One Identity: The Gospel Unites Us All
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Me
You
Romans 3:1-20
Romans 3:1-20
1 So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2 Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the very words of God. 3 What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Absolutely not! Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar, as it is written:
That you may be justified in your words
and triumph when you judge.
5 But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I am using a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? 6 Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world? 7 But if by my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!
9 What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, 10 as it is written:
There is no one righteous, not even one.
11 There is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away;
all alike have become worthless.
There is no one who does what is good,
not even one.
13 Their throat is an open grave;
they deceive with their tongues.
Vipers’ venom is under their lips.
14 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and wretchedness are in their paths,
17 and the path of peace they have not known.
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment. 20 For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
If you remember last week you remember that Paul spent a great deal of time talking about Jews and Gentiles.
That Christ has come and so he spends the first bit of this chapters answering the question what is the point of begin a Jew at all. He doesn’t really finish that discussion until Romans 9.
We in this room are largely made up of Gentiles. We aren’t Jews.
But we do owe a great deal to the Jews.
The Jews were the ones entrusted with the very words of God. The words of The Old Testament, Jesus himself was a Jew.
And just because they as a people have become unfaithful doesn’t mean that God would stop being unfaithful.
And aren’t we Glad that is the way it works. Just because our nation is in a state of decline because we killed God, doesn’t mean that God has stopped being Faithful to His promises.
That however doesn’t give us an excuse, as Paul will tell the assembly in Rome, for us to act in sin because he will forgive you.
If People’s propensity to lie only makes God’s truthfulness stand out more clearly, and thus his glory, why are people condemned for something that glorifies God?
To answer in modern terms, Paul would say that the end does not justify the means. Getting to the right place (God’s glory) the wrong way (by man’s sin) can never be justified.
As to those who suggest such a thing, Paul says, their condemnation is deserved.
Interesting enough as it is, we often don’t like to think this way,
Our deserving of condemnation that helps draws us together as a community.
We need Jesus. Jews and Gentiles alike. We need Jesus.
We are all under sin, and will be judged appropriately and this gives us one identity. One people, not Jew or Gentile, american or Chinese but all under Christ and In need of Christ, because we are broken.
“Righteous” Jews or unrighteous Jews, all have turned away … there is no one who does good, not even one. That is true generally, and it is true specifically: throats … tongues … lips … mouths … feet … eyes are all guilty, going their own way. The senses and sensibilities of humans—both Gentile and Jew—have validated the Word of God.
Bring this into the context of the Letter as a whole.
Paul is making a case to the Roman believers that the whole world needs the gospel, and has demonstrated that Gentiles deserve God’s wrath. Lest Jews think they will escape God’s judgment by their privileged position, he now shows that they also need the gospel as a result of failing to obey God’s law.
The world needs the Gospel because of our humanities single identity in our brokenness.
So often we divide our selves by culture, creed, race, social status, economics, political party but in the end we all are linked in one Identity. We need Jesus
So we link together as one identity with people across the nations, across boundaries to join together as one. That is in Christ.
Next Steps
Next Steps
As we are linked together we share the Love of Christ.
But we as Christians have in society and still long for it want to legislate morality. so that they can’t behave like non Christians. This does not work. We should not be surprised when the World acts like the world.
We must focus on Sharing the Love of Christ and bringing people into the Community.
God shows no partiality—“Even Jews Need the Gospel.”
Bibliography
Bibliography
Barnhouse, Donald Grey. God’s Wrath: Romans 2–3:1–20. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1953.
Boa, Kenneth, and William Kruidenier. Romans. Vol. 6 of Holman New Testament Commentary. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000.
W., Jackson. Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes: Honor and Shame in Paul’s Message and Mission. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2019.