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Romans 14: Blessed is the Man (4: 1-8)

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Introduction

The word imputation may seem like one of those technical-sounding theological words to make your head hurt, but it is really quite straightforward—and full of blessing.

The Text

“What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:1-8)

Summary of the Text

What did Abraham, our father, discover (v. 1)? He would have had something to boast about if he had been justified by works (v. 2). The problem is that this is not possible for any flesh, and so Abraham wouldn’t have been able to boast before God (v. 2). What does the Bible say about his justification? It says that Abraham believed God, and that this was reckoned to him, counted to him, imputed to him, as righteousness (v. 3). The basic division between works and grace is then outlined—work gets a paycheck, and this is the antithesis of grace (v. 4). But for the one who does not work, but instead believes in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned, counted, imputed to him for righteousness (v. 5). David describes the blessed condition of a man who has received this grace, and it is a two-fold grace. First, God imputes righteousness apart from works (v. 6). Paul then quotes the place where Davide says this (Ps. 32:1-2), and he does so to double effect. Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven (v. 7), and whose sins are covered (v. 7). He continues—blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin (v. 8). We have two kinds of imputation here. The positive imputation of righteousness, and the non-imputation of sin.

How Can He Do That?

Remember that in chapter three, the apostle has established the basis for how God does this without ceasing to be holy. He is the God who wants to be just and the one who justifies. Reckoning, counting and imputing righteousness (apart from a propitiatory sacrifice offered by a genuine and lawful substitute) is acquitting the guilty without foundation, a thing that a holy God cannot and will not do. So this is why Jesus died and rose again—He did so as our representative. So fix it in your hearts and minds—Jesus did not die so that we might live. He died so that we might die, and He lives so that we might live.

Ungodly Abraham

Paul is here setting Abraham before us as the paradigm of faith, but in the Bible faith is always preceded by repentance. Abraham is our father in repentance, and not just in faith. He did all that we need to do (4:23), and we certainly need to repent. Here in v. 5, we see that Abraham (like us) was trusting in the God who justifies the ungodly. And last, the Bible is plain that Abraham was called out of idolatry and sin (Josh. 24:2). Abraham, the father of pilgrims, was himself a pilgrim.

A Direct Object Implied

We also have to take a moment to decipher some Pauline shorthand. He says here that Abraham’s belief of God was counted unto him for righteousness (v. 3). This is also a general truth—anyone who believes God has his faith counted for righteousness (v. 5). But does this mean that God is taking my faith (as imperfect as anything else I do), and treating that faith as my righteousness? No, not at all. The ground of our righteousness is the life and death of the Lord Jesus—our representative. That righteousness is apprehended by us using the instrument of faith.

When Jesus tells someone “your faith has saved you,” this is a comparable form of shorthand (Luke 7:50; 18:42). Of course, Jesus saved these people, and not their naked faith. We see the same thing here. The person who is justified here “believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.” So faith counted as righteousness is short for faith in the representative substitute who is counted as that righteousness. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to have faith in your faith. Your isolated faith can’t justify anyone or anything.

A Triple Imputation

We must shake loose of our individualism. The problem is in the ism, not in the individual as such. True individuality does exist, but autonomous individuality does not. We are not individuals in the sense that marbles in a box are—we are like individual leaves on a tree. One differs from another, but they are all connected.

The connection is a covenantal one. There are two human races, and each one has a covenantal head, a federal head. Adam is the head of the first race, and Jesus is the head of the new human race, and there is a covenantal or imputational bridge between the two races—making it possible for us to transferred from the old humanity to the new. Here are the three great imputations. Adam sinned as your representative, and so his rebellion against God was imputed to you. In Adam, you rebelled against God. God in His mercy caused that original sin (in which you participated through your representative) and all your individual sins, to be imputed to Jesus Christ on the cross (2 Cor. 5: 21). This is the imputational bridge, and it is referred to here in our text (v. 8). And finally, God imputes the righteousness of the new Adam to every member of His race.

So Adam’s sin was yours. All your sins are Christ’s. And all Christ’s righteousness is now yours in the resurrection. Lift up your heads.

Grace and Works Cannot Mix

Works are connected to things that men would love to have, but which they cannot have. Men outside Christ would love to boast, but they cannot boast before God (v. 2). They would love to receive a reward in the judgment, a reward through which God pays them what He owes them—as a matter of debt (v. 4). Men love the idea of being a standard of righteousness unto themselves, and this is why they loathe and despise every form of free and sovereign grace. And free and sovereign grace repulses every form of works, striving, earning, moralistic tip-toeing, meriting, goody-two-shoeing, shucking or jiving.

