The Bad News (4): You’re All Sinners, So Just Shut Up! (Romans 3:1-20)

Introduction

I’m a good person. I never do anything wrong. Well, at least anything big. I haven’t committed murder or adultery. I love my family. I work hard. I’m responsible, a good citizen.

Isn’t this the way most people think of themselves? Upright, responsible – sure not perfect, and having made ‘mistakes’ – but not bad enough for God o have a problem with me. I am not so bad as to be rejected by God, am I? If God has a problem with me, then he has the problem! He is the unreasonable one. He is too strict. If God’s standards are perfection, you know ‘Be perfect as I am perfect’ then he is the perfectionist. He is the obsessive one, not me. He needs the therapy. He’s the one with the empty heaven.

In the end, these sentiments express one thing. ‘It is not my fault. Someone else is to blame. I’m the victim here, the victim of God’s unreasonably high standards.’

Maybe no-one would articulate it. But that’s the way most people probably think.

You see it in pathetic arguments to escape responsibility. For example, the many bizzare lawsuits, often in America. A New York class action led by people who got too fat. They are suing McDonalds, KFC and Burger King Why? One said he ate at McDonalds 4 or 5 times a week[1]. He didn’t know the food was fattening! The woman suing a theme park’s because its haunted house was too scary[2]. The man suing liquor stores and the electric company because he got drunk, climbed an electrical tower, and got injured. The family who sued the weather reporters for their storm-free forecast.[3] The man suing supermarkets and dairy farmers because the milk didn't carry a warning about fat and cholesterol.[4] There was a high court judgment this week, where a female public servant was having sex in a hotel room and was injured when one of the participants pulled the light fitting out and it hit her. She sued the workers compensation authority and argued having sex in her hotel room was in the course of her work[5]. ‘See me suffer, see my pain. There must be someone else to blame.’

But I want to say today, in the last of our bad news talks, that the way to freedom and peace with conscience is agreeing with God about us and our sin. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. So there is hope, not for those who think they are ‘good people’, but for sinners. Ironically, the sinner, not the good person, is the one for whom Scripture holds out the hope of heaven. Jesus said, ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners’.

Context

Well so far in Romans, Paul has talked a lot about sin hasn’t he? In chapter 1, he accused the Gentiles of sinful ingratitude and suppressing the truth, leading to sexual sin and all kinds of other perversions. In chapter 2, he turned on the Jew and the moralist, and accuses them of the same sins, and worse. On top of all their sins, the Jew and the moralist have the guilt of hypocrisy when they judge others. The Gentile sinner will perish apart from the law and the Jewish sinner will be judged by the law (Romans 2:12).

So far, Paul has lumped the Jews and the Gentiles together. They are all in the same boat as sinners. And that boat is the Titanic, and God can surely sink it. We are all heading to judgment and wrath because of our sin.

And so now Paul envisages some objections from the Jews to his accusations. He foresees and anticipates some Jewish objections. And so Paul engages these arguments in verses 1-8. Some of them we might call legal technicalities. Paul anticipates the clever lawyer looking for the loophole. Others are real problems which Paul will deal with later (chapter 9ff). But none of them change his conclusion: Jew and Gentile both remain under sin.

Three arguments Paul rejects (Romans 3:1-8)

Paul rehearses three arguments that a Jewish objector might present against his inclusion of all the Jews in the same sinful boat as the Gentiles.

Argument Number 1: Then there is no benefit in being a Jew (verses 1-2)

The first argument is this: If the Jew is under sin just like the Gentile, why be a Jew? There’s no benefit, no advantage, in being a Jew. Why would God have set up the religion?

For Paul, this is the wrong conclusion. Because the Jew had many advantages over the Gentile. Paul will list them later in chapter 9 verses 4 and 5. The people of Israel had the benefits of national adoption, the covenants, God’s law, the many promises in the Old Testament, and the temple worship. Abraham was a Jew. And Jesus was a Jew. These were great advantages. And the foremost advantage was this, chapter 3 verse 2. God had entrusted the Jew’s with his own words, the very words of God or the oracles of God. These were the sayings which God gave to his people, and which find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. God gave them first to the Jews. Sure, God always cared for Gentiles, and the nations could look over the Jew’s shoulder. But salvation is from the Jews (John 4). And so this was a great leg-up. There is great advantage in being a Jew. Because you have the very words of God as your national scriptures.

