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Questions

(Gal 1:10 ESV) ¹⁰ For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

1. Most commentators conclude that Paul is defending himself against accusations being made by his opponents, the Judaizing teachers. Why would his opponents accuse him of seeking man’s approval rather than God’s?

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2. Do we ever slander our brothers with similar accusations? Is it okay for Christians to attack their opponents by questioning their motives?

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(Gal 1:11-12 ESV) ¹¹ For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. ¹² For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

3. How did Paul receive the gospel? (See Acts 9:1-31)

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Let’s skip to Romans 6, where Paul takes up the question again.

But realize that in chapter 4, Paul explains in detail how salvation by faith is based on God’s covenant with Abraham. In chapter 5, Paul explains how we’re “much more” saved after our initial conversion and then considers how it is that the more we know of God’s will we know, the more accountable we become. This ultimately sets up chapter 7, in which Paul declares that the more he wants to obey, the more he fails — leading to chapter 8, which explains the solution.

Therefore, chapters 4 – 7 all recapitulate in much more detail themes introduced in chapters 1 – 3, especially chapter 3. Hence, chapter 6 is not the answer in its fullness, but a step toward understanding the answer — which shows up in chapter 8 and is further expanded in chapters 12 – 15. And chapter 8 assumes you’ve paid attention to chapters 1 – 7.

Our traditional verse-by-verse teaching often loses the larger context — and indeed Paul’s writing can be difficult to follow, just because he thinks we’re used to thinking about Abraham and David etc. as exemplars of faith and salvation. It takes a lot of practice.

(Rom 6:1-2 ESV) What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Uh, in what sense did we “die to sin”? We want to skip to the lesson on baptism, but baptism only illustrates the dying to sin. It’s not the dying to sin itself.

In my upbringing, baptism was emphasized as the moment sins were forgiven, which is quite true. But we never really talked about baptism being the moment when we died to sin.

After all, we all still sin after baptism, so what’s really changed? In the theology of my childhood, Paul could only have been talking about trying harder, which is obviously not really his point — per chapter 7.

This is the first time Paul speaks in these terms in Romans. And so he explains himself somewhat –

(Rom 6:3-8 ESV)  ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  ⁷ For one who has died has been set free from sin.  ⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

So baptism is crucifixion with Christ? A death to sin? We are somehow mystically “united with him in a death like his.” How? What happens?

V. 6 declares that our “old self” was crucified with Jesus. What’s an “old self”? Is there a “new self”?

This verse looks forward to –

(Rom 8:10 ESV)  ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Indeed, a major theme of Romans 8 is the contrast between the flesh/sin/death and the Spirit/life. But if Paul is talking about a transformation performed by the Spirit, as he’ll explain in chapter 8, why not say so already? Why only hint at the Spirit’s role?

Well, in Paul’s mind, he’s already explained this chapters and chapters ago when he wrote one of the linchpin verses in Romans –

(Rom 2:28-29 ESV)  ²⁸ For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.  ²⁹ But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

This is a key to unlocking much of the book. Assume that this is, in Paul’s mind, obvious to any First Century Jew or God-fearing Gentile who grew up attending synagogue and reading Torah.

I’ve covered this several times, but it’s so important to understanding Paul — not just Romans — that I’ll cover the material in an abbreviated format. But here’s the key: the coming of the Spirit was not an obscure idea in Paul’s day. It had been prophesied by Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others. The outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost (and thereafter) was a momentous event in the minds of First Century Christians.

Therefore, when Paul refers to the ancient texts about the Spirit, he does so understanding that his readers know, understand, and savor these texts. Just as you or I might refer to “the crucifixion” and fully expect our readers to know much of the massive theological content of the word, Paul could do the same regarding “circumcision … of the heart.” We miss it because (a) the Spirit has largely been ignored in our tradition and (b) we don’t really study the Torah. Paul’s tradition was very different from ours.

We begin in –

(Deu 10:12-16 ESV)  ¹² “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  ¹³ and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?  ¹⁴ Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.  ¹⁵ Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.  ¹⁶ Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

As the Jews were preparing to enter and conquer the Promised Land, God reminds them of the Greatest Command (v. 12, recapitulating Deut. 6:5), and then tells them that Judaism is all about the heart. Therefore, they must “circumcise” their hearts — that is, dedicate their hearts to God.

Near the end of Deuteronomy, God pronounces curses on the Jews if they disobey and blessings if they obey. He then promises that, even if they disobey, he’ll redeem them — if they repent.

(Deu 30:3 ESV)  ³ then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.

