Romans Chapter Three
Lesson 36
Review:
3:19a Introduces us to the
defense!
Where's
man's defense?? He has none!! Every mouth is closed, shut!
- Man has no basis for an argument! No defense as to whether he lived up to the
light he had!
Now we know that whatever
the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law,
Question: What is the law that is referred to here?
Do we
take the law in its narrow sense or in its wider use? Who is it that is under the law?
Point
Paul makes is that there is no possible escape for anyone, Jew or Gentile this
is why every mouth is stopped, is silenced.
- The revelation in the OT that reveals the universal sin
of all mankind before God also declares the judgment of God is equally upon
both Jew and Gentile.
But as
you read this passage you can't help but see that it is especially hard hitting
to the Jew of the day! It was especially
pointed application for them.
- Paul is emphatically telling them that they are not only
sinners, just like the moralists, and the heathen, but that they are
transgressors of the very Law that they gloried in.
* How tight do you think the noose is around a nation, a
people who for generations have had the gospel communicated to them; the light of God's word has
crisscrossed this land since its founding;
and now what's the prevailing attitude today? At best indifference; and at worst open rebellion against
God!
The
corporate guilt before God is awesome!
Fortunately we're in the time of God's great patience.
3:19b gives us the Verdict!
"and
all the world may become accountable to God."
- first the verdict is
universal
- 2nd the sentence is guilty;
2 things
are pertinent; there has been an offense; and there is a penalty due!
** God is not only the judge who weighs the evidence and pronounces
the verdict, He is also the wronged party to whom
satisfaction belongs!
- In the court room analogy that Paul pictures here all
humanity is being brought into the presence of the Judge, and the sentence is
being pronounced upon all, All under sin! No exceptions!
What's
the purpose at this point? so
that every mouth may be closed, realize their
status before Him
What God
does is an amazing thing!
He goes
right to the solution for man, He says that He has already dealt with the man's
sin problem with the once and for all sin-offering, that Jesus His Son made on
the cross!
3:21-26 are 6 of the
most crucial verses in all of Scripture!
Jesus
went to the cross and bore our penalty, and the cross becomes a righteous
meeting place between a Holy and Righteous God and us the sinner, whether we're
a Jew or a Gentile in all of our guilt;
With vs:20 we have detailed what the Law can and cannot do!
"because
by the works of (the) law no flesh will be justified in His sight for through
the law comes the knowledge of sin."
- by the works of the law evx e;rgwn no,mou no def. article; therefore it
speaks not just of the moral and ethical code, of the M/L, but any law system.
Primary,
though is the Decalogue,
moral and ethical code, that is what is commonly referred to
as: the statutes
ordinances = Shadow Christology thru sacrifices and feast day observances;
judgments
= those laws dealing with the administration of the nation; also dietary/health/sanitation and the
military.
But the point here is that it can
not justify anyone before God.
- dikaio,w
to declare righteous, it is the ordinary word for to acquit.
It refers
to the act of God in removing the guilt and penalty of sin from a sinner who
places his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
What then is the purpose of the
moral and ethical codes of the law??
"for
through the law comes the knowledge of sin."
- From the law we discover what sin is and we see ourselves
for what we really are before God, sinners!
Summary
Observations:
1. The depravity of man is seen most readily through his
speech/words.
2. Notice that the indictment says that man is sinful in
several ways:
a. In character,
b. In what we say; 3:13-14
c. In what we do;
3:15-17 swift to shed blood,
destructive
This
paints a vivid picture of man, a very black one, that of total depravity.
- which doesn't mean that every person is as bad as he can
be, but he is as bad off as he can be; in that being under sin, is dead
spiritually, separated from God; there
is no worse a state than that!
3. In this context we have seen Psalms, and Isaiah quoted
repeatedly;
The Word of God is God's moral straight edge; it is that by which man's conduct is to be measured and determined whether its good or evil.