Romans 3

Romans 3:1-31

SIN AND DIVINE Romans 3:1-31. THE student of Scripture will discover that as the experience of some hero or heroine holds the reader’s thought from the beginning to the end of the novel, so the plan of salvation runs through the sacred Scripture, involving, as it does, the true presentation of man’s experience, and the person and sacrifice of the Son of God. It is stated that every cable and every bit of cordage used in the English navy has running through it a scarlet line, a line so interwoven with its texture that you cannot take it out without destroying the cables and cords.Every sympathetic reader of Scripture will discover a crimson line in the same. It starts in the promise of Gen 3:15, and it concludes with Revelation 22:21. There are certain portions of Scripture in which this scarlet line looms, and just as the heart with its capacious ventricles gathers the blood from the veins that it may force it into the arteries, so there are centers of revelation that present the cleansing Blood of Christ at full tide. Certainly the third chapter of Romans is one of those.On this chapter we bring several observations:First,MAN’S SIN DIVINE Henry Gratten Guinness, London’s matchless scholar, and a world-famed minister, speaking from my pulpit, said:“My text this morning is ‘The Way of Salvation’, and the Scripture for study is the Epistle to the Romans. In the first three chapters of this Epistle we find the hell of sin; in the last five chapters we discover the heaven of holiness; and, in the intervening chapters Christ is the Way from the hell of sin to the heaven of holiness.”The remark struck me forcibly at the time, but a more careful study reveals the fact that the division is not so neat as that declaration indicated. The hell of sin extends beyond the third chapter, and the heaven of the last five is not entirely holy; and Christ, the Way, begins even in the first chapter, and continues even unto the last. In other words, the stream of iniquity and the river of salvation run parallel from the first chapter of Romans through the sixteenth; and there are few Books of the Bible in which sin is shown in such hideous mien, and salvation glows with greater splendor.According to Romans three, Sin is the Transgression of God’s Law, that Transgression is Universal, and Christ is the End of the Law for Righteousness.Sin is the transgression of God’s Law. The Jew was disposed to think that his covenant relations to God were his full and sufficient justification, and that the ceremony of circumcision was accepted in lieu of holiness. In the second chapter, Paul has repudiated and disproved that doctrine.

How natural the question with which this chapter opens, “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision”? If being a Jew is not justification, and if being circumcised does not effect salvation, what profit?The answer is adequate—“Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God”.

The greatest single favor that any people have ever received from God the Father was a revelation of His will; that had been made to Abraham and to his seed after him. Circumcision was a mere incident in that revelation, and the covenant, a small section of the same. The big thing was the revelation itself. That is the big thing to every people who have received it.Englishmen and Americans are not by nature better than Africans, East Indians or Chinamen; but in proportion as England has enjoyed an open Bible, and America has been instructed from the sacred page, in that proportion have they had immeasurable profit; and as there were certain unbelieving individuals in Israel, and as there are plenty of unbelievers and even atheists in England and America, yet their unbelief did not, and does not, make the faithfulness of God without effect. God’s truth is none the less valuable because men reject it, even as the gold ten dollar piece loses none of its intrinsic worth because it falls into the hands of some fool who thoughtlessly wastes the same. The simple fact is that its true value is emphasized by the contrast of this wasteful folly, even as our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, and as our falsehood contrasts His truthfulness, and as our evil doings are condemned by His flawless conduct.By nature the Jew is no better than the Gentile, for they are not only “all under sin”, they are all in sin. That Law of God revealed in the Book, and even by the finger of His Spirit written on the tables of men’s hearts, they have all violated, and are all under a like condemnation.Transgression is the universal conduct of men.“There is none righteous, no, not one: “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. “Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; 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 ways: “And the way of peace have they not known: “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:10-18). We grant you that goodness and evil are both comparative. There are some men who are better than others, and some that are worse than their fellows, but there are none that do good. Fallen human nature is constitutionally lawless. All attempts to shield and educate it so as to keep it from transgressing, both the laws of God, as given in the Book, and those laws written in the conscience, have failed to date. Experience therefore bears testimony to the truth of revelation, and all the world is admittedly guilty before God, and the hideousness of sin appears in the lucidity of the law.But Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, for while it is true that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), it is also true that the righteousness of God “is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe” (Romans 3:22), for our justification is “by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).This is a doctrine that is now increasingly, unpopular with the egotists and self-justifiers of our day. As Robert Ingersoll, America’s notable agnostic, once declared that he didn’t want to become a winged pauper of the sky, so many men are now boasting themselves as sufficient, and are consequently denying the necessity of an atonement, and deriding the thought of salvation through the sacrifice of another. But the Book consulted, this stands as the one and only way of salvation, “for there is none other name, under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).GOD BY CHRIST’S BLOOD, HAS Our text tells us of Jesus Christ, “whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation” (Romans 3:25); and that our God has done this there are abundant Scriptures that teach. That wonderful epitome of the Gospels (John 3:16), says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. God alone could do this. Man’s failure, through sin, sent him to total bankruptcy and left him, therefore, incompetent to provide for himself a way of salvation.General Fisk tells how he stood once at a slave-block where an old colored Christian minister was being sold. The auctioneer said of the man, “What do I hear bid for him? He is a very good kind of a man; He is a minister of the Gospel.”A slave buyer said, “$20.00” (He was very old and not worth very much).

A second purchaser cried “$25.00”; “$30.00” a third; “$35.00” a fourth; “$40.00” was the bid of a fifth. The aged minister began to tremble. He had hoped to be able to buy his own freedom, and he had just $70 that he had saved through weary years, and as the bids went on, “$45.00”, “$50.00”, “$55.00”, “$60.00”, “$65.00”, the old man trembled from head to foot, and when he heard “$65.00,” he cried at the top of his voice, “$70.00.” He was afraid they would outbid him. The men around divined the meaning of his bid. Nobody dared go beyond it, for they felt he wanted his freedom, and the auctioneer struck him down to himself. “Done! Done!” But, as Dr.

