As we move on to Romans 3, we need to remember that Paul is in the process of building an argument. He is ultimately going to get to the question, “How does the righteous person live?” But in order to get to that point, Paul has to first explain what is it that makes that person righteous. And before he can do that, Paul has to first explain what doesn’t make a person righteous. Thus far, he has made two real basic points:
- The Gentile world is sinful and senseless. They have become like the idols they worship, and the consequence of that can be seen in their highly immoral and depraved culture.
- His fellow Jews are just as sinful and senseless. Sure, they have the Torah, but the cold, hard fact is that they don’t keep the Torah. If anything, they’re worse off than the Gentiles, because they should have known better.
Given all that, a typical Jew would probably be asking at this point in Paul’s letter, “If that’s the case—if having the Torah and getting circumcised don’t matter, and if Jews are actually under the curse of failing to keep the Torah—then what’s the advantage of being a Jew?” It is to this question Paul now turns in chapter 3.
What’s the Advantage of Being a Jew? What’s the Advantage of Being a Christian?
In order to get a grasp on what Paul is addressing, though, perhaps it is good to ask the following question: “What advantage is there in growing up in a Christian home, going to church, and perhaps even going to a Christian school?” I’m sure the answer to that would be along the lines of, “You are taught the Bible, you are exposed to the truth of the Christian faith, and probably have the advantage of having a stable and godly environment.” Yet despite all that being true, does having those advantages somehow exempt you from being accountable for your actions? Do those advantages even automatically make you a Christian? The answer is, “Of course not.”
This is essentially what Paul begins to say concerning his fellow Jews. Being a Jew, Paul states, does have its advantages, namely they were given “the oracles of God” (3:2)—i.e. they were given the Torah, and the Torah outlines what a godly life in relationship with God looks like. That’s a good thing to know! But that advantage doesn’t change the fact that, as the entire Old Testament shows, the Jews had been unfaithful to God. But that then brings up another question (that Paul addresses in three different ways): “If the Jews were unfaithful to God, does that mean God gets off the hook for being faithful to the Jews?” Paul articulates each objection, and then gives his response.
Objection #1
The first Jewish objection goes like this: “Just because some Jews were unfaithful, does that nullify God’s faithfulness to the covenant?” (3:3). In other words, just because some Jews broke the covenant, does that screw it up for the rest of the Jews? Paul responses with, “No! God is true, and men are the liars! He will be proved right in his judgments!” (3:4).
Simply put, Jewish unfaithfulness will never nullify God’s faithfulness to the covenant. In the ancient world, whenever a covenant was made, the two parties would agree on the stipulations of the covenant, and then they would cut a number of animals in half, lay the pieces opposite of each other, and both parties would walk together between the pieces—by doing this, each party was saying, “May I become like these animals if I break covenant with you.” When YHWH made his covenant with Abraham, though, only YHWH passed between the pieces. Then with YHWH’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, after the Israelites immediately broke the covenant with the golden calf, YHWH, because He was faithful to His covenant with Abraham, chose to forgive them and give them another chance. And so, Paul is quite clear: God will stay faithful to His covenant no matter what.
Objections #2-#3
The second Jewish objection goes like this: “If Jewish unrighteousness actually helps God display his righteousness more clearly, then why would He punish us?” (3:5). In other words, if God’s righteousness is seen better because of our righteousness, then isn’t he unjust if he punishes us? Paul responds with, “No! He’d be unjust if He didn’t punish sin and unrighteousness! How could He judge the Gentiles for their sin if He didn’t judge you for yours?” (3:6).
The third Jewish objection is similar to the second: “If Jewish falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and brings Him more glory, then why are Jews condemned as sinners?” (3:7). In other words, it’s like someone saying, “I like to sin, and God likes to forgive sin…what’s the problem? I’m helping God do something He likes to do! It makes Him look better!” Paul’s response to that line of thinking basically by saying, “That’s the kind of crap you’re accusing me of teaching! ‘Let’s sin, so that grace can increase!’ You deserve to be smacked!” (3:8).
These two objections are purposely absurd, and Paul knows it. It would be the equivalent of a drug addict saying, “My drug addiction is bringing out the best in my family because they are constantly trying to get me in rehab. If I wasn’t doing drugs, they wouldn’t have the opportunity to display their goodness toward me! So how can anyone punish me for what I’m doing? After all, a lot of good is coming out of it!” Paul’s answer is straightforward and two-fold: (a) if God didn’t punish sin, then He wouldn’t be just; and (b) you Jews are accusing me of encouraging people to sin—therefore your punishment is deserved.
There is No Faith without Faithfulness
Paul’s point with all this is simple: you cannot have faith in Christ without faithfulness to him. No outward show of religiosity, be it circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, keeping the Jewish food laws, or going to church on a regular basis, is worth anything without personal faithfulness to Christ. Such things do not give you a pass when it comes to being held accountable for your sin.
Then, in order to prove that very point to his fellow Jews, Paul unleashes a slew of Old Testament quotations in 3:9-18. They all declare the same thing: Jews throughout their history have been disobedient and rebellious. What Paul is saying to his fellow Jews is essentially this: “You know that Torah that you take such pride in having? If you actually read it, you’ll find that it condemns you for your sin!”
What’s the Purpose of the Torah?
With that, Paul finally declares what the purpose of the Torah is in 3:19-20. First, the Torah was meant to bring the whole world under God’s righteous indictment. Its purpose all along was to bring a guilty verdict. Therefore, the “works of Torah” were never intended to be a way to make us righteous before God. Rather, the Torah’s purpose was to make sin known.
Perhaps a modern analogy will help. Imagine that you are extremely sick and you go to the hospital. The doctor runs a number of tests and comes to talk to you with the medical report in his hand. The medical report states that you have cancer. If you then take that report and say, “Hey, as long as I have this medical report, I’m going to be fine,” you’re going to die. For the medical report’s purpose is simply to diagnose the problem for you. It can never make you better; it can only point out what’s wrong with you. That is what Paul is essentially saying the Torah is for: to make the “sin problem” known. Gentiles were suffering from the “cancer of sin,” but they didn’t know exactly what the problem was; likewise, Jews also were suffering from the “cancer of sin,” but God, through the Torah, had revealed to them precisely what the problem was: it’s called sin! Nevertheless, the Torah couldn’t do anything about that “cancer of sin.” A cure for that had to come from someplace else…for a medical report cannot cure cancer.
In the next post, I’ll tackle Romans 3:21-31. If you are enjoying this “mini-commentary,” please share the posts on Facebook, and tell your friends about them.
