Romans 3-4

The question of 3:1 is based on the conclusion of chapter 2. Chapter finishes in saying Gentiles can be true Jews from the heart by keeping the law, even though he be not versed in all the Jewish feasts and rituals such as circumcision. So what’s the advantage of being a Jew then if even a gentile can be considered righteous just as much a Jew can? There is advantage, they’ve grown up with the Word of God and they intimately know God’s will (3:2)

But what does it say if unbelieving Jews, knowing God’s word better than everyone else, still rejects God? Would it not make a negative statement about the reliability of God? Is God really that trustworthy if God’s own chosen people reject Him? (3:3) No, because all are sinners (3:10), including Jews. Just because you may be a Jew, knowing God’s laws, doesn’t make God any less trustworthy  if you reject Him(3:4). It only goes to show all people including the Jewish are sinners; none truly understand on their own, none come looking for God (3:11).

If it can be said that our sin contrast God’s righteousness, and thereby glorifies God, then is God wrong in punishing sinners who bring Him glory by their sin? (3:5)
No, if God was wrong by punishing sinners that by sin glorify Him, then by what standard will God judge the world of its sin? (3:6). This is the kind of maddening philosophies than men get themselves entangled in in trying to justify their sin. All are sinners and cannot deny it, even they try to justify it.

We know the law was given so that men would not have an excuse for their sin (3:19). The law was given so men would know it is impossible to obtain righteousness through trying to keep rules (3:20). We know we are sinners because the law shows us which rules we have already broken. So we cannot be made righteous (go to heaven) by trying to keep rules. But we can be made righteous by another way…faith in a Jesus Christ. In fact God’s law and all the prophets have all pointed to Christ all along (3:21). God’s righteousness is the only acceptable kind (in the judgement, 3:21). The chapter concludes saying there is no difference between how men are judged by God, all are concluded as sinners (3:23) and are in need of Jesus Christ, God’s righteousness, which is given totally by grace (3:24) and accepted by faith (3:25). Because of this, no man Jew or Greek has any room to brag or boast in himself, but only in the faith he has in God (3:27).

The last verse of chapter three sets up Paul’s argument in chapter four, “is the law made void by faith?” Paul says no, Abraham was declared righteous because of his faith, not because from doing good deeds (4:3). Salvation is clearly by grace, and if anyone could say that good works earns salvation, then it is the same as saying God owes it to them, or God is in debt to them (4:4). Only pride can lead men to think this way. Abraham was justified before he was given any part of the law, and circumcision was only given after he had already been justified as a sign of his separation (4:10-11). Abraham’s body was already old and weak as well as Sarah’s when God them the promise. There’s no way Abraham would have even considered fulfilling the promise of having a son on his own, but because of his faith that God would do it, God imputed righteousness to him. (4:19-21). Paul finishes his argument saying, this was written for everyone’s benefit, not just Abraham. Anyone with faith like Abraham in the Lord Jesus Christ will be considered righteous in God’s eyes in the same way (4:23-25).