Welcome back to Episode 8 as we continue in Series 1.

Recap and Background

Paul is reaching the conclusion of his long and detailed explanation and argument concerning the power of sin. We have been looking at this for quite a number of episodes, since he introduced the power of the gospel in the words of Romans 1:16 - 17. Paul has explained why all mankind is under the power of sin.

First of all, Paul focused on the Gentile communities, all the nations of the earth, and explained that, despite the fact that God had given them the evidence of creation and the evidence of the conscience operating within them, they had failed to respond to those signposts to him and were all under the power of sin.

In the last episode, he turned his attention to the Jewish people, the Jewish questioner, who didn’t accept the gospel, and felt that Judaism was enough. God had revealed himself through the Law of Moses, the covenants of Israel, the history of Israel, and the promises to the people of Israel, and that was enough. They just needed to follow that Law and they would be assured of salvation. Paul challenged that view so strongly. He can be very confrontational at times, because he is trying to demolish things that he believes are wrong. What he knew from his heart, was that something had changed when Jesus came. One era had ended and another era had come. The old covenant of Moses was literally replaced by the new covenant through Jesus Christ. The Jewish people must not stay in the past when God was offering them a different and better future in Christ. That was the burden of Paul’s argument in the last episode. He used the example of male circumcision, which the Jews were very proud of as a distinct practice in Judaism and was not practiced by many other nations and ethnic groups at the time. It was something that God had told them to do in the Law of Moses which they felt was a symbol of their salvation and their covenant relationship with God. Paul made the very challenging claim that circumcision no longer matters and didn’t have any power to save people. At the end of the last episode, he pointed out that what God was doing now was not just to do with the outward body, but to do with the inward heart - what he described as circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, not by the written code of the law. This was a very challenging argument.

The Value of the Old Testament

An obvious question arises in the mind of the people listening to Romans being read to them, or perhaps reading it themselves, ‘What’s the point of Judaism then, if it has all being washed away by the new covenant and doesn’t matter anymore? Why bother being a Jew? What is the significance of those two thousand years of history, from the time of the calling of Abraham until the time of the coming of Christ, when God was dealing with the Jewish people?’ Paul is going to address this now in this episode. He anticipates the questioner and he articulates their question.

“What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.”

Romans 3:1-2, NIV

Paul was himself a Jew, and although he had gone through the transforming experience of becoming a Christian, following Jesus Christ and believing the gospel, he valued his cultural and religious history. He wanted the Jews to value it but not to depend on it for salvation but rather to depend on Christ. What he says in these two verses is, that they had one particular benefit that the Gentiles didn’t have, which was something they should value into the future; they had ‘the very words of God’ as their heritage. What does Paul mean by ‘the very words of God?’ He means literally what we would call the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures.

By the time of Jesus, and Paul, the Jews had gathered together the books that had been written by various people, at different times, throughout many hundreds of years, into what we now call the Old Testament: books of history, poetry, prophecy, and the law, These were an incredibly precious resource which Paul describes as ‘the very words of God’. At the time that Paul was writing to the Romans, there was no New Testament; the books were literally being written and some were being circulated informally amongst the churches. When a church received Paul’s letters, they were considered so precious that they were quickly copied, and then the people who received the copies, copied them again, and others copied them again; many copies of his letters passed around the churches. The same thing happened for the Gospels, the book of Acts, and the other books of the New Testament. It was many years later that the Church finally decided, through public Church council meetings, from churches in different countries, which books were going to be in the New Testament, based on their connection with the original Apostles. That hadn’t happened yet, but the Jews had ‘the very words of God’ written down. Paul told the Jews they should value them, not because they were living under the Law of Moses anymore, but because the Old Testament shows the developing purpose of God and helps the Church to understand how it came to be; why Christ came; why he came at that particular time; and why sacrifice was necessary and many other things.

