#1622 Romans 3 Part 2 Antinomianism, An Old Disease

 

5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is the God who inflicts wrath unrighteous? (I am speaking in human terms.) 6 May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”? Their condemnation is just.

9 What then? Are we better? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;

11 There is none who understands,

There is none who seeks for God;

12 All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;

There is none who does good,

There is not even one.”  Romans 3: 5-12 LSB

Romans 3: 5-12

V. 5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God - This is always the question, and it gets turned around on it's end. "I sinned according to God's law, or what your Bible says, but God made me that way, so how is it my fault?" And Paul will go even deeper than this, so that by the time we hit Romans 9 you will realize that John Calvin didn't invent election, and that there is also nothing new under the sun. God created our parents, Adam and Eve, parents of every human being on this planet, as moral beings. He gave them a command, just like He will later give Israel, "do this and you will live, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you will die." Now a command like this implies a choice, the ability to not do what God says, and to see what happens. If He is just then He is not a liar, and if He is not a liar, guess what, He keeps His word and you die. The Creator has every right over His creation, and can decree any expectation of it that He wants, and it is our duty to obey, but now that sin has entered the world we can no longer meet that standard. His is perfection, He is holy, which means otherly, different than you and I. He won't sin, and it demonstrates His righteousness, His beauty, in that He does not let it go without consequences. Even His own people, Israel, called out of Egypt, given the oracles of God, even their sin did not go unpunished. He called David a man after His own heart, but when David sinned with Bathsheba God punished him so hard that his ancestors felt it, literally. He told him, "the sword will not depart from your house", and what followed was the death of his son with Bathsheba, the rape of his daughter by one of his other sons, that son killed by yet another son, and then the same son, Absalom, trying to kill his father David, sleeping with his father's concubines on a roof top so all the city would see the disrespect. Later David would mourn the death of Absalom. God loved David, but God is just. 

…18Then Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Arise, O Balak, and listen; give ear to me, O son of Zippor. 19God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill? 20I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.… Numbers 23: 18-20

…28So Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. 29Moreover, the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man, that He should change His mind.” 30“I have sinned,” Saul replied. “Please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God.”… 1 Samuel 15: 28-30

…9Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ 11This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight.… 2 Samuel 12: 9-11

12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him. 13When tempted, no one should say, “ God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone. 14But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.… James 1: 12-14

V. 5b Is the God Who inflicts wrath unrighteous - We love sin, but hate the consequences, so we always turn on God. Fair would be that He killed us the moment we first sinned, but then no one would be here. Our unrighteousness also affords us another view of God, that He is a Redeemer, the One Who created can also recreate, bring back to life. The One Who finds us dead in our trespasses and sin, obstinately forging forward toward our eternal demise, doing everything we can to suppress the truth and glorify a fallen creation, also has the power to bring us back to life, to call us to turn around. He can bring people who hate Him to the place that they love and honor Him. I love how Paul says here "(I am speaking in human terms)", lower terms, limited understanding, the query of fallen minds. God would be unrighteous if He didn't inflict wrath. That would make Him unjust, that would leave the creature to believe God has said things about sin that He didn't mean, that it didn't really matter. 

…9This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. 10 And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.… 1 John 4: 9-11

…7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!… Romans 5: 7-9

V. 6 May it never be - He is the perfect judge because unrighteousness is opposite of His character. It doesn't have a place in His eternal being, nothing to hold on to, nothing to tempt. 

Newell comments that "Paul assumes, and so do even these cavilers (Ed note: those who might be objecting and arguing), that there will be a day of judgment: "God Who visits with wrath." What the apostle is attacking is the false hopes of men to evade that judgment. Christ has been judged and smitten in our stead. But, alas, how a man hates to come to the cross as one "to whom that stroke was due" (Isa 53:8). But if you manage to escape conviction of sin, and thus miss personal faith in the Crucified One, you will go to hell forever. (Romans 3: Devotional and Expositional)

Abraham attests to God as Judge of the world just before He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah…

"Far be it from Thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from Thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" (Ge 18:25+)

David declares that…

He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity. (Ps 9:8)

Spurgeon comments: Whatever earthly courts may do, heaven's throne ministers judgment in uprightness. Partiality and respect of persons are things unknown in the dealings of the Holy One of Israel. How the prospect of appearing before the impartial tribunal of the Great King should act as a check to us when tempted to sin, and as a comfort when we are slandered or oppressed. - PA

V. 7 Why am I also still being judged as a sinner - Paul is playing the devil's advocate here. If sin shows the righteousness of God then why am I, the sinner (liar), still being judged for what God has used to reveal His good. There are some who were and still do insist upon this in it's various forms. They suggest that they are still good Christians thought they openly commit and play down sin, their own and that of others. The same think they are so good that when something bad happens they ask, "why do bad things happen to good people?" 