But there is an up side. The reason you are saved at all is because you are saved by grace.

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Romans 13: The Just God Who Justifies (3:21-31)

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Introduction

If God failed to fulfill His promise to Abraham, then He would be unjust. If God fulfilled His promise by simply declaring that everyone was now justified, then He would be unjust under that circumstance as well. If He doesn’t save the nations, then He is unjust. If He saves the nations, then He is unjust. But He has declared His intention to Abraham to do this anyway—He will be true, even though every man fails. How will He be able to do that? This passage answers that question.

The Text

“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God . . .” (Rom. 3:21-31).

Summary of the Text

The righteousness of God, His faithfulness to Abraham, is now manifested. The law and the prophets testify to this, and His righteousness is now manifested “apart from law” (v. 21). What do those who believe receive? Unto all and upon all that believe, this righteousness of God comes in the form of Jesus Christ’s faithful obedience (v. 22). There is no difference between Jew and Gentile (as we have learned), and so we see that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (v. 23). But as they share in the dilemma, they share in the gospel that delivers them from the dilemma—justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (v. 24). This Jesus was “set forth” to be a propitiation for those who have faith in His blood (v. 25). This propitiation (an averting of wrath) was necessary to vindicate God’s righteousness—His forbearance of sins in the past could have led to false conclusions (v. 25). This propitiation in the present time declares His righteousness—for the one who believes in Jesus, He may be both just and the one who justifies (v. 26). This kind of salvation excludes boasting because it excludes works (v. 27). This is why a man (Jew or Gentile) is justified by faith, apart from the deeds of the law (v. 28). The Jew is justified apart from Torah, and the Gentile is justified apart from natural law. This glorious provision of justification apart from law is given to both Jew and Gentile (v. 29). One God, one new mankind, one faith (v. 30). Does this mean the Torah was worthless? No, not at all. This fulfills the whole point of the Torah (v. 31), which was to prepare for the Messiah.

The Righteousness of God

The righteousness of God is not mediated to us directly. God promises to bring a Messiah, and His righteous word is fulfilled when He does so. And what does that Messiah do? He reveals or manifests the righteousness of God in two ways. First, God shows His righteousness by fulfilling His promise (v. 21). Second, God shows His righteousness by having His Son live a perfect, sinless life—God sent an Israelite who would finally live as Israel was required to live by the Torah (v. 22). He would be perfect. God shows His faithfulness by sending a Messiah who would be faithful on our behalf. Since all have been shut up into the same prisonhouse of sin (v. 23), it only makes sense that the key that will unlock that common prisonhouse will be the same key—the key of faith. Faith in what? Faith in whom? Faith in the righteous God who sent Jesus Christ to be faithful on our behalf (v. 22).

Falling Short of Glory

It is important for us to note that Paul is talking about the salvation of the world. He does not have a truncated focus, that of trying to get a handful of individual souls into heaven when they die. Now it is just fine to go to heaven when you die, and you have the church’s blessing for those of you who want to do so. But the salvation plan that Paul is outlining here is nothing less than a restoration of Eden, and a great deal more than that (Rom. 5:20). Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and it has not yet penetrated the heart of man . . . what God has in store for us. But all of it is connected in some way to that word glory.

A Cluster of Salvation Words

Too often we just lump all the biblical words together that describe some aspect of our salvation, and treat them as though they were synonyns. But they are not. So here is a brief glossary. The words justify and righteousness are, in the Greek, part of the same dikai-word group. When someone is justified, he has been declared righteous—in the courtroom sense of that word. Redemption refers to a purchase (v. 24), the purchase price being the blood of Jesus Christ (v. 25). The word propitiation means the “satisfaction or averting of wrath.” So Christ in His death was a propititation, a substitutionary sacrifice, and His blood was the redemption payment. Because He died, the holy wrath that was due to sin was fully satisfied, and it became possible for a holy God to declare “not guilty” over those who were . . . guilty.

Declaration of Righteousness

We have two declarations of righteousness going on here. One is the declaration of our righteousness, our vindication in the courtroom of God’s justice. This is what is meant by justification, a verdict which we appropriate by faith alone. But there is another declaration, mentioned in both vv. 25 & 26. God is declaring His righteousness, not simply because the Messiah showed up as promised, but because the Messiah died as a propitiation. Why was this necessary? Well, because God in His forebearance had left previous sins unpunished (v. 25). The cross is the declaration of God’s righteousness, in that all our sin is now dealt with. When sin in the past is remitted, and when our sin in the present is remitted, the question arises: how can a holy God do that?