The Abrahamic Covenant

At the very foundation of the Old Testament lies a central promise which indicates why the Old Testament really matters for the Church. This is the promise that God made to Abraham. Abraham was the forefather of the Jewish people. When God called him, he spoke many promises to him. The first one of significance that is written down, appears in Genesis 12: 2 - 3.

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Genesis 12:2-3, NIV

This foundational covenant has three elements to it. God promised to Abraham a name. At that time, Abraham and his wife Sarah were childless, and unable to have children. God said,“I’ll give you a name,” and what he means is, a son who will carry your name forward. The second promise to Abraham was a nation. From his son, who turned out to be Isaac, would come a nation, a people, twelve tribes gathered together in one nation, who would have a land - the land of Israel, the Promised Land. God promises Abraham a name, a nation, and very importantly, a blessing. Through his descendants, ’All peoples on earth will be blessed through you’. The New Testament tells us, in two different places, that this blessing is fulfilled through Christ personally. Jesus is a descendant of Abraham, a Jew; he is the Messiah. It is at the time of Jesus that the significance of the Jewish people comes to be clear. The Jewish people is the framework and the place in which the Messiah comes and then becomes a blessing to all the nations of the earth through the gospel. The gospel is that blessing. If that is true, you can understand why Paul says that the Old Testament really matters. It explains God’s purposes from the very beginning, starting with the Jewish people, and using them as the basis for reaching the world through Jesus Christ, and through the Church that comes out of the Jewish people to incorporate the Gentile people, and all the nations of the earth. Paul was telling the Jews, to value the Old Testament, because it gives the background story and the basis for everything that is happening now. There are many other aspects of the Old Testament that are important, which Paul would have had in his mind, not least prophecy because the Old Testament is full of prophecies of the Messiah, the coming saviour. The Jews should be very happy to be Jewish people because they have the privilege of knowing these books and using them.

An Unfaithful Nation - A Faithful God

Paul then goes on to deal with the unfaithfulness of the Jews all the way through their history, even though they had ‘the very words of God’, the covenants, and all the promises,

“What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all? Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: ‘So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.’ 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? (I’m using a human argument.) Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? Someone might argue, ‘If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?’ Why not say - as some slanderously claim that we say – ‘Let us do evil that good may result.’ Their condemnation is just!”

Romans 3:3-8, NIV

What Paul is dealing with here particularly, is the question of the relationship between the Jews and God when they are unfaithful. He realises that many Jews had failed. Even the Old Testament tells us how the Jews failed terribly to obey God - even their leaders, their priests and their rulers, and sometimes even the prophets became false prophets and they failed. But what about God? Does he reject them because they failed?

In verse 4, Paul quotes Psalm 51 which was written by King David of Israel, after he had committed a terrible sin. He committed adultery, which he initiated, with a woman called Bathsheba, who was married to a man called Uriah. She became pregnant and the baby died. David also found ways of getting Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, killed in a military campaign. A prophet identified David as a sinner and this was exposed and it became known publicly. Psalm 51 is a psalm of repentance and sorrow, and David humbling himself before God quoted it here because, even though David was unfaithful to God, God still remained faithful to David. He forgave him his sin and didn’t abandon or reject him. He saw his repentance and he kept his favour on him, even though many circumstances became difficult because of the sin that David had carried out. This tells us something about God’s covenant with Israel that Paul has in mind here.

When we make agreements between people, like a business agreement or a marriage contract, we negotiate generally as equals, and if one person fails in the contract then we can cancel the contract; if somebody fails in the business contract you can cancel it; if you are married to someone and they commit adultery, in most cultures you have the right to cancel the marriage contract by divorce. But when God made covenants with Israel he didn’t negotiate with them, he just declared the terms of the covenants. He made a covenant with Abraham, a covenant with Moses, the Law covenant and a covenant with David concerning the monarchy. But when God makes a covenant, if an individual fails to live up to that covenant, it doesn’t cancel the covenant. God keeps to the covenant. The individual may be judged, may fail, but the covenant is still open to the next generation. It is still a living reality. Paul is saying that even if the Jews were unfaithful, God still loves them and has a purpose for them. Even though they have been unfaithful at the time Christ came, he still has a purpose for them.

