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SECTION F – The Conduct of
Mankind (1:18 -
3:20)
Balanced
by SECTION f - The Conduct of The Saints (12:01
- 15:07)
Romans Three - verses 5 to 20
05. Now if our injustice is commending God's righteousness,
what shall we declare?
Not that God Who is bringing on indignation is
unjust!
(As a man am I saying it.)
The
painful contrast between the fearful failures of His people and His holy
law had one good effect. It magnified His righteousness. The question
arises whether, since their unrighteousness commends His righteousness, He
has the right to be indignant at it. Indeed (we might add) since all sin is
a foil for His glory, how can He condemn it? But, how then can there be any
judgment at all? That God is able to bring good out of evil is no excuse
for the commission of evil, far less an incentive to do evil. Concordant Commentary
‘…our injustice is commending God’s righteousness…’
All men are sinners and
lack the glory of God. We treat God with impertinence and disrespect. Our
dealings with our associates are unjust, our motives being seldom
altruistic and innocent. These display our inherent unrighteousness in
stark contrast against the standard of God’s righteousness. The worse we
are shown to be, the more righteous God is
demonstrated to be by contrast.
Rom.3:23 for all sinned and are wanting of
the glory of God.
Rom.5:12 …death passed through into all mankind, on which all sinned…
Rom.5:19 … through the disobedience of the
one man,
the many
were constituted sinners,…
Eccl.7:20 For there is no righteous man in the earth
who does
good and never sins.
1Jn.1:8 If we should be saying that we have no sin
we are
deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
' …what shall we declare?...'
Concerning revelations of the
workings of God's wisdom in our evangel, the inspiration of Scripture anticipates the questions and
objections prompted by human wisdom.
Rom.4:1 What, then, shall we declare that Abraham,
our forefather, according to flesh, has found?
Rom.6:1 What, then, shall we declare?
That we may be persisting in sin that grace
should be increasing?
Rom.7:7 What, then, shall we declare? That the law is sin? ….
Rom.9:14 What, then, shall we be declaring?
Not that there is injustice with God?…
Rom.9:19 You will be protesting to me, then,
"Why,
then, is He still blaming? for
who has withstood His intention?"
‘…Not that God Who is bringing on indignation is unjust…’
Moved by the wisdom of man,
one might ask how God could punish that sin from which His own
righteousness is made to appear greater by contrast. But, does not such a
proposition suggest that man sets
the ground rules under which God has to carry out His operations?
Job.40:8 Indeed, would you ever annul My judgment?
Would you condemn Me that you might be justified?
Rom.9:20 O man!
who are
you, to
be sure, who are answering again to God?
That which
is molded will not protest to the molder,
"Why do you make me thus?"
'…As a man am I saying it…'
Paul assumes the position
of an objector to pose the
erroneous thinking. Man, in his pride, forgets his position relative to
God. He presumes to question God’s methods and processes for achieving His
objectives even when he does not know what
those goals are in the first place. He has the audacity to make it appear
that God would, somehow, be unrighteous
in punishing sinners.
Rom.6:19 As
a man am I saying this,
because of the infirmity of your flesh….
Gal.3:15 Brethren (I am saying this as a man), a human covenant likewise
having been ratified, no one is repudiating or
modifying it.
1Cor.9:8,9 Not
according to man am I speaking these things.
Or is the law not also saying these things?
9 For in the law of Moses it is written:
"You shall not muzzle the threshing
ox." Not for oxen is the care of God!
Rom.1:21,22 …knowing God, not as God do they glorify or thank Him,
but vain were they made in their reasonings,
and darkened is their unintelligent heart.
22 Alleging themselves to be wise, they are made stupid,
06. May it not be coming to
that! Else how shall God be judging
the world?
'…how shall God be judging
the world…’
Since, by its very
contrast, it shows up the vastness of God's righteousness, can God really
be just in bringing on indignation on the unjust, the unrighteous? If our
lies and our weaknesses show off the truth and strength of God, why should He judge us? How can He judge us? Having, indirectly
at least, contributed to His glory, why should we come under judgment?
Some commentators propose
that such questions come ‘naturally’ in the face of the claims of
Scripture. But, these objections only come naturally to those who live in
accord with the wisdom of the world, inured in its philosophies. Faith,
however, must see God as God, His
righteousness the premise for His
actions. Being God, He has the
right to judge His creatures. Being God,
He will always do that which is right. He will judge righteously.
Job.8:3 Does El distort judgment,
And should He Who-Suffices distort justice?
Job.34:18,19 Who says to a king, Worthless
one,
And to patrons, Wicked one,
19 Who does not repute chiefs,
Nor is He partial to the rich-man above the
poor,
For they all are the work of His hands?
Ps.9:8 And He shall judge the
habitance with justice;
He shall adjudicate the national groups with equity.
Ps.11:7 For Yahweh is righteous; He loves righteous deeds.
The upright, they shall perceive His face.
Ps.96:13 Before Yahweh, for He comes; For
He comes to judge the earth;
He shall judge the habitance in righteousness, and the peoples in His truth.