The Just God Who Justifies

Unbelievers like to pretend that the great moral dilemma is “how a loving God could send anyone to Hell.” But that is not a real problem. It doesn’t even approximate a problem. He could do that by giving everyone their paycheck. The wages of sin is death. The real problem, the one requiring the death of Jesus as a solution, is how a holy God can let anyone into heaven. And this is the place where Paul describes how it works. God wants to declare His righteousness two ways. He wants to declare that He is just and the one who justifies. He could be just and damn us all. He could forgive us in a boys-will-be-boys kind of way, but that would make Him unjust along with us. The gospel is found in that glorious word and.

Faith, Not Works

If we are saved in this fashion, what is excluded (v. 27)? Faith in the death of Jesus excludes boasting. We are justified by faith alone, and not by any form of scurrying around (v. 28). To go any other way would exclude the Gentiles, who did not have the Torah, and it would also, incidentally, exclude the Jews, who did not keep Torah (v. 29). God is the God of both groups. We worship and serve one God, who has made one justified people, and there is one way to become a member of that people. That one way is faith (v. 30).

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Romans 12: That Every Mouth May Be Stopped (Romans 3:9-23)

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Introduction

One difficulty that presents itself while working through a book like Romans in small segments is that it is very hard to find a place to stop . . . becauses Paul frequently doesn’t stop. This week we need to run a little ahead and stop in mid-thought, and next week we will back up in order to be able to finish the thought. And that thought revolves around the connection to being shut up under sin without one thing to say, on the one hand, and God’s intent to justify us fully and freely, on the other hand.

The Text

“What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one . . .” (Rom. 3:9-23).

Summary of the Text

Paul has been comparing Gentiles with Jews, and so he now asks if the Jews are better than the Gentiles (v. 9). The astonishing answer is that they are not—he has already proved that Jews and Gentiles are “all under sin” (v. 9). He then launches into a string of quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures that make the point bluntly enough. Verses 10b-11 are from Psalm 14:1-3, Ps. 53:1-3, and cf. Eccles. 7:20. The first part of the next verse (v. 13) is from Psalm 5:9. The second half of that verse (v. 13) is from Psalm 140:3. Verse 14 is Psalm 10:7. The next two verses are from Isaiah 59:7-8. The last component in this string of quotations is Psalm 36:1. The resultant picture is quite grim.

These citations are all from the law, and so Paul quite rightly points that they are directed to those who are in fact under the law (v. 19). The point of doing this is to shut every mouth, Jewish and Gentile mouths alike, and establish the whole world as guilty before God (v. 19). So this is why law is excluded as a way of justification for all men (not just for Jews). No flesh will be justified by law—law simply brings us a knowledge of the problem. The speed limit sign has no control over your gas pedal. But now there is a righteousness of God that the law and prophets testified to, but which is manifested “without the law” (v. 21). This righteousness of God is embodied in the faithful obedience of Jesus Christ (v. 22), and this righteousness of God is “unto all and upon all” that believe (v. 22). There is no difference in their gospels (v. 22) because there is no difference in their plight (v. 23).

Paul Cites the Contexts Also

Note first that for Paul “the law” which shut the Jews up under sin was not limited to the Torah—it included the entire Old Testament. His citations here don’t include anything from the Mosaic books, the Torah proper. He quotes from Psalms and Isaiah, and says that the result is moral instruction from “the law” addressed to Jews “under the law.”

Psalm 14 makes a distinction between the “workers of iniquity” and “my people.” The same in Psalm 53, although the initial judgment is made against all the “children of men.” The hat tip to Ecclesiastes 7:20 says that there is no such thing as a just man on the earth. Psalm 5 makes a distinction between those who do evil and those who put their trust in God. Psalm 140 makes a distinction between the wicked and the afflicted, poor, and righteous. Psalm 10 makes a distinction between the wicked on the one hand and the poor and humble on the other. The passage from Isaiah assumes an apostate and unfaithful Israel. Psalm 36 makes a distinction between the wicked and the “upright in heart.”

