfill the law, but the law isn't just gone. Like, it's not like one, it's not like one replaces the other. It's like they are, I don't know, almost like meshed together for like, I don't know. There are, we, we certainly still follow and honor the moral There are people that will kind of split.
And when we're talking about the law, we're talking about like the old Testament law, sometimes people refer to the 10 commandments. Sometimes people refer to the, the laws found in Deuteronomy, Leviticus. Um, there's a lot of different ways that people call out the law, but essentially what we're referencing is like the.
The moral law, there still is a right way to live, and we still live that right way to bring honor and glory to God because we want to honor the God that has saved us. So the really important thing that I do want everybody to understand here is that [00:08:00] we are not saved by good works. But we are saved for good works.
So it is not fair to assume that you have right relationship with God and yet live a life apart from God. So when you do come to right relationship with God, there should be some evidence in your life. You should bear some fruit. That's the language that Jesus used often. And that's the idea that Paul is setting up here.
And he does say something significant referring to the law in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. The point that Paul's making here is that God has always intended to send the redeemer for us.
You can actually see that in Genesis three, where it talks about, uh, this coming person who will crush the head of the serpent. That's Pointing to the fact that there is going to be salvation coming. So it's an [00:09:00] Old Testament concept that has been played out through the law and the prophets and they all pointed to Jesus.
What Paul's doing here in verse 21 to Romans is saying, Hey, we have arrived now at that point. So the law and the prophets have been like billboards pointing to this event that is coming. That event has come. Now we're going to live in a different way because we can actually approach God knowing who the promised redeemer is.
Is, and we approach God through faith in that redeemer that everyone has always approached God through faith. So it's not like this new thing, like Abraham believed God that was counted to him as righteousness. Um, but what has changed is that now they know his name. They know what he did. They know who he was, that we live on that backside where the people before were kind of living on that front end of like, someone is coming that will save us.
Well, now we know. Who it is, and what he did, and how he did it. Well, the, the part that caught my attention in the rest of this is it, it plays out like essentially God's plan for [00:10:00] humanity. Like sending Jesus, um, for him to shed his blood. But what caught my attention was in verse number 25. Um, it essentially talks about Jesus dying.
This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins. So, that was like, wait, what? I don't understand. What is that passed over former sins referring to? Like, that seems odd to me. It sounds kind of grudgy. So maybe help me understand that a little bit better, maybe for other listeners who hear that text as well.
I think what, what Paul's saying here, and you picked up the second half of the verse. Actually, I wanted to talk about the first half of the verse. So if you, if you put them together. You always do. I know. Um. To answer your question first Paul's saying that like there is obviously evil that happens in the world and it looks It looks like throughout history Exactly.
It looks like throughout history that [00:11:00] God has ignored evil But he hasn't ignored evil because he's always known that he would put forward this opportunity this propitiation Which is what I want to talk about for our sins Maybe I just skip that word so it was big Paul saying hey like God hasn't ignored any sin You What God has done is made it possible to have forgiveness and right relationship with God.
Don't focus on all the sins that are everywhere. Focus on the fact that God has enabled forgiveness and right relationship through this propitiation, which is not a word we use very often. Uh, but just to read that first half, um, it says, Well, I'll start in verse 24, all are justified by his grace as a gift, sorry, and, and are justified by his grace as a gift, uh, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he has passed over former sins. We don't use the word propitiation, uh, [00:12:00] but essentially it's the same thing. It's like a payment. It's it's like restitution. The way that I like to explain it is that if you get pulled over by a cop, he's going to give you a ticket.
That ticket is going to symbolize that you must do something to pay a penalty and you will be against the the state police or the town police until you put forward that payment. And what's interesting is as soon as you pay that payment, it's going to symbolize that you are against the state police or the town police.
Then you're, you're in right standing again, like the cops are not going to come for you. There's not going to be a warrant for your arrest because you have resolved the issue. You have given propitiation. So what Paul's saying is, Hey, Christ gave his life and his blood serves as propitiation for us. It has, it has, um, accomplished the satisfaction of God's wrath.
And now we can have right relationship with God because of that. I wonder how often people hear that specific part of Even this part of scripture and think that there's no way like why would if they're like I'm assuming like a person who has no faith Like why would a [00:13:00] God? Who could easily just be like forget you.
