Let God Be Found True

Mark Dunagan
03/01/09 - Sunday Morning

Romans 3:1 “What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what is the profit of circumcision?”: “Here Paul imagines someone breaking into his argument and saying: ‘Well then, if it is being a Jew inwardly that counts, if it is the circumcision of the heart that matters, is there any advantage in belonging to the Jewish nation, or in being physically circumcised?’ We might have expected Paul to answer this supposed question quite categorically: ‘None at all!’ But, rather to our surprise, he replies: ‘Much every way’. Of course it is an advantage to belong to the Jewish nation. Think of all the privileges granted by God to that nation – privileges in which other nations had no part” (The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, Tyndale N.T. Commentaries, F.F. Bruce, p. 95).

Romans 3:2 “Much every way: first of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God”: “A great deal, from every point of view” (Gspd). A more detailed list of advantages is given in Romans 9:4ff. “First of all”: Paul considers as first importance, the fact that the Jewish nation was chosen to be the custodian of the 'utterances of God'. “To have the revelation of God's will and purpose committed to them was a high honor indeed. But if it was a high honor, it carried with it a great responsibility. If they proved unfaithful to such a trust, their case was worse than that of the Gentiles”. Compare with Acts 7:53 “you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it”. “Oracles of God”: This very expression creates a strong case for the inspiration of the Old Testament. First, Paul clearly declares the Old Testament to be nothing less than the actual utterances of God Himself; and second what advantage would the Jewish nation have had if the Old Testament was merely a collection of myths, fables, human opinion and camp-fire stories? The Jew always wanted to talk about advantages such as how God had set them apart, yet they had forgotten that such advantages brought a great responsibility to obey God. The same is true with Christians (Hebrews 2:1-3), for every generation of Christians is entrusted with the sacred truth (1 Timothy 1:11; 6:20 “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you”; 2 Timothy 2:2).

Romans 3:3 “For what if some were without faith? Shall their want of faith make of none effect the faithfulness of God?”

The utterances of God, which had been entrusted to the Jewish people, contained many promises to bless them, yet when Paul wrote this letter to the Romans, many Jews still stood in an unblessed condition. Was this God's fault? Certainly not! The very word some infers that other Jews are faithful and are presently receiving God's promised blessing. God has kept faith; it is man who has failed.

Romans 3:4 “God forbid: yea, let God be found true, but every man a liar; as it is written, ‘That thou mightest be justified in thy words, And mightest prevail when thou comest into judgment’”

“God forbid”: “Away with the thought of any reflection upon Him!” (Gr. Ex. N.T., p. 603). “Let God be found true”: “When the case is stated between God and man there can only be one conclusion: let God come out true, and every man a liar” (p. 603). The word let implies “let this always be our conclusion when any difference is found between human thinking and God's view”. Let the ways of God always be seen as right and just, and let all human critics be viewed as liars. “Let God turn out to be or be found to be by His creatures” (Vincent, p. 33). What this means is:

• God is never to blame for our problems.
• God’s ways are always right.
• If there is any disagreement between what the Bible says and what men say (regardless who the men are), God is always in the right.
• When we encounter any difficult circumstance or any hard situation, God always has the right answer.
• God’s way of handling any situation is always the best and true way.

“As it is written'”: “Paul quotes Psalm 51:4. David has just confessed the terribleness of his sin. A sin that was pleasant! Sin with a beautiful woman! His attitude was that God would deal justly with him. Whatever decision God would make would be a righteous one. And when people examine His treatment and His view of David’s actions they would all see that God had indeed been equitable with David” (McGuiggan, p. 116). God had confronted David through Nathan the prophet and had compared David to an incredibility selfish and heartless man (2 Samuel 12:1-7). This had been difficult to hear; yet David fully accepted God’s assessment of his actions. God had said, “You are the man” (12:7), and David had responded, “Yes, I am”. There were no excuses, no justifications, no rationalizations, and no resentment toward either Nathan or God. We learn here that we have truly accepted the fact that “God is true” when we:

• No longer make excuses for our sins.
• No longer blame others for our sins.
• No longer make excuses for the sins of our loved ones, children, friends or family.
• No longer place any of the blame on God (i.e., “I’m only human”, “It is hard to be faithful in a sinful world”, “Why did God make me like this?”)
• We accept God’s solutions.
• We fully repent.
• We share with others the lesson we have learned (Psalm 51:13).

Romans 3:5 “But if our unrighteousness commendeth (demonstrates or serves to magnify) the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath? (I speak after the manner of men) “

“Someone may say: ‘If my faithlessness sets God's faithfulness in bolder relief... why should He find fault with me? He is really the gainer by my sin, why should He exact retribution for it?'“ (F.F. Bruce, p. 95) “It is fair, then, for Him to punish us when our sins are helping Him” (Tay). “I speak after the manner of men”: The objection seems so foolish to Paul that he apologizes for mentioning it. "When I ask the question, 'Is God unjust who inflicteth wrath?' I am deeply conscious that I am using language which is intrinsically improper when applied to God” (Vincent, p. 34). Yes, our sins do serve to magnify such things as:

• God’s holiness
• God’s wisdom being superior to man’s
• God’s mercy, which we by no means deserve
• The fairness of God’s judgment

Even still, this is not the whole of the matter. Our sins also create a tremendous amount of damage. They can lead people astray, misrepresent God to the unbelievers we were meant to serve, hurt ourselves, bring to an end the opportunity to repent, hurt others, and cloud the truth. How true that “…one sinner destroys much good” (Ecclesiastes 9:18). Just as there are many negative affects of other’s sins, (including David’s sin that is mentioned in Romans 3:4 and told in 2 Samuel 12:14), there are negative affects of our own sins as well.

Romans 3:6 “God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?”

“How shall God judge the world”: “The Jewish objector has in essence just claimed that his sin became an occasion for God's praise, yet Paul points out that this is true of every man's sin. God has turned man's evil to His glory. The Jewish objector would use God's ability to turn sin to His glory as a shield from wrath.” But if the Jewish objector could honestly do so, so could every other person. “When judgment arrived every man in creation could approach the judgment seat claiming exemption from wrath on the grounds that ‘my sin helped God’. That kind of reasoning would do away with the judgment of the world by God!” (McGuiggan, p. 117).

Romans 3:7 “But if the truth of God through my lie abounded unto His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?”

“The supposed objector is persistent… 'If my falsehood makes God's truth shine more brightly by contrast (like a diamond on a background of black velvet)… why then does He insist on condemning me as a sinner? The end – God's glory is good; why then is the means – my sin – counted wrong?” (F.F. Bruce, p. 96).

Romans 3:8 “and why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), ‘Let us do evil, that good may come?’ Whose condemnation is just?”

“And why not”: Paul says, “In fact, some say the Gospel that I preach simply amounts to such, that is, the more we sin, the more God is glorified and is seen as just”. “Do evil, that good may come”: The Holy Spirit emphatically rejects this argument, and thus we have here a clear condemnation of what has been called situation ethics, or “the end justifies”.

“Whose condemnation is just”: “To condemn such men as these is surely no injustice” (NEB). “Such arguments are rightly condemned” (Mon). Paul will more fully show in 6:1-8:17 that such is not the logical end of the gospel that he preaches.

We would do well, as spiritual Israel, to acknowledge and bow the knee to our omniscient God as the author and sustainer of all truth. Doing so will not only bring beauty to our own life and the lives we touch, allegiance to His revealed truth alone, will fulfill our purpose for being created – honoring Him with our existence.