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. 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. 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: There is none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are
together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their
throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison
of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth
is full of cursing and bitterness: Their
feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction
and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Now we
know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty
before God. Therefore by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the
knowledge of sin.
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; Being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of
sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
To declare, I say, at this time his
righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we
conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also
of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall
justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then
make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Romans 3
In the
previous thought Paul has established both Jews and gentiles as equally sinful.
The learning of what was right did not change
the nature of sinfulness in the Jews. Then Paul continues to say that God does
not favor any man over another.
The natural
question comes forth; what benefit is it to be called the elect and the people
of God. In many ways they are blessed; yet the greatest is they have been the
mouthpiece and womb of God to all mankind. It is through this people that God
has given both the written witness of His word and the living word; His son
Yeshua the Messiah.
The fact
that some did not place their trust in that word cannot disempower the trusting
of God to have its promised effect.
A man may
ask “if my nature of sinfulness proves Gods declarations to be true then why
does God judge me for being what He has declared I am.” The Father has placed a
stop to sin in the death of His Son. We who believe cannot expect God to judge
the world for continuing in sin in a different manner than He will judge us if
we continue in the same way.
So it is the
Father judges sin without respect of persons. The law,
which is a description
of His nature and the life it brings forth, shows every man born from Adam that
his own nature is against righteousness and only brings forth death. The act of learning and by force of will
doing those things the law teaches cannot make us innocent of the sin in our
nature. The very fact that we must will to act in a way described by the law is
evidence that we are only imitating a possession of life. The law by showing us
a witness of life testifies of the death in us.
The life and
being of the Father shared with and living in and through us by its nature is
righteous. This righteousness is manifested in our living. The law and prophets
become witnesses of the righteous life now living within us.
This righteousness
does not come by our will or work; for we are crucified in Messiah. It is by
the trust, dependence, and expectation of the promised life of the Father that
this righteousness is manifested. The righteousness that we could not attain to
by our nature and being becomes our nature as we trust in the shared life of
the Father in us.
For by our
death in Messiah sin is judged in us; so by His life in us His righteousness is
manifested in us; showing Him to be just in justifying us.
Man’s way of
thinking is that the deeds determine the life in a man. The Father’s truth is
that the life in a man determines his deeds. Justification is not a result of
our deeds but by trusting in the new nature, heart, and mind that is the
promise and gift of the Father to all who trust Him. God’s grace is His life
shared in us and as we trust that life in us it is manifested.
The Jews who
had been given the token of circumcision and the covenant are saved by their
trust in the promise of God. In the exact same way those who never knew the
covenant and teachings are saved by their trust in the manifestation of those
promises the living Messiah.
So do we do
away with the law. No but rather we establish the life described within its
witness.
