Romans 3:28

Romans 3:28 says, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.  These last three verses are somewhat of a summation of what Paul had been teaching in the first part of the chapter.  Paul starts with the underlying principle of salvation, and that is that we are justified by faith alone.  No matter how good we may feel that we are, no matter how morally superior we may feel to others, we cannot be justified by the Law.  We must come to God humbly through faith in Jesus Christ as our Redeemer. We cannot just do better when we have sinned and hope to justify ourselves, but we must ask God's forgiveness through faith.  It requires more than just words.  True faith requires a broken and contrite heart as we ask for God's forgiveness.  Verse twenty-nine adds, Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:  Paul was asking the question based on the way the Jews saw the world in his day, and that was that they were God's people, and everyone else was a Gentile, and therefore not as worthy of God's love and blessings as they were.  Matthew Henry asks if we think that God limited His love to that perverse little group of people who were the Jews.  We today could ask this question based on any number of qualifiers.  God is not just the God of a particular nationality or ethnic group, but He is the God of all believers, and we are all equal in His sight.  Verse thirty continues, Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.  There is but one God, and He alone can justify people through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.  Our religious service must come from faith in this fact for it to have any meaning.  Verse thirty-one concludes, Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.  Faith does not negate the Law of God, but establishes it.  The Ten Commandments are no longer written on stone, but are written in our hearts, for example.  God's Law is still God's Law.

Romans 3:23

Romans 3:23 says, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;  This is a continuation of Paul's discussion as to why there is no difference between the Jew and Gentile and why the Law could not save us.  All have sinned.  The degree of sin may vary, but God did not say that the wages for some sins is death, but that the wages of any sin is death.  We earn death by our sins.  God does not just arbitrarily impose death for sin on some while forgiving others. Verse twenty-four adds, Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:  There is only one way to restore our relationship to God, and that is through the redemption of Christ. We are justified freely by God's grace.  Again, we cannot earn salvation but can only accept the free gift of grace from God.  Verse twenty-five continues, Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; God sent Jesus as be a propitiation for all sins, past, present and future.  Christ paid the price for those who had gone before Him, those who were there with Him, and those of us who have come since.  Verse twenty-six states, To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.  God declared His righteousness through Jesus Christ, Who is the only One Who can justify us.  There is a penalty for any and all sin, and that is death.  We can choose to accept the free gift of redemption through faith in Christ as our Savoir, or we can choose to take the penalty on ourselves.  God always gives us the choice. Verse twenty-seven adds, Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.  We cannot boast of our salvation because it is a gift of grace.  We did nothing to earn it by our own goodness, by our birth into a particular family, or by God's Law.  Though we are to boldly proclaim salvation through Christ to the world, the emphasis must always be on Christ and never on us. Our only claim can be that we are sinners saved by grace.

Romans 3:19

Romans 3:19 says, Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.  I believe Paul was saying that God's law applied to the Jews, those under the Law, and that it could not lead to bragging, but only to guilt before God.  The Pharisees in Jesus' day liked to boast of their keeping of the Law while at the same time condemning Jesus.  We cannot stand on our own goodness but must humbly acknowledge that the only way to salvation is through accepting the gift of Christ for our redemption.  Even in the secular world today, we may feel superior to those who have committed great crimes, but we must remember in God's eyes, any sin brings the penalty of death.  Verse twenty adds, Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.  The Law of God was given to point people to God, but was never a way to salvation. No one can be justified by the Law.  Many Jews in Jesus' day, and even today I would guess, believed that by nature of their birth as a Jew they were automatically God's people.  Paul was reminding them, and us, that we can never be justified before God by our own righteousness.  No one can ever live up to God's standards by their own virtue.  The Law can only point us to our own sin. Verse twenty-one continues, But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;  God's righteousness is manifested without the Law through Jesus Christ, but this was no new concept.  The law had been but a guide to point people to their own inability to live up to God's calling and the prophets pointed to the Messiah, Who is Jesus Christ.  Once Christ came, though we are still to attempt to live by God's standards or law, it is in no way to be seen as a requirement for salvation.  Some Jews in Paul's day were attempting to require Jewish rituals to be observed in order to truly be saved.  Verse twenty-two concludes, Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:  This righteousness of God comes by faith in Jesus Christ and is available to all people.  There is no Jew or Gentile in Christ.  We are all saved by faith through the grace of God by accepting the salvation made available to all through Christ.  Even when gentiles converted to Judaism, the Jews still did not see them as equals.  We must guard against having the same attitude toward other Christians.  We are all equal in Christ.

Romans 3:13

Romans 3:13 says, Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: God's people, instead of proclaiming Him to the world, were filled with deceit in their words.  We must remember who the author of lies and deceit is, and that is Satan himself.  When we do not live by the truth of God, we live by the lies of Satan.  There is no neutral ground. We cannot proclaim deceitful words without being as poisonous as a serpent.  Verse fourteen adds, Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:  Now, we can interpret this to mean full of profanity, but I believe it is much more than that.  It is speaking against God or calling for Him to punish others while forgiving us.  This leads to a bitterness in life.  We are not to ask God's punishment on others out of hatred, but are to ask His forgiveness of them out of love.  The Jews in Paul's day had forgotten this, and they had started despising other people.  We must guard against the same attitude today.  Verse fifteen continues, Their feet are swift to shed blood:  Paul moved from their speech to their actions.  They were glad to see those that they felt superior to destroyed, even Jesus Himself.  We as followers of Christ today must not be quick to shed the blood of those we see as a threat to God or to ourselves.  God calls us to witness out of love that flows from Him.  Verse sixteen states, Destruction and misery are in their ways:  We are called not to destroy the world and all that is in it, but to work to preserve it.  We hear so many times today of people destroying property or even burning church buildings just for spite.  I believe that the misery is more theirs than that of those whose property they destroy.  As God's people, we are to live lives of joy in Him, no matter what evil goes on around us.  Verse seventeen adds, And the way of peace have they not known:  There is only one way to know true peace, and that is through acknowledging Christ as our Savior and Lord, so naturally those who deny Him can never know peace.  Verse eighteen continues, There is no fear of God before their eyes.  When people have no fear of, or respect for God, we cannot expect them to have any respect for anyone else.  It is the great responsibility that God gives us, to allow us to deny His very existence.

