Page 27 - Romans Student Textbook.doc

All people (Jew and Gentile) have sinned and will be held accountable for breaking God’s law. (3:9-20)

In Romans 3:9 the question of the advantage of the Jews was repeated again and answered a little
differently. In the preceding paragraph, being the first to have God’s special revelation is stated as an
advantage for the Jews, but in this paragraph, we are shown that that very revelation reveals that there is
no advantage for the Jews in combatting sin just by virtue of having that revelation. In the verses that
follow Paul quoted a series of Old Testament passages that all spoke of the fact that there resides in no
human being the ability or the inclination to live apart from sin. All people everywhere are, by virtue of
having been born into this world, rebels against God’s rule who fail to fear God as they ought. The law
that was given to mankind through Israel was given for the purpose of making plain every person’s
accountability before God for their sin. It also was given to show that while the law makes sin plain to
people, it cannot be kept by people to the standard that would make them righteous in their relationship
with God. The purpose of the law was ultimately to make people hunger and thirst for a right relationship
with God.

In the work of Christ, God has shown His righteousness by justifying those who trust in Christ. (3:21-26)

The law does its work well. It points out our sinfulness, God’s righteousness and our inability to do
anything to enable us to bridge the gap between the two. If God were to leave us without a remedy for
our sin, He would still be just and right. But because He is also love He made a way for sinful, law-breaking
people to be made righteous and to be made able to carry on a right relationship with Him. It is with the
sinfulness of mankind and the accountability of people to God for that sinfulness firmly established that
Paul introduced the solution to the problem of sin for the first time in the body of his letter.

God has shown us his righteousness in the person of his Son, Jesus the Messiah. One of the reasons for
Jesus’ incarnation was to show to people the great glory of the righteousness of God lived out in human
flesh (Heb. 1:1-4). What Paul introduced in Romans 3:21-22 is that when a person trusts in Jesus Christ the
righteousness of Christ is imputed to them and they are made able to stand in right relationship with God.
In the remainder of the paragraph God’s rightness in providing such a righteousness to all who trust in
Christ regardless of their pedigree was set forth clearly and defended vigorously as a glorious display of
the holy righteousness of God’s character.

Men are justified before God only based on their faith in Christ and never based on the things that they
do. (3:27-31)

Paul finished out this section of his letter by pointing out one very practical application of the truth that
men are never justified before God based on anything that they do. He boldly proclaimed that this truth
eliminated all possibility of boasting over our righteousness, no matter who one might be. It is Christ’s
work that won righteousness for people and it is humble faith in Him that secures that righteousness to
them. No one, either Jew or Gentile, weak or strong, is every made right before God because of anything
that they have done. God is the God of all people and he deals with all people impartially in the
application of His mercy and grace to them in and through faith in His Son.

Theology That Helps Us Live to God’s Glory

• Arrogance leads us to believe that we are better than we are. It distorts our ability to
see ourselves clearly. One of the weakness of the Old Testament law was that when it
was understood as a means of manipulating God and obligating Him to favor us it allowed
arrogance to flourish in the ground of law- keeping. We are adept at pointing to external
compliance as evidence of internal holiness. We are guarded from being held captive to such
arrogance when we see the glory of God’s righteous character for what it is and learn to see
ourselves in that light of God’s glorious person as being at our core weak, feeble, fallible and in
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