Or, Trusting God When the Faithful Aren’t
Scripture: Romans 3:1-4
Date: February 6, 2022
Speaker: Sean Higgins
There is a wonderful simplicity in the Christian life and in the worship of the church. It is so simple that in one sense a definition is not needed. What is needed is faith in God through Jesus His Son. The “student” nuance of the word disciple isn’t as helpful as the “follower” emphasis. There really is a distinction between knowing God and knowing about God. There is a distinction between going through religious motions and loving the motions because of loving the Lord.
It’s also true that being alive is fairly simple: breath, eat, drink, sleep. Do you need to track your calories and steps and REM cycle minutes? All the generations before us stayed alive (long enough) to see the next generation without collecting any such stats. When you look into it more closely, the body is wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). The body has a lot of moving parts, and especially when something goes wrong, you may be benefited by more specific study than eating a cheeseburger and taking a nap.
As we get to know God Himself we do find that He is wonderful. He is full of wonder and He does wondrous works.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,
and his greatness is unsearchable.One generation shall commend your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
(Psalm 145:3–5)
He shows you who He is, what He cares about (including you), and how all creation and chronology are under His creative control. Should we be surprised that our God, whose thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9), authors a story with some thick characters (thick as in not skinny, and thick as in not so smart) and subtle tensions and plot twists? We could be dismissive of these wonders and say we don’t care, but we wouldn’t do that to a friend, let alone our heavenly Father. We could freak out and say we can’t keep track of all these wonders and worry that we’ll get it wrong. Or we can say, “This is our God. Tell us more!”
There is milk and meat in Romans 3:1-8. There are ABC level and 500 level realities. They are given to us so that we might not miss God. There is story, there is theology and theology proper. There are Jew/Gentile, sovereignty/responsibility, Covenantal/Dispy, revealed/ordained will matters. There are warnings and encouragements. All are ours if we receive it from God from faith to faith.
Romans reveals the righteousness of God in the gospel (Romans 1:17). There are two species of gospel-needers: the unrighteous and the selfrighteous. The unrighteous refuse to thank God and God gives them over to what they think they wanted which destroys them. The self-righteous may thank God with their lips, and they have been given special privileges, but they think that’s enough. Paul addressed the need of the unrighteous first but he writes about the need of the self-righteous more. Both need salvation, both need faith.
In the last half of Romans 2 the Jew is ultimate example in privilege and pretense and in missing the point. The Gentiles who don’t worship God blaspheme Him without good reason on their own, and the Gentiles blaspheme God with good reason due to the hypocritical, sanctimonious people in Israel (2:24). The Jews had God’s Word but many didn’t follow it. They had the seal (of circumcision) but not the heart for it. The outward only goes so far, even when the outward is God-given.
Does that mean all the externals are worthless? Even more, does that mean God’s choice of, and promises to, the Jews were worthless? And if He is sovereign, and if all this refusal-of-thanks happens for His glory in the end, then how can He judge and punish with justice all the so-called puppets who are just doing what He predestined?
These are questions that Paul raises, questions he probably had heard in response to his previous teaching, questions that the self-righteous might use to defend themselves from actual submission and thanks to God.
Verses 1-4 ask and answer if we can trust God’s faithfulness. Verses 5-8 ask and answer if we can trust God’s righteousness.
There was no chapter break in the original letter. Our 3:1 does move into the next step of Paul’s warning, but he’s still aiming at the self-righteous Jew.
Paul just said that the outward (sign) doesn’t matter, and that a Jew is one inwardly (2:28-29). Then why are we even bothering to talk about Jews at all? Because the LORD did, and does.
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. (Romans 3:1–2)
These questions belong with the outward and physical, the things that distinguished a Jew from a non-Jew, even when those Jews wrongly wanted the praise of men.
You were a Jew, in this outward sense, if your dad was a Jew, even if you hated the sacrifices. You were a Jew if you listened to the law and broke it, and you would be judged with stricter judgment because of being a Jew. You were a Jew if you were circumcised and lived as a citizen of Israel even if you didn’t love the Lord with all your circumcised heart.
So there are two types of Jew, one only outwardly and one not only outwardly. (There is not a third sort, an only inwardly one).
Jews are the “children of Israel.” This does not refer only to those who were circumcised in heart. For example, when God said to Moses, “I will bring my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 7:4), this did not mean that God left some of the nation of Israel behind in Egypt and only delivered the true believers.
Is it possible that this example doesn’t fit, if all in Israel believed at that time (as demonstrated by painting their doorposts with blood)?