Ps.98:9 before Yahweh. For He comes to judge the
earth;
He shall judge the habitance in righteousness, And the peoples with equity.
Act.17:31 forasmuch as He assigns a day
in which He is about to be judging the inhabited earth in righteousness
by the Man Whom He specifies, tendering faith to
all,
raising Him from among the dead--
Rev.20:11-13 And I perceived a great white
throne,
and Him Who is sitting upon it,
from Whose face earth and heaven fled, and no
place was found for them.
12 And I perceived the dead, the great and
the small,
standing before the throne.
And the scrolls were opened.
And another scroll was opened which is the
scroll of life. And
the dead were judged by that which is written in the scrolls
in accord
with their acts.
13 And the sea gives up the dead in it, and
death and the unseen
give up the dead in them. And they were condemned,
each in
accord with their acts.
07. Yet if the truth of God superabounds in my lie,
for His glory, why am I also still being
judged as a sinner,
Whatever God declares is
truth. Whatever He says He will do, He will – whether one believes these or
not. Nothing that man can
do, or refrain from doing, will cause
Him not to carry out whatever He
says He will. His glory is in His
carrying out His intention. Man’s lies and misdeeds neither enhance nor
detract from this glory of His. So, the premise of this objection is
flawed.
Isa.46:10 Telling from the beginning, the hereafter,
and from
aforetime, what has not yet been done.
Saying, `All
My counsel shall be confirmed, and all
My desire will I do.'
Isa.14:24 Sworn has Yahweh of
hosts, saying,
"Should it not, as I likened it, so
come to be,
and as I
counseled it, be arising?
Isa.14:27 For Yahweh of hosts has
counseled, and who will annul it?
And His hand is outstretched, and who will reverse it?
Isa.43:13 Moreover, from the eon I am He,
and there is no rescuing from My hand.
I will contrive, and who will reverse it?
Num.23:19 El is not a man that He should lie.
Nor a son of humanity that He should feel
regret.
Does He
say it and then not do it? Or speak and then not carry it out?
The fact is that when he
cannot do as he says he will, man demonstrates
that he is a liar, deserving of judgment and
condemnation as a sinner. Dare
he, as unrighteous as he is, criticize God’s righteousness?
08. and why not say, according as we are calumniated
and according as some are
averring that we are saying,
that "We should be doing evil that
good may be coming"?--
whose judgment is fair.
‘…doing evil that good
may be coming…’
Under the same
rationalization, it is proposed that, perhaps, we should continue doing the evil so as to
provide God with more opportunities to exercise His love and righteousness
and, thus, bring even more glory to Himself. Since, in the operations of
God, good may come from the evil we do, should we not be rewarded for doing
such evil? Man ever seeks for a loophole to escape accountability for his
misdeeds, and he is not averse to distorting the truth to create one. He
makes it look that this is what
the evangel implies. It is even
prompted that this is what Paul was actually teaching.
Rom.6:1 What, then, shall we declare?
That we may be persisting in sin that grace
should be increasing?
Rom.6:15 What then?
Should we be sinning, seeing that we are not
under law, but under grace?
Though it is true that the
more, and the more grievous, the sin, the greater the grace that God
displays, Scripture emphasises that for us
evil is never an option to be
exercised.
Rom.5:20 …Yet where sin increases,
grace superexceeds,
Greek:
hupereperisseu’ö, OVER-ABOUT, to superexceed
1Tim.1:13,14 I, who formerly was a
calumniator and a persecutor and an outrager:
but I was shown mercy, seeing that I do it being
ignorant, in unbelief.
14 Yet the grace of our Lord overwhelms, with faith and love in
Christ Jesus.
Greek: huperpleona’zö,
OVER-MORE-ize, to overwhelm
1Tim.1:15,16 Faithful is the saying, and
worthy of all welcome,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
foremost
of whom am I.
16 But therefore
was I shown mercy,
that in me, the
foremost, Jesus Christ should be displaying all His patience,
for a
pattern of those who are about to be believing on Him for life eonian.
Rom.12:17-21 To
no one render evil for evil,
making ideal provision in the sight of all men,
18
…Being at peace with all mankind,
19 you are not avenging yourselves, beloved,
but be giving place to His indignation,
for it is written, Mine is vengeance! I
will repay! the Lord is saying.
20 But "If your enemy should be hungering,
give him the morsel;
if he should be thirsting, give him to drink,
for in doing this you will be heaping embers of
fire on his head."
21 Be not conquered by evil; but conquer evil with good.
Rom.13:10 Love is not working evil to an associate….
Rom.16:19 … Now I am wanting you to be wise,
indeed, for good,
yet artless
for evil.
Col.3:5-7 Deaden,
then, your members that are on the earth:
prostitution, uncleanness, passion, evil desire
and greed, which is idolatry,
6because of which the indignation of God
is coming on the sons of stubbornness--
7among whom you also once walked, when you lived in these things.
1Thes.5:15 See that no one may be
rendering evil for evil to anyone,
but always
pursue that which is good for one another as well as for all
1Pet.3:9-12 not
rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling,
but, on the contrary, blessing, seeing that you
were called for this,
that you should be enjoying the allotment of
blessing,
10 for He who is wanting to love life and
be acquainted with good days,
Let his tongue cease from evil
And his lips speak no guile.
