©2000 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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6/25/00
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For Through The Law...
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Romans 2:1-3:20
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6/25/00 For Through The Law...
We return this morning
to our study of the book of Romans,
and to our study of the first major section of
this remarkable book.
Throughout our study of this book
you will hear me frequently reminding us
of the four major questions Paul wrote the
book to answer
because it is those four questions
that will give you a better feel for the
book
than anything else I could offer you.
Paul wrote the book to answer the following four
questions:
1. Why was Christ needed?
He answers this question in 1:18-3:20
2. What is a Christian?
He explains the basics of life with God through
Christ in 3:21-8:39
3. What happens with the Nation of Israel now that
God has established the church?
He answers this question in chapters 9, 10, and 11.
4. And then he answers the question, "What is the
church and how does it operate?" in chapters 12-15.
We have just begun our study of the book,
and we are in the first of those 4 sections,
the one in which Paul explains
why Christ was needed.
And He answers that question
by providing us with a presentation
of what the human race looks like
without Christ.
It is a passage that tells us everything
we didn't really want to hear
about ourselves and our world.
It is a passage
that goes directly against the grain
of everything we have tried so hard to do as a
human race.
We have tried so hard to hide from the truth,
telling ourselves we are really pretty good
people
doing a pretty good job under the
circumstances.
When floods and hurricanes and fires hit
we all rally to the cause
and help out our fellow man.
Violent crime is down,
and the economy is doing great!
What more could be required of us?
The human race is like a teenage boy
who has stolen his daddy's car
and his daddy's credit card
and headed out across country
with three of his friends,
all telling themselves they are going to prove
they can make it on their own.
They don't have any idea where they're going,
and there are frequent arguments
about what they should do
and how they should do it along the
way,
but because they have the car
and they've just charged another bag of
groceries
and another tank of gas,
they tell themselves they're doing great
on their own,
and everything is going to work out fine.
But tucked away in each of their minds
there is this nagging anxiety,
this fear,
this knowledge that back home there is a
DAD,
and he just might want his car
and his credit card back some day.
This first two and a half chapters of the book of
Romans
presents the human race
in its stolen car,
with its stolen credit card,
laughing,
and drinking,
and pretending everything is OK.
But in the back of our minds we know
there is something altogether wrong
about this situation.
We ended our study last time
with Paul's statement in 1:32
where he says,
Rom. 1:32 and, although they know the
ordinance of God, that those who practice
such things are worthy of death, they not
only do the same, but also give hearty
approval to those who practice them.
"We're doing great on our own, huh?
Hey, that was some great driving back there!
I thought that cop was going to get us for sure,
but you showed him!
Who needs dad, anyway?
It's probably best if we head on to the next
town, though.
Always best to keep on the move..."
This is jumping ahead in our study,
but since I got myself into this illustration
I can't resist the urge to complete the picture.
You see, those teenage boys
racing across country in daddy's car
are far more like the human race
than we may realize.
Their great fear
is that daddy will catch them
and take back his car
and his credit card
and then explode in a rage
that lands them all in juvenile detention.
As Paul confronts the human race
with our mad dash across history
He brings this unspoken fear right out into
the open
in the passage we'll look at in just a few
minutes.
In Romans 2:5-6 he says,
But because of your stubbornness and
unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath
for yourself in the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of
God, who will render to every man
according to his deeds:
And as those boys picture DAD in their minds
they believe what he wants
is his car,
and his credit card,
and his vengeance on them.
But if they could look into Daddy's heart
what they would see there
would send a shock through them.
For they would see that
what Dad really longs for,
what he hungers for,
the only thing he really wants back is
his son.
And in the context of this illustration that has
completely run wild,
when we get to Romans 3:21 and the verses
following,
we are going to see that,
when Father and son are finally reunited,
and the boy steps out of the driver's seat
and faces his Dad,
the first thing the Father says is,
"Come on, son, lets go home.
I've paid the credit card bill in full.
It no longer exists.
And I've signed the title of this car over to you as
well.
You are not my enemy,
my criminal to be conquered and destroyed.
You are my son.
All I've ever wanted since the day you were
born
is to share a friendship with you.
And if you'll let me take the wheel
I'll show you this country
as you've never seen it before,
and I can take you to places you are going to
love!"
But let's get back into the passage itself
and see where Paul goes with it.
We left off our study
having just seen the first phase
of the two phases of the wrath of God.