Argument Number 2: To say the Jews are unfaithfulness is to say God is unfaithful! (verses 3-4)

But Paul’s answer leads to another problem. Paul says the Jews were entrusted with God’s words, the words that prophesy about Jesus. OK, granted. Let’s suppose that some Jew’s don’t believe in Jesus. Well, we don’t have to suppose that! Many Jews then and now don’t put their trust in Jesus the Messiah (Romans 9:1-5).

Now this is the problem that Paul sees: Does the fact that some Jew’s are unfaithful and unbelieving mean that God is unfaithful and that his promises to Israel have failed?

Jesus is God’s Messiah! But many Jew’s reject Jesus, and because they reject Jesus, they won’t be saved. But then, some would say, God’s promises have failed. God has not saved his people. God is unfaithful.

For Paul, this is a real issue to be explained. In fact, he will spend chapters 9-11 solving this problem.

But right now, he dismisses the suggestion because of what it says about God. Verse 4, Not at all! Every human is a liar, but not God. God is no liar when he makes promises.

Paul appeals to the bible. He quotes Psalm 51, the prayer of David after his adultery and murder. There is David’s stark unfaithfulness, consisting of adultery and murder, breaking the sixth and seventh commandments. David has despised the word of God and deserves death for what he has done. But David doesn’t accuse God of unfaithfulness because of his own sin of unfaithfulness. David doesn’t say: ‘Well God, I’ve been unfaithful, so you are unfaithful to your promises.’ Rather, David says that God is ‘proved right’ (literally, justified) in his words, and that God ‘prevails’ (literally, is victorious) in his judgment. When God judges sin, even the sin of his people, God is not unfaithful[6] because it is his people who have sinned. God is faithfully judging sin for what it is, and doing so even in his own people, the nation of Israel. The God of all the earth will do right, and not show favouritism, just because the sinner is a Jew.

Argument No 3: God benefits from sin, so he shouldn’t punish us (verses 5-8)

But then Paul recites a third group of arguments in verses 5 to 8. And for Paul, with these arguments, we commence the descent into the desperate and the ridiculous. They get steadily more pathetic. But they share this in common. Each of these arguments asserts that God somehow benefits from our sin. And because God benefits from sin, he cannot punish it. Verse 5:

…our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly…

Verse 7:

…my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory…

And verse 8, perhaps the most bold statement of them all:

…let us do evil that good may result.

Therefore, so the argument goes, God shouldn’t judge, condemn, punish us Jews as sinners. God benefits. He gets glory. God looks good compared to us.

It’s a bit like this. Suppose I’ve got my final exams coming up, and then I’ll graduate Suppose I fail them. And I go up to my lecturer and try this on. ‘Look I know I didn’t get enough marks. But you can’t fail me. Because you benefit from my failure! You needed to fail some of us to show how smart you are, to show your high standards in your course, and so you look good amongst your peers. You show how much you know your subject. And anyway, it’s the bell curve’s fault, not mine!’

I haven’t tried that one on. But I don’t think it will work.

It is a bit like the outspoken boxer wanting to make a name for himself, wanting the fast track to World Championship. So he finds a retired boxer, a former champion, but who hasn’t fought for 10 years. This retired boxer used to fight in a lighter division, but now is desperate for money. The papers call it a soft fight, and because of the danger, the authorities refuse to give them a licence to fight. So they go somewhere else where they can get the licence. And surprise, surprise, the older fighter gets KO’d early.

Notice what these arguments do. Firstly, they assume God is like that boxer or like the lecturer in my illustration, that God needs to be surrounded by failures to look good. And that is disrespectful enough.

But secondly, they say God secretly delights in our moral failure. God benefits from our lies and our sinfulness, because it makes God look good!

For Paul, such arguments are utter nonsense. God is not seeking our failure for his benefit. God is a just judge. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? If not, verse 6, how then could God judge the world?

There is something axiomatic for Paul, that requires no argument to establish it. God is only and ever just and righteous as a judge. That is Scriptures unwavering approach. It is always a bridge too far to impugn God’s just judgment, as Job found out.

And Paul doesn’t even bother to refute the rest. They are just blasphemy deserving condemnation. They are just more pathetic excuses for sin.

