 Welcome back everyone. We've just started the recording of this second lecture today. We are going to start with Romans chapter 3 now. So let's just read Romans chapter 3 verses 1 to 8. Romans 3, 1 to 8. Let's say Aaron, can you read that for us? Romans 3, 1 to 8, please. Have the Jewish then any advantage over the Gentiles? Or is there any value in being circumcised? Much indeed in every way. In the first place, God trusted his message to the Jewish, but what if some of them were not faithful? Does this mean that God will not be faithful? Certainly not. God must be true even though every man is a liar. As the scripture says, you must be shown to be right when you speak. You must be when your case, when you are being tried. But what if our doing wrong serve to show up more clearly? God's doing right. Can we say that God does wrong when he punishes? This would be the natural question to ask. By no means if God is not just how can we judge the world. But what if my untrue serve, God's glory by making, is true, true stand out more clearly? Why should I still be contaminated? As a sinner, why not say then, let us do evil so that good may come. Some people did have insulted me by accusing me of saying this very thing. This will be contaminated as they should be. Alright, so in this first part of chapter three, Paul is asking some questions and answering those questions himself in relation to God's judgment. So he has established that, hey, everyone's going to be judged. And Jews, you really don't stand a chance in God's judgment because you're not keeping the law. And of course, Gentiles, they will be judged according to their conscience. It's written there so they have no excuse that we didn't know what's right and wrong, everybody. But we're all going to be judged according to the gospel. Now, about God himself as judge and how God judges, he's answering some, he asks some questions and answers that. So we call them rhetorical questions because his intent in asking the questions is to get people to think. His intent in asking the questions is to address some things that they're asking, not to get an answer from them because he himself is going to answer those questions. So this questioning is more of, okay, I'm addressing some things that you are thinking about. I'll ask the question and I will give you the answer. So these are rhetorical questions in these eight verses. So you can just follow his thinking here or how he's unfolding this truth. Now remember, the truth is coming from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is saying, okay, I need to give this to God, to the church, but it is being written for us in the skill, in the language and with the context of the writer. That means in this case, it's the Apostle Paul. He's going to be using his language. He's going to be putting in his words, his thoughts. But the truth is coming inspired by the Holy Spirit. You need to address this for the church, right? But Paul is a very logical thinker and he's expressing the truth in this manner for us. So he starts about asking a question which obviously a Jew would ask, so does that mean be Jews out of no use? And circumcision of no use? You know, until now we were saying that we are the chosen people of God and through us all the nations are going to be blessed and all that. But now you're saying Paul, we're all sinners. So is it useless or unprofitable of being a Jew and a circumcised? So he's asking that question. And then he answers the question first too. Of course not. You know, the Jew has the advantage. What is it? To them were committed to the oracles of God. So you are truly God's people because God committed to you his word. So he's not saying, you know, I'm totally discrediting the importance of being a Jew or any of these things. I'm not really discrediting it. Discrediting it, you know, hey, God chose these people and through them he has revealed, given the revelation, the oracles of God. He answers that question. Then next question, which most likely, you know, his audience and the people that would have asked was, hey, so That's was three. So if we don't believe this, how does that affect all of this? We don't believe, you know, if we don't believe. Will it change anything about God? So the law is given, the word is given, but we don't believe. He says, well, even if you don't believe, it doesn't change who God is. God is still faithful. And verse four, he says that God be true and be man and liar. So you, somebody not receiving the word. Somebody not believing does not in any way change who God is. So not affect who God is. God is still faithful. God is still true. Right. So that's the second question. The answer is quite obvious. But the, for the sake of his audience is asking these questions and answering them. So basically saying, look, if you don't believe, it doesn't change God one bit. He's still faithful. He's still true. Who God is, doesn't change. Then versus five through eight. It's actually a series of questions. All about the same thing. The question is, Hey, if my unrighteousness that is my doing wrong is just showing how righteous God is, the one who's judging. So I'm doing wrong. It's showing that God is a righteous church. Then is God unjust? This is worth fine. Isn't his God being unjust by punishing me because I am doing wrong. It is putting God in a good light, showing that he's the God who judges sin. Then why is he punishing me. Or the same thing can be presented like this. If I'm telling a lie. And it's showing that God is true. I'm making God look good. These are God of truth. This is worth seven. Then why am I being judged a sinner because my life is making God look