But this time, his relationship with his children will change. Instead of being responsible to circumcise their own hearts — to try even harder — God will take on that responsibility –

(Deu 30:6 ESV)  ⁶ And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Thus, after being exiled, and repenting, God will restore them so that they can truly obey the Greatest Command — and God himself will reshape their hearts so that this will happen!

Thus, when Jeremiah speaks of the need to repent — before the Exile — he says,

(Jer 4:4 ESV)  ⁴ Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”

The Exile hadn’t happened yet. God had not yet fulfilled his promise to circumcise their hearts himself. It was up to the Jews — and they failed.

In chapter 31, however, Jeremiah looks ahead to the time when the Jews are restored after the Exile. Then things will be very different –

(Jer 31:31-34 ESV) ³¹ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,  ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.  ³³ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

God himself will transform the hearts of  his people! He’ll fulfill the promise of Deuteronomy 30:6.

Another obvious parallel is –

(Eze 36:26-27 ESV)  ²⁶ And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

And here we see the Spirit explicitly credited with being the means by which God honors his promise.

In a parallel series of prophecies, the Spirit is promised at the end of the Exile –

(Isa 44:3 ESV) ³ For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

In one of the most beautiful passages in all of Scripture, Ezekiel sees God giving life back to the dead by the Spirit –

(Eze 37:1-14 NIV) The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.  ² He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.  ³ He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!  ⁵ This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.  ⁶ I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD. ‘”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.  ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”

¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet–a vast army.

¹¹ Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’  ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.  ¹³ Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.  ¹⁴I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD. ‘”

I never get tired of reading that passage.

Now, add to this David’s Psalms about his sin with Bathsheba (which Paul repeatedly quotes in Romans) –

(Psa 51:10-11 NIV)  ¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  ¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

This sure seems to associate a transformed heart with the presence of the Spirit!

Therefore, every single time Paul refers to our hearts being changed or transformed or circumcised or given life, he’s thinking of these passages.

Are we being transformed from death to life? Well, obviously, that’s Ezekiel 37′s vision of dry bones! Are our hearts being circumcised? Well, yes, just as God promised in Deuteronomy. By the Spirit? Yes, just as Ezekiel promised. And that means we’re being transformed from dead bones to an army reshaped by God to be God’s own.

Do we need our hearts re-formed to overcome sin — as David did? Then God will do that by the Spirit — once we have the Spirit. That’s what the Spirit does.

Why don’t we have pages and pages of detail about the Spirit’s work in Romans? Because Paul assumes we’re read the Scriptures. Why teach what his students already know? His job was to tie it all together and connect it to Jesus.

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We’re going to mix up the teaching method a bit for the adults and college students, adopting the pattern used by Community Bible Study, a non-denominational Bible study popular in many areas, including Tuscaloosa.

Here’s the idea:

* The first week is an introduction and overview of the book. This will be especially helpful for Galatians, which is a tough text to read cold.

* Thereafter, the study of Galatians will be a daily rather than weekly event.

* Students will be expected to do homework — nothing terribly hard. For the five days preceding class — Tuesday through Saturday — they’ll be expected to read a passage and answer a few short-answer questions. The passages will be posted with the questions each week (and available as hard-copy handouts at the building).

* On Sunday, the questions will be quickly reviewed. Where the facilities permit, the class will break into table top groups to discuss answers. The class will end with a discussion class led by the teacher.

* On Monday, the students will read a commentary (posted that morning) that summarizes the week’s study.

The high school classes will have their own materials, written in parallel. These materials will include thought questions for parents to discuss with their children. We want to encourage parents and teens to study together.

This is, of course, a very different approach from traditional church Bible classes. Particularly unusual is giving the lengthy reading after the class as review material, rather than at the beginning as material to be mastered before the lesson. The idea is that the students should begin by reading and reflecting on the Bible itself. The commentary comes at the end.

This means I get to use a WordPress feature I’ve never used before: passwords. I’ll post the material as quickly as I can write it, but the posts will only open for the teachers — being those with the password.

Each week, the password protection will come off a post, and everyone else will have access post by post. (I will make the password available for readers who want to teach in their congregations along with us. You’ll have to tell me which class you’re teaching and where. I’m a curious guy. Email me at jfguin(at)comcast(dot)net.)

I have created a WordPress page, posted at the top under the banner, with all the Galatians lessons listed, with the dates for study, to make it easy for teachers and students to download materials.

(A longer version of this post for teachers is available via password.)

(1Jo 4:18 ESV) There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

– quite literally. After all, it’s been pointed out, the Bible tells us to fear God. And it does. Sort of.

