His condemnation is just
The text ends, “His condemnation is just.” Whose condemnation is just? Well we’ll see. And we will not only see, but we will see why it is fair. So this is very relevant to you and me. There is a judgment coming on the world. It is mentioned in verse 6: “Otherwise how will God judge the world”? He is going to judge the world. And some will be damned. And his condemnation will be just. Who are they? And what did they say in these eight verses that unleashed against them this terrible sentence of the inspired apostle? I hope you will listen and learn how not to deal with God and his Word.
At the beginning of Romans 3, Paul has just argued in Romans 2:25 that if a Jewish person does not follow God’s Law, then his “circumcision has become uncircumcision.” That is, he is no different from a gentile. Not only that, he said in 2:27 that the Gentiles who follow God’s Law will be judged at the last day over the Jews who have treated the Law as a mere letter, instead of letting it have its inner transforming effect. The spirit holy. He said all this to make it clear that the Jews, as well as the Gentiles, are all under the power of sin and need the great life-giving gospel that Paul preaches about God’s gift of righteousness (1:16-17) – namely , that no matter how much sin you have brought into this room today (Jew or Gentile), you can stand in good standing with God because of Christ’s death and resurrection, if you put your trust in him. . That has been the point so far in Romans: Jews and Gentiles alike need the gospel and God freely gives his own righteousness to those who trust in his Son.
But now Paul takes a kind of detour in Romans 3:1-8. He has said something that is very provocative and will not go unanswered, namely that some Jews are not really Jews and some Gentiles can really be Jews, even if they are not circumcised. The problem is that this seems to call into question Israel’s special position as God’s chosen people. And that means it would call the entire Old Testament into question. And if Paul’s gospel does that, it won’t stand.
So what advantage does the Jew have?
So Paul asks – or, he lets an imaginary objector ask – in verse 1: “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?” You see what happens. He has said that Jews can be judged by Gentiles and perish, and that Gentiles can become true Jews through a change of heart of faith in the Messiah. So what advantage is there in being a Jew? Aren’t you questioning the entire structure of the Old Testament based on the Jews being God’s special chosen people who have tremendous advantages?
Paul answers in verse 2 that there are great benefits to being a Jew. “Excellent in all aspects”. He then begins a list of advantages (verse 2b), but only mentions one thing: “First of all, that the oracles of God were entrusted to them.” Paul stops here because he intends to finish this list later (in 9:4-5). In fact, this whole issue of whether God is being faithful to his covenant with Israel in the work of Christ is addressed in Romans 9-11, so Romans 3:1-8 is just a short detour to deflect criticism until comes to Romans 9. There the list ends thus: “…who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, of whom they are the fathers, and from whom the Christ proceeds according to the flesh, who is above all, God blessed forever. Amen” (9:4-5).
But here he mentions only one advantage: they have the oracles of God, they have been entrusted with the Word of God in the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament. Then he stops and lets his imaginary objector pose the problem to which he will respond: “Okay, Paul, you say that Israel has a special chosen place in God’s plan, but you also say that the Jews are perishing in unbelief and even being judged by the Gentiles. Sounds like doublespeak: what is it, covenant security as Jews, or unbelief and judgment? They assumed it had to be one or the other.
God is not false or unfaithful
Paul answers in verse 3, “Then what? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify God’s faithfulness, will it?” In other words, he rejects the assumption that if some Jews are unbelieving and perish, God is unfaithful. Verse 4: “May it never be!” God’s unfaithfulness is unthinkable. In fact, it is not only unthinkable if only “some” are unbelievers (as verse 3 says), but even if all men prove false before God, God would not be unfaithful to his glory and his covenant if he judged them all Verse 4: “Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar” (More on that next week! What an amazing statement on the centrality and supremacy of God in the universe!)
Then, to support this statement that God is neither false nor unfaithful, even if he judges the Jews as well as all other sinners, Paul cites Psalm 51:4. He now remembers that Psalm 51 is the psalm of King David’s confession after his adultery with Bathsheba. This is what David said in the context of the psalm. He says to God: “Against you, against you alone have I sinned and done evil in your sight, so that you may be justified when you speak and blameless when you judge.” (51:4). In other words, David is saying that the reason God would be just in judging him is that his sin was against God. David’s sin makes God’s judgment on David just: he is true to God’s nature, he is true to his glory, so this justice is faithfulness to his covenant.
Now, Paul cites this Psalm to support his claim that God is not unfaithful or false, even if some Jews or all men are unbelievers and false to God. So it goes like this. Verse 3: the unbelief of some Jews does not nullify God’s faithfulness; and verse 4: Even if every man were false to God and under God’s judgment, God would still be faithful and true. Why? Because David himself said that God had the right to judge him for his sin. He did not claim that his Judaism would save him. “I have sinned,” David said (and now Paul quotes him in verse 4b. “I have sinned…”) “. . . so that you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”
So Paul’s answer so far is: Yes, the Jews have advantages, such as being entrusted with the very Word of God. But if they are unbelievers, they will be judged. This does not call into question God’s faithfulness, truth, or justice. Rather, the sin of those whom God judges (like David’s sin) vindicates God in his judgment. Israel’s sin is precisely what magnifies God’s justice in judgment.
Now you might think: Paul, this is a good place to stop your detour. You have made your point. Now go back to the main road and continue with verse 9: we are all sinners and we need the gospel. You’re starting to lose me. This is a really heavy sled. Have you forgotten that in the audience in Rome there are children and some simple Christians who find it difficult to follow this detour?
But Paul evidently is not persuaded by these considerations. (I want to talk about that next week!) He pushes to answer these objectors. He has had so many debates about these things with Jews and Gentiles that he knows what they are saying by now and wants to give at least a brief answer. One thing they say, and this is amazing, is that God has now engaged in a colossal contradiction, if Paul is right. It’s going to sound scandalous, but that’s how far people will go when he realizes that some of his most cherished beliefs are crumbling.
Doing God a favor by sinning
They say, in effect (now get this!), if our sin (like David’s sin), our unrighteousness, displays or magnifies God’s justice when He judges us, then really, we are not instruments of sin, we are. re the instruments of God’s glory to magnify his righteousness. So it would be unfair to condemn us. He would be condemning us for the very thing that magnifies the glory of his justice in the judgment. Now if that sounds like a play on words, it is. It’s the way you start to use language when you’ve lost touch with reality. But here it is in verse 5, when Paul expresses his objection to what he has said: “But if our injustice proves the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts anger is not unjust, right? (He spoke in human terms). And he answers in verse 7: “May it never be!” Actually no. God is not unjust to inflict wrath on you even though your sin magnifies his justice when he judges you. You are very bad.
In fact, by arguing in this way (Paul might say), they get bogged down in three contradictions of their own beliefs. Here they are: First, God is not unjust in judging those whose judgment magnifies his justice, says Paul (verse 6b), “for otherwise how can God judge the world?” In other words, one of his cherished beliefs is that God will judge the world. Do you believe that. But he could not judge the world, if this fallacy of yours were true: that he cannot condemn people if his condemnation magnifies his justice. You well know that God will judge the world, and that his justice will be magnified in that judgment. That is your first contradiction.
Second, take me, for example, says Paul. You think I’m telling lies right now, as I speak. I am sinning, you think. What if God judged me now? Would he be fair? Or would my lie about the truth so glorify God when he condemned me that it would be unjust to condemn me? This is the point of verse 7a: “But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to his glory, why am I also judged as a sinner?” This is the second trap you’ve fallen into with your pun. Do you really think…