11 Now let him avoid evil and do good.
Let him seek peace and pursue it,
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the
just And His ears are for
their petition,
Yet the face of the Lord is on evil doers.
‘…whose judgment is fair…’
This is connected to
‘…still being judged as a
sinner…’ of the preceding verse. From his very approach and argument, man
demonstrates that he is unjust in his assessment of God’s ways, and proves
himself the sinner he is.
* Verses 5 through 8 exemplify the faulty reasoning that man
resorts to to justify his wrongdoing, even to the extent of insinuating unrighteousness in God for judging him a sinner.
09.
What, then? Are we privileged?
Undoubtedly not, for we previously charge
both Jews and Greeks
to be all under sin,
In
the judgment there will be no privileged class. Religious Jews as well as
cultured Greeks are all under sin. The proof of this for the Jews is found
in the very oracles in which they boast. Concordant Commentary
Though circumcision and possession of the oracles of
God are the prerogatives of the Jew, these do not give him any advantage
over the Greek in the judgment of God, or absolve him from being a sinner
as much as his neighbour is, too.
Rom.3:22,23 … there is no distinction,
23 for all
sinned and are wanting of the glory of God.
Rom.5:12 Therefore, even as through one man
sin entered into the world, and through sin death,
and thus death
passed through into all mankind, on which all sinned--
Rom.11:32 For God locks up all together in stubbornness,…
Gal.3:22a But the scripture locks up all together under sin, …
This reference to both Jews
as well as Greeks being sinners, takes us back to the need the intended recipients have of the evangel.
Rom.1:16 For not ashamed am I of the
evangel,
for it is God's power for salvation to everyone who is believing--
to the Jew
first, and to the Greek as well.
10. according as it is written, that "Not one is just"--not even one.
These
passages are all quoted in support of the charge that the Jew, equally with
those of other nations, is subject to the judgment of God.
Concordant Commentary
In God’s eyes, not one is
just, not even one.
Job.25:4-6 How then can a mortal be justified before
El,
And how can one
born of woman be spotless?
5 If even the moon does not irradiate,
And the stars, they are not spotless in His
eyes,
6 How much less
a mortal, that maggot, and a son
of humanity, that worm?
Job.15:15,16 If even on His holy ones, He puts no
reliance,
And the heavens are not purged in His eyes,
16 How much less man, who is abhorrent and spoiled,
Who is drinking
iniquity like water.
Psa.130:3 If You should keep account of depravities, O
Yah,
O Yahweh, who
should stand?
Psa.143:2 O do not enter into
judgment with Your servant,
For no living one at all can be righteous before You.
Of course, Scripture does
regard a number of people ‘just’
or ‘righteous’ (both of which
come from the Greek dikaios). But
these are righteous only relative
to those around them rather than in the absolute
sense as in this verse.
Mt.23:35 … from the blood of just Abel until the blood of
Zechariah…
Heb.11:4 … Abel offers to God more of a sacrifice than Cain,
through which he was testified to that he is just
at God's testifying to his approach presents,
2Pet.2:6,7 … condemns the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah,
reducing them to cinders …
7 and rescues the just man, Lot,…
Lk.1:5,6 There came to be, in the days of
Herod, the king of Judea,
a certain priest named Zechariah, of the
routine of Abiah,
and his wife, of the daughters of Aaron, and her
name is Elizabeth.
6 Now they were both just (Greek dikaioi)
in front of God,
going in all the precepts and just statutes of
the Lord, blameless.
Mt.1:18,19 …At the espousal of His mother,
Mary, to Joseph,
ere their coming together, she was found
pregnant by holy spirit.
19 Now Joseph, her husband, being just …
Lk.2:25 there was a man in Jerusalem,
whose name is Simeon.
And this man is just and pious, anticipating the consolation of Israel,
and holy spirit was on him.
Mk.6:20 Herod feared John,
being aware that he is a just and
holy man,…
Lk.23:50 … a man named Joseph,
belonging to the counselors,
and a good man and just… 51 …from Arimathea, a city of the Jews,…
Act.10:22 …"Cornelius, a
centurion, a man just and
God-fearing, …
11. Not one is understanding. Not one
is seeking out God.
The
whole quotation is taken from the Septuagint of Ps.14:2-3 except that it
begins "The Lord out or heaven stoops over the sons of mankind, to
perceive if they are understanding or seeking out God". Concordant Commentary
With man’s mind inhibited
by the mortality within him, he is limited to the soulish, seeking to
satisfy his senses, and God has his part-time attention only. He has no
interest in matters of the spirit and thus cannot understand the things of God. His belief in God is a
matter of circumstance, and arises only when he has some request to make or
some need to fulfill. He assumes and is satisfied that the God he worships
is the true One, and he goes through the motions of performing rites and
rituals to appease Him – just in case He casts an evil eye on him. Man does
not seek out God to know Him for Himself but self-centredly, only as a
means towards a life of peace and prosperity.