Yeah, like why would he even bother like why would you send your own? Son to die just for that like why wipe it away like that Just I feel like to me just shows like extreme love Towards that created like that. I think it's just it doesn't make any sense. It shows love it shows grace It shows mercy I think It also shows that our God has a desire to be in relationship with us.
I mean, any other ancient story of gods, any other major religion, you kind of live in like this confusion sort of in hoping that God will be satisfied. Um, and you're kind of like at the whims of their mood. Sort of. Yeah. And so like you do all these things to try to impress them or show them that you're worthy or something like that.
This is not, this, this is why it's so important that we're not justified by works. Like we're not trying to make God happy. [00:14:00] God has already put forward the solution for us and we just accept it as a gift. It's very different. I almost think of like, oftentimes you would, when you think of gods that are not appreciative of whatever was offered.
It was oftentimes like. Here, this is my best, and it was, like, if it was rejected. It's like, ugh, it just feels so hard, like it's, I don't know, it's painful because sometimes you would bring your best, but the gods rejected it. Right. Whereas, God is just saying, just obey me. Right. Like, just obey what I have, like, put before you, believe in me, and You're like within right standing with God.
Like that's so simple. And it's, it's, I don't know, it's just really sad to think of any other situation throughout the old Testament. God often talks about how even when people brought gifts, but they were in disobedience, he doesn't care about the gifts. He cares about the obedience. So just to, just to highlight this, make sure it's clear, uh, We have right relationship with God through the [00:15:00] pathway that he created, not the pathway that we created, and it's so very different.
And it shows God's heart for relationship, his desire for forgiveness, his desire for resolution, but he's also just so you don't just get off scot free like you need to put forward payment. What's unique is that God has put forward payment and we just recognize that. Yes. Jesus paid our debt, we accept him as the payment for our debt, and we live a life in obedience to him.
So how do we turn this all around to make a Applicable your part for today. Cause I think this whole chapter, like, I dunno, it's a little, little bit of repeat, little bit of like, okay, we've heard this, but how do we apply it to today? I think there's two things. One, it, it is really valuable to recognize that you didn't get to where you are in your faith because you're, because you did some kind of wonderful person.
Like God gave you a free gift. He chose you. He called you. You have relationship with [00:16:00] God because he desires it. With you and it's not based on your performance like you were saved because God chose you and he created a way for you to have forgiveness even today we might have groups within Christianity where we're trying to justify ourselves over and above other Christian people and we're in that same boat as that Roman church that was like, well, I think we're better.
Well, no, I think we're better. It's like, no, no, we've all sin. We all fall short of God. So that's the first part. Like, understand the humility that comes with that. The second thing is understand how incredible God is that he does want right relationship with us. He desires to dwell with us. Like the Bible is full of that kind of imagery of God wanting to be with his people.
He's not a God that sits on a cloud far away and just judges you. He actually desires to be with you. And actually gave us the opportunity to do so. Yes. And that's so many of these other. God's and exactly, and I think that's what causes him to stand out as authentic because when people created and made up gods, it was to manipulate [00:17:00] other people into doing things for themselves.
Like the, the real God, the God that we serve, like did something to help us approach him. And it's an incredible way or thing to understand about God. And it also creates an incredible way to live your life. So a little bit theological Romans is like that. But I would say that's the your part for today.
Yeah, a little bit thicker, but that's okay. Uh, so we'll be back again next week for Romans chapter four. We'll see you then. Thanks for joining today's episode of God's Plan, Your Part. As always, please consider partnering with us as we are a listener supported podcast that we hope to continue to grow with support from listeners just like you.
We've made it super easy to partner with us and you can support us by following the link in our show notes. Or our description. You can support us with as little as 3 a month. Every little bit of this helps so much and we're so thankful for your support. With that in mind, here's today's reading. Romans chapter 3.
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? [00:18:00] Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means. Let God be true, though everyone were a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.
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. By no means. For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God's truth abounds to His glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?
And why not do evil that good may come, as some people slanderously charge us with saying, Their condemnation is just? What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. As it is written, none [00:19:00] is righteous, no, not one. No one understands.
No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips, Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness, Their feet are swift to shed blood, And their paths are ruin and misery, And the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. So that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction. [00:20:00] For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.
This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law?
By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the [00:21:00] contrary, we uphold the law. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of God's Plan, Your Part. Don't forget, you can find us on just about every social media platform and YouTube. Let us know what you thought of today's episode, and if you have any questions, go ahead and post them there.
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