The study of the Book of Romans chapter 3
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:
I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is my sincere Prayer that you are being Blessed even as you read this email.
Today, we study the Book of Romans chapter 3.
3:1 Circumcision made Israel a distinctive nation, so Paul has national superiority and privilege in view. The question is, "What benefit is there to being a member of the Jewish race?"
3:2 Oracles of God refers to the words of the Old Testament, which Paul, like other New Testament writers and even Jesus Himself, regarded as divinely inspired.
3:3, 4 God forbid (Greek me genoito, "may it never be," "perish the thought"): This direct denial is a formula of negation in which the individual recoils with horror at something that is previously suggested. It occurs in Paul's writings more than 60 times. Let God be true refers to God's keeping His promises to Israel. God's faithfulness does not depend upon the faithfulness of man.
3:9 Are we better than they? The sense seems to be: "Are we any less deserving of God's judgment than the Gentiles? For we Jews have rejected God's revelation (2:18-29) and God's Messiah" (3:1-8).
3:10-18 Paul quotes Scripture to prove universal guilt. Scripture, not Paul, is the judge. See Psalm 5:9; 10:7; 14:1-3; 140:3; Isaiah 59:7, 8.
3:20 By the law: The purpose of the law was to bring conviction and prove guilt, not for justification. The law never justified anyone; its purpose is to reveal sin.
3:21 The righteousness: The emphasis here is on the gift of personal relationship to God imparted to those who trust Christ (5:17). But now: Paul's emphasis shifts to the new age or dispensation. He is not contrasting Jew and Gentile but the time when the law held sway and the present time when grace prevails.
3:22 Faith of [or "in"] Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ is the only valid object in which man must place his faith.
3:23 For all have sinned: The human need and the divine provision are alike applied universally. Come short of the glory of God: Man can exceed his own standards but never, left to himself, he can attain to God's standard of righteousness.
3:24 Being justified (Greek dikaioumenoi) indicates being declared righteous. It signifies the believer's judicial standing before God. Freely: There is no just cause in man to warrant justification. By his grace: Unmerited favor is bestowed through the redemption (release on payment of ransom). Christ's death is the ransom. The sinner is released on the basis of the ransom's having been paid.
3:25, 26 Through faith: Christ's death satisfies the Father's righteous demands. Its benefits are appropriated only through faith in His finished work. In his blood: The emphasis is not on the blood as it coursed through Christ's veins, but as it was shed for our sins. This is how the propitiation was accomplished. Just, and the justifier: God can remain just (true to His nature) and still declare sinners to be righteous only because Christ has paid for sin and satisfied (propitiated) His holy law. The sinner is not rendered guiltless but pardoned. Christ has taken then sin on Himself and has imputed His righteousness to the sinner.
3:27-31 Paul gives three reasons why the principle of justification by faith does not vitiate the law: (1) because it omits any ground of boasting; (2) because the same God establishes both; and (3) because Jesus Christ fulfilled the law; He did not destroy it.
Yours in Jesus Christ,
Bishop William B. Caractor