But we have to be extremely careful not to slip into bad habits, such as the last-verse-read argument — as though your verse somehow trumps my verse just because you cited yours after I cited mine. I can cite mine again — and now I’m back on top. So there!

See how pointless that is? No, reconciling seemingly inconsistent verses is much harder than just picking the ones you like and citing them last. We have to read them much more carefully than that — to avoid reading the other guy’s verses out of the Bible.

Now, I’ve suggested that fear is for the immature, but for the mature, fear is to be, well, driven out — leaving room for both kinds of verses to be true and meaningful.

Fear

There is, of course, much more to it than that. And we begin by pointing out that New Testament Greek has far fewer words than English, and therefore Greek words often carry a much wider range of meaning than the English equivalent. And phobos is a great example of that phenomenon.

BDAG offers as possible translations fear, alarm, fright, reverence, and respect. And the dictionary gives a wide range of variants within those possible meanings.

With that in mind, seriously consider –

(Phi 2:12 ESV) Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

In English, this sounds as though we should be terrified of God! But consider –

(Eph 6:5 ESV)  Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,

Does Paul tell bondservants to be terrified of their masters? Is that really his point? Should they even be afraid? Paul continues –

(Eph 6:6-8 ESV) ⁶ not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,  ⁷ rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,  ⁸ knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.

It’s not possible to serve your master for the sake of Christ and out of abject fear of the master at the same time!

After all,

(1Pe 3:6 ESV) Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

We run into the same problem in such verses as –

(Eph 5:33 ESV) However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Here, “respects” translates φοβέω (phobeo), the verb form of phobos, and having the same range of meanings. And yet every translation I can find says “respect” or “reverence” not “fear” because, well, it’s just too awful to contemplate Paul commanding wives to fear their husbands!

But the church is the bride of Christ. And this passage makes the very same point –

(Eph 5:22 ESV)  ²² Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Wives are to submit to their husbands with respect. So why should they submit to the Lord with fear? Why not respect? Why do we change the meaning when the text says the meanings are parallel? Well, we don’t in Ephesians –

(Eph 5:21 ESV) submitting to one another out of reverence [=phobos] for Christ.

You see, for the same reason that phobos means respect, not fear, in Eph 5:21, it means “respect” in Eph 6:6 and any other time the scriptures are speaking of (or in parallel with) a mature Christian’s relationship to Jesus or God. Of course. We are always the bride of Christ. We are always God’s children.

Trembling

What about “trembling”? As in –

(Phi 2:12 ESV) Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

Well, consider the context –

(Phi 2:9-13 ESV)  ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,  ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  ¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,  ¹³ for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Why am I to “fear” and “tremble”? Evidently because every knee is going to bow before God. But my knees already bow before God!! What’s so scary about that?

Or is it because God is working within me so that I’ll work out my salvation? Again, that’s already happening and I don’t find it all that scary. In fact, I count it all joy. Why should God’s “good pleasure” produce fear and trembling in his children?

But, of course, I have nothing but respect for God and Jesus! Translating phobos as “respect” would work perfectly well, even better. Indeed, the NET Bible translates “awe and reverence,” explaining –

Paul’s use of the terms in other contexts refers to “awe and reverence in the presence of God” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 284; see discussion on 282–84). The translation “awe and reverence” was chosen to portray the attitude the believer should have toward God as they consider their behavior in light of God working through Jesus Christ (Phi 2:6-11) and in the believer’s life (Phi 2:13) to accomplish their salvation.

For example, compare –

(2Co 7:13-15 ESV) ¹³ Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.  ¹⁴ For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true.  ¹⁵ And his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.

Should we really translate the reaction of the Corinthian church to the presence of Titus? Titus found their reaction a matter of joy and he had affection for the Corinthians. (Compare 2 Cor 8:16; 12:18.) Why would he want them to fear and tremble in his presence? But surely he’d be thrilled at their respect and if they were shaking in their excitement to have him there! But terrified? I think not.

Conclusion

And, yes, readers will be easily able to find examples where these words really do refer to terror and horror. But that proves nothing, because the words can also be used to refer to respect and reverence and shaking with excitement. Hence, the dictionaries cannot give the answer — we have to consider the context.

And the context of Philippians 2 is not about Christians being afraid of God. It’s about bowing before God in reverence and respect, because God is in you to help transform you into his very image “to will and to work for his good pleasure.” You don’t will and work for God’s good pleasure out of fear. You do that out of love.

Oh, and perfect love casts out fear. “Casts out” translates a word meaning to throw away, expel, or drive out. The implication is that fear — in the context of a Christian’s relationship with God — is something to be gotten rid of.

