Romans 3:21 - Righteousness of God

"But now .." This can be taken either as the next logical step, or as the next temporal step. Ie either the next step in the argument, or the next step in time. In fact, both might be true, for Christ certainly did come after the Law, and it is the events around the cross that provided the basis for all that Paul was saying. Of course, it is also the next step in the argument as well. 

"Righteousness of God " is a crucial term, and also one about which there is debate. Again, the two main ways of looking at the term may both be valid. People are always complaining that God is not fair. Atheists do it all the time, though how someone who supposedly does not exist can be guilty of all the crimes they accuse God of remains a mystery. Probably you and I have done it on occasion. There are certainly times when God does not seem to be acting justly. Up until this point, it did not seem that God's plans were getting very far. Adam and Eve had sinned, then Israel had repeatedly rejected and disobeyed God. Things were not looking good. The Jews thought the Law was the way that God's plans would be fulfilled, but this was not to be the case. They would be fulfilled in another way.

The other way of taking the term is in how we get into a position of righteousness. How do we gain right standing with God? Or, perhaps, how do we stay in right standing with God. The Law was a way of life, it was how they were to live in the kingdom, but if failed, or rather they failed. So now a means of attaining right standing with God was revealed in Christ that did not depend upon the Law.

Moreover, this way was testified to by the Law and the Prophets. Ie it was not new in that sense, it was not contrary to all that the Old Testament had been saying, rather it was the fulfilment of it. The Law and the Prophets were always pointing towards Christ and towards faith being the way.

Romans 3:9-20- All have sinned

So if the Jews had many privileges, were the Jews at an advantage when it came to judgement? The answer is no. For all have sinned, Jews and Gentiles. Peter says that judgement begins with the house of God (1 Peter 4:17), so we too should never become complacent. Boasting that we are baptised, that we are filled with the Spirit, that we go to such and such a church, is of no value whatsoever unless we are penitent, trusting, and being transformed.

Paul then introduces a whole series of quotations from the Old Testament depicting the sinfulness of man. All have sinned. Their mouths speak deceit. Blood is on their hands. The do not know the way of peace and they do not fear God.

It is the law that says this, and what the law says it says to those under the law, so it applies to the Jews. It is a very human trait to think that some rule or law applies to everyone else except me. So all this applies to the Jews. Why then does Paul go on to say it applies to the whole world as well, for the world is not under the law? It is because the salvation of God goes out to the whole world.The plan was that all people's would be blessed through Abraham. The starting point for the message of salvation is accepting our sinfulness. Everyone needs to accept this, Jew or Gentile.

Justified, or declared righteous, refers to a legal decision in our favour. On the basis of the law no one is going to get a favourable verdict, for all have been declared guilty.

Romans 3:1-8 - God is Faithful

The Jewish nation and the rite of circumcision were clearly of value in the Old Testament, so did what Paul was saying mean that he thought they now had no value? Paul certainly did not think this was the case, to put it mildly. The first thing is that the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God. So all that we read about in the New Testament is entirely consistent the Old Testament. It builds upon it, and fulfills it.

What happened was that Israel was unfaithful to God. They did not trust in Him, they did not keep His laws, they did not exercise justice and mercy. But the unfaithfulness of the Jews does not nullify God's faithfulness. Paul then quotes from Psalm 51:4, the Psalm that David wrote after he had repented of his sin of adultery and murder. 

Paul then considers some possible objections. We hear similar objections today, and they illustrate the futility of man's thinking that Paul talked about in chapter 1. First there is the argument that if our sin brings out God's righteousness more clearly, then God is unjust in sending His wrath, and should actually be rather pleased with us for sinning!Such an argument is pure nonsense. 

At the root of these sorts of arguments is a failure to realise that the basic problem is my sin. I need to be saved. I need to be forgiven and I need to be transformed. 

Paul's verdict on the people that produce such arguments is that they will fully deserve the condemnation that they will receive in the future.
There is a clear warning here. People think that they can get round the "God problem" with a clever argument. Such people are deluded. It is not a matter of winning an argument, it is a matter of answering to the living God. The question everyone needs to ask themselves is "how will you stand before the living God?". 

Romans 2:17-29 - True Circumcision

Paul now imagines himself addressing a Jew. Now the Jews were very proud of their heritage and would react to what Paul was had been saying. They would react to him equating them with Gentiles, and would react to being told that they were not righteous. They saw themselves as superior to the rest of the world, indeed as a light to the world. They had the truth from God, they knew how to live, and the rest of the world needed to learn from them. This was the mindset of the self-righteous Jew. So Paul asks such a person the pointed question, "why do you not teach yourself?". Whenever we judge others we should take a close look at ourselves first. Jesus taught this very point when He told the parable of taking specks and logs out of our eyes. The picture conjured up by this is ridiculous, but so are we when we get judgemental, for it always ends up highlighting the shortcomings in our own lives.

The Jews were reviled by the rest of the world. Indeed, God's name was blasphemed because of them, and their own Scriptures said this (Isaiah 52:5; Ezek 36:20,22). 

