May 5, 2013 Sermon Notes
M. Kelly
Romans 2:17-3:8
Paul has set out to show how all men are under the wrath of God. His wrath is continually being revealed at all times against ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. This is why the world is the way it is...because of the wrath of God that is being revealed now.
The way the world is proves that the promises of God are true and that He is faithful to His Word.
Paul's gospel is the true gospel. Without the judgement, wrath and justice of God there is no gospel! There are many counterfeit gospels out there that omit these things and just focus on God's love.
If righteousness is through the law, then no man will stand justified before God. No man can keep the law of God perfectly. There must be a righteousness obtained not through the law if one is to stand justified before God.
So far we have learned in Chapter 1:1-2:1-16
1. All men are condemned
2. Self righteous moralist is condemned~ being better than others.
3. The one trusting in his religious rites and ceremonies is condemned.
Paul systematically closes all the doors to stand just before God outside of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Circumcision set the Jew apart in a physical sense to obey the law.
In chapter three Paul deals with the strong objections of the Jews. Paul is was a Jew. He was a Pharisee and he know their arguments because their arguments were his!
Chapter three
Verses 1-8 Paul deals with the natural objections regarding to what he wrote in chapter 2.
Verses 19-20 Jews as well as Gentiles are all law breakers and guilty!
Verses 21-31 The only way to justification is through Christ Jesus by faith
Has God failed in His plan with the Jews? Has He failed to uphold His promises to the Jews?
What then is the advantage to the Jew? Paul gives one advantage: They were entrusted with the oracles of God. It's the same answer for us.
They were trusting in their religious advantages and privileges as many do today.
What advantage has the Jew, being circumcised? The privileges that they enjoy is great but not a way to justification!
They are not justifying advantages! It is an advantage but the advantage will not justify a man before God!
They were advantaged to receive the oracles of God. The types, the shadows, direction, He sustained them in ways that He did not do for other nations. All of this was a preparation for the gospel. Always pointing to the gospel! They were the first ones to receive special revelation from God.
Having the word of God is special revelation but it wasn't necessarily saving revelation.
The gospel came to the Jew first! They had the law first! This should have been the way for them to discover themselves to be sinners!
The law is a sign pointing toward our need of Christ! So the law was an advantage to the Jews because it pointed them to Christ.
Men still trust in their religious privileges for their justification. They are told by lying teachers that their way of justification is good and right and they have no worries. Many are told if they come forward in a church meeting they will be saved. It's a lie! Unless God saves a person, they are given false hope!
Our natural idea that we must obey the law to be justified is correct! We must obey the law perfectly to be justified! That is the bad news! We can't do it, so therefore we can't be justified except through the obedience of Jesus Christ on our behalf!
A Christian is the worst of sinners saved by grace! We have no good works prior to the law or after the law! It's all of grace, a gift of God that we should be saved!
Another objection:
V. 3 If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?
The promises of God are attached to obedience and this obedience is through the obedience of Jesus Christ to keep the law perfectly in our place. The fact that many Jews didn't believe and still don't believe do not nullify the promises of God. Part of the promises of God include the punishment for rejection of Jesus Christ.
The Promise is for the faithful, the elect and God always planned to deal with the remnant of the Jews who God saved. Galatians 3:7-11
Galatians 3:12-14
"The promise of the Spirit through faith."
Luke 3:8 Do not say you have Abraham for your father....he can raise up children from the stones! You lineage doesn't matter when it comes to the promises of God. The Jews misunderstood the promises of God.
The sinnfulness of man and God's wrath upon him does not nullify the promises of God. Instead it proves His faithfulness! The condition of our world doesn't nullify the promises of God, but instead it establishes that God is faithful and that He does exist because these things are promised in God's word!!!
God's truth is not dependant on man's belief of it!
Unbelievers do not possess the promises of redemption but they do possess the promises of God's wrath and judgement.
Verse 4 God is true and anything contrary to His truth is a lie. Sinful man looks at God's word and doesn't like it and wants to get rid of it. We must look at God's word and see it is true and deny our own opinions...make ourselves liars and God true!
Man has a sinful, low view of God and His judgement!
We must be glad that Jesus has obeyed the law perfectly on our behalf because without His obedience on our behalf we are condemned!!!
The God is love and He doesn't want to punish anyone is a lie! It ignores God's faithfulness to judge and punish sinners who are outside of Christ. A god who is all love and no justice is a god of man's imagination!
🌹🌺🌻Marsha🌻🌺🌹
He is the Α and Ω and everything in between. Îστιν ÏŒ Α Ω. (Revelation 22:13)
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