The book of Romans is
Paul’s great theological treatise on justification by faith through Christ’s
death on the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of humanity. Chapter 2
announces God’s judgment and explains that the judgment by the law, which
requires human action, and the circumcision performed by human action is not
sufficient for the removal of sin and acquiring righteousness. Nothing that
humans can do will bring them into a right relationship with God.
Chapter 3 begins with the
statement that no one is justified by works, but only through Christ’s atoning
sacrifice. Atonement is God’s making a person at-one with Him, which can only
occur through the perfect sacrifice. Only through this sacrifice is true
compensation made for the sins of humanity. Finally, from the end of chapter 3 through chapter 4, Paul shows how the ritual of the sacrifice provided for in the Old Testament did not provide the sufficient, perfect pardon for sins. Christ’s death provided this sufficient perfect pardon for all humanity. Still, not all are saved from death because they do not choose by faith to accept Christ’s sacrifice. Paul makes the distinct point that each person must accept Jesus’ sacrifice by faith in Him. This faith of the person in Christ’s sacrifice must be exercised for the atonement to be effected in the life of the person for their eternal station, life eternal.
Because this book is packed with theological and legal terms, I have endeavored to understand each verse individually and within the whole of Paul’s presentation of salvation.
If the
uncircumcised man keeps the Law, his uncircumcision will be accounted as
circumcision, for it is not the outward sign of circumcision that makes you a
Jew but the inward circumcision of the heart that makes you a Jew, a child of
God (from chapter 2). This inward circumcision of the heart, which is of the Spirit
not of the flesh which is by the written word, is what brings one into a
heart/spirit relationship with God. It is what is inside a person and comes
from the person that determines if they are circumcised.
The question then that Paul writes in this
verse is compelling. What is the advantage of the Jew if any who allows his
heart to be circumcised can be called a child of God?
2 Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.
First, they were the ones to whom God spoke His oracles, His Word
and commands. The non-Jew can be accorded as being a part of the people with
whom God entrusted the Law, to teach and to pronounce obedience to Him, if they
have circumcised their hearts and follow His Law. All must remember, though,
that none will have entrance into God’s eternal Kingdom without the permanent
remission of sins, which God will provide through the death of His only Son,
Jesus Christ. The Law could not save a person but it points a person to the
Lord God.
3 What then? If
some did not believe, their unbelief
will not nullify the faithfulness
of God, will it?
If some did not believe based on the Law, will this make God
unfaithful. We can see that will never happen. God has been faithful through
all the Israelite history and even to today. Samuel points out God’s
faithfulness and His willingness to listen to His people when He brings a king
to be over the Israelites at their request. Samuel recites a list of God’s
faithfulness to the people in 1 Samuel 12. The Jews unbelief did not nullify
God’s faithfulness; it did shadow the people’s faithfulness.
4 May it never be! Rather,
let God be found true, though every man be found a
liar, as it is written,
"THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN
YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED."
Though the words that come from our mouths contradict our actions,
God is always faithful to His word through His actions. God’s foretelling have all been fulfilled or
the promise of them has yet to come. God
is always faithful.
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?
The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is
He? (I am speaking in human terms.)
Paul answers this question in verse 6.
Even though we remain unrighteous because all men sin and fall
short of God, we can know that God remains faithful and His righteousness is not
sullied. In our unrighteousness, God still shows His righteousness by offering
us cleansing of our sins by faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. God’s righteousness
is shown even in our unrighteousness; His wrath does not make Him unrighteous.
His wrath is Holy indignation over our sinful acts and words. His wrath leads
to discipline which is aimed at returning us to Him. Therefore, God’s wrath
does not make Him unrighteous; it shows His holiness.
7 But if through my life the truth
of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?
God’s faithfulness to forgive us does not increase if we sin more. God
only needed to provide one sin sacrifice, that being Jesus Christ. This is a
reiteration of verses 5 & 6.
We do not show God’s glory more by sinning more. That is a fallacy.
God is glorified because of Who He is, not because of what we do. God will
always give us our reward even if it is punishment. God is a just Father God and He will
discipline His people when they need to correction to turn them around and see
Him.
8 And why
not say (as we are slanderously reported
and as some claim that we
say ), "Let us do evil that good may come"? Their
condemnation is just.
Since God is faithful and righteous even when I lie and sin, why
should I even need to be faithful and strive to follow the Law? Paul puts forth this hypothetical question
and then answers it with the next verse.
Will not my sin make good come
because God’s actions are always right and good?