So Paul rejects all these arguments. Of course there is advantage in being Jewish and receiving God’s word, directly, and not having to look over someone else’s shoulder, as the Gentiles had to. David never blamed God for his sin, saying that God was unfaithful because he was the sinner. Neither should the Jews. Likewise, God doesn’t benefit from our sin so that he owes us. He is the insecure leader of the pack who chooses pathetic friends to make himself look good.

None of these anticipated arguments excuse our sinfulness. None of them relieve responsibility for our sinfulness. Our sinfulness is still sin. And all of us are guilty.

How about you? Do you make excuses for your sin? Do you rationalise your sinfulness?

I’m not that bad. They are just thoughts after all. They are just words. It was just once. It just comes out. I can’t help it. At least I’m not like him. Everybody’s doing it. If you had my upbringing, you would understand why I do it, why I need it.

Such objections against God also take the more theological form. Why should God send me to hell? If he demands perfection, that’s his problem. He’s unreasonable. He could have made me perfect, so it’s his fault.

But salvation does not come to the people who justify themselves. Salvation comes to those who agree with God and find his way of righteousness. So we are required to agree with God, not take him on.

Both Jew and Gentile are ‘all under sin’ (verses 9-20)

For Paul, no excuse can prevent his conclusion. The Jews cannot be excused. The Gentiles cannot be excused. Verse 9:

What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. (NIV)

Both Jew and Gentile are ‘all under sin’. Paul has already made the charge. He showed the Gentile was guilty in chapter 1 He showed the Jew and moralist was guilty in chapter 2 And he rejects any attempt to get off on legal technicalities in chapter 3 verses 1 to 8. And he illustrates his conclusion with a long string of quotes from the Old Testament. Paul quotes them to demonstrate that everybody, whether Jew or Gentile, are all under sin. Verses 10 to 12:

As it is written:‘There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless’ there is no-one who does good, not even one.”[7]

Here in verses 10 to 12, Paul quotes generally from Psalm 14, but with some important paraphrases. Paul adds ‘There is no one righteous’. The Psalm doesn’t say ‘There is no-one righteous’. It says ‘no one is good’ But here Paul is probably interpreting the Psalm in the light of other Old Testament passages such as Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 20[8], which says:

There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins (NIV)

Or Psalm 143 verse 2, which says:

Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no-one living is righteous before you. (NIV)

There is no one good means that there is no one righteous. There is no-one, by themselves, who comes up to God’s standard, has kept the law, and thus is in a right relationship with God by their obedient law keeping. No one is righteous because they have conformed to God’s law or standard. There is no-one who is good enough to be right with God by being good.

Have you got this? There is no one good enough to be righteous in God’s sight by being good. We are not good enough to be righteous in his sight by being good.

So where are those people in the glory queue, who think they really do seek glory, honour and immortality? (Romans 2:7 NIV) Where are those who do good (Romans 2:7,10), when there is no one who does good? They don’t exist. And that tells us that no one comes up to God’s standard set down in Romans 2:13, that it is those who obey the law, who do and keep the law, who will be declared righteous.

And in Paul’s string of Old Testament quotes, he lists various examples of particular small ‘s’ sins that show our big ‘S’ sinfulness. There are sins of the mouth: deceit, cursing, bitterness. Our mouths, says Paul, are like open graves or poisonous vipers.

Then there are sins of the feet, which are speedy to shed blood.

And there are sins of the eyes, in that there is no fear of God before them.

From our eyes to our feet we are sinful. From head to toe, we do what is unrighteous.

When we look back at our lives, we see God has been very kind to us. None of us have reaped everything we have sown by our sin. None of us have been as sinful and as wicked as we could have been. God mercifully and kindly has restrained our sin.

But are there not aspects of our lives that are disappointing? Do we not reflect on times of ruin and misery, that mark our ways, where we make a train wreck of our lives by our foolish choices? Do we not know at times a lack of peace because of our sinful stupidity?

Why do we, each of us, know this to some extent? Because each of us is touched by our own brokenness, fallenness, and sinfulness, each of us in each area of our lives. God has been gracious to each one of us. We are not as bad as we could possibly be. But nevertheless, our sin renders us broken humans, in part at least. Broken minds, broken bodies, broken relationships. Scratch the surface, and each of us have some measure of difficulty, relationships that cause us pain and sorrow.