Romans 3:9

Romans 3:9 states, What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;  Paul said that of their own ability the Jew was no better than the Gentile.  He was speaking of those who professed to be God's people but who did not live under God's leadership.  We could make this same statement of those today who profess to believe in God but don't feel the need to live by His truth.  Paul said that the Jew was no better than the Gentile, because all had sinned.  Where we were born nor the family we were born into exempts us from the penalty of sin.  Matthew Henry points out that verses ten through twelve are taken from Psa 14:1-3, which are repeated as containing a very weighty truth found in Psa 53:1-3.  Paul did not come up with truth about God that opposed the Scriptures, but that fulfilled it instead.  We must do the same today.  God is not suddenly going to give us an insight that goes against His written Word.  Verse ten adds, As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:  The Jew in Paul's day, nor anyone who came before or after, could claim to be righteous by their own merit, except for Jesus Christ Himself.  When we are judged by the Law of God, which includes not only our actions but our thoughts as well, we are all guilty.  We are not judged by our comparison to other people, but by our comparison to Christ, and He alone is without sin.  Verse eleven continues, There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  Paul was speaking to the Jews who relied on their own status in worldly understanding to bring them into the right status with God.  They did not understand or seek after God.  We today can never rely on our own abilities to save us but must seek after God in all things.  Verse twelve concludes, They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.   God's chosen people had become unprofitable to God, and Paul said that not one did good.  Until they accepted the Messiah, Jesus Christ, this would remain the case, as it was for all Gentiles.  Though I do not believe that it is possible to lose ones salvation, it is possible to become unprofitable to God by the way we live.  We must always remember that Christ is not only our Savior, but also our Lord.

Romans 3:5

Romans 3:5 says, But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance, (I speak as a man) I believe Paul here is addressing the concept that since our sins prove the righteousness of God, then God has no right to punish us for our sins.  The argument seemed to be if the unbelief of the Jew led to the gospel going to the Gentiles, then how could God be upset with the Jews.  We need to be wary of ever getting the idea that we, especially as followers of Christ, can sin because God has provided us with salvation and since that is true, He is glorified further by our future sins.  Our unrighteousness may point others to Christ, but this does not mean that God is unfair in punishing our sin.  Paul said even as a carnal man he recognized that the concept that our sin somehow ultimately glorifies God and is therefore acceptable is wrong.  We can never justify our sins, even if they lead to the glory of God ultimately.  Verse six adds, God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?  Paul again makes a strong declaration that God forbid such thinking.  If we believe that our sins are simply another way of bringing honor to God because He shows greater forgiveness, and this is true, then God really couldn't judge the world.  This leads to the idea that everyone is ultimately going to be saved, no matter what, because this proves the glory of God.  Paul stated very strongly that this was not the case.  We can never justify sin as being a way to show the glory of God.  Verse seven continues, For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?  Paul asks how he could be judged a sinner if his lies led to the truth of God.  Even if lies that we present about God ultimately lead to showing the truth of His forgiveness, we will still be held accountable for our sins.  Only through the truth of accepting Christ as our Savior and Lord can we find forgiveness.  Verse eight concludes this thought stating, And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. There may be people today who make false claims about what Christianity proclaims, but we need to be quick to point out the errors and stand firmly on the world of God.  We can never let it be said that we are free to sin so we can bring glory to God.

Romans 3:1

Romans 3:1 states, What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?  Paul was discussing the Jew versus the Gentile, and here was raising the question that many might have had based on what he had said.  If being identified as one of God's people made no difference, then what was the advantage in being a Jew?  Verse two adds, Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.  Paul said the chief advantage of the Jew was that God's Law, His oracles, were committed to them. Matthew Henry says that the Jews were the keepers of God's library for the Christians.  They were given the words of life to point people to God and the coming Messiah.  We, as the church today, have these same words of truth.  The Jews preserved the Old Testament for us, and it is our responsibility to preserve and share the Old and New Testament for the world today and for generations to come.  Verse three continues, For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?  Paul had been discussing the unbelieving Jew and the believing Gentile.  Here, Paul was stating that the unbelief of some, even the majority of the Jews, did not make belief in God be without effect.  The fact that some today profess to be Christians but fail to follow God's plan for salvation does not mean that God's plan is ineffective.  We, as followers of Christ, as the church, still are entrusted with the word of God, and those who are truly His, in word and deed, have every advantage.  We can never let the actions of others, even those who profess to belong to God but don't acknowledge His truth stand between us and God.  Verse four concludes, God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.  Here Paul was making a declaration of the eternal truth of God.  God's truth will never fail to be the truth, even if the whole world attempts to deny it.  The only way we are going to be able to overcome when we are judged is by accepting the truth of God.  Our lies may fool the world, but they will never fool God.