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I want you to imagine that you are trapped in Syria, near the border with Iran. You are constantly under threat and your family lives in fear of their lives. Every day they wake up knowing that today could be their last.
BUT
You know that in a friends house there is a basement and in that basement there is a trap door hidden behind a bookcase, and that trap door will take you over the border into freedom.
What do you do?
Or you are a medic and you realise that one of the side effects of a commonly available drug is to reduce the symptoms of Altzheimer’s disease.
What should you do.
There are some occasions when the information we carry is of sucuch great importance that ti si wrong to keep it to ourselves.
What about the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Is it ever right to keep it to ourselves?
That is the message of the first part of Romans 3
Paul is talking to a young church about how God is going to judge the world and he says “God hold off bringing punishment for as long as he possibly can – and that makes us reel backward in amazement when we realise how patient and kind he is to do this!”
However he has also said something that is very provocative – that some Jews are not really Jews because they don’t live as God wants them to.
Conversely some Gentiles can be treated as Jews because they live by God’s moral law – even if they are not circumcised.
This may sound abstruse but actually it’s a highly contemporary issue. How many times have you thought about a friend of yours who has noting to do with faith and no interest in Jesus and said “You know – he’s a highly principled, upstanding person who seems to live like a Christian. If any ought to be a Christian – he should be! But you know he isn’t.
Conversely there are people who profess to be Christians with their lips but behave differently with their hands. And that inconsistency doesn’t do God’s reputation any favours!
So what is the point of being a Jew in Paul’s day (or a Christian in ours)? Is there any advantage to being in the people of God?
Paul says “yes, definitely” and goes on to give the reasons why it’s so important
We have been trusted with God’s word!
and top of the list is this
2 the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.
How was the ancient world ever going to hear about God’s mercy, his love, his laws for living? Only via the nation of Israel – because those were the people God had trusted his word to!
How was the 21st century world ever going to hear about God’s mercy, his love and his framework for living? Only via the church of Jesus Christ! – because these are the people God had trusted his word to!
Now looking back over the Old testament we can see how the nation of Israel followed God and then rejected him, followed him and then rejected him, Had a good king and then a bad one and so on.
If you or I were God I think I would have given up and gone to look for another nation to be my beacon of light in the world!
But he didn’t. And this points out the incredible faithfulness of the Lord.
We saw last time how the love and mercy of God is seen in his delaying punishment for sin to give us time to come to him. Delaying until he has no option but to act – and this shows his exceptional patience and forbearance!
The righteousness scale
Imagine a scale of righteousness / purity.
We have God way over on this side (as completely pure and righteous) and axe murderers, violent paedophiles and serial rapists on this end of the scale
(I know this is not quite a biblical concept, but I’m using it as an illustration)
I think most of us would put ourselves somewhere in the middle (or a bit over here if we think we’re doing particularly well this week, or over here if not.)
Now the comparison between where I am and where God is, is quite stark. He is holy, I am less holy.
So God’s righteousness is seen most clearly by observing the difference between where I am and where He is. And seeing the magnitude of that gap causes me to wonder at the magnificent righteousness of God.
So far so good, but what some people were saying was this: OK, if it’s the magnitude of the distance between me and God that causes me to be in awe of him, why not just make that gap bigger? Then God will appear even more awesome! How do I make that gap bigger – well by sinning of course!
So their logic is: the more unrighteous I am,. The more stunningly righteous God appears to be.
Therefore (and this is the twist in the tail) God is being unfair when he judges me for my sin and brings any kind of punishment my way. After all, my sin has just made him look good – in fact look awesome!
That is v5-8
5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us?
So no wonder Paul says
(I am using a human argument.)
6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7 Someone might argue, ‘If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?’ 8 Why not say – as some slanderously claim that we say – ‘Let us do evil that good may result’? Their condemnation is just!
Certainly not! => ‘no way!’
