Bible Study Romans Part 58-Under Sin

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God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries.

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The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture.

Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible.

It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision.

Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us.

It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word.

We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death.

In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death.

Never treat what God has said lightly.

There's truly nothing more important to you.

Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

We are making slow, steady progress through the third chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans.

Let me read the verses we've covered so far, right up to where we'll be working today.

Quick reminder: I read out of the King James, it is my preferred edition of the English language Bible.

Please follow along in the Bible in front of you.

If you get a little confused as to where I am because of the differences between this old version and your new modern version, just look up at the screen and you'll be able to keep up.

Here we go, Romans 3:1.

Romans 3:1

What advantage then hath the Jew, or what prophet is there of circumcision?

Much, every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

Now, for the next few verses, Paul is going through an exercise that some might find a little unconventional.

He's going to grab a few possible arguments against his own position and then discuss them.

Now, this is a risky move, but he's not trying to win an argument.

He wants to convince his audience of truth.

Yeah, if you're trying to prevail in some competitive debate, this is not the best strategy, but that isn't what Paul is interested in.

He's trying to soften the resistance to his teaching.

Listen, this is a masterclass in influencing others.

He knows his audience and he meets them where they are to make his point.

He's well aware of the impact this teaching is having on the religious community.

This is a radical departure from what most are used to, and that pertains to both Gentiles and Jews.

Listen, people don't like to change.

And that's especially true in this case.

This isn't just a new way to make your whites whiter and your colors brighter.

This isn't some mere adjustment to your backswing to get more distance off the T.

What Paul was proposing would affect the way people lived and died.

He was suggesting changes to the way things had been done for generations.

And for the Jews, and maybe to a lesser extent the pagans, these were matters of culture and national identity.

And because of all of that, he knew there was going to be some opposition.

People were not just going to say, yes, sir, Paul will alter the way we've been doing things for centuries.

Sure, what you're suggesting goes against some of our most sacred beliefs, but if you say so, okay.

That was not how things were going to go.

And look, it doesn't matter if everything they were doing was wrong.

They didn't see it as such.

Yes, most of the religious nonsense that had accumulated over the past few centuries had no foundation in truth, but Paul still had to treat this delicately.

Based in Scripture or not, this is how they believed.

And if Paul wanted to be successful in changing their minds, he had to address their concerns even before they knew what those concerns were.

So his strategy was to anticipate possible objections, articulate them, and then let the doubters hear how untenable those objections sounded.

A very solid plan, if you ask me.

Verse three again: For what if some did not believe?

Shall their unbelief make the truth of God without effect?

There's the first argument.

Now we covered this one, but let me repeat what we said.

The question is: does it matter if no one believes God?

Will he change the things he says and does in order to meet their doubts?

Paul's answer, God forbid, let it not be, yea, let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art a judged.

Next argument.

But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say?

Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?

I speak as a man.

Paul is getting his audience to see the utter lack of logic in their suspicions.

He makes them face the implications of such a position.

That's why Paul said, God forbid.

For then how shall God judge the world?

Now it gets a little murky here, but most scholars agree that verse seven and eight go together.

For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

And not rather, as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil that good may come, whose damnation is just.

Paul's point is this.

Look, if you're going to hypothesize that God's truth is somehow served through our distortion of the truth, and therefore we shouldn't be punished for it.

If that's your outlook, why not go all the way to the next logical conclusion in that sequence?

And dare say we should be running around sinning all we can because when we sin, more goodness is available.

Why don't you have the courage to suggest that we use sin as a vehicle for blessing?

Paul says, again, answering his own question, Paul says, I know why.

I know why you don't take it that far.

Because those who believe in such things deserve harsh judgment.

That's the King James likes to use the word damnation.

It's their favorite translation of theirs for this original Greek word, which is crema, but it's not entirely accurate.

Judgment is a far better fit, especially to our modern ears.

To us, condemnation has a different connotation, and it's not accurate to the original.

Paul is saying, you know the evil nature of such a line of thinking.

You may be trying to find excuses to sin, but even you suspect that this is taking it too far.

You don't go there because you know that you just might be pushing your luck more than you should.

For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

And not rather, as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just.

Paul is saying, if you're going to say one of those things, take it all the way to the logical conclusion.

And you don't do that because you know the weakness of the argument all along.

You won't say the one, you say the one, but you won't say the other because you know damnation, condemnation follows.

There's so much going on here.

And let me bring up that interestingly, verse eight is a bit different than the previous view.

Unlike those earlier hypotheses, this one appears to be an actual accusation, according to Paul.