They boasted about circumcision. Now note that Paul does not condemn circumcision outright, but says that it is of no value unless they kept the law. The quality of their lives was what mattered. This was not a new concept, for Deuteronomy speaks of the circumcision of the heart (Deut 10:16, 30:6). Then he points out that if those who are uncircumcised physically obey the Law, will they not be counted as circumcised (ie counted as part of God's people).

The chapter finishes with the conclusion that having the Law and trappings of the Law was of no value. What matters is the life a person lives. Circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit is what matters.

So where does all this lead us? The very clear message of the chapter is that what we do with our lives matters. Now Paul emphatically is not saying that we can earn salvation. What he is saying is that how we live does matter, and any "religious system" that is any good has to result in transformed lives. Right at the end he says that this can happen only through the Spirit, but more of that later.

Romans 2:12-16 - Doing what is right

There are several key "all" phrases in Romans, and here is the first. All who sin will perish, it does not matter if you are under the law or not, ie it does not matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile. People often raise the argument  against the gospel "what about those who have not heard". This makes a mistake. No one will perish because they have not heard the good news, they will perish because of their sin.

Paul here is addressing Jewish pride. Having the Law on its own did not matter, it was doing the Law that mattered. 

NIV puts verses 14-15 in brackets, but it is better to see them as part of the main argument, rather than an aside. The original does not have any brackets anywhere, and has the word "for", indicating it helps to explain what has just been said. This partly addresses the "what if they have not heard" argument. All human beings have some sense of right and wrong, and the good actions of a Gentile put the Gentile in a better position than the bad actions of a Jew, even though the Jew has the Law. 

So the emphasis is on what someone does. Note that Paul states quite clearly that part of the gospel is the fact that everyone will be judged on the last day through Christ.

Now is all this hypothetical, since no one will be found innocent on their own merits? I would say yes and no. It is absolutely true that no one can stand on their own merits, all of us are guilty. However, the gospel also brings change, and the Holy Spirit is producing a people who will live for God. A repeated refrain in the Old Testament is "they will be my people and I will be their God" (eg Jeremiah 32:38). In Revelation it says the bride (the church) has made herself ready and speaks of the righteous acts of the saints (Rev 19:6-8). Now transformation takes place as a process in our lives, but also at the last day we will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15:52). So God will have a people who are truly His, who are what we were always meant to be.

Romans 2:5-11 - Judgement

Verse 5 applies to all who refuse to repent and turn to Christ. There will come a day when God's righteous judgement is revealed. The full consummation of this will happen when Christ returns, but "mini judgements" happen at various points in history. Things happen that bring to light the sin of man, of organisations, of companies, of nations, even of churches, and judgement is executed. Every single person on this planet is ultimately answerable to God. We also need to remember that we too will have to answer for our actions. Even though we are forgiven in Christ, the New Testament is also clear, including Paul, that we will have to answer for what we have done in life (eg 1 Cor 3:10-15).

Then in verse 7 we get the statement that those who are persistent in doing good will receive eternal life. Is this teaching salvation by works? No, but it does mean what it says. If someone says they believe in Christ but there is no hint of this in their life, then they are a liar or are deceived. Our salvation includes both forgiveness of sins, and being reborn. Repentance means turning from our own way of life to Christ. If someone is self-seeking he will receive God's wrath.

God's judgement is based on truth. So those who do evil, whether Jew or Gentile, will receive trouble and distress, but those who do good will receive glory, honour and peace. There is no favouritism. This passage does give support to the notion that the passage is aimed primarily at the Jews, for they thought they had a privileged position. However, it fits equally well with the idea that the passage is describing how things work in general. For any "model" of how God works that neglects the special place of the Jews is in error.

Romans 2:2-4 - Repent

As mentioned in the previous post, this passage has caused difficulty. Some see it as addressed to the Pagan moralists, others as addressed to Jews. Both make some sense. I will look at the passage form the perspective that it is written that it is describing and explaining how God works, in particular how justice, righteousness and salvation work, and we are to look at ourselves in the light of this.

The first point about God's judgement is that it is based on truth, ie it is completely reliable, and completely right in every respect. People who argue against God are very fond of saying things like "how can a God of love send people to hell", or such and such a judgement would be unfair. We can be completely sure that every judgement made will be absolutely correct and fair.

Now our natural human tendency is to judge others but excuse ourselves. In Paul's day there were Pagan moralists, like Seneca, who expressed high ideals, but whose own lifestyle was very questionable to say the least. The Jews were very proud of their heritage (as we shall see later in the chapter). Today a common pattern is for a politician or political party to get on their high horse about some issue, then some time later they too are found to be guilty of similar things. The truth is that we may be able to fool others, even ourselves, for a time, but we cannot fool God. We will all face judgement and there will be no clever tricks to enable us to escape.

There is only one route out, and that is the route of repentance. So often we seek to excuse or justify ourselves. In doing this we are showing contempt for God's kindness and patience. Man thinks "I have got away with it", so he carries on in his own no so sweet way. Instead we should realise that God's patience is designed to give us the chance to repent. Peter makes a similar point in 2 Peter 3:9. God's goal is to lead men to repent.