The Righteousness Debate
Romans 3:5-6
October 7, 2007
Of course, we are in a section of Scripture in which Paul is answering common arguments that he faced when preaching the gospel.
Last Sunday morning, we saw “The Religion Debate”.
Paul spent chapter 2 telling the Jews that their religion had no saving value.
“If our religion has no value to save,
Then what advantage is there in being religious?”
Being involved in religion, you have access to the word of God,
And that is a good thing.
Sunday night we saw “The Faithfulness Debate”
“Paul you said Jews aren’t saved just because they are Jews,
Then are you saying that God lied to Abraham?”
“May it never be!”
God wasn’t unfaithful, it was the Jews who were unfaithful.
Besides God’s promise to Abraham was not a physical one
But a spiritual one anyway.
And so Paul’s point that Jews without Jesus
Are lost and in need of a Savior still stands strong.
This morning we get the third argument.
“The Righteousness Debate”
Vs. 5, “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He?”
Now hopefully you picked up on the accusation.
It is people so in love with their life, that they actually accuse God
Of being unrighteous for being angry at them.
“The Righteousness Debate”
But before we dive into the specifics of that debate, I want to take a few minutes and explain where this question comes from.
And I want you to see that the basis for this argument
Is not gone today by any means.
There is a key and vital component in regard to salvation.
(Indeed there are several,
But I want to specifically remind you of one this morning.)
It is the one that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 16.
Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
We talk about it a lot,
If a man is to come to Jesus, he must “deny himself.”
Jesus of course taught it again in
Matthew 13:44-46 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Jesus taught that entrance into the kingdom was not “free”
It is free in the sense that you cannot buy it,
But in one sense, it very really costs you everything.
And the reason of course is because selfishness
Is exactly opposite of the attitude that God is looking for.
Self is the biggest idol that man allows to rest in his heart,
And so in order to be saved, that idol must be removed.
AND SO MAN MUST “DENY HIMSELF”
Some responded accurately to the call.
Matthew 4:18-22 “Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.”
Luke 19:5-9 “When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.”
And you see that these guys turned their back
On the important things of life in order to follow Jesus.
Some however, responded in a less than acceptable manner
Matthew 19:21-22 “Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.”
Luke 9:57-62 “As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Jesus was asking for them to deny the very most important things about their lives in order to follow Him.
And this is not new with Jesus.
God was asking this, even in the Old Testament.
Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Then later he was tested again.
Genesis 22:1-3 “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.”
The Psalmist understood this requirement.
Psalms 45:10-11 “Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear Forget your people and your father’s house; Then the King will desire your beauty. Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him.”
AND THE POINT IS
In order to be saved, you must see the worth of your life Through God’s eyes.
If you need help:
Isaiah 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
You must see that there is absolutely nothing you bring to the table.
There is absolutely nothing of merit to God in your life.
You have absolutely no bargaining power, and no leverage.
There is nothing worth keeping in your old life.
It is to confess with Paul.
Romans 7:18 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.”
And of course this is the attitude required for salvation.
Matthew 5:3-10 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
It is a person so spiritually broken, realizing their spiritual bankruptcy,
Not only do they hate their sin, and hunger for righteousness,
But they are willing to fully surrender to the God who can supply it.
To be saved a person must completely disown their entire life.
And that is summed up in what Jesus told Nicodemus.
John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
And when you read a statement like that, I hope you get the picture.
Denying self is not just a commitment to change your actions.
Denying self is not just a commitment to do things better…
Denying self is not just a commitment to stop doing things bad…
You must look upon your entire life as being futile in all attempts.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WORTH SAVING
IT IS NOT SIMPLY A DENIAL OF DEEDS, BUT A DENIAL OF SELF.
To Peter this meant letting go of his dreams.
Matthew 16:21-24 “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
Thomas had to deny his right to live.
John 11:16 “Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”
But perhaps we see it even better in Paul,
Who declared, that not only was his future in the hands of God,
But also his past was absolutely worthless.
Philippians 3:5-7 “circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”
DO YOU GET THE PICTURE
To reach a point to cry out to Jesus,
Man must realize that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
Worth saving in the old life.
BUT AS YOU KNOW
MANKIND HATES THAT THOUGHT
In a temporal sense we hate it.
Type in a sermon, only to realize that it is not right.
TIME – WORK – ENERGY
Wasted and valueless
BUT EVEN BIGGER IN REGARD TO SALVATION
It is not as though the last few hours of our life is wrong,
It started with the first brick.
It was laid by a carnal heart, bent on self, in love with the world;
And because the foundation is wrong, the whole house must come down.
We have to turn our back on the whole thing and start over.
So you can see why the Jews here hated Paul’s teaching
That all of their religion was in vain.
AND SO THEY ARE CHALLENGING PAUL HERE.
BUT THE CHALLENGE IS NOT WHAT YOU WOULD THINK.
You would think they would argue
That there was value in their religion.
Paul already proved that wrong.
Romans 2:17-24 “But if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For “THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,” just as it is written.”