Put This Together

The string of citations is directed aimed by Paul at those “under the law,” and he says quite clearly that he is talking about them. This means that the primary application of these citations from the Old Testament are directed against Jews, against members of God’s covenant family. But what are we to do with all the references to the righteous and upright within Israel, standing in contrast to these wicked ones? Does this condemnation not apply to them? Not at all—they are righteous because they accept what Paul says here as being applicable to them. The wicked reject it—that’s how we can tell who they are. Paul makes a clear distinction within Israel between the sons of Sarah and the sons of Hagar. The sons of Sarah are those who admit that they are by nature sons of Hagar. We are (all of us) by nature objects of wrath (Eph. 2:3)

All in the Same Boat

Paul expects us to reason from the Jews to the whole world by extension. If the Jews cannot be justified in this way, then nobody can be. God says these things to the Jews so that every mouth will be stopped, and the whole world will be guilty.

Knowledge of Sin

The law, whether found in the Torah, or cited elsewhere in the Old Testament, or seen in the stars, or found in the conscience of a Gentile, is incapable of bringing a declaration of righteousness. The law, in whatever permutation, is simply a messenger of trouble. It is not a savior. It is not a ladder to heaven. It is not a way of making you better than others. God gave it as a surefire instrument of making you worse (Rom. 3:20;Rom. 5:20). All you good little Christian kids, growing up in a conservative church with strong family values, take note.

The Righteousness of God

The righteousness of God is mentioned twice here (vv. 21, 22). One theologian in the school of thought called the New Perspective on Paul says that this cannot refer to the imputed righteousness of Christ, but rather must refer to the covenant faithful of God the Father keeping His promise to Abraham. But this is a false dichotomy. It must be both. If it were just the latter, then why would Paul have added “without the law” (v. 21). Why would God have to fulfill His promise to Abraham without relying on the law? This is talking about His righteousness becoming ours without us having to keep the law. And then his comment in v. 22 cinches the point. What is the destination of the righteousness of God? It is “unto all and upon all” that believe. What is the mediating mechanism of this righteousness of God’s? It is the faithful obedience (rightousness) of Jesus Christ.

All In the Same Boat

In his Institutes, John Calvin makes a wonderful point about the nature of self-knowledge. He says that we do not know ourselves rightly unless we have grasped two things. The first is the primal greatness of man—what we were created to be, and what we were before the Fall. The second is a knowledge of how great our fall has been. When we learn this, we have learned the first lesson of the gospel—all have sinned. All have fallen short of the glory of God. This truly humbles us, and prepares the way for us to be lifted up in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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Romans 11: Righteous Vengeance (3:5-8)

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Introduction

Paul is walking the world through the meaning of honest confession before God. The unbelieving Gentiles don’t want to honor God as God, or give Him thanks, and so Paul set the grandeur of God right in front of them, as displayed in every created thing. The Jews don’t want God, and so Paul condemns them according to the standards of Torah, the same Torah that they thought they were so pleased with. He is driving to the conclusion of the first part of his letter, which is the sinfulness of every man. But human pride doesn’t want to talk about human sin, and would much rather talk about divine sins. And so Paul takes a moment to swat at the gnat that some call the greatest philosophical problem ever—the problem of evil.

The Text

“But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just” (Rom. 3:5-8)

Summary of the Text

Some men can be counted on to get huffy with this kind of Pauline talk—every man a liar, and so forth. And so they determine that the best defense against the ultimately holy God is a good offense, and they come up with stumpers for the Q&A after the evangelistic presentation. First, they say, if our unrighteousness sets off God’s righteousness, putting it in a good light so to speak, then what must we say? Speaking carnally, is God unrighteous when He takes vengeance (v. 5)? Of course not, Paul says. First, he is speaking “as a man,” that is, carnally and as one of his questioners. That would mean that God couldn’t judge the world (v. 6). And since it is a non-negotiable reality that God will in fact judge the world, the question must be bogus. Philosophy doesn’t judge God’s day of vengeance. God’s day of vengeance judges philosophy, and while He is at it, philosophers also. Paul then repeats the same argument in different words—if my lie glorifies God by setting up a glorious contrast with His truth, then why does He then get to judge me as a sinner (v. 7)? Hmmmm? And some of them have take their incoherence to the next level, which was probably the whole point, slanderously representing Paul as arguing that we should do evil so that God will be glorified (v. 8). Given the way Paul phrases this, this utterly unserious argument is being attributed to him. Those who do this are under a just condemnation (v. 8).