Why? Because of sin. Because of our sin. Because of other’s sin, sin mounting upon sin. Because of stupid hurtful things said, by us or others. Unkind words that started with thoughts. Words that got out and can never be put back in. Because of idiotic foolish actions, the ones that even the remembrance of them makes you blush. Harmful, Hurtful, Sinful. That is why we know ruin and misery. That is why we don’t know peace!

But maybe I can repent. Maybe it’s not too late. Maybe I can do something about it.

And maybe I can put a bandaid on my gangrenous leg. Maybe I can stop the tide or catch the wind.

There is a time for repentance! But it is not yet. At this point in the argument, for Paul, there is only one thing we can do.

We can only shut up! And so I’ve entitled this sermon, ‘You’re All Sinners, So Just Shut Up!’ Verses 19 and 20:

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law’ rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (NIV)

The law is saying ‘Stop’! Stop justifying yourself. Stop the legal fiction of saying ‘I’m a good person. I’ve never done anything wrong. I’m not like those drug addicts or murderers or prostitutes or home invaders or pedophiles or terrorists! I may have made mistakes but I’ve got a good heart. I’m from a good family. I’m good.

Please stop it. Or more harshly, Shut up! It’s simply not true. It was never true. You are lying to yourself. So stop it. Stop saying it. Stop believing it. Stop thinking it.

Change the way you think about yourself and accept God’s verdict on your life. And that verdict is ‘sinful.’ Just sit with it for a while. I am ‘sinful’. In and of myself, I am not righteous.

We can sit with it for a while because we’ve earnt it. We are all in the same boat.

Conclusion

Paul, with the wisdom God gave him, reminds us, ‘There is no one good, not even one’. And Jesus Our Lord, said the same thing, ‘There is no one good, except God alone.’ And we need to agree with God, Jesus, the Psalmists, the Apostle, the law and our own consciences, which accuse us of sin. Hear the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Because there is great freedom in knowing yourself the way God know you. A good man knows his limitations. And our fundamental limitation before God is that we are not righteous in and of ourselves.

And as we all sit in silence together under the sentence ‘no one righteous, no one good’, let’s wait upon the Lord. Let us wait and watch, because God will do something about our appalling lack of righteousness. God is displeased about this lack of righteousness, and will act, and will work salvation. The righteousness of God will become our righteousness through what Jesus Christ has done.

Up until now, it’s all been bad news, and even the slivers of good news have been put there to show how bad the bad news is. But from now on, from Romans 3:21, it’s all good news, and even the remembrance of bad news Paul puts there are put there to remind us how good the good news is. From from chapter 3 verse 21, we will read about the righteousness of God apart from the law through faith in Jesus Christ. We will read that Jesus Christ was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification (Romans 4:25). And so we are freed up to agree with God about our sins. For it is only from the vantage point of the forgiveness of our sins, that we can have the strength and boldness to agree with God that indeed we are not good.

Let’s pray.

[1] http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28449

[2] http://www.litigationfairness.org/stories_topten.html

[3] http://www.litigationfairness.org/stories_topten.html

[4] http://www.forces-int.net/absurd/files/kirkwood.htm: This tale is of a piece with those about the numbskulls who have tried to trim the hedges with lawnmowers, start a stubborn car engine by priming the carburetor with gasoline and hop the ladder along the gutter instead climbing down, moving it, and climbing back up to get those last few leaves; i.e., misusing products then blaming someone else.

[5] http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/public-servant-misses-out-on-workers-compensation-for-sex-injury/story-fnihslxi-1226749550317

[6] Moo, Romans, 196

[7] It appears that two passages in context (Ps 14, Is 59) speak of universal sinfulness. For the others, it would seem Paul is applying what is said of the wicked to all people.

10 Just as it has been written, that there is not a righteous one Not one

While verse 1 speaks of the fool, verses 2-3 use universal language, eg Sons of Adam. These workers of iniquity do not call on YHWH (verse 4) God is said to be ‘with the generation of the righteous (qyDix" rwdo¢B] µyhi%loaÔAÚyKi)’ (verse 5). The Psalm closes with a wish for salvation from Zion (verse 7). Graves having been opened (PfPPtcpNSM anoigw) [are] their throats. Other quotes are from Ps 5:9, Ps 140:3b, Ps 10:7, Is 59:7-9a, Ps 36:1b)

[8] Against Moo, 203 fn29