Sermon: “By the Law”

TEXT: Romans 3:9-20

REVIEW

1. God is right: God is not unjust in His judgments or unreliable concerning His promises.

2. Conviction of sin is not an easy thing: When we become aware of our sin, we can come up with some very strange ideas to somehow make us seem right, make God seem wrong, and make change seem unnecessary.

TODAY’S PASSAGE:

⁹ What then? Are we better than they? Not at all.

For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.

¹⁰ As it is written:

Psalm 14:1-3, (Ecclesiastes 7:20) "There is none righteous, no, not one; ¹¹ There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. ¹² They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."

Psalm 5:9 ¹³ "Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit";

Psalm 140:3 "The poison of asps is under their lips";

Psalm 10:7 ¹⁴ "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness."

Isaiah 59:7-8 ¹⁵ "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ¹⁶ Destruction and misery are in their ways; ¹⁷ And the way of peace they have not known."

Psalm 36:1¹⁸ "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law,

that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

²⁰ Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight,

for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

1. Old Testament Citations

The Apostle Paul knows his Bible. In making the case that all humanity is lost in sin, he is able to cite at least six passages to show us that his understanding of human depravity is not his own invention. This morning we need to take a moment to consider the passages that are being quoted by Paul, to see the story not only of sin, but also the story of the way out of sin.

Psalm 14: Paul begins with a quote from Psalm 14. That psalm speaks of the “fool” who convinces himself that there is no God, and who then proceeds to make choices to do evil. The Lord looks down from heaven at human beings. Are there any who are free from this disease of sin? Are there any who truly understand, and who seek God? No. There is none who does good. Yet the psalm goes on to talk about the people of the Lord. God is with them. The Lord is their refuge. His people are made to rejoice in Him.

Psalm 5: This psalm also is very plain about the wicked. They are boastful. They work iniquity, and speak falsehood, so that their throat is an open tomb full of death, despite their flattering tongues. But the psalm speaks of one who directs His voice to God, one who God leads in righteousness. There is a larger group that is referred to as “all those who put their trust in You” and are “joyful in You.” The psalmist is confident not only in God’s protection of Him, but all those also “who love Your name.”

Psalm 140: The pattern should become familiar to us as we see it in all of the passages that are quoted by Paul, and in many other verses in the Bible. As we see now in Psalm 140, wicked violent men have deadly poison in their tongues, and set traps for someone. That Someone is protected by the Lord, but there is a larger group of the righteous who will “give thanks to Your name,” and who shall “dwell in Your presence.”

Psalm 10: The psalmist shows us the brutality of the wicked in Psalm 10, as he describes the one who lurks as a lion to pounce on the poor and the helpless. An eternal King, who is the Lord, is described at the end of the psalm. This King will make it so that the man of the earth may oppress no more. The helpless commits himself to Him, and He prepares the hearts of the humble, and does justice to the fatherless and the oppressed.

Isaiah 59: Isaiah is quoted next here, and we must acknowledge now that the workers of iniquity that are described are those who were called by His name, the Israelites. They have not known the way of peace, and their thoughts are full of iniquity. The chapter goes on to describe the work of One, who is the Lord, who saw that there was no man who could solve this problem of the wicked. Therefore He put on the full armor Himself, to do battle as only He could do. There is a group that He battles for, those who turn from transgression.

Psalm 36: Finally Paul quotes from the opening verse of Psalm 36, speaking of the wicked. Remember that it is a good concept in the Bible to fear the Lord. The alternative is to pretend that there is no God, and that there will be no judgment of mankind. The wicked have no fear of God. The Lord God is the hope of another group, those who know Him, and who put their trust in Him under the shadow of His wings. In His light they see light.

The pattern is clear in all of these passages, particularly when viewed as a whole, as the Apostle has written them. The wicked are in grave danger. There is a Redeemer. The righteous find shelter and light in Him, and are saved. This is the pattern in all of the passages that Paul quotes.

The surprising thing is this: WE ALL would be in the category of the wicked by our nature – Jew and Gentile, man and woman, leader and follower, child and parent. But God has worked within us to cause us to fear Him, to see our sin, and to rush to Christ for safety, and to follow Him in righteousness. This is what distinguishes the righteous from the wicked. All are by nature wicked. The righteous are made to see and know the Only Righteous One, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins.

There is a danger that we might forget this, and conclude that because we are worshippers of God, that we are accepted based on our own merits of obedience. This is what the Apostle has been laboring to teach us. We are wicked. All of us are wicked. Our only hope is in God. Let every mouth be stopped, that the entire world may become guilty before God. There is none righteous, no, not one.

2. By the deeds of the Law no flesh will be justified.

Whatever else may be said about the Law of God, no one will be justified before God by their obedience to the Law. To be justified means to be legally certified before God’s court as righteous. It is important to remember here that God demands perfect righteousness. We are far from meeting that demand through our obedience. All of the passages that Paul has quoted point to the truth that it will be God’s strong arm that saves us.

Make no mistake about it. We need to be justified. We should be very concerned about the fact that we are guilty before God. When all our deeds are considered, the verdict that would come back concerning us is not in question. Guilty. Not only do we need someone to take away that verdict of guilty by serving the eternal sentence we deserve. We need more than this. When God considers us, we don’t want Him to say “just passing” or “pretty good.” We need Him to say “righteous.” This cannot come from the deeds of the Law.

3. By the Law is the knowledge of sin.

The Law has a great purpose. Among other things, from the Law comes the knowledge of sin. The knowledge of sin is a good and healthy thing for us, since there is a great solution for us in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. Paul is not instructing the Romans to throw away the Law. Nor is he suggesting that it is safe to abandon the Law as a standard of righteous behavior.

The knowledge of sin is a very important thing. The healthy do not need a doctor, and the guiltless do not need a Savior. But God showed His great love for us in this way, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

APPLICATION:

As you face disagreements with others or controversy, do you feel the need to defend yourself in some way? What are you defending? When conversation is threatening or preaching hits too close to home, how do you react? Do you freeze up in some way, deciding not to listen or not to feel? Why? What is at stake? What are you defending? Your partial or relative righteousness? We need to hear and embrace the point that Paul is making here. There is no one righteous, no, not one.

There is another companion truth that Paul teaches later on in this letter. It is a truth that is available for those who stop defending themselves. It is a beautiful truth. Here it is: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2) We cannot have one truth, without embracing the other.