Indeed, 1 John 4:18 is a Hebraic parallel with –

(1Jo 4:17 ESV) By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

“Perfect love” parallels “love perfected with us.”

“Casts out fear” parallels “have confidence for the day of judgment.” Makes sense.

Now, the tough phrase is “as he is so also are we in this world.” We are in the world in the same way that God is. But that riddle was answered in –

(1Jo 4:16 ESV) So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

God abides in love just as we abide in love. And because we abide in love, God’s love for us is perfected/fulfilled/completed in us. Therefore, we have confidence on the day of judgment. And therefore we have no fear of damnation — and no fear of God’s wrath.

And this allows us to relate to God in love and respect and reverence — trembling with excitement in his presence. Not because our love is perfect. Of course, not. But because God’s perfect love for us has found fulfillment because we are people characterized by love.

(1Jo 4:11-12 ESV) ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

The issue is with the DNS* that they or their internet service providers use. Depending on the computer and the network, updating to the new IP address could take a few days. None of that is on our end, though.

They should dump cache and cookies on their browser [go to Internet Options under Tools], flush their DNS cache, and restart their computers. Usually fixes the problem.

If that doesn’t work, run a traceroute to 74.3.161.93 and send me [bradpalmore(at)gmail(dot)com] the info. Any of your readers that are having trouble should do the same.

You can access the command line and run a trace route. On Windows, click “Start” and then type ‘tracert 74.3.161.93′ in the search bar and hit return.

On a Mac, open Terminal and type ‘traceroute 74.3.161.93′ at the prompt and hit return.

It should return 12-17 lines of info. I need to see the info to specifically ID the issue.

The results should look something like –

C:\Users\Jay>tracert 74.3.161.93

Tracing route to branchweaver.com [74.3.161.93] over a maximum of 30 hops:

1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  _________
2     8 ms     7 ms     7 ms  73.12.94.1
3     8 ms    15 ms     7 ms  te-9-1-ur01.northport.al.tusca.comcast.net [68.8 5.205.245]
4     8 ms    11 ms     7 ms  te-9-4-ur02.tuscaloosa.al.tusca.comcast.net [68. 85.205.33]
5    17 ms    12 ms    11 ms  te-3-1-sr01.gadsden.al.tusca.comcast.net [68.85. 205.21]
6    12 ms    11 ms    12 ms  te-9-1-sr02.gadsden.al.tusca.comcast.net [68.85. 205.42]
7    15 ms    15 ms    15 ms  te-7-3-ar02.huntsville.al.hunts.comcast.net [68. 85.205.57]
8    21 ms    19 ms    19 ms  xe-5-1-0-0-ar01.b0atlanta.ga.atlanta.comcast.net  [68.85.109.221]
9    21 ms    21 ms    24 ms  pos-3-7-0-0-cr01.atlanta.ga.ibone.comcast.net [6 8.86.93.205]
10    43 ms    47 ms    47 ms  pos-3-11-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [ 68.86.86.245]
11    48 ms    46 ms    56 ms  pos-1-5-0-0-cr01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net  [68.86.88.38]
12    50 ms    45 ms    43 ms  pos-1-5-0-0-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net  [68.86.87.126]
13    50 ms    45 ms    43 ms  shaw-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [75.14 9.228.194]
14    47 ms    65 ms    48 ms  rc2ec-tge0-1-2-0.il.shawcable.net [66.163.65.54]
15    63 ms    63 ms    67 ms  66.163.78.41
16   114 ms   111 ms   111 ms  rc2so-tge0-1-2-0.cg.shawcable.net [66.163.77.25]
17   101 ms   100 ms   102 ms  rc2wh-tge0-2-1-0.vc.shawcable.net [66.163.77.226 ]
18    99 ms   100 ms    99 ms  ra2wh-tge2-1.vc.shawcable.net [66.163.69.186]
19   108 ms   101 ms   107 ms  rx0wh-esecuredata-dot-com.vc.bigpipeinc.com [64. 251.87.230]
20   112 ms   112 ms   112 ms  branchweaver.com [74.3.161.93]

Trace complete.

(I think it works a little better if you can enter the command from the Run… box and then enter the CMD command.)

The traceroute command gives you the amazingly circuitous route by which you connect to the specified website — Theobloggers in this case. It’ll help Theobloggers find where in the path the DNS error resides.

* DNS = Domain Name Server, which is a computer database that converts URLs (such as http://oneinjesus.info) to a string of numbers that is the Internet’s real address for a website. It’s a table of contents. Theobloggers had to change their IP address due to the hacking, and some DNS’s may not have updated their datebases yet.