S. Lewis Johnson - "With a different emphasis Paul, offering arguments an objector might pose to his doctrine of God’s determination to fulfill His promises even in the face of human sin and disobedience, continues the discussion. Putting words in the sinner’s mouth he asks, “If God’s truth is increased and God’s glory advanced by means of my lying, then why am I brought to judgment, Why may I not just do evil that good may come?” The apostle has inserted a parenthesis in the last question, asserting that this is the very charge brought against him and his followers, namely, that they practiced this very doctrine, “Let us do evil that good may come.” (Romans 3:5-8) - PA

Place yourself, see yourself, next to the man you regard the least

Take yourself, a step past him and one step closer to the beast

Stare back at the man, in which you see the darkest soul

Take one more step, your closer now, to the bottom of the hole

Now your past the place you thought to be the furthest from His grace

And looking round you realize, that this is your old place

That darkest soul you thought to be is now knocking at your door

So show the place, where you found grace, not so long before

For its not for you or I to say that this one has gone too far

There is this certain problem of evil, and that is, that no one thinks they are

Calvin "Cheese Grits" Yerke

V. 8 Let us do good that evil may come - Paul was being slanderously accused of teaching this because he taught that we are justified by faith and not by works. He was being listed amongst the antinomians, and unjustly. He says the people teaching such or slandering him as teaching this, that their condemnation is just. He is teaching the truth, they are twisting it, and they will have to answer to God. The reality is, if you come to Christ you come as a sinner, wanting to be saved not just from death or eternal punishment but the very root of it, your sin. When you become a child of God then you will reflect this by growing into His same aversion for sin.  

…19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20 The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.… Romans 5: 19-21

1What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? 3Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?… Romans 6: 1-3

3Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints. 4For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed— ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5Although you are fully aware of this, I want to remind you that after Jesus had delivered His people out of the land of Egypt, He destroyed those who did not believe.… Jude 1: 3-5

Vs. 9-10 There is none righteous, not even one - I met a Jehovah's Witness lady one time who told me she no longer sinned, and when she later left my house screaming at me and dusting her feet, she called that righteous anger. Everyone thinks their good and has someone else to compare themselves to that helps them maintain that in their mind. This verse lists everyone as under condemnation, everyone as guilty, even Mary, though Roman Catholics tell me that she was without sin, though she needed a Savior. 

46Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! 48For He has looked with favor on the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed.… Luke 1: 46-48

Dr Charles Ryrie offers these thoughts on total depravity…

The scriptural evidence provides the basis for what has been commonly called total depravity. The English word “depravity” means perverted or crooked. It is not used in the translation of the King James Version, but some modern translations do use it to translate adokimos (Ed: word study) in Romans 1:28 (see note). This word (adokimos) means “not standing the test” and gives us a clue as to how to define the concept of depravity. Depravity means that man fails the test of pleasing God. He denotes his unmeritoriousness in God’s sight. This failure is total in that (a) it affects all aspects of man’s being and (b) it affects all people.

Negatively, the concept of total depravity does not mean (a) that every person has exhibited his depravity as thoroughly as he or she could; (b) that sinners do not have a conscience or a “native induction” concerning God (Ed: eg, see Ro 2:14, 15-note); (c) that sinners will indulge in every form of sin; or (d) that depraved people do not perform actions that are good in the sight of others and even in the sight of God (Ed: But see caveat in study of Good Deeds).

Positively, total depravity means (a) that corruption extends to every facet of man’s nature and faculties; and (b) that there is nothing in anyone that can commend him to a righteous God.

Total depravity must always be measured against God’s holiness (Ed: See God's attribute-Holy). Relative goodness exists in people. They can do good works, which are appreciated by others. But nothing that anyone can do will gain salvational merit or favor in the sight of a holy God. (Ryrie, C. C. Basic Theology : A Popular Systemic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth. Chicago, Ill.: Moody Press) - PA

V. 12 All have turned aside - It's not restricted to a group, not just Adam and Eve, everyone proves out their sin nature by going against God, being spiritually dead and therefore lost.

7Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’” 9The LORD also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.… Exodus 32: 7-9

…5But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. 7He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.… Isaiah 53: 5-7

The picture conveyed by ekklino is of one bending aside from one's course -- in this verse in Romans the idea is turning from God's way and in the other two NT uses the idea is "bending aside" at the approach of evil.

In short ekklino describes morally deviating from the right path. All (no exceptions except the God-Man Jesus) men are inclined to leave God’s way and pursue their own (cf. Isa 53:6). All have deviated, bent away from, steered clear of and swerved (so as to miss) godliness and virtue. The active voice indicates that the turning away is a deliberate choice and that they have not accidentally lost their way!

Spurgeon commenting on the OT Psalm (Ps 14:3) which Paul quotes here, writes "Without exception, all have apostatized from the Lord their Maker, from his laws, and from the eternal principles of fight. Like stubborn heifers they have sturdily refused to receive the yoke; like errant sheep they have found a gap and left the right field… The life of unregenerate humanity is in direct defiance of the law of God." (Treasury of David)

This truth is illustrated so clearly by Adam's action to disobey a direct commandment of God 

"Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life." Genesis 3:17      - PA