Those prior issues coming in the form of questions were probably made up for a fact, but not this one.

People, no doubt mostly the legalistic Jews, were going around telling whoever would listen that Paul is preaching some sort of doctrine that encourages outright sin.

Paul reports that there are some who are slanderously claiming that he's advocating a sinful lifestyle as a way of glorifying God.

How ridiculous.

The word used in the original that gets translated into the English word slanderously is blasphema.

Of course, as you can tell, that's where we get our word blaspheme.

That alone should tell you what Paul is saying.

It means to speak evil of someone to revile them.

Paul's religious enemies wanted to stop him from freeing the minds of the people.

So they spread rumors in order to harm his reputation.

They wanted to prevent him from preaching the message of grace, so they attack.

We've got the same type now, by the way.

We don't get a whole lot of comments on our programs, but when we do, it's along these same lines.

People come against us for preaching the sola fide message, the by faith alone message.

They'll ignore nearly everything else we say, but when we teach that your, when we teach that your goody two shoes works won't do anything for your eternal salvation, they lose their minds.

As soon as you start saying that it's faith that saves you and not deeds, then you rile up the opposition who will claim that you're encouraging a rules-free life.

There could be nothing further from the truth.

And those of us that have been saved, we know that we follow God's rules because we love Him, not because we're afraid of being punished.

The world out there that wants you to be goody two shoes for your salvation, they avoid breaking rules because they're afraid.

If God gave them a free pass, then they would do whatever they want to.

We who love God do what he wants us to because we love him.

That's the difference between the law and grace.

The law is punishment.

Grace is love.

Salvation by grace is a beautiful concept to a heart that's in tune with God.

But to the depraved, self-righteous, religion-first mindset, it's something that must not only be rejected, but destroyed.

Verse 9 now, more possible objections being addressed.

What then?

Are we better than they?

The anticipated question is: are the Jews better than anyone else?

Are the Jews better than everyone else?

If you're asking that question, you're still not paying attention.

But Paul handles it anyhow.

What then?

Are we better than they?

He's speaking as a Jew to the Jews.

Are we the Jews better than they?

No, in no wise.

For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.

Paul says, Wake up, people.

We Jews aren't better than anyone in any way.

Yes, we have the oracles of God, but that's merely because, again, of God's grace.

He's chosen us not because we're better than anyone, but because of his own will.

We, he's using the royal we, we have already shown that we've said, we've already demonstrated that both Jews and Gentiles are, and he uses very evocative terminology here, both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin.

This part is going to take a while.

Since the beginning, and throughout our study of this amazing letter, I've remarked to you about its important to our Christian faith, but you don't have to take my word for it.

Most Christian experts agree.

The famous Anglican scholar E.

W.

Bullinger states that Romans contains the ABCs of the believer's education.

He says, until its lesson is learned, we know and can know nothing.

The Holy Spirit, E.

W.

Bullinger says, has placed it first in canonical order because it lies at the threshold of all church teaching.

And if we're wrong here, we shall be wrong altogether.

By canonical order, he means the orders of the books.

Romans is the first book in the quote, New Testament.

There are the four Gospels, and then there's Romans.

Bullinger is saying we the Holy Spirit placed it there, and we have to learn that first before we can learn anything else in the New Testament.

And I think he's right.

Chrysostom, an early church father, he held the letter to the Romans in such high esteem that he had the whole thing read to him twice a week.

Martin Luther thought it was so important that he encouraged Christians to memorize it.

He said the more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes.

He described its contents as the richest possible teaching about what a Christian should know.

But I admit so far it's been fairly basic.

There hasn't yet been a whole lot of revelation.

There's a lot here, don't get me wrong.

It's taken us more than a year to get to this point, but it's been mostly preliminary.

It's actually felt like one long setup, don't you think?

Well, the fun is about to begin.

Here in chapter three, we see one of the most vital truths in human history.

In fact, it's the truth that brought the king off of his heavenly throne and onto a cross.

Christianity university is now open.

What then?

Are we better than they?

No, in no wise, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.

As it is written, 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.

Isn't that a funny way to put things?

Doesn't it strike you that in verse 9, Paul didn't say that we were all sinners?

He said all were under sin.

That's why I asked Catherine to underline that for me in verse nine.

We are all under sin.

Listen, if you want to understand why you need saving and how you're going to be saved, you must begin with this concept of being under sin.

You see, this right here completely and totally negates any argument that suggests that we can be saved on our own, that we can be saved by works, by the things we do.

In fact, this is really the very core of Paul's case against the Jews, the case he's been making to them, and all self-righteous people since the beginning of chapter two.