In Romans 1:18-32 we saw Paul telling us
that the great offense the human race has
committed against God
is our refusal to honor Him as God
and acknowledge that He is GOOD.
Because of that
God instituted a two-phase program for his
wrath
designed to confront us with our sin
and call us back to Himself.
And the first phase of that program
is through his "giving us over" to our sin.
We saw two weeks ago
the way in which God has built
an addictive element into all sinful conduct
so that even when we recognize
the destructiveness of our sin,
we cannot break free from it.
He has done this
for the same reason we set an alarm clock before
going to sleep.
He knows one of the most powerful tools for
waking us up
to our desperate need for Him
is the pain we experience
as a result of our rebellion against Him.
That is where we ended last time.
This morning I want us to pick up our study with
Romans 2:1
and it is my hope
that I can take us all the way through the
remainder of this first section
of the book of Romans.
And in order for us to move that quickly
through that much of the letter
what I will do is to share with you
each major statement as Paul presents it
to us,
then give you the verses in which
those statements are made,
and encourage you to use what
we look at today
as a guide for your own study of the passage.
The crucial thing for us in this particular passage
is for us to see the flow of Paul's logic
and understand where he's taking us
and how he is getting us there.
So, with the hope that you are mentally prepared for
a sprint,
let's jump into it.
The next major statement in the passage
is found in 2:1-11.
It describes phase 2 of the wrath of God,
and it tells us that every one of us stand
justly deserving of the future wrath of God
under the moral law of God.
The summary statement of the passage
is found in 2:9-10 where Paul says:
Rom. 2:9 There will be tribulation and
distress for every soul of man who does
evil, of the Jew first and also of the
Greek,
Rom. 2:10 but glory and honor and peace
to every man who does good, to the Jew
first and also to the Greek.
The problem, of course,
is that the entire human race
falls into the first category.
If we would have lived perfectly,
God would have honored that perfection
and given us glory, honor, and peace.
But none of us do.
And there is one other aspect of this passage I don't
want us to miss.
It is stated twice within the passage,
in 2:1, and again in 2:3.
And it is designed to shatter
on of our favorite hiding places
from the moral law of God.
In 2:1 Paul says,
Rom. 2:1 Therefore you are without
excuse, every man of you who passes
judgment, for in that you judge another,
you condemn yourself; for you who judge
practice the same things.
You see,
one of man's favorite mental hiding places from
the moral law of God
is in his proclamation that he doesn't accept
the same rules God does.
This, of course, goes back to that statement in verse
1:32
where we are all giving hearty approval
to the sin addictions of those around us.
But what Paul says in this passage
is that the standard God will measure us by
is not the standard we have written for
ourselves,
it is the standard
we require from others.
The modern man says,
"I don't really buy into all of this 'thou shalt not
stuff' in the Bible.
Sometimes a little cheating,
a little dishonesty,
a little stretching of the truth is necessary to
get ahead in this world.
I'm a "survival-of-the-fittest kind of guy".
And then he gets his snow plowing bill
and notices he's been charged
for plowing on two days
when it didn't even snow.
The first thing he does
is to grab his phone,
call the snow plower
and scream,
"HEY! Your trying to cheat me!"
And onto his list goes,
"Thou shalt not lie."
"Thou shalt not steal."
We may proclaim ourselves
to be totally liberated from all the archaic sexual
taboos in the Bible,
but the real question is
what rules of conduct do we expect
from the young man picking up our daughter for
a date,
or from the work colleague
making a play for our marriage partner.
All of the sudden,
"Thou shalt not commit adultery" looks mighty
good.
And in the end,
no matter what moral code we may have
personally choose for ourselves,
the code God measures our life by
is the one we mentally require from
others
in those relationships where it really matters.
So, the first major statement Paul makes,
found in 2:1-11 is that every one of us
stand justly deserving of the future wrath
of God on the basis of the moral law of
God.
Then, to tighten the noose,
Paul takes the next two sections
to deal with two distinctly different blocks
of humanity -
the Gentile world
who did not have the written moral law of
God,
and the Jewish world
who had been given the moral law by God
in written form.
And with each group
Paul attacks and destroys their hiding place.
In our modern setting
the same two groups exist -
those who have never seen the written word of
God,
and those who know it well,
most of whom are in the Christian church
world today.
Paul begins with those who have never been
exposed to the written Word
in 2:12-16.
Their great voice of protest against being judged on
the basis of the Law, of course,
is that, "We never knew!"