So where is all this leading us? It’s leading us to one of the most findamental facts about the human race, Also one of the most uncomfortable facts about humanity
Christian or non-Christian, Jew or Gentile, atheist or agnostic, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist or believers in the green man in the moon – we are all under sin.
The way Paul speaks in these next few verses suggests a scene in a court of law.
the charge is read out v9
9 We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.
Sin is universal and we’re ‘all’ under it without exception.
- The Jews thought they could get away with it because they were Jews
- the gentiles thought they could get away with it because if you were good enough God would accept you anyway
But we’re all alike!
sin is ugly
We don’t like using the word ‘sin’
- In most people it conjures up ideas of serious crime, murder etc.
- The Bible uses it much more widely to include jealousy, gossiping – anything and everything that falls short of God’s standard.
I don’t think God unleashes the full horror of our sin on us when we become Christians because I don’t think we could stand it!
sin is inescapable
‘under sin’
Jews plus gentiles describes the whole of the human race so Paul is indicating that mankind is universally under the domination and the power of sin.
E.g. We went to a hot air balloon festival at Goodwood photographic exhibition
- watched as it was filled with hot air
- heard the deep-throated roar of the burners as it went up
- but at 50 feet it stopped – why?
- tethered to three large cars
- it was tied to the ground
That balloon is like mankind in relation to God
- his sin ties him to the ground
- his life can never take off in the way God made it to!
- earth was inescapable
So it is that outside of Christ we are all under sin – it is inescapable
the evidence is presented (v10-18)
What evidence – from the OT – the whole of the OT
Why?
because that’s the source above all others that they will believe!
Today, if I quote from the Encyclopaedia Britannica I’m likely to be believed
The OT was their spiritual Encyclopaedia Britannica!
man’s life is wrong v10
10 There is no-one righteous, not even one;
so this depravity of sin affects everyone, no matter now ‘nice’ they may seem to be.
man’s mind is warped. v11
11 … no-one who understands
our thinking is affected by the existence of this tendency towards sin –
- like a bias on a bowls wood >>>
man’s spirit is diverted v11
11 … no-one who seeks God
This is a quotation from Psalm 14 in the Old Testament where David starts off by saying says “The fool says in his heart ‘There is no God'”
man doesn’t want to find God
wants to go his own way
And so he goes on
piling up picture after picture
the verdict (v19)
19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
law: –
is only applied to those who are under its jurisdiction
- British law doesn’t apply in Turkey
- Chinese Law doesn’t apply in the UK
So what is God’s jurisdiction? – the world!
- so every mouth silenced
- all of us are accountable to Him
It’s a graphic picture of the whole world standing before the bench with God in his role as presiding judge.
20 Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Let me ask you
what is the most basic need of man?
- What is it that man longs for?
- he may not put it like this
- but man’s most basic need is to know that he’s right with God!
to know that nothing is on his conscience
to know that morally and spiritually you’re whole!
But how?
we tend to jump to that conclusion that just being good – avoiding sin will do the trick
will it?
what about my shadow side?
what about those things I’m ashamed of in the past?
Suppose I could keep God’s law from now on.
no sin – every temptation resisted
would that make me right in God’s eyes?
no! – because there’s plenty in my past that will make me a law-breaker.
This points up one of the fundamental principles of the Christian life:
All that God’s law (moral, ethical and spiritual standards as revealed in the Bible)
all it does is make me more aware (if I ever needed to be) that I’m a sinner.
What it didn’t do was help us to keep it!
Knowing the speed limit doesn’t, of itself, prevent me from exceeding it
the law is powerless – it just lets me know when I’m in the wrong
We are guilty
BUT …
Here comes the other side of the coin
here comes good news
Thank God for these two words – “But now”!
They turn this dire portrait of man on its head
they put it all into perspective!
If this blackest of black pictures of the gravity of my sin was the end of the story what hope is there for me?
I may as well go out and make an end of it all!
(which is what has occasionally and tragically happened)
But now!
not ‘but some time in the future
not ‘but if I’m religious enough
not ‘but if I clean up my act first
But NOW!