9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all ; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks
are all under
sin;
Neither Jew nor Greek is without sin and their sin does not make
God righteous or gracious. Our sin brings about disciplining from God to lead
us back to His way, the path of righteousness. Paul asserts in verse 10
“there is none righteous, not even one.” God had to send His Son to be the
final sacrifice for sinful humanity because we could do nothing to bring
ourselves into right standing with God. Our circumcision of the flesh did not
make us righteous; it set the Jews apart from the rest of the people. We even
found out that though the Gentiles were not physically circumcised, they who
followed the Law of God that was written upon their hearts and on the tablets
were circumcised of the heart. This means that the Law we followed or did not
follow was not enough to make us righteous (holy enough) to enter into God’s
presence. God had to provide that one sacrifice that would be sufficient for
all the sins of humanity. Whether a person follows the written Law or the law
written on the heart, it is not enough to keep our sins from making us unable
to enter God’s righteous presence. For us to be able to be in communion with
God, a means for our being made right, justification, had to be made. God made
that means through the perfect, sufficient sin sacrifice in the death of His
Son, Jesus Christ.
19 Now we know that
whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are
under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all
the world may become accountable to God;
As Paul showed above, the
Law cannot make us righteous, able to be in God’s presence. It serves to
identify a person who is in connection with God, one who keeps His Laws and
statutes, and it points to God Who issued the Law. The Law serves to convict us
of our sins; it shows us our sins by the fact that we could not keep the 10
Commandments.
20 because by
the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for
through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
These commandments show
us that we could not even keep just 10 commands; we could not walk in
accordance with God 100% of the time. We are weak sinners, and need a way to be
cleansed so that we can be made holy enough (righteous before God) to be in His
presence. The means to become righteous comes through Jesus Christ. The Son of God is the only means in which a
person can be cleansed to be considered
justified/righteous enough to be in Yahweh’s presence. Humans can do nothing to
make the stain of sin in their lives go away. God provided the only means
available to do that through His Son, Jesus Christ.
If Jesus had been just a
man, His name would have been Jesus bar Joseph (Jesus the son of Joseph) or
Jesus of Nazareth. Instead, God gave His name in prophecies long before His
birth. He was to be called the Savior. Upon looking at the Hebrew and Greek, the
name Jesus came from Yehosua and Iesous, meaning salvation. Jesus was named
before His birth. The name Christ came from the Greek word Kristos, which came
from the Hebrew Masiah meaning “the anointed one.” Jesus Christ would become
the anointed Savior of all humanity. The Law could not save the people from the
death their sin deserved. Only Christ could be the sufficient sacrifice for our
sins.; He became the anointed sufficient sacrifice for the sins of all humanity.
As the Son of Yahweh, Who is the maker of the Law, only the blood of the Son of
Yahweh would be sufficient to atone for the sin from which the Law could not
save humanity.
21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been
manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
Long before God brought
forth His perfect means to righteousness, He had a plan, which He revealed
through the Law and the Prophets. His prophets speak of this Yehosua and Masiah.
They speak of the one Who will come and save Yahweh’s people. The people of the
time thought the prophets and priests were speaking of a man who would free
them from the outside forces putting them in peril. They did not consider that
it was to free them from the sin that came from the hearts, minds, and spirits. Sins come from within a man or woman. God
knew before humanity, that some of the strongest battles would have to be won
internally. Humanity did not consider their mind, heart, and spirit, as the
source of their sinful selves. They only
consider sin as coming from their body/actions. This is one of the reasons He gave
the Jews the Shema, which states, “You shall love the lord your God with all
your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength.” He gave them the
basis from which they should see the battle and where they would need Yahweh to
give them His strength. We need someone Who is stronger than ourselves to make
us strong enough to withstand temptations.
We cannot do anything to save ourselves from our sins. There is
nothing we can do to be righteous. We need God’s plan to be saved; we need the
strength of or Creator to be more powerful than the strength we have been
given. God’s method of justification is not new; He foretold it throughout the
Old Testament times through His prophets. It was not a new righteousness but is
a newly revealed plan of righteousness.
God had to show them that
not only is He the God of the Law, but He is God over everything. He had to
remind them of His power which makes Him the God over heart, mind, strength. He
is also the God over the spirit of the person.
Christ expanded the Shema when He told the disciples the greatest
commandment in Matthew 22:27-28.