The Calvinistic Straw-man

The apostle Paul had to deal with it, and so there is no real reason why we who have learned from him should not have to deal with it also. The teaching that God is exhaustively sovereign (a teaching that is pervasive in Romans) is a teaching that is easy to twist, caricature, misrepresent and slander. The move is a simple one. You take the teaching, cash out what you believe the logical implications to be, turn white in the face, and then attribute those appalling conclusions to those who hold to the premises that you have just mangled. This is a mistake in argumentation that Paul links to damnation (v. 8). At the same time, Calvinists need to remember the golden rule. If you don’t like it on the receiving end, then don’t like it on the giving end.

Righteous Vengeance

Is God unrighteous when He takes vengeance (v. 5)? Absolutely not, Paul says. Is it up for discussion whether or not God will judge the world (v. 6)? No—Paul does not reason to the conclusion that God will judge all creatures. He does that elsewhere, reasoning from the fact of the resurrection to the conclusion that Jesus will judge (Acts 17:31). But the fact that God in heaven is the judge of all nations is his premise here (v. 6).

God is the only lawful possessor of wrath, and no man may step in as His deputy without God’s express teaching in Scripture. In the book of Romans alone, God’s wrath is clearly displayed (1:18; 2:5; 2:8; 4:15; 5:9; 9:22; 12:19; 13:4-5), His judgments are just and sure (1:32; 2:2-3; 2:5; 5: 16-18; 14:10 ), and His vengeance is honored (3:5; 12:19). But here is the problem. Man is in the dock, and man therefore wants (desperately wants) God to be in the dock. But think about it for just a moment. If man is to be judged by God, where does the standard for judgment come from? From God’s holy, infinite, and entirely righteous character. If God is to be judged by man, where does the standard for judgment come from? And how incoherent is that? “Who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why has thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay . . .? (Rom. 9:20-21). Our problem with all of this—Hell, damnation, wrath, judgment, or vengeance is not that it all just “too unjust.” Don’t we know our hearts any better than that? Our problem with God’s judgment is not the potential for grave injustice, to guarded against by us (!) and policed by us (!), but rather its much more frightening prospect of real justice.

Grace Is Not a Lowered Bar

Knowing this about God’s righteous character is not a set-up for theological paranoia. Those who understand it all that way do not understand it. High views of the triune God’s righteousness will lead directly to higher views of His grace and mercy. We now have “peace with God”(5:1). There is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus (8:1).

In this book of Romans, Paul’s quesrioners are worldly men, and they do theology like a cheeky sophomore. And one of the most natural worldly tendencies out there is the attempt to magnify God’s grace by minimizing His holiness and consequent wrath. But doing that will not give you the faith once delivered, but rather a pile of mush. It is that impulse that drives every form of theological liberalism, including the forms of it that are rampant in the evangelical world today.

Lowering the bar to shouts of “grace” will only have the result of trying to make God’s kindness to us something that He owes us, rather than as something that overflows from the good counsel of His will and very nature of His being. He doesn’t owe us a blessed thing. He doesn’t owe us forgiveness, or cleansing, or salvation, or a place in heaven. He doesn’t even owe us a participant ribbon. He gives us all these things, but not because we are entitled to them. There is no entitlement here, only free grace.

I emphasized the word triune a short while ago. If there is no God, or there are many gods, there is no such thing as justice. If God is a solitary Being, a unitarian god, then we are all crushed under the weight of something called justice. Men who beat their wives worship that kind of god. But our triune God, the living God, is the only one who can rule a universe in which mercy and truth may kiss each other (Ps. 85:10).

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Romans 10: Let God Be True (3:1-4)

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Introduction

We learned from the end of chapter two that not all Jews are Jews, along with the corollary that not all Christians are Christians. But keeping up with the apostle can be a strenuous effort sometimes, and we now learn in the first part of chapter three that the Jews who are not really Jews are nevertheless . . . Jews. And the same goes double for Christians.

The Text

“What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged” (Rom. 3:1-4)

Summary of the Text

Chapter two concludes with Paul offering the definition of the true Jew, the inward Jew. But now, without missing a beat, he returns to the conventional use of the word Jew. It is as though he is asking that if a bunch of Jews aren’t really Jewish, then what good does it do them being Jewish? We would say, having thought we got his point, “well, no good at all.” But what does he say? “Much every way” (v. 2). The chief reason there is profit in external circumcision (the kind of Jewishness he is talking about now) is that the externally circumcised were entrusted with the oracles of God, the Scriptures (v. 2). Some did not believe, and Paul responds to that with a so what? Can the unbelief of covenant members undo the covenant? No way (v. 3). Their unbelief cannot make “the faith of God” without effect. One important question here is whether this is subjective (God’s faith, or perhaps faithfulness) or objective (the faith that God established, i.e. the Christian faith). But in any case, can a Europe filled with baptized infidels undo the glorious truth proclaimed in baptism? Not a bit of it, and God forbid. Every last covenant member could be a skunk, and God remains true (v. 4). Our task is not to conform the sacrament to the behavior of people, but rather to conform the people to the nature of the sacrament. And then Paul quotes Psalm 51:4, to powerful effect (v. 4).