If each and every person in Israel did believe, great, and why can’t we look forward to the same thing again in the future in the fulfillment of the New Covenant as Paul refers to in Romans 11:25, “all Israel will be saved”?
Yet, based on the old covenant reality that the Spirit did not indwell every man who was part of the covenant, and based on the historical reality that many Jews grumbled even after their deliverance from national slavery, it appears that again, a Jew could be saved by the LORD and not saved in every way.
As Paul pointed out in Romans 2:17-29, being that kind of Jew wasn’t enough for sake of true righteousness. A man could be delivered (from enemies, or from Egypt) because he was a Jew outwardly, and also not be delivered (from his sin) because he was not a Jew inwardly.
Was it an advantage ? We might expect that after all of this the answer would be no. But Paul says Yes! Much in every way, especially in terms of having the oracles (see Psalm 147:19-20). That was just to begin with , though Paul doesn’t add to the list here. Unlike other nations, Israel had “Thus says the LORD,” in the Law and the Prophets (see Matthew 5:17; Acts 24:14, 28:23; Romans 3:21). Did that make Jews automatically good before God? “No, not at all” (Romans 3:9). It is advantage to know you have a need.
The next set of questions in verse 3 introduces a subject that will take up three chapters later in the letter (9-11). For now it’s enough for Paul to explain that the failure of an outward-only Jew to come into an also-inward Jew’s faith does not mean God has been unfaithful.
What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,
“That you may be justified in your words,
and prevail when you are judged.”
(Romans 3:3–4 ESV)
Actually some have been unfaithful. There is a question at this point whether a circumcised-in-part Jew would also be a circumcised-in-heart Jew. The gospel is for the Jew first (Romans 1:16), and when the Christ came to His own people (the Jews) many of His own people did not receive Him (John 1:11). “If some were unfaithful” is not a rhetorical question it is an historical reality.
Does that make God’s word, His choice of, and promises to, the Jews, no good?
There are a number of ways to answer this. Chapter 9 gives one way, chapter 11 another. For now the answer is, If you really knew God you’d know it’s impossible.
By no means! or “May it never be!” (NASB) or “God forbid!” (KJV) are various ways the Greek phrase μὴ γένοιτο has been translated. It is the strongest language Paul used to emphasize how wrong something is, at least in polite Greek. Of course God is faithful. He is the definition of faithful, of remaining loyal and steadfast.
His faithfulness is untouchable as well as unbreakable. His faithfulness is not up to our scoring, as if we could teach Him how to do it or grade Him on a test. He is the original and ultimate faithful one. We have a taste of faithfulness because He exists in it.
Even if every man were to campaign against God, to slander Him and cast shade, He remains true. Trust Him. Praise Him. None can cancel Him.
The Scripture Paul references is from Psalm 51:4. It’s the song of David’s lament and confession of sin with Bathsheba after Nathan rebuked him. The verse begins,
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
(Psalm 51:4a)
That leads David to acknowledge that God’s perspective and punishments, God’s “words” and “judgment” are right. David was a Jew, a son of Jesse, circumcised on the eighth day into the covenant of Israel. David went to battle in the name of the LORD for the name of the LORD (1 Samuel 17:45). The Lord chose David to be king over Israel, whom God said to be “a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22, from Psalm 89:20 and 1 Samuel 13:14).
Who more than David had external gifts, more outward signs of God’s faithfulness and blessing? Yet when David sinned David knew it was not God’s fault and that God’s rebuke was right. He knew that only God’s righteousness could cover his blood-guiltiness (Psalm 51:14). God must do the washing, blotting out transgressions according to God’s abundant mercy, according to God’s steadfast love (Psalm 51:1-2).
When it comes to people with God-given privileges, who still are ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own (Romans 10:3), God’s word of rebuke remains true.
This is good practice for us because even though our church’s fellowship isn’t threatened by Jew and Gentile disagreements, we can learn how to appreciate God-given distinctions, God-given privileges, and God-given good news for all in Christ.
This is also good to learn that God has no delight in externals without a broken heart, and that He totally delights in right eternals/sacrifices when we offer them with the right heart (Psalm 51:16, 19). Now, in Christ, we’re not presenting burnt offerings of bulls on His altar, but we do offer our bodies as living sacrifices of worship.
And this is perfect to remind us that childlike faith is sufficient, and that as we know the Father through His Son and by His Spirit and Word we have great reason to rest in His righteousness (not our own) and to rejoice in His faithfulness as we live from faith to faith.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Trust Him for today (Matthew 6:25-34). Trust Him when you’re tempted to sin (1 Corinthians 10:13). Trust Him to forgive you when you confess your sin (1 John 1:9). God is faithful.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, 28, ESV)