It doesn't matter if you have the law, it doesn't matter if you don't have the law, because law or not, you're under sin.

God, please help me to unpack this.

So, what does he mean?

What does Paul mean when he says we're all under sin?

Now, let me say it again because it's important.

He doesn't say, at least here he doesn't say that we're all sinners.

We are sinners, but that's not the point of this statement.

We do sin, yes, but listen to me.

We sin because we're under sin.

Now I'm sure I'm confusing you, but stay with me.

Paul's statement about us all being under sin is distinct in tone from saying we're all sinners.

Being a sinner and being under sin have two very different connotations.

For one thing, listen to me, if Paul had said we were all sinners, that just sounds like all we need to do is stop being a sinner and we'd all be fine, making it all sound so temporary and manageable.

It leads us to the false notion that we have some power over what's going on.

We can be a sinner or not be a sinner, and that's the dividing line between salvation and condemnation.

But Paul didn't say we're all sinners.

And listen, this is important for you to understand.

He's not springing this on them.

This is what he's been saying all along.

He is showing that everybody is under sin.

Everybody has the same problem, Jew or non-Jew.

He's trying to point out to those, the self-righteous crowd, which is really the target is the Jews at the moment, but it applies to all self-righteous people.

He's trying to say, you're trying to do something you don't understand.

It's not that you're a sinner, it's that you're under sin.

The tone of that, the tone of saying we're under sin infers a condition, a state.

And that's exactly how the Bible treats the subject.

Sin is what's happened to us.

Sinning is the result of us being under sin.

Our wretched human condition is the result of us being under sin.

It's what we are, not what we do.

Now let me be clear.

When I say it's what we are, I mean it's what we've become.

Ever since the fall, ever since that frickin' tree, as Gene Scott used to put it, when sin entered, when mankind fell, he fell under sin.

All of us.

That's the plain and clear message.

From the first page to the last in scripture, that's the message.

And if that isn't how you see things, then the Bible isn't for you, because that's the only way it treats us.

Jesus said when he came, he came to save the lost.

If you're saying that you're not one of those, then he has nothing for you.

And if you insist that you're not a sinner, then you're doing so in complete contradiction to the word of God.

In the Bible, we're told that all of mankind is born under sin.

Paul said, we have before proved both Jew and Gentiles are under sin.

In fact, the Bible basically separates everyone into two categories: either you're under sin or you're under grace.

And the chilling part is that everyone starts out in category one, but relatively few people make it to category two.

Now, the reason this is crucial for us to understand.

And the reason why it was so crucial for Paul to bring it up to the Jews is that it eliminates the possibility of us falling back on our actions or our status to change where we belong.

Sin is what you are, not what you do.

In fact, someone once put it very succinctly.

Listen to this closely.

We're not sinners because we sin.

We sin because we're sinners.

It's in our nature, and the only way to fix the problem of sin in us, the only way to overcome the effect of sin on us is to change our nature.

Listen, I believe the most overlooked and yet most important New Testament statement of doctrine is found in 2 Corinthians 5, 17.

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things are become new.

And that means when you're in Christ, you're no longer under sin.

That's the new part of you.

The reason all things are become new is because once we are in Christ, we're no longer under sin.

We are under grace.

When we are in Christ, it is the most obvious indication that we've moved from category one, as I called it, to category two.

To be in Christ means you've moved out from under sin and you are now placed under grace.

You cannot be in Christ if you are under sin.

This is what I've told you before.

Open sinning Christians is an oxymoron.

It can't happen.

If you tell the world that you have grace and that's why you're sinning, that means you're still under sin.

It still has control over you, it still has the authority over you.

You cannot claim to be saved and be a sinner.

Now we're all gonna sin.

Don't get me wrong.

You are all gonna sin.

Every saved person is going to sin again, but you're not under sin.

It isn't what controls you.

If you think you're free to sin, that means sin still has a grip on you.

If you sin and then regret it and want to change and honestly don't want to sin ever again, then that means you're no longer under sin.

You're in Christ.

Another way the Bible interprets these two categories is through the use of the concept of kingdoms.

In Scripture, there's the kingdom of heaven.

Some use the term kingdom of God.

They're technically different, but for our purposes, we'll treat the terms as interchangeable.

I don't want to go into too much detail because it will only distract us.

We're already pretty far down a side path, and I need to try and start steering us back.

So there's the kingdom of heaven, and then there's the kingdom of the world.

Some people call it the world system, or sometimes just the world.

In the Greek, it's cosmos.

And to God, either you belong in his realm or the worlds, currently dominated by Satan.