1Cor.2:14 Now the soulish man
is not receiving those things which are of the
spirit of God,
for they are stupidity
to him, and he is not able to
know them,
seeing that they are spiritually examined.
Ps.14:1-3 The decadent one says in his heart,
There is no Elohim.
They have become corrupt and abhorrent with
iniquitous deeds.
There is no
one doing good.
2 Yahweh, He gazes down from the heavens on
the sons of humanity,
To see whether there is anyone acting intelligently,
anyone seeking
after Elohim.
3 All withdraw aside; together they are spoiled.
There is no
one doing good; There is not even
one.
In order to drive home this
assessment Scripture repeats it almost verbatim in another Psalm.
Ps.53:1-3 The decadent one says in his heart, There is no Elohim.
They have become corrupt and abhorrent with
iniquity;
There is no
one doing good.
2 Elohim, He gazes down from the heavens on the
sons of humanity,
To see whether there is anyone acting intelligently,
Anyone seeking
after Elohim.
3 Everyone has turned away; Together they are spoiled;
There is no
one doing good; There is not even
one.
Israel enjoyed a special
relationship with God but she did not appreciate her unique privilege.
Prov.1:29,30 …they hated knowledge
And would not choose the fear of Yahweh,
30 They would not heed my counsel, They spurned all my correction,
Jer.4:22 For my people [are] foolish, me
they have not known,
Foolish sons [are] they, yea, they [are] not
intelligent,
Wise [are]
they to do evil, And to do good they have
not known.
We must not forget that we,
members of the body of Christ, whether of Jewish background or of the
nations, are no exceptions to this unappreciative and disqualified
mind-set. If not for God’s intervention through His Son to extricate us
from this unholy attitude, we would still be wallowing in it, even finding
the comfort of familiarity in our experiences – like hogs in a pool of
swill.
Eph.2:1-3 And you,
being dead to your offenses and sins,
2 in which
once you walked,
in accord with
the eon of this world,
in accord with
the chief of the jurisdiction of the air,
the spirit now operating in the sons of
stubbornness
3 (among whom we
also all behaved ourselves once in
the lusts of our flesh,
doing the
will of the flesh and of the comprehension,
and were, in our nature, children of indignation, even as the rest),
Rom.1:28 And according as they do not test
God, to have Him in recognition,
God gives them over to a disqualified mind, to do
that which is not befitting,
Rom.1:32 those who, recognizing
the just statute of God,
that those committing such things are deserving of death,
not only are doing them,
but are endorsing,
also, those who are committing them.
Gal.1:3,4 …the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 Who gives Himself for our sins,
so that He might extricate us out of the
present wicked eon,
according to the will of our God and Father,
12. "All avoid Him: at the same time they were useless.
Not one is doing kindness: there is not even one!"
Man’s awe of God is driven
by fear, not by love and true worship. His religions are built around the
appeasement of fierce and finicky deities. He is selfish, and his first
motive is self-preservation. His ‘good deeds’ and ‘kindnesses’ are a mere
camouflage, window-dressing, to this inherent self-centredness. But,
Scripture points out that:
Rom.7:14 … I am fleshly, having been disposed
of under Sin.
Rom.5:19a …through the
disobedience of the one man,
the many were constituted sinners,…
Gal.3:22 But the scripture locks up all together under sin,…
Eccl.7:20 For
there is no
righteous man in the earth who does
good and never sins.
Isa.64:6 And we are becoming as unclean, all of us,
and as an
ornamented garment is all our
righteousness.
And we are decaying as a leaf, all of us,
and our depravities, as the wind, are carrying
us away.
Even believers are not free
from the clutches of such a godless disposition. As long as the dying factor is present in our
make-up, the inherent weakness of our flesh works to draw us down.
Rom.7:18-20 For I am aware that
good is not making its home in me
(that is, in my flesh), for to will is lying
beside me,
yet to be effecting
the ideal is not.
19 For it is not the good that I will that
I am doing,
but the evil that I am not willing, this I am putting into practice.
20 Now if what I am not willing, this I am
doing,
it is no
longer I who am effecting it,
but Sin which is making its home in me.
13. "A sepulcher opened is
their throat.
With their tongues they defraud."
"The venom of asps is under their lips."
Men are putrefying within
and this rottenness is brought out when, for their own ends, they lie and
defraud their fellowmen. They see nothing wrong in being deadly vicious in
insinuation and slander to undermine the reputations and prospects of their
‘enemies’. Their excuse is that ‘all is fair in love and war’.
These assessments that are
recorded in the Psalms, still held true in the time of Paul, and continues
to be true even today. Men have not changed. The fact is that men cannot change by their own
initiative. Change must come from outside.
Ps.5:9 For there is nothing
established in their mouth;
Within them are woes;
A
sepulcher opened is their throat;
With their
tongue they deal slickly.
Mt.23:27,28 "Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites!
for you are resembling the whitewashed sepulchers
which outside, indeed, are appearing beautiful,
yet inside
they are crammed with the bones of the dead and all uncleanness.
