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, 3:10-12,  none are righteous, not one, what he is talking about is their character,  who they are not what they do!

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.