good. Or, you know, in the notes I've just shared, you know, we could think of Judas Iscariot making an argument like this. You know, Jesus, Judas can argue. God. If I had not betrayed Jesus. Jesus would not have been crucified. People would not have been said. So why are you judging me for betraying Christ? Because my betrayal, my, I did something wrong. I betrayed. But what I did fulfilled, you know, it, it, it, all these things happen. Christ was crucified. People were saved. So why am I being judged? So this is an argument. What are the Jews arguing here? They're saying our unrighteousness is revealing the righteousness of God. Our lying is revealing the truthfulness of God. That means the wrong we are doing is showing how good God is, how great God is. So, you know, so why are we being judged for the wrong we are doing? So, and then Paul is saying or say that actually some people are falsely accusing Paul that he's teaching people. Let us do evil that could make up. So, you know, so you can imagine Paul as an apostle. Even in those days, I had to deal with false reports about him, about his ministry, about what he was teaching. And so here's one case in verse eight, where Paul is opening up and saying, Hey, some people are falsely accusing me that I am teaching. Let us do evil. So good may come. Let's let's do sin. Let's sin. So that, you know, God can be glorified or things like that. So that's a false report. But you see, you know, how Paul, even in this ministry had to deal with these kinds of things. That was obviously not what he was teaching, but he is slanderously being reported. That means it's a false report that he's supposedly teaching that. But Paul's response to that is verse six. Does God want us to do evil so that he can look good? Did God wants, does God want us to speak lies so he can look as the God of truth? Does God want us to commit unrighteousness so that God's righteousness can be shown? His answer there was certainly not. Certainly not. God is not an unjust God. And God is going to judge the world. So he's judging our deeds. So God's response to Judas would be Judas. I'll judge you for three things. I'll judge you for your deeds. I'll judge you for your desires. I'll judge you for your drives, your motivations. The deed was betrayal. Your desire was study pieces of silver. Your drive, what motivated you was, you know, just to get favor with, to please the Jews, the religious leaders, to make them happy. So I'll judge you for your deeds, your desire and your drive, your motivation. So God will still judge the world. So even though God brings something good out of our wrong as a classic case, this classic example is that of Judas. Yeah, he did something wrong, but something, you know, God's purpose was carried out. So even though God does something good out of the wrong we've done, we are going to be judged. We're not going to be condoned because of that, but we're still going to be judged on these three things that he has already spoken of. Our deeds, desires and our drives. So God will still judge the world or judge us for these things. He's not going to overlook the wrong we've done just because he was able to bring something good out of it. Okay, so he's asked a set of questions in verses one to eight. First is, what is the usefulness of being a Jew and being circumcised? He says, hey, God gave to you the law, so to you the revelation, so you are important. Second, if we believe, I mean, if you don't believe, well, if you don't believe, it doesn't change who God is. God is still God of truth and faithful. Third, doesn't our unrighteousness make God look righteous, so shouldn't we just continue doing unrighteous? No, he's going to judge our unrighteousness for what it is. He's going to judge that. Everyone follow me till verse eight? Any questions? So he's kind of addressed some questions that are going on in the minds of his audience, people, the Jews. And then he says, okay, having done that, here's what I want to drive home. That is verse nine through verse 20. Romans chapter three, verse nine to 20, let us read that passage for us. Okay, Kiran, can you read that for us? Romans three, nine to 20, please. Are we better than they? Not all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under the sin. As it is written, there is unrighteousness, not one. There is one who understands that there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does not want. Their throat is an open thumb. With their tongues, they have practiced deceit. The poison of a sp is under their lips. Those mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swept and seed blood destruction and mercy are in their ways. And the way of peace, they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. So verses 9 through 20. This is the next point that he really is getting his audience to say, okay, so are the Jews better than the Gentiles? No. What is the conclusion then? Both Jews and Greeks, the Gentiles, are all under sin. So Jews, you are special to God. God has given you the oracles. And if you don't believe, it doesn't change what God is. And even the God uses our God in spite of our unrighteousness. He carries out his purposes. So the conclusion is this. All are under sin. And then he quotes from the Old Testament. There is none righteous, not even one. There's no one who's seeking after God, Psalm 14. This is nobody who's seeking after God. There's nobody who's righteous. And then he's quoting from the Psalms. You know, the people are speaking evil. They are practicing evil. They are going after destruction. And they don't know there's no fear of God. So basically he's saying, look, whether you're a