(Rom 3:8 ESV)  ⁸ And why not do evil that good may come?–as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

Notice the charge Paul responds to: “why not do evil that good may come?” Why were such charges being made against Paul? Well, he’d just written,

(Rom 3:3-4 ESV) ³ What if some [Jews] were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?  ⁴ By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”

Paul says that the unfaithfulness and unrighteousness of the Jews redounds to demonstrate the faithfulness and righteousness of God. (Paul uses “righteousness” and “faithfulness” to refer to God’s honoring of his covenant with Abraham to save those with faith.)

Thus, he says, the Jews’ violation of their covenant with God demonstrates God’s commitment to the covenant, because God will save by faith not works.

“Their condemnation is just”

He also says in v. 8 regarding his accusers, “Their condemnation is just.” Pay close attention. Those who misinterpret “one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” as license to sin are at risk of a just condemnation! Not because they use the verse to approve sin but because they accuse Paul of teaching license. The accusers are seeking to deny to others the joy of grace!

Why on earth would they be condemned? Well, for the same reason the false teachers in Galatia were condemned for teaching a false gospel. You see, both the Roman and the Galatian false teachers were arguing that salvation by faith leads to sin and therefore we should add God-given laws as essential to salvation. In particular, they were setting up certain boundary markers to distinguish the saved from the lost — and so they argued that faith in Jesus was just one of several markers.

In Galatia, they added circumcision and the celebration of special Jewish days — Sabbaths and feast days. In Rome, they seem to have added avoiding meat and special Jewish days (Rom 14) — at the least.

Today, we add a cappella singing, weekly communion, and a plurality of elders as “marks of the true church” — that is, laws that must be obeyed or else faith in Jesus is voided — even if those who violate these markers do so with the purest of pure hearts.

It’s not that celebrating the Sabbath, being vegetarian, or being circumcised damns. They don’t. But adding anything to faith in Jesus as essential to salvation risks condemnation — because as soon as we add obedience to this particular rule as a term of salvation, we’ve made faith insufficient, not only to save but to transform. We’ve undercut God’s entire redemptive scheme, substituting human wisdom for God’s. And that damns.

Abraham and David

V. 4 quotes –

(Psa 51:4 ESV) ⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

This is David’s psalm in response to God’s forgiveness after his adultery with Bathsheba. David declares that God forgives his sin in order to demonstrate, not David’s righteousness, but God’s! But David was a man of faith.

(Rom 3:5-6 ESV)  ⁵ But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)  ⁶ By no means! For then how could God judge the world?

But, Paul quickly clarifies, God will indeed judge the world, and he will indeed inflict wrath. (But, Paul, who suffers wrath if God saves the unrighteous?)

Paul then lists many Old Testament verses declaring the Jews to have been disobedient.

(Rom 3:20 ESV)  ²⁰ For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

You see, we are only accountable for so much of God’s will as we know, and so the Law of Moses produced more knowledge of God’s will, making obedience all the harder.

The sad irony is that the better we understand God’s will, the more accountable we are to actually do it — and we can’t.

(Rom 3:21-22a NET) ²¹ But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed – ²² namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe.

Paul now explains (Paul expects us to have an attention span that extends for chapters, not verse by verse) how God can hold people accountable, subject some to wrath, and yet save the unrighteous.

It’s very simple. If you believe in Jesus, you’re saved by God’s commitment to his covenant to save those with faith (as attested by the Torah, which includes the covenant with Abraham — and the prophet David, among many others) through the faithfulness of Jesus — his obedience to God and his fulfillment of Isaiah prophecy that the Messiah would suffer and die for our sins.

Therefore, even though we are unrighteous (in the sense that we don’t merit salvation), God saves us by the merits of Jesus. That makes us like Abraham and David. But God does not save all the unrighteous — only those with faith.

Why not sin that grace may abound?

Now, Paul has very subtly answered the question: Why not sin that grace may abound? — a question he returns to famously in Romans 6. Here he gives but a preview. And it’s lost in the English translation.

To access the faithfulness of Jesus, we must be “believe.” But to believe is to “have faith” — which in the Greek idiom, includes loyalty, submission, and repentance. Or, we might say, faithfulness.

Paul hints at what is to come by declaring –

(Rom 3:31 NET) ³¹ Do we then nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! Instead we uphold the law.

This is hardly self-explanatory — and is very confusing to many. But, of course, if Paul expects converts to obey God’s will, he can hardly dismiss the law as irrelevant. He must uphold it — but not at all in a legalistic sense.

How does that work? We need to turn to chapter 6 …