Is God unfair?
The Glory of the Gospel: Studies in the Book of Romans • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsPeople may raise objections, but God is still Righteous
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Paul asks the question in v. 9, “are Jews better off than Gentiles?” In other words, as it relates to the specifics of salvation, is it better to be an Ethnic Jew? Paul’s answer is NO. He then supports his answer biblically.
Paul has already addressed those who are clearly immoral and anti-God, and then he exposed the hypocrisy of the moral righteous people, and then he dealt the with the Jewish / Gentile issue as to who was eligible for salvation. In each of these categories, Paul has demonstrated that all of the members of the groups do not have an adequate basis for righteousness and that all members of these various groups are under God’s condemnation.
At the beginning of Chapter 3, he begins to proactively deal with objections that could be raised by his Jewish audience(vv. 1-8). While the primary meaning of this passage relates to specific issues from his Jewish audience, the essence of the objections continue to be used in the modern age. Scripture is always relevant - we don’t have to try to make it relevant. But since it is relevant, it makes good sense for us to understand it and apply it to our lives.
Potential Objections
Potential Objections
1st Objection: What’s the point of being one of God’s chosen people?
1st Objection: What’s the point of being one of God’s chosen people?
Explanation: The first potential objection would be from his Jewish audience and it could be stated like this: what’s the point of being a Jew? Paul had just dealt with the reality that the law and circumcision by themselves didn’t profit in terms of salvation (ch 2: 12-29). Paul therefore anticipates that a Jew might then say, “then what good is it to be a Jew? I thought we were God’s chosen people, but you’re telling us we are still in bad shape?
Paul’s response is that there is indeed value in being a Jew because God had entrusted His revelation to them as a people group. The Jews had greater access to the knowledge of the One True God than the other nations. And it is true that the NATION was chosen by God; individual Jews could be included in God’s family through faith, or an individual Jew could remain outside God’s family due to unbelief. Paul is reminding them that along with access comes greater responsibility.
Illustrate: When a team has several losing seasons or even one terrible season, the coach is most often the one who loses his job - not the players.
Argument: Consider the access to the Gospel for Americans. We live in a free country with religious liberty, Bibles are readily accessible in print and in digital format, Christian churches are in every community, and the Gospel is proclaimed through the medium of TV, radio, and internet. There is literally no excuse for someone in this country to try to justify how he or she was prevented from hearing about Jesus.
Application: Ensure that you have a personal faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. The Jews were counting on their ethnicity as one of Abraham’s physical descendants; many Americans are counting on being the grandchild of a preacher or having a Christian mother.
2nd objection: Majority Rules
2nd objection: Majority Rules
Explanation: The 2nd potential objection arises with the idea that since a lot of the Jews were rejecting Jesus as their Messiah did that mean that their collective unbelief made God wrong? Paul answers with a resounding NO! In v. 4 Paul emphatically states, “God forbid!” He tells his readers that God is true, even if the whole world would reject the Messiah.
Illustrate: There are some today that think numbers matter when it comes to religious belief. “After all, 700 million Buddhists can’t be wrong, can they?” Actually they not only CAN be wrong, but they ARE wrong.
Argument: Truth is not dependent upon a percentage. As a representative democracy America operates from a majority rules perspective. If 51% of the population votes for a particular person in an election, that person is declared the winner.
That may work well in politics, but it is a disaster when it comes to spiritual belief. Biblical Christianity is a very small percentage in this country, and current trends don’t show us gaining much ground. If you require a majority to stay with a belief system, you probably aren’t going to stay with Christianity for the long haul.
NOTE: Even genuine believers can be negatively impacted by the idea of majority makes something right. This has been demonstrated by the growing number of evangelicals who now accept the concept of “gay Christian” just because our society has embraced it. There is a desire to be on the perceived “right side” of history. While a number of Christians in America have been on the wrong side of biblical truth in the past, that does not change biblical truth. Wrong has alway been wrong, even if some Christians fail to recognize the truth.
Application: Understand and embrace the concept of Absolute Truth.
The 3rd Objection - God is immoral if He desires people to commit more sin so Grace can be even more gracious
The 3rd Objection - God is immoral if He desires people to commit more sin so Grace can be even more gracious
Explanation: The third potential objection is raised in v. 5 when the idea is raised that God is okay with our sinful behavior because it makes His overcoming it even that much greater. And if that is so, then it is unfair of God to judge us for our sin because our sin is actually helping to increase the level of His grace. That is such a silly argument, but it is one that people continue to make
Illustration: We should be thanking our government for giving everyone stimulus checks and by continuing to pay people more than they could make at a job. It’s actually a privilege to pay $3.30 cents for a gallon of gas and pay $7 for a pound of hamburger.
Argument: This same type of logic is applied in the arena of forgiveness. Think about a young lady who grows up in a Christian home and surrenders her life to Christ when she is 13 and never goes off the rails immorally because of her faith in Christ. Now consider a young lady who gets hooked on drugs at 13, lives a sexually immoral lifestyle, loses her children born out of wedlock because she is unfit as a parent, serves some time in jail, and then is wondrously saved at 35. We compare the 2 and think that God showed more grace to the drug addict than He did for the girl who grew up in a Christian home.
We don’t understand the depravity of sin. The 13 year old who never went off the rails was just as lost and undone as the other girl. Neither of them was innocent; neither of them deserved salvation; both received the same amount of God’s unmerited favor through their respective faith in the finished work of Christ on their behalf. Jesus did not shed a few drops more for the second girl than the first. Grace is truly amazing in that ANY of us is made acceptable in God’s sight.
Paul had a correct understanding of God’s amazing Grace and he therefore condemned the idea of sinning more so grace could abound. He had an appreciation of the gravity of sin, any and all sin, that put Jesus on the Cross, and he was indignant at those who accused him of thinking or living like that.
Conclusion: mankind has been making excuses for thousands of years, starting with Adam trying to blame Eve for his poor choice to sin. None of these excuses have merit, and none will be accepted by God at the Judgment. The LORD is a benevolent dictator, but He is a dictator - He is Sovereign and He is in Charge and the universe operates according to His standard, not man’s standard.
So, to answer the question we started with: Is God fair? The answer may surprise you, but NO, God is not fair - He is just. I am grateful for that truth about God because if God was Fair I would be on my way to Hell, which is what I deserve. I don’t want FAIR - I want Grace!