Begin With Paul’s Conclusion

The first thing to note is that Psalm 51 was composed after David had received the rebuke of Nathan for his sin with Bathsheba. That was the occasion. What is the psalm about? It is about true confession, internal cleansing, and the comparative value of the externals in God’s sight. David pleads for cleansing and forgiveness (vv. 1-2). He confesses his sin honestly and in the right direction, so that God would be justified when He speaks, clear when He judges, and might conquer when He is judged (vv. 3-4). David, a covenant member, was conceived in iniquity (v. 5). God wanted David to possess truth in the inward parts (v. 6). For that to happen, God must do the cleansing and restoring (vv. 7-12). After this, and only because of this, teaching the transgressors and sinners can occur (v. 13). God is rightly praised when men are truly forgiven (vv. 14-15). God wants sacrifices in the heart, not on the altar (vv. 16-17). God is invited to build His city (v. 18), and after that He will be pleased with the external sacrifices (v. 19). The distinction between an outward Jew and an inward one was, again, gleaned from the Old Testament. Heart circumcision was required in the Old Testament, as we saw last week, and here we see God’s rejection of mere external conformity to His sacrificial law.

A Brief Aside

Paul says here that the chief value of institutional Jewry was the fact that they possessed (and transmitted to us) the oracles of God, the Scriptures (v. 2). He echos this same thing again later in an expanded list—they had the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, the worship of God, the promises, the fathers, and the privilege of being the people of the Christ (9:4-5). But here in chapter three, he places possession of the Scriptures in the chief place—and we can see a number of the blessings named in chapter nine as subsumed under that.

That being the case, then why has the Church today relinquished control of the Scriptures, the full corpus of the oracles of God, turning them over to an alliance of big business and textual critics in the academy? Whose idea was that? And why do we persist in acting like it was a good one?

Let God Be True

Paul sets up a parallel between vv. three and four. In verse three the two elements are “unbelief” and the “faith of God.” In verse four they are “every man a liar” and “God true.” We should therefore understand unbelief being equivalent to man lying, and the faith of God as the equivalent to God being true. And when Paul caps it off with his citation Psalm 51, the whole thing should come into focus. God being true despite the sinfulness and lies of covenant members does not primarily mean that God wins “the argument” (although He does always win the arugment). It means that despite our sinfulness and uncanny ability to get everything wrong, He will still win the world. Remember how Psalm 51 ends—with pure worship in the world, pure internally and externally both. The result of God remaining true to David despite David being untrue to God is that transgressors are taught and sinners are converted.

Honest Confession

God does not need our bright and shiny righteousness in order to advance His kingdom. What He wants is for us to acknowledge what we are by nature, which is iniquitous from conception (Ps. 51:5). He wants us to acknowledge what we are by choice and action—which is transgressors in need of forgiveness (Ps. 51:1-2). Remember that Paul is quoting this psalm after Romans 1 placed all the unbelieving Gentiles under the condemnation of sin, and Romans 2 placed all the unbelieving Jews under the condemnation of sin. He is writing this on the threshold of his point in Romans 3, which is that Gentiles and Jews are in the same terrible fix. David, one of the greatest covenant kings in the history of God’s covenant people, confessed that he was conceived in sin, and that the amniotic fluid in which he was formed was the fluid of iniquity. So stop trying to protect God’s reputation by hiding your sin. He doesn’t care. Christ died for sinners, and God is reconciled. We should therefore stop trying to win the “I-didn’t-have-to-be-forgiven-for-as-much-as-you-did” contest.

I Acknowledge

True confession means acknowledging what your sin actually was, and doing so with complete honesty before God (1 John 1:9), and it also means acknowledging the true identity of the one insulted by the sin. David says “against three, thee only, have I sinned.” Mark that. David was guilty of adultery, disloyalty to a faithful subordinate, then murder, and then a political cover-up and scandal. Lots of other people were involved, but against “thee only have I sinned.” But take heart—all sin is aimed at God, seeking to topple Him from His throne. But He is true, even if you are full of lies. You might as well come quietly . . . cleansing awaits.

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