22 even the righteousness of
God through faith in Jesus Christ for all
those who believe; for there is no distinction ;
It is through faith that
we believe in Jesus Christ and receive the righteousness He imparts to us. We
must not only love the Lord God with all our heart, mind, and strength, but
also with our spirit (Matthew 22:37-38). We cannot say that we are doing this
until we give Him our hearts, mind, body, and spirit. Secular society says that
belief is irrational; however, even if you find it irrational, try God; ask God
for faith and He will give it to you so that the eyes of your spirit will see
Him and accept Him. Faith is a gift from God and He wills to give it to anyone
who asks. Faith is the first gift Paul mentions when he tells the Corinthians
which are the greatest gifts. He says
the greatest gifts are faith, hope, and love. God seeks to be known to His
creation, the children to whom He is calling. To make it possible, He has given
His Son, Jesus Christ, “the anointed Savior,” and He will give faith upon
request. By giving this faith and by giving this salvation through the death
and resurrection of Christ, God has made a way for us to become righteous and
to be in His presence for eternity. There is no distinction made between Jews
or Gentiles, men or women, slave or free person. God calls to all of humanity
to come to Him. All of us have fallen short of attaining glory and being in His
presence because we have all sinned against God. As verse 23 says, “for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Being justified (made
righteous or put in right standing with God) is a gift He gives us because of
love that we do not deserve, His grace. There is nothing we can do to earn it. He
gives it to us as an earthly parent would give a gift to their child. He gives it because we are His children. This
right standing with God comes through the redemption found through the death/blood
of Jesus Christ. Because of our sins, we had to be redeemed. Without something
to make s clean from or wrong doings, we could not be in the presence of the
holy God. God cannot be in the presence
of sin. This is similar now when someone is put into jail for committing a
crime. If that person is put into jail and then one day the jailor comes to him
and tells him he is free to go, even though he was expecting to spend the rest
of his life in jail, that person will wonder who is taking his penalty for the
crime he did. That criminal is us. We have each not kept up the standard of the
law of life. We are each guilty. God, though, in His love, wants us to be with
Him in His castle so He sends someone else to go to jail and die for us and the
sin we committed. That person is Jesus. Jesus not only took the penalty for the
sin which put us in jail, but He fulfilled all the requirements of the Law and
was able to be returned to normal life because, not only did he become the
sacrifice for our crime, but He is the King’s Son. His sacrifice was perfect
and fulfilled all the requirements of the law. The law could not keep Him
because He was the maker of the law. He fulfilled the Law, became the sacrifice,
and paid the whole debt, because of His love. He gave us a pardon from the just
penalty for our crime.
25 whom God displayed
publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His
righteousness, because in the forbearance of God
He passed over the sins previously committed ;
With Jesus’ fulfilling of
all our criminal penalties, He demonstrated how great God’s love is. It
demonstrated how right and pure His sacrifice was in that this one sacrifice is
all that will ever be needed for any sin we commit. The blood of the Son of
God, the Holy One, is the only sacrifice that could have cleansed all our sin
from the past, present, and future. It is a faith in the blood of Jesus to
cleanse us from our sins that makes us able to be in God’s presence. Faith that
Jesus’ blood and death is the sufficient sacrifice for or wrongdoings is what
makes us clean. No other sacrifice would
be sufficient for all our sin, for under the Law, each sin had to have a
separate sacrifice. Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient for all sin because His
blood is the blood of The King, the one who made the laws for humanity. His
righteousness is the only thing that could have made the sacrifice perfect for
the sins of all humanity. Only the Lord, the Maker of the Law, could provide
the satisfactory sacrifice and pardon for all sins against the law. God passed
over the sins previously through the ancient sacrificial system and the Law
until the time was right for the perfect sacrifice. This is what is meant when
Paul speaks of the forbearance of God. Christ is the perfect sacrifice to take
away the sins of all humanity, past, present, and future. There was no
remission of sin until Christ offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice. Before
Christ’s sacrifice, there was only forbearance.
26 for the demonstration,
I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and
the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Because God is the King
and the maker of the Law, He is the only one who can provide the only perfect
sacrifice for sins against the Law. Thus, He is not only the Lawmaker, but also
the justice, jury, and the justifier. Therefore, He could provide the only
adequate provision for the punishment, which would allow the sinner/criminal to
go free. He is the only One who could provide the pardon through Jesus’ perfect
sacrifice. Jesus was just in punishing and merciful in pardoning. Jesus, in His
righteousness, through His death, was made the substitution for us and our sins
so that His blood and death became the perfect sacrifice and the perfect means
of pardon. Justice was fully satisfied with Christ’s sacrifice.