28 Thus you, also, outside, indeed, are appearing to men to be just,
yet inside
you are distended with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Mt.15:18-20 …those things going out of the mouth, out of the heart are coming,
and those
things are contaminating a man.
19 For out
of the heart are coming wicked reasonings, murders,
adulteries, prostitutions, thefts, false
testimonies, calumnies.
20 These
are those which are contaminating a man….
Jer.17:9,10 Crooked
[is] the heart above all things,
And it [is] incurable—who does know it?
10 I Yahweh do search the heart, try the
reins,
Ps.52:2,3 Your tongue devises woes,
Like a honed razor, you who practice deceit.
3 You love evil rather than good,
falsehood rather than speaking
righteousness.
Isa.59:3,4 For your palms are
sullied with blood,
and your fingers with depravity.
Your lips
speak falsehood, your tongue
iniquity is soliloquizing.
4 No one is calling in righteousness,
and no one is being judged in faithfulness.
They trust in chaos, and speak futility.
They are pregnant with toil, and generate lawlessness.
Jer.9:3-5 And they bend their tongue, their bow [is] a lie,
And not for steadfastness have they been mighty
in the land,
For from
evil unto evil they have gone forth,
And Me they have not known, An affirmation of
Yahweh!
4 Each of his friend--beware you, And on any
brother, do not trust,
For every brother does utterly supplant,
For every friend slanderously does walk,
5 And each at his friend they mock, And
truth they do not speak,
They taught
their tongue to speak falsehood,
To commit
iniquity they have labored.
Ps.36:1-4 The wicked one has a watchword of transgression
within his heart;
There is no awe of Elohim in front of his
eyes;
2 For he
apportions too much to himself in his own eyes
To find out his depravity and to hate it.
3 The words of his mouth are lawlessness and
deceit;
He evades even to contemplate doing good.
4 He devises
lawlessness on his bed;
He stations himself on a pathway that is not good;
He does not
reject what is evil.
Mt.12:34 Progeny of vipers!
How can
you be speaking what is good, being
wicked?
For out of the superabundance of the heart the mouth is speaking.
Jas.3:10-12 Out of the same mouth is coming forth blessing and cursing.
There is no need, my brethren, for this to
become thus.
11
No spring out of the same hole is
venting the sweet and the bitter.
12 No fig
tree,
my brethren, can produce olives, nor a grapevine
figs.
Thus neither does brine produce sweet water.
14. Whose mouth with imprecation and bitterness is crammed.
Overtly and covertly, men
are prone to denigrate and insult those who do not see things as they do,
yet are filled with bitterness when others do the same to them.
Ps.10:7 His mouth is full of imprecation, with
deceit and fraud;
Under his tongue are misery and lawlessness.
Ps.59:12 For the sin of their mouth, the word of their lips,
May they be seized in their pomp;
And because of the execration and sham which they are rehearsing,
Ps.140:3 They whet their tongue like a
serpent;
The venom
of an asp is under their lips.
Jas.3:8,9 Yet the tongue can no man tame—
a
turbulent evil, distended with death-carrying
venom.
9 With it we are blessing the Lord and
Father, and with it we are cursing men
who have come to be in accord with God's
likeness.
15. Sharp are their feet to shed blood.
Feelings for revenge on
those who ‘hurt’ them in some way or other are harboured and nurtured until
some opportunity arises for them to execute vengeance. They want to hit out
and hurt, to draw blood and even to kill, for some conceived ‘wrong’ that
they had undergone.
Millions have been killed
in horrible world wars, yet the occurrence of another seems imminent.
Thousands of lives are lost in insurgencies throughout the world in which
people are sacrificed for political ends and financial gain.
Many have killed,
ostensibly, in the name of religion and in the ‘fight for religious
freedom’. Suicide bombers have taken a heavy toll of lives in countries
such as Iraq and Israel, not forgetting the devastation of ‘9/11’. Genocide
has raised its head in countries such as Serbia, Chechnia, and Nigeria.
What makes ‘news’ in the
media is ‘man’s inhumanity to man’. Reports on criminals and crimes (of
whatever colour collar) make up saleable material. In some morbid
fascination, people rush to law courts to get a glimpse of psychopaths and
murderers.
Prov.1:16 For their feet run to evil, And they hasten to shed blood.
Prov.6:18 A heart engrossed with lawless devisings,
Feet hastening to run to evil,
Isa.59:7,8 Their feet are running to
evil,
and they are hastening
to shed innocent blood.
Their devices are devices of lawlessness.
Devastation and breaking and violence are in
their highways.
8 The way of welfare they do not know, and no
judgment is in their rounds.
Their tracks they pervert for themselves.
All those treading in them know no welfare
16. "Bruises and wretchedness are in their ways,
They love to cause bodily
harm to others. If for some reason they cannot vent their frustrations
personally, they enjoy watching others causing hurt and being hurt in
bruising and bloody ‘contact sport’ events. Spectator sports such as
boxing, wrestling, soccer, rugby, and the martial ‘arts’, draw enthusiasts
and followers in the hundreds and thousands. Even with computer games, the
most popular are those where violence and destruction are intrinsic and
plentiful.