The kingdom of heaven is for those under grace, and the kingdom of the world is for those who are under sin.

Your citizenship in either of these two kingdoms is who you are.

I mean, really, that's no different than what we're used to in our everyday lives.

That's why this is a very important way to view these things.

We understand it.

If you've ever traveled internationally, then you have no doubt talked with a customs agent.

It happens whenever you leave one country and enter another.

And as you know, the first thing that government official is going to ask you is, what is your citizenship?

Now listen to me.

If you've not experienced this yet, let me give you some advice.

All that person wants to know is where you belong.

Nothing else is going to answer that question.

If they ask you, when they ask you, what is your citizenship?

I advise you to keep the answer to the question that was asked.

Do not tell that person about what kind of person you are.

Citizenship, well, I'm kind of strangers.

I go to church on Sundays.

Every potluck I bring my beef stew, it's always the hit.

Because depending on what country you're entering and the mood of the agent behind the glass, you will subsequently find yourself either sitting in a windowless room with nothing but a table and chair from the 1970s, or you're being sternly reprimanded and told to answer the question.

The kingdom you belong to is not dependent in the least on the kind of person you are.

It has nothing to do with your behavior.

It is who you are or what you become.

Your citizenship is simply your identity, not your personality.

That's exactly how the Bible views you with regard to which of those kingdoms you belong to.

Every human being is born into the kingdom of the world.

And there's no way out of that unless there's a change in your nature.

By nature, you are under sin, and all those under sin belong by nature to the kingdom of the world.

You can't renounce your citizenship to that kingdom.

Well, I suppose you can.

You can even really, really want to, but that won't change anything.

But there is a way out, but only one way.

Your only way out of the kingdom of the world, you ready for this?

The only way that you can get out of the kingdom of the world is death.

But not just any death will do.

Now you may be wondering, especially based on my answer, why would you want to leave the kingdom of the world?

It's not that you love it.

You might, but it's just that it's the only one you know.

And maybe you're not ready to leave, so you wonder why you should.

Well, the short answer is because the kingdom of the world is temporary.

And not too long from now, it and everyone in it will be dismantled in not so gentle of a way, and then sent to a very unpleasant place forever.

Now, I'm not going to get into those details either in this discussion, but I think you've heard enough to answer the question.

You want to leave that kingdom because it's in your best interest to do so.

So let me say what I said just a moment ago.

The only way out of the kingdom of this world is death, but not death in the sense that we're familiar with.

The death that's going to get us out of the kingdom of the world, the doomed kingdom of the world, is what Paul called being dead to sin.

Now, here's how we described it over in the sixth chapter of this very letter.

Obviously, we're going to talk more about it when we get there, so we'll just read it for now.

It actually doesn't need much explanation.

It's the perfect fit for this conversation.

Now, I want to read the whole section because I don't want to leave anything out.

Here it is, Romans 6.

Paul is describing the death that moves us out of the kingdom of the world, out from under sin.

Again, I'm reading from the King James, Romans 6.

What shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid.

We just said that, didn't we?

How shall we, listen, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

Know ye not that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death?

Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death.

Paul is driving home the message that the way out of the kingdom of sin is death.

That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

If you are dead, you don't act like the person you used to be.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

You serve under the kingdom you belong, right?

For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more.

Death hath no more dominion over him.

For in that he died, he died unto sin once.

But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

Likewise, here's Paul's advice: reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

You know, I say it to you all the time: the longer you've been a Christian, the harder it is to relate to those who are not.

The longer you've been in the kingdom of heaven, the more difficult it is to remember what it was like to be in the kingdom of the world.

So it's likely that what I'm about to say is going to perplex a lot of you.

It's going to seem so unnatural to you now, but believe it or not, there are some who think they can bypass God's process.

You know, God who's actually in charge of the kingdom of heaven, the king of the kingdom of heaven.

There are people who think they don't have to follow his process in order to get into his kingdom.

They think that all it takes to get into God's kingdom is to act like you belong to the kingdom of heaven.

Citizenship, Canada.

But you have a Bolivian passport.

Yeah, well, I don't accept that.

I spent my whole life perfecting the art of acting like a Canadian, therefore, I'm a Canadian.

That's absurd.

And yet, that's how people see their place in heaven.

They see it as a matter of their own will, as a matter of their own imagination.

Their acceptance into the kingdom of God is nothing more than their attitude.

They don't recognize that there's a means to belonging to the kingdom of heaven.

They've made up their own set of rules and decided that all it takes is saying you belong there, followed by acting like you belong there, at least what they think someone that belongs there says and acts like.com.

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