The view for Old
Testament believers in Yahweh is that God put up with and passed over their
sins awaiting God’s timing for their future expiation (washing away). The New Testament tells of the promised means
of cleansing and pardon.
27 Where then is
boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works?
No, but by a law of faith.
Only by this method of
forgiveness are both Jew and Gentile made equally forgiven. This method is open
to Jew and Gentile equally, to all people. None of us could have provided the
restitution for our sinful acts. There is nothing we could do to pay back fully
for our crime. Nothing we could say would be sufficient to pay back for our
wrongdoings. The Law could not provide the payment, just the condemnation and
the required sacrifice mandated by God so that He could pass over our sins for
the time being. All we can do is ask for faith to believe the truth, that God
provided the sufficient restitution for our sins; He gave the sufficient
propitiation, means for making us at one (atonement) with God.. The Law was given
by a King’s mandate and only by a King’s restitution could it be fulfilled. There
is nothing we can do or say that would provide the sacrifice necessary for our
sin; our crimes are against God. No human could ever provide a remedy for our
sin great enough to appease our sin against our God.
Paul reiterates what he
and the other apostles of Christ believe and have learned from Christ that
humanity is only made righteous/justified by faith in the saving blood and death
of Jesus Christ, not by doing/following the works of the Law. The Law only
served to make humanity aware of its’ sinfulness towards God and the need for a
Savior from Yahweh. All of the Old Testament/Old Covenant pointed to this need
for a Savior because of the inability of humanity to keep the Law. The Law was
there to point people to God. This sacrifice of God’s perfect Son, Who is wholly
man and wholly God, provides the perfect sacrifice for Jew and Gentile, the
whole family of humanity. This sacrifice also made for a universal religion.
He reiterates that God is
the God of Jew and Gentile, those who circumcised their flesh and then came to
give their hearts to God and those who did not circumcise the flesh but yet gave
their hearts to God. Remember, the Law serves to point us to God. Some were
pointed to God by the Spirit acting within their hearts. Some were pointed to God by the bodily action
of the Law, like circumcision or sacrifice.
Circumcision was required by Yahweh to show to the world the people whom
God had called to Himself. Performing
the act of circumcision and knowing God circumcises them should have made them
remember the God of their fathers and kindled in them the desire to follow Him.
30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.
The same God calls both
the Jew and the Gentile. It is not just the circumcised of the flesh He calls
but He calls all those who have circumcised hearts towards Him. The Jews were
circumcised by faith and the Gentile believers were circumcised of faith. The
first was a law mandated to be performed upon a man. The latter is the choice
of a person to give his or her heart and life to God. However, this faith by the latter does not
make the Law null and void.
31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith ? May it never be! On the
contrary, we establish the Law.
This doctrine of
justification by faith does not dissolve the obligation of the law, which is to
bring people to God. Justification by faith in the atoning power of the blood
of Jesus Christ fulfills the law. The Law is fulfilled through Christ’s life,
death, and resurrection. Only a King’s sacrifice could fulfill a King’s Law and
proscribed punishment/discipline. The proscribed restitution was a perfect
sacrifice and that perfect sacrifice could only be acquired through the life of
Jesus the Messiah. Additionally, we who
were raised in a God-fearing home do not automatically have pardon for sins. Each
of us must personally ask and accept the gift of faith to believe in Christ’s
once for all sacrifice and believe it is
sufficient for our sins. We must believe that God loves us so much that He
would allow His only Son to die as the means to secure our permanent pardon for
punishment of our wrong doings. Christ
is the complete and perfect fulfiller of the Law of God since He is God’s Son.
When a person accepts by
faith Jesus’ sacrifice to bring him or her into right standing with God (to be
made at-one with Him), he or she fully apprehends God’s law and, at that point,
God is brought fully to the throne of the person’s heart and life. The person
sees fully Who Jesus is and believes by faith in the gift that God gave through
His death, the perfect atoning for the sin of each person. Whether we grow up
in a religious household or not, whether we are rich or poor, Jew or not, we
each must choose who we will follow, the One who loves us so much He paid for
our sins with His life or our fallible, selfish, sinful selves. We each must
choose to enthrone God in our hearts, minds, and spirits and to follow Him with
all our being.
“Choose you this day whom
you will serve/follow. [The god of your fathers or of your neighbors]...But as
for me and my house, we will serve Lord.” (Joshua 24:15 AMP)