17. And the way of peace they do
not know."
Men claim to want peace and
go through all the rigmarole of seeking it. But this cannot happen as long
as one party demands some advantage over the other in that peace. Each
party wants peace but only on its own terms, towards its own benefit.
Inherent pride and selfishness gets in the way. History demonstrates this.
Even ‘in the last days’, when people think they do have peace, they will
find that it is only a lull before the storm of the worst troubles man has
had to face till then.
1Thes.5:3 Now whenever they may be saying "Peace and
security,"
then
extermination is standing by them unawares,
even as a pang over the pregnant, and they may
by no means escape.
As long as man tries to run
things his way, peace and security can only be a figment of his
imagination. Even during the administration after the kingdom is set up on
the earth, peace needs to be established by enforcement of strict
rules. The evil in man will
lie suppressed, waiting for the first opportunity to burst forth in
rebellion and violence.
Rev.19:15-21 And out of His mouth a sharp blade is issuing,
that with it He should be smiting the nations.
And He will be shepherding them with an iron club. And He is
treading
the wine trough of the fury of the indignation
of God, the Almighty.
16 And on His cloak and on
His thigh He has a name written:
"King of kings and Lord of
lords."
17 And I perceived another messenger,
standing in the sun. And he cries with a loud voice,
saying to all
the birds which are flying in mid-heaven,
"Hither! Be gathered for the great dinner of God,
18 that you may be eating
the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and
the flesh of the strong, and the flesh of horses
and of those sitting on them,
and the flesh of all freemen as well as slaves,
and of small and of great."
19 And I perceived the wild beast and the
kings of the earth and their armies,
gathered to
do battle with Him Who is sitting on the horse and with His army.
20 And the wild beast is
arrested,
and with it the false prophet who does the signs
in its sight,
by which he deceives those getting the emblem of
the wild beast,
and those worshiping its image.
Living, the two were cast into the lake of fire
burning with sulphur.
21 And the
rest were killed with the blade
which is coming out of the mouth of Him Who is
sitting on the horse.
And all
the birds are satisfied with their flesh.
Rev.20:7-9 And whenever the thousand years
should be finished,
Satan will be loosed out of his jail.
8 And he will be coming out to deceive all
the nations which are in the four corners of the earth,
Gog and Magog, to be mobilizing them for battle, their number being as
the sand of the sea.
9 And they went up over the breadth of the earth,
and surround the citadel of the saints and the
beloved city.
And fire
descended from God out of heaven and devoured them.
We realize, however, that
only in such a violent and chaotic environment can our evangel have any impact and meaning. What need for an
evangel of peace with God if all are at peace with Him, and with one
another, already? Light is not noticed in a background of light but,
rather, in one of darkness.
Eph.6:15 and your feet sandaled with the readiness of the evangel of peace;
Rom.12:17-21 To no one render evil
for evil,
making ideal provision in the sight of all
men,
18 if possible that which comes out from
yourselves.
Being at
peace with all mankind,
19 you are not avenging yourselves,
beloved,
but be giving place to His indignation,
for it is written, Mine is vengeance! I
will repay! the Lord is saying.
20 But "If your enemy should be
hungering, give him the morsel;
if he should be thirsting, give him to drink,
for in doing this you will be heaping embers of
fire on his head."
21 Be not conquered by evil; but conquer
evil with good.
1Jn.4:20,21 If anyone should be
saying that "I am loving God,"
and should be hating his brother, he is a liar;
for he who is not loving his brother whom he has seen
can not be loving God Whom he has not seen.
21 And this precept have we from Him,
that he
who is loving God may be loving his brother also.
1Thes.5:15 See that no one may be
rendering evil for evil to anyone,
but always pursue that which is good for one another as well as for all.
18.
There is no fear of God in front of
their eyes.
This is the situation
mankind finds itself in. It is a sad record of human depravity. And this is
not a description of primitive, unenlightened people. Down through the ages
and through all strata of society we see examples of man's decadence -
injustice, hatred, bigotry, selfishness, corruption, untrustworthiness,
insinuations, outright lies, wars, obvious genocide, etc. Men act as if God
cannot see what they do. Because He exercises patience, they assume that He
will not act to intervene in their affairs. Religion gives them the idea
that He can be inveigled and bought off through ceremonies and rituals.
Mankind has not changed; in fact, Scripture insists that the situation will
get progressively worse.
2Tim.3:1-5 Now this know,
that in the last days perilous periods will be present,
2 for men will be selfish, fond of money,
ostentatious, proud, calumniators,
stubborn to parents, ungrateful, malign,
3 without natural affection, implacable,
adversaries, uncontrollable, fierce, averse to the good, 4 traitors, rash, conceited,
fond of their own gratification rather than fond
of God;
5 having a form of devoutness, yet denying its
power.
2Tim.3:13 Yet wicked men and swindlers
shall wax worse and worse,
deceiving
and being deceived.
Though the Jew has been
given such wonderful laws and statutes, these have not raised his
behaviour above that of the rest of the nations!
