Romans 3: 1 - 8

1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? ² Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.

³ What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? ⁴ Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written:

‘So that you may be proved right when you speak
    and prevail when you judge.’

⁵ But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) ⁶ Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? ⁷ Someone might argue, ‘If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?’ ⁸ Why not say – as some slanderously claim that we say – ‘Let us do evil that good may result’? Their condemnation is just!

Grace: Undeserved Kindness

Paul was an experienced preacher in public meetings – indoors and in the open air. He had stood in the market place, or the temple courts, or in a synagogue and talked to crowds of Jews about how Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s covenant with his people, and their salvation comes through the grace of God, rather than because they are circumcised Jews who have the law of Moses. In preaching like that, he may well have faced hecklers – people shouting out comments and questions from the crowd. And some of those questions might be quite reasonable, and worth addressing.

In this passage, it is as if Paul is responding to the questions of hecklers in the crowd. Whether these are questions people have actually raised when Paul has preached, or whether, perhaps, they are in fact issues that Paul himself has wrestled with, we don’t know. It is quite possible and likely that they are both!

In chapter 2, which we looked at on Friday, Paul said that being a Jew ‘outwardly’ is not enough – it is about what goes on in your heart that counts. So the first ‘heckler’ question today is in verse 1 – what value is there in being a Jew? And he answers – ‘Plenty!’ the Jews have been entrusted with God’s word in the ancient scriptures.

The second ‘heckle’ in verse 3 is what happens when a person is unfaithful to God – will God then be unfaithful to them? Not at all, answers Paul. No matter how much human beings might lie, God is always true. He never lets us go or lets us down. If I don’t believe in God, he will still believe in me!

Thirdly, in verse 5, the imagined heckler is boldly suggesting that sinful behaviour is excusable because it allows God to demonstrate his love. The more sin, the greater the good news! ‘So God is unjust to judge people.’ Paul doesn’t even allow this argument that God is unjust – nothing could be further from the truth. And finally, in verses 7 and 8, the imagined heckler takes it to the final extreme, saying we might as well just do evil, so that good may result. And Paul won’t even answer that. In fact he comes back to the same question later in this letter, in chapter 6, verse 1.

Once again, some of this might seem a bit cerebral for us, or lacking in immediate relevance, especially the questions about Jewishness. However, the key element for us today is that God loves us, and he puts that love into action in ‘grace’ – the attribute of God by which he gives us good things simply because it is his nature. And when we receive that grace, love, kindness and forgiveness, how could we possibly repay him by choosing a path of sin? It would be illogical! So the arbitrary argument that grace increases as sin increases is not even worthy of consideration!

 

Prayer

Lord I thank you for your love and grace – unmerited kindness. May I always seek to love you and to live for you, never even considering an ‘excuse’ to choose sin. Amen.