Talmage says, “We were poorer than was that old African. We could not buy our own deliverance, but God comes forward, as a friend indeed, and says, I will pay the price’, and the provision is made.”It was of His grace. The Scriptures abundantly attest this truth. In Romans 5:20-21, we read,“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much mare abound: “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord”. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the second chapter, verses four and five, we read,“But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) (Ephesians 2:4-5)”, and the eighth verse,“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I’m found: Was blind, but now I see. “ ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved; How precious did that grace appear, The hour I first believed! “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.” And it was for sinners! It would not be difficult for the world to understand how God could love saints and provide for them all good. Their loyalty to Him would bring affection from Him. But that which astonishes even the unconverted, which leads to their conviction of sin, is the fact of 1 John 4:10,“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins”, and in Romans 5:8; Romans 5:10,“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life”. A friend of mine in Chicago, in an after meeting was spoken to by a mother, who said, “There is my unconverted daughter; I wish you would go and talk with her.” He went straight to this young lady and said, “Don’t you want to accept Christ tonight?” She stamped her foot in anger, and said, “My mother should have known better than to do that. She ought to know it only makes me worse to send people to speak to me.” This friend opened his Bible to Isaiah 53:5-6,“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Instantly the tears began to roll down the cheeks of this young woman, and she said, “Oh, I did not know before that God so loved me, and that Jesus Christ was slain for me—His enemy.”THIS IS TO ALL In the Epistle to the Hebrews 2:9, we read,“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man”. And again in 1 John 2:2,“He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world”. Not a man left out, so far as the provision was concerned. Propitiation for all!John McNeill, preaching in Chicago during the World’s Fair, said he thought of all the people in Jerusalem, Barrabas must have had the best idea of the atonement of Jesus Christ. “You will remember”, said McNeill, “that he should have been crucified and Jesus released, but the order was exactly reversed. The door of the prison swings open and Barrabas is free, and as he comes out into the light of the day, all the people seem to be hurrying in one direction, and he asks them where they are going, and they answer, “To see Jesus of Nazareth crucified”, and after a moment’s thought, Barrabas exclaims, “Why that is the man that is dying in my stead.” He pushes his way through the gate, up the hillside until he reaches the surging mob about the Cross, and working through the crowd until he gets so near to Christ that he can touch the dying Saviour, he says, “My friend, I don’t know who you are, but I know they put you on the Cross in my stead, and you are dying for me.” “And”, said McNeill, “until you can give a better theory of the atonement, take that of Barrabas—Christ your substitute, dying in your place.”He is the substitute, not for us only, but for every sinner on earth! His sufferings atoned for all. Romans 5:18 reads,“Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life”. There are many people who will not be saved, but it will not be because Christ shed His Blood for a few only. He shed that Blood for every man, irrespective of person, for “God is no respecter of persons”, and whether men will receive the salvation or not, each of them ought to see, and be able to say what one said in the days of the Civil War.There was a company of bushwhackers arrested in Missouri and sentenced to death. Just as they were about to be shot, a young boy touched the commanding officer on the arm and said, “Sir, won’t you let me take the place of the man standing yonder? He has a family and will be greatly missed, and I want to take his place.” The officer gave his consent. The boy stepped forward and drew the man out of line, standing in his tracks. When the command was given to “fire”, the boy fell dead, and in the little Missouri town, on the stone that marks his resting place, these words are cut, “Sacred to the memory of Willie Lear.

He took my place!”The shed Blood of Jesus Christ makes that same speech the necessity of every soul. God’s claim then is upon every man.He has paid for him this precious price,“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; “But with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19). God has the right to say then what He does in Ezekiel 18:4, “Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine”.His propitiation is provided, and proffered, and upon that basis God has a claim upon every man, woman and child.THIS IS BY FAITH In our text we read, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His Blood” (Romans 3:25). The proffer is to faith. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace” (Romans 4:16). Mr. Spurgeon is right in saying that “a living faith is the faith that appropriates the promise of God, that takes the promise and presents it to the Father, claiming its fulfilment, just as you present your check to the bank upon which it is drawn, demanding money, because of the signature.”Some years since, in this city, there lived a family in three rooms and in comparative poverty. The husband was a barber working for the small wage men situated as he was commonly commanded, when suddenly there came the news from the East that a wealthy relative of his wife had died, and had left to her a million or more. She could have thrown the letter into the waste basket, saying, “No such fortune can be meant for me.” But she did not. On the contrary, she went on and asked for that which had been provided for her, and to which, according to the law, she was entitled. Her demand was met, and she became a wealthy woman.

Her children needed no longer want for bread or clothing, or elegant home, or first circle of society. Her possessions put her in a place to command all these, and I am glad to say that she was not only rich and increased with goods, but immediately manifested the love she had professed to her Saviour by some generous offerings made to the cause of Christ.But, through the death of Jesus Christ each believer becomes heir to greater possessions still, heir to the Bread of Life, heir to the Garment of Righteousness, heir to the circle of the saints, heir to the mansions of the skies. No person ever passed from this world to make so many rich in his going as did the Son of God. See what the Scriptures say concerning our inheritance,“All things are youths; “Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are your’s; “And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:21-23). Oh, that by faith we might appropriate the precious promises, for then would we be rich indeed, and see that we have not only propitiation through His Blood, but that by the same Blood every blessing belongs to us!“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word; What more can He say than to you He hath said, To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled? “Tear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed; For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand. “‘When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; For I will be thee, thy troubles to bless, And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. “‘The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes; That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.’ ”