Ps.36:1-4 The wicked one has a watchword of
transgression within his heart;
There is no
awe of Elohim in front of his eyes;
2 For he apportions too much to himself in his own eyes
To find out his depravity and to hate it.
3 The words of his mouth are lawlessness and
deceit;
He evades even to contemplate doing good.
4 He devises
lawlessness on his bed;
He stations himself on a pathway that is not
good;
He does not
reject what is evil.
Lk.23:40 Yet answering, the other one,
rebuking him, averred,
"Yet you are not fearing God, seeing that you are in the same judgment!
And we, indeed, justly,
for we are getting back the deserts of what we
commit,
yet this
One commits nothing amiss."
Rom.1:32 those who, recognizing the just statute of God,
that those committing such things are deserving of death,
not only are doing them,
but are endorsing,
also, those who are committing them.
*Verses 9 through 18 declare that men, whether Jew or Greek, do
not, on their own accord and initiative, seek out God. Rather, they have
committed themselves to the path of evil, ‘blissfully ignorant’ of the
righteousness of God.
19. Now we are aware that, whatever the law is saying,
it is speaking to those under the
law, that every mouth may be barred,
and the entire world may become subject to
the
just verdict of God,
The
passages from the Psalms might be turned by the Jews to apply to the
nations. But the apostle rightly insists that what is written in the law is
binding upon those under the law. Having previously silenced the non-Jew
and now effectually included the Jew in the same condition, Paul arrives at
the grand conclusion of this section of the epistle, that the whole world
is subject to the just verdict of God. Concordant
Commentary
‘…whatever the law is saying, it is speaking to those under the
law…’
Because they do not
recognize and relate to Him as God,
He has given men over to a disqualified mind to do that which is not
befitting. Though the Jew has the advantage of having been given a standard
for behaving themselves by God Himself, they were not able to live by it.
They put themselves in a worse situation for, where for the others their
wayward living was sin, for the Jew the law escalated this into
transgression.
The principle that the law
speaks only to those under the law, is crucial to the proper understanding
of revelation. The law was given to
Israel, through Moses at Sinai, as her exclusive privilege. It was a solemn covenant that was sealed
with the blood of the sacrifice which was sprinkled on the written contract
as well as on the people who came under its dictates, that is, on those who
were set apart through circumcision. Only these people came under the law.
It cannot apply to those to whom
it was not given.
And, it was an all or nothing contract, to be
considered as one whole unit.
Having been ratified, agreed upon and sealed, nothing in it could be
deleted or altered.
Jas.2:10 For anyone who should be keeping the whole law,
yet should be tripping in one thing, has become
liable for all.
Gal.5:3 Now I am attesting again to every
man who is circumcising,
that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Gal.3:15 …a human covenant likewise having
been ratified,
no one is repudiating
or modifying it.
Mt.5:18,19 For verily, I am saying
to you,
Till heaven and earth should be passing by,
one iota
or one serif may by no means be passing by from the law
till all should
be occurring.
19 "Whosoever, then, should be
annulling one of the least of these precepts,
and should be teaching men thus,
the least in the kingdom of the heavens shall he
be called.
Yet whoever should be doing and teaching them,
he shall be called great in the kingdom of the
heavens.
Christianity, however, has
shamelessly and arrogantly hijacked that law for herself, editing and
adapting it to suit her situation and for her own benefit. She ignores the
fact that, even if she were to accept the law as a whole, she is alien to the intent and terms of the
covenant. The covenant was made
with God as one party and the people of Israel as the
correspondent party. God does
not, and will not, recognize
Christianity as a legitimate party to His covenant made and sealed with the people of Israel. If He
did, He would be breaking that
covenant. He would be reneging on
His word to Israel; He would
prove Himself unfaithful to His promises to Abraham through Isaac and Jacob; He
would be breaking His contract with the
seed of Israel. God would be
unrighteous. This cannot be. And,
in our considerations, this must never be. Though the other
party, Israel, has proved herself unfaithful Him, God remains faithful to them.
We who are of the body of Christ, because we were never party to that covenant, do not
come under its terms and are, therefore, not under law. The law does not apply
to us; the law does not speak to
us.
Rom.6:14,15 …for you are not under law, but
under grace.
15 …seeing that we are not under law, but under grace…
Since this is the emphasis,
why does Paul, then, speak so much about the law when delivering the
evangel of the Uncircumcision
through his letters? This, we need to resolve as we progress through this
letter to the Roman believers.
‘…that every mouth may
be barred…subject to the just verdict of God…’
Though the Jews had the
prerogative of having the law, and were proud and boastful of it, their
inability to observe it as it should be, puts them in the same boat as the
rest. All are proven unfit, all are evidently unworthy. Not one can claim
to be better than the others. God
declares that not even one is righteous in his doings. Who has the
temerity to argue with that?
Rom.2:1,2 Wherefore, defenseless are
you, O man!
everyone who is judging,
for in what you are judging another, you are
condemning yourself,
for you who are judging are committing the same things.
Now we are aware that the judgment of God
is according to truth against those who are
committing such things.
Ps.143:2 O do not enter into judgment
with Your servant,
For no
living one at all can be
righteous before You.