And so now, KNOWING that argument holds no ground,
The Jews give Paul a most unusual and backwards approach.
They are scrapping for any reason at all
Why they don’t have to completely discard their entire life
#1 THE MISCONCEPTION
Romans 3:5
And this is really an amazingly far-fetched and backwards approach
That is given here by the Jews.
“But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God..?”
“demonstrates” translates SUNISTEMI (soon-is-tee-mee)
Literally “to stand with”
“to approve, to commend, to exhibit”
The idea is that when we sin,
We only succeed in making God look that much better.
THEY LOST THE ARGUMENT THAT THEIR RELIGION
MADE GOD LOOK GOOD
“name of God is blasphemed”
So now the Jews try a different approach.
“Your right Paul, our good deeds weren’t really good, they were actually bad, but if they were bad, it only makes God look that much better”.
It gets better.
“But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He?”
Now they have actually concocted a full blown heresy.
If our badness only makes God look that much better,
Then God should not be angry with us.
In fact, if God is angry with us, when all we did was make God look better, Then God is the one with the real problem.
It is literally a worldly logic argument.
In fact Paul says, “(I am speaking in human terms)”
BUT WHAT IT REALLY IS:
Is another attempt of mankind to justify
Their wicked, selfish, unacceptable behavior.
If God isn’t pleased with me, then God is the one with the problem.
Why do you think people are so quick to argue with the Bible?
The Bible condemns their sin, so they condemn the Bible.
That is precisely the same thing that is going on here.
But let’s look at how Paul answers them.
#2 THE MESSAGE
Romans 3:6
There again we get that strong statement from Paul
“May it never be!”
It is an absolute foolish and faulty assumption
To even assume for one second
That God is anything but perfectly righteous.
That is not even up for debate.
Isaiah 6:1-3 “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”
In fact 25 times does the book of Isaiah refer to God as “The Holy One of Israel”
The angels in Revelation second that claim.
Revelation 4:8 “And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,
“HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY,WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.”
Psalms 99:9 “Exalt the LORD our God And worship at His holy hill, For holy is the LORD our God.”
If the only way you can justify yourself is by condemning God,
You will never justify yourself, for God is holy.
He is perfectly righteous.
Psalms 97:1-6 “The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; Let the many islands be glad. Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him And burns up His adversaries round about. His lightnings lit up the world; The earth saw and trembled. The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples have seen His glory.”
God is righteous.
When He says sin is sin, He is right to say so.
When He says someone is guilty, He is right to say so.
When He is angry, His anger is always just.
When He is full of rage, it is always right.
So these Jews need to know that God is not unrighteous in being angry with them, for He is never unrighteous.
But then Paul does a very interesting thing in proving his point.
There are several ways, and several examples,
Paul could have used to prove God’s righteousness.
Paul could have talked about His great faithfulness…
Paul could have mentioned how many good things God has done…
Paul could have quoted a bunch of Old Testament…
BUT HE DIDN’T
DID YOU CATCH HOW PAUL REMINDED THESE JEWS OF GOD’S PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS?
By reminding them of judgment.
“For otherwise, how will God judge the world?”
THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD THAT PROVES THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD BETTER THAN HIS JUDGMENT.
Paul already stated it.
Romans 2:9-11 “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”
Paul was not simply trying to prove to the Jews that God was righteous.
God is righteous, whether they believe it or not.
Paul is reminding the Jews that if they don’t deny themselves,
They will fall under the righteous judgment of God.
They can justify their sin until they are blue in the face…
They can invent all sorts of reasons why God shouldn’t judge them…
But it won’t matter, for God judges in righteousness.
Every sin must be paid for.
Hebrews 9:22 “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
Come the final day of judgment men will throw all sorts of arguments at God as to why He shouldn’t judge them.
Some will say, I did good, and of course they did not do good enough.
Some will say, I did bad, but it made you look good, that won’t was either.
God is not asking men to justify themselves.
God is asking men to deny themselves.
You see God already made a way to justify men.
That is found through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:23-24 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;”
God is asking men to deny themselves and follow Jesus.
As long as you try to hold on to your life, there can be no salvation.
Matthew 16:25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
In order to be saved, you must come to grips with the fact,
That there is nothing in your life ever,
That is of any value in regard to saving you.
No good deed you ever did…
No religious work you ever accomplished…
No amount of trying hard…
It all has to be scrapped, it was built on a faulty foundation.
Then you must quit looking to yourself for justification
And start looking to Jesus.
That is why Jesus didn’t stop after He told us to deny ourselves.
Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, AND take up his cross and follow Me.”
Quit trusting in yourself, and start trusting in Jesus.
He was sinless.
He was perfect.
He died for sinful man.
And if sinful man will deny himself and trust Him for salvation.
He will be saved.
“The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous is He?”
ABSOLUTELY NOT
Mankind deserves the judgment that awaits.
But this morning, you can be saved from the wrath of God.
Romans 5:8-9 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”
