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Wed, Mar 30, 22.

Rom 1.18--3.30 Summary

  1. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven.
    1. The wrath is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
      1. JUSTIFICATION FOR THE WRATH: These men hold the truth in unrighteousness
        1. ELABORATION: Because what may be known about God is plain to them for God has made it plain to them
        2. PROOF: Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities have been seen being understood from what has been made
      2. IMPLICATION: Men are without excuse for their ungodliness and unrighteousness
    2. MEN’S SINS
      1. When they knew God they did not glorify him as God nor were they thankful
      2. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and served and worshiped created things rather than the Creator
      3. They did not think to retain God in knowledge
    3. GOD’S REACTIONS AND IT’S CONSEQUENCES
      1. God gave them over to dishonour their bodies through sexual immorality/perversions
        1. THEY WILL NOT BE GLORIFIED:
      2. God gave them over to do what is not convenient—all unrighteousness—through a reprobate mind
        1. THEY WILL NOT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE: God’s righteous judgement is that “Those who do such things deserve death”. Therefore, God has set them up to be destroyed
    4. THE DECREE OF GOD“S WRATH—THOSE WHO DO SUCH THINGS ARE WORTHY OF DEATH!
    5. But why did Paul point out all these sins of men if he just wanted to say God’s wrath against sin has been revealed?
      1. Apparently, the reason is to show that the Gentiles are under sin [Rom 3:9] and so are deserving of death and are in need of God’s forgiveness.
      2. He later points out that the Jews also sin against God [Rom 3:9]
  2. (Because the Wrath of God against sin has been revealed) The religious man has no excuse for not repenting of his sins
  3. THE REVELATION OF GOD’S RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT ON THE DAY OF WRATH
    1. God will give to every man according to his deeds
      1. Eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality [Rom 2:7]
      2. Indignation and wrath to those who are contentions and reject the truth and follow evil [Rom 2:8]
    2. JEWS AND GENTILES IN THE FACE OF GOD’S WRATH (there is a distinction between them, but not such that destines them for different fates for the same actions)
      1. THERE IS NO RESPECT OF PERSONS WITH GOD
        1. Tribulation and anguish on every soul that does evil—to the Jew first and then to the Gentile [Rom 2:9]
        2. Glory, honour and peace to every soul that does good—to the Jew first and then to the Gentile [Rom 2:10]
        3. A distinction between them—the Jew first and then the Gentile
      2. WHY THE FATE OF THE JEW IS NOT DIFFERENT FROM THE GENTILES
        1. “...not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers...” [Rom 2:13]—(there is apparently an expectation that the Jews ought to be saved, that they are superior and in a better position than the Gentiles. Did they really think that they were justified simply by being under the Law? it is possible. If it is taught that simply believing, being under Christ, makes one justified, since it is the same kind of covenant as the Law, it is very possible to think so.)
          1. All who sin WITHOUT Law will PERISH WITHOUT Law [Rom 2:12]—These are Gentiles (or/and those who lived before the flood)
            1. Paul has already made the case that they are inexcusable [Rom 1:20] and deserve death [Rom 1:32]. It is the fate of the Jews that has not been explained yet. That they will be judged by the Law does not necessarily mean that they will be condemned
            2. He shows further that the Gentiles are judgable for their sins because they show that the requirements of the Law are written on their hearts [Rom 2:14-15]—they show this
              1. By their possession of conscience [Rom 2:15], and
              2. By their thoughts accusing or else excusing one another [Rom 2:15]
            3. All who sin UNDER the Law will be JUDGED by the Law [Rom 2:12]
              1. Unlike the perishing of sinners without the law, he is yet to develop this. He says that they will be judged by the Law but has not stated what the verdict will be. This is what he builds, showing what their judgment by the Law will be
              2. Ultimately, it is that they have sinned, and being under the Law and surely having knowledge of sin through the Law, they are inexcusable for their sins [Rom 3:21] and are no different from the Gentiles.
              3. BUILD-UP TO THE CONCLUSION [Rom 2:17-29; 3:]
                1. The Jew under/through the Law is superior to the Gentile in that the Jew
                  1. Through the Law has a special relationship with God—God is their God and they are God’s people—and can boast of God [Rom 2:17]
                  2. Through the Law has knowledge of God’s will [Rom 2:18-20]
                2. Jews nevertheless also sins [Rom 3:21-22] and
                  1. This is contrary to the knowledge of God’s will that they have [Rom 2:21-22] (this is brought up later on and really makes their sins inexcusable) and
                  2. By their sins, they break the law [Jam 2:9-11; 1Jn 3:4], and by breaking the law, they dishonour God [Rom 2:23-24] (dishonouring God is what the Gentiles did that led God to reject them Rom 1:21ff)
              4. He completes the argument that the Circumcised and the Uncircumcised share the same fate [Rom 2:27-29]
                1. Since, by transgressing the Law, the Circumcised/Jew becomes like the God dishonouring Uncircumcised/Gentiles, then if the Uncircumcised/Gentiles keeps the law’s requirements, he should be considered as a Circumcised/Jew
                2. According to Scriptures, circumcision is really of the heart. This would mean that though physically uncircumcised, if one is circumcised in heart, then he is ‘circumcised’—Eze 44:7,9 (cf., Lev 26:41; Deut 10:16; 30:6; Jer 4:4; 9:26) Eze 36:26
                3. Paul has, more or less, stated the ideal, this does not mean it is so in practice. It is through the atonement that the ideal situation became the real situation
            4. DIGRESSION—the advantage of being a Jew and some other issues [Rom 3:1-8]
            5. JEWS ARE NOT BETTER THAN GENTILES [Rom 3:9-18] AND THE LAW DOES NOT JUSTIFY THEM
              1. The Jews are sinners like the Gentiles [Rom 3:9-18].
                1. In declaring the wrath of God, one of the first things that Paul did was to show that the Gentiles were under sin—God had given them over to sin. He had also made the charge that Jews were also under sin
              2. Therefore, since the Jews have the Law, both of them are inexcusable for their sins and so are guilty before God [Rom 3:19-20].
              3. Since the Jews sin, and the commands of the Law certainly apply to the Jews who are under the Law, the Law does not justify them [Rom 3:20]. GOD HAS PROVIDED RIGHTEOUSNESS APART FROM THE LAW
  4. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD [Rom 3:21]
    1. ALL MEN HAVE SINNED AND HAVE FALLEN SHORT OF GOD’S GLORY
    2. The righteousness of God is
      1. For all who believe
        1. It is for all who believe because all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory
      2. Through faith in Jesus Christ
        1. It is for free by God’s grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus [Rom 3:24]
        2. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement
          1. Through faith in his blood [Rom 3:25]
          2. To make His forgiving of past sins, through his forbearance, to be righteous [Rom 3:25]—“forbearance” points to God’s forgiveness of the sins of the repentant (cf., Rom 2:4); God provided Jesus to make it righteous to forgive the past sins of those who repent
          3. For God to be the one who justifies those who have faith in Christ Jesus [Rom 3:26]
    3. IMPLICATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH
      1. Justification by faith eliminates the boasting of the Jews/Circumcised [Rom 3:27]
        1. There is no boasting for the Jews over the Gentiles
          1. Because of Paul’s yet to be proventatement that righteousness by faith is apart from the Law [Rom 3:21],
          2. God is now the God of the Gentiles too since he justified them by the same faith [Rom 3:29-30]

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