And Paul responds by saying,
"Yes, you certainly did,
because God has written His moral law in the
heart of every human being."
The key verses are 2:14-15:
Rom. 2:14 For when Gentiles who do not
have the Law do instinctively the things of
the Law, these, not having the Law, are a
law to themselves,
Rom. 2:15 in that they show the work of
the Law written in their hearts, their
conscience bearing witness, and their
thoughts alternately accusing or else
defending them...
Etched into the heart of every human being
is the awareness of moral accountability
and the basic knowledge of moral right and
wrong.
And then, in 2:17-29,
he turns his attention to those
who possess the moral law of God in written
form.
Their great source of security,
and their hiding place comes in the belief
that they are the ones who are upholding the
moral law of God to the world.
The key verse in this passage is 2:23:
Rom. 2:23 You who boast in the Law,
through your breaking the Law, do you
dishonor God?
In our modern setting,
these are those who hide from their own sin
behind their bold proclamations
for righteousness in the lives of others.
They are quick to point out
the hideous corruption in our governmental
system,
but when they fill out their own income tax
forms,
the only money that shows up
is the money that can be traced.
They take all the right stands
on all the right issues,
and in Paul's words,
they are confident that (they) are a guide to
the blind, a light to those who are in
darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a
teacher of the immature, having in the Law
the embodiment of knowledge and of the
truth...
They can tell you with skill and insight
exactly where others live in sin.
Their security is found
in their bold public stand
against all that is evil in the lives of those
around them.
And in this passage Paul says,
"You have it all wrong!
The law was not given TO you,
the law was given FOR you.
It was not given as your weapon
with which to attack your fellow man.
It was given as your personal, infallible guide for
self-evaluation."
And Paul's message to those who possess the
knowledge of the written law is clear-
use your knowledge to measure yourself,
not the person next to you.
Then, in the first 8 verses of chapter 3
Paul includes a parenthesis,
a closed circuit comment
to those who posses the law
and who may have been offended by
what he has said.
He has made it clear
that those who possess the law
will be judged by an even higher standard
because they have a more accurate knowledge of the
truth.
And to those who cry out in response,
"Well then, it would have been better
for me to have never possessed the knowledge
of the law!"
Paul responds by saying,
"No! Far from it!
For even though you did not keep the law,
still, you possessed the greatest treasure any
human being can ever posses -
you possessed the very oracle of God.
You knew the truth about how God designed life to
operate.
That you refused to use it for that purpose
does not diminish the greatness of the gift."
Which brings us, then,
to Paul's great summery statement
to all that he has said so far.
It is found in 3:9-20,
and it is well worth our taking the time to read it
together.
Rom. 3:9 ¶ What then? Are we better than
they? Not at all; for we have already
charged that both Jews and Greeks are all
under sin; as it is written, "There is none
righteous, not even one; There is none who
understands, There is none who seeks for
God; All have turned aside, together they
have become useless; There is none who
does good, There is not even one. Their
throat is an open grave, With their tongues
they keep deceiving, 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 paths, And the path of peace have
they not known. There is no fear of God
before their eyes."
Through a series of quotations
from a number of Old Testament passages
Paul brings us to the one ultimate truth
of life under the Moral Law of God-
under the Law
every one of us stands justifiably condemned by
God.
And then,
just so that there can be no misunderstanding,
he summarizes the whole passage
in these last two verses:
Rom. 3:19 ¶ Now we know that whatever
the Law says, it speaks to those who are
under the Law, that every mouth may be
closed, and all the world may become
accountable to God;
Rom. 3:20 because by the works of the Law
no flesh will be justified in His sight; for
through the Law comes the knowledge of
sin.
...through the Law comes the knowledge of
sin...
If it serves it's role correctly
that is it's first great role in our lives.
If it brings us only the knowledge of another's sin,
then it has not yet done it's work in our lives.
It was not given to make us righteous.
It was not given to make us free.
It was not given to show us the way to
God.
It was not given to give us a sense of security with
God.
It was given to show is our own personal sin.
Where does the law of God ultimately lead us?
To this one truth - there is none righteous, not
even one,
and all the world stands accountable to God.
Why was Christ needed?
Because without Him there is no hope.
And then, after forcing the human race
to the point of logical despair,
the next 6 words Paul writes
changes everything forever.
Rom. 3:21 ¶ But now apart from the Law
...
And that's where we'll pick it up next week.