20. because, by works of law, no flesh at all shall be justified in His sight,
for through law is the
recognition of sin.
From Rom.1:18 to Rom.3:18 we have been shown the
depths to which the whole of humanity, including the Jews who have been
given the law, has fallen. We have,
a) the nations,
without God in the world, have ever been astray! and
b) Israel with
the law has transgressed those very laws,
Scripture is quite clear
that not even ONE is righteous and that all, therefore, deserve nothing but
condemnation!
‘…by works of law…’
The law expects the
diligent observance of all its
details – from its renowned ‘ten commandments’ to its rites and rituals.
Its observance entails what is termed ‘the works of law’.
Gal.3:10 For whoever are of works of law are under a curse,
for it written that, Accursed is everyone
who is not remaining in all things written in the scroll of the law to do them.
Gal.3:12 Now the law is not of faith,
but who does
them "shall be living in them."
The Jews, especially those
of the Pharisee sect, were zealously meticulous about these because, they
believed, the performance of such works would establish their righteousness
and earn them a deserved entry into the kingdom. They adopted the
philosophy of other religions which proposes that one can make up, or balance out, wrongdoings by good works which include sacraments
(symbolic rituals) and ceremonies.
Rom.9:31,32 Yet Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness,
into a law of righteousness does not
outstrip.
32 Wherefore? Seeing that it is not out of faith, but as out of law works,…
Rom.10:2,3 For I am testifying to them
that they have a zeal of God, but not in accord with recognition.
3 For they, being ignorant of the righteousness of God,
and seeking to establish their own righteousness,
were not subjected to the righteousness of God.
Jesus pointed out the
hypocrisy that usually goes in tandem with such faithless works-based ideas
of righteousness that the Pharisees advocated.
Mt.6:2 "Whenever, then,
you may be doing alms,
you should not be trumpeting in front of you,
even as
the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
so that
they should be glorified by men.
Verily, I am saying to you, they are collecting
their wages!
Mt.6:5 … whenever you may be
praying, you shall not be as the
hypocrites,
for they are fond of standing in the synagogues
and at the corners of the squares to be praying,
so that
they may appear to men.
Verily, I am saying to you, they are collecting
their wages!
Mt.23:23-28 Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites!
for you are taking tithes from the mint and the
dill and the cumin,
and leave
the weightier matters of the law, judging and mercy and faith.
Now these it was binding for you to do, and not
leave those.
24 Blind guides! straining out a gnat, yet
swallowing a camel!
25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites!
for you are cleansing the outside of the cup and
the plate,
yet inside they are brimming with rapacity and
incontinence.
26 Blind Pharisee! Cleanse first the inside
of the cup and the plate,
that their outside also may be becoming
clean!
27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites!
for you are resembling the whitewashed
sepulchers
which outside, indeed, are appearing beautiful,
yet inside they are crammed with the bones of
the dead and all uncleanness.
28 Thus you, also, outside, indeed, are
appearing to men to be just, yet inside you are distended with hypocrisy
and lawlessness.
Mt.23:5-7 Now all their works are they doing to be gazed at by men,
for they are broadening their amulets and
magnifying the tassels.
6 Now they are fond of the first reclining place at the dinners,
and the front
seats in the synagogues, 7 and the salutations in the markets,
and to be called by men `Rabbi.'
Mt.5:20 For I am saying to you that, if
ever your righteousness
should not be superabounding more than that of the scribes and Pharisees,
by no
means
may you be entering into the kingdom of the heavens.
‘…no flesh at all shall be justified in His sight…’
But, the law, though of
itself holy and just and good, cannot
justify those who come under its umbrella since it was neither ever intended nor designed to function in that
capacity.
Gal.3:21 …For if
a law were given that is able
to vivify,
really, righteousness were out of law.
Gal.2:16 … a man is not being justified by works of
law,…
seeing that by works of law shall no flesh at all be
justified
‘…through law is the recognition of sin…’
The Greek epi’gnösis is literally ON-KNOWLEDGE and is rendered ‘recognition’
or ‘realization’. One of the functions of the law is to specify what sin is, to identify what it is; to give a realization of what sin is; to provide for a recognition of sin!
Rom.7:7 … But sin I knew not except through law.
Gal.3:19 What, then, is the law?
On behalf
of transgressions was it added,…
Rom.4:15 for the law is producing indignation.
Now where no
law is, neither is there
transgression.
Heb.7:18,19 …there is coming to be a repudiation of the preceding precept
because it is
weak and without benefit; 19 for the law perfects nothing,…
Rom.5:20 ..law came in by the way, that the offense should be increasing….
Rom.7:13 But Sin,
that it may be appearing Sin, is
producing death to me through good,
that Sin may become an inordinate sinner through the precept.
1Cor.15:56 Now the sting of Death is sin, yet the power of sin is the law.
Rom.7:8 …For apart from law Sin is dead.
*Verses 19 and 20 tell us of the function of the law, its designed limited scope. It
identifies what sin is, but it was not intended to justify, to constitute one righteous before God.
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October 2006
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