The Conclusion to Paul’s Argument

Paul brings this part of his argument to an end at this passage.

“What shall we conclude then? Do we (the Jews) have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there’s no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.’ 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. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather through the law we become conscious of our sin.”

Romans 3:9-20, NIV

This is a very dramatic conclusion. Paul quotes from many different places in the Old Testament and he adds them together in a very dramatic statement about the power of sin. The key to his argument is in verse 9: “What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are under the power of sin.” As stated previously, the power of sin in Paul’s mind is not just about individual actions that people do; it is a spiritual force, that came from the time that Adam and Eve disobeyed God and rebelled against him. A spiritual force was released into human experience, that affects every single person, and causes us, to one degree or another, to want to live independently of God; to put ourselves at the centre; to put other idols in the place of God; to be separated from God; sometimes to disobey things we know to be right - our conscience has told us. If we are Jews, the Old Testament has told us, and we say, ‘No! we are going to disobey it’. Paul describes all of this as the power of sin, which no person can escape through their own power, or through any religious observance: sacrifice, right living, moral living, praying, or anything else. That is his argument.

Everybody is under the power of sin and needs salvation.

At this point Paul will rest his argument and in our next episode we will start with the amazing words: ‘But now’. Something new has happened and he will begin to explain in detail how the gospel works. Paul has laid his foundation. He wants everybody to know there is no alternative to the gospel. There is no way for the Jews to find salvation through their own history and background and religious forms. There is no way that we obey our consciences on all occasions.

Reflections

The power of sin is a spiritual force operating in our lives, which causes us to want to live independently of God and avoid obeying him. This is a very powerful reality. Here is an illustration: The famous English writer, John Bunyan, wrote an even more famous book called ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’, a story of how somebody became a Christian, and how he lived his Christian life, and then how his wife and family followed him to become believers. He is a pilgrim on a spiritual journey. This story has been translated into many languages and read by many millions of people. In the story, there is a remarkable moment, which tells us something about the power of sin, and the power of the cross, that Paul is talking about.

Pilgrim, is walking along on a journey. He has left his home and he is trying to find his way into God’s kingdom and into the eternal world. He is trying to have his life changed. He hasn’t yet quite worked out how that happens. John Bunyan describes him as walking along with a big pack on his back. His back is bent with the weight of this burden. This is a representation, of his sinfulness. It is burdening him. Guilt is there. As he walks along many different things happen. He comes to a hill and at the top is a cross and someone crucified on the cross. At the bottom of the hill is a cave, cut into the side of the hill which is open - there is no stone or door; it is just open. This is a representation of Jesus’ death and resurrection. There is the cross at the top of the hill and there is the cave at the bottom, which might have been the tomb of Jesus, but it is empty. As Christian looks up at the cross, he kneels. He realises this is the moment of truth, “I’ve found what I’m looking for.” Here is the moment of salvation. John Bunyan describes the fact that, as he is kneeling there, the burden on his back falls away, spontaneously and suddenly he feels free! The power of sin has controlled him but as he looks at what Jesus has done, there is a transformation going on inside him, and all the weight comes off. Tears come to his eyes, in the story, he is weeping with joy, with relief and with happiness, that he has found peace and salvation.

Then three angels come to him. One speaks to him and says, “Peace be with you. What was troubled is now at peace; your troubled conscience is now at peace. Another angel comes and says, “Here are some new clothes.” His clothes were dirty and ragged; he has been on the journey for a long time. The new clothes are a symbol of a new life. The third angel makes a mark on his forehead; a sign that he is now owned by that person on the cross, and when he goes to his death, that sign will take him through to eternity. This speaks vividly of the power of sin that Paul was speaking about here, and the need for a powerful remedy. The remedy is the gospel.

More about that in the next episode.