Jew, whether they are talking about Jews or Gentiles, in a sense, all of us are like this. There's nobody who's righteous. We're all actually sinful in what we think and do. We are sinful. No one is righteous. And verse 19 and 20. So if you have the law, you'll be judged by the law. And ultimately, all the world who stands guilty before God. So that's the point Paul is telling. I'm trying to get his audience, whether you're a Jew or a Greek. It doesn't matter. All of us are standing guilty before God. And even the Jews, by the deeds of the law, you can never be justified because the law is actually exposing our sin. Because we have done all these things. There's nobody's righteous. We have spoken evil. We have all these things. We have cursing. We have shed blood. There's destruction. There's misery. All this. So even those who have the law, you cannot be justified. But the law is only showing us that we are sinners. So all that he's written so far through chapter two, and he's answered some questions early part of chapter three, he's brought his people. Now he's writing to Jews and Gentiles now. He's addressing both equally. Okay. Whether you're a Jew, whether you're a Gentile, all the world stands guilty before God. There is no one who's righteous, not even one. And through the law, he cannot be justified. The law is only showing us we are sinners. So that's where he's brought his people to. And he's helping. Now remember, he's writing to the church. So the church also needs to understand this is very basic. Today, you know, we very easily say all absent and come short of the glory because we easily say that. But sometimes, you know, we need to help people understand. And this is true. This is how we are before God without Christ. Then he starts presenting the solution. Okay. We're all sinners. We're all guilty before God. We've all broken the law, but this is God's solution. And in giving this solution, Paul is maintaining something. He's maintaining that God is being righteous. Because remember, some of them are thinking, hey, if my evil is bringing something good, then I should just continue doing evil. He said, no, God has actually provided a solution. And in doing this, God is maintaining his righteous. God isn't just, but he's providing a solution for us in our predicament where we are all sinners. Okay. Let's just read that from verse 21 through to the 26. And we will look at this presenting solution. Romans chapter three, verse 21 to 26. Roshan, maybe you can read it. Okay, Prince Yareed, go ahead. But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and all who believed. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God set forth as a proposition by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness. Because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sin that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Okay. Thank you. So he says, okay, let's give the solution. He says, now God's righteousness. Now remember the word righteous. To be righteous means to be blameless. To be just. To have nothing against you. To be righteous means to be blameless. So the blamelessness of God. The faultlessness of God. That is righteousness of God. God is blameless. God is faultless. Nobody can find any fault with him. Anything. The righteousness of God. Now, from our perspective, for us to be faultless before God, for us to be able to stand blameless before God. So that is from our perspective. And we say righteous. I mean, you say God is righteous. That means we're saying God is blameless. God is faultless. Let me say we have been made righteous before God. You're saying we have been given this position of being blameless and faultless in God's eyes. So we are being made righteous. So he says, verse 21, this righteousness of God. Which is outside of the law. I mean, it doesn't come through the law. This ability to be blameless in God's eyes. This ability to be faultless in God's eyes, which is outside of the law. But the prophets had spoken about it. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets. And it's therefore told God would do this. Okay. Even the righteousness of God, which comes through faith in Jesus Christ, to all in honor who believe for there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by the great, by his grace for the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What is Paul saying? Okay. Look, the whole world is guilty before God. He's brought us to that conclusion in verse 19. And no one can be justified by law. I mean, no one can be justified in his sight. That is the righteousness before God. No one can be righteous in God's eyes. You know, verse 20, justified in his sight or be made righteous in his sight by the law. Nobody can do that. But there is a righteousness that God is giving to everybody without any difference, differentiation. He's giving to the Jews and to the Gentiles. He's giving it to everybody. And this righteousness, he says, it is the righteousness of God. That means it is God's own righteousness. It's the righteousness that comes from God. And it is the righteousness that is given to all who believe through all our faith in Jesus Christ. So this righteousness is a righteousness that is from God. It is given to us. So what Paul is saying is this, you know, we're all the whole world is standing guilty before God. And we cannot be justified in his sight through the law, but there is God's own righteousness, which is being made available through faith in Jesus Christ. And this is verse 22. And it is to all who believe regardless of whether you're a Jew or whether you're a Gentile, God's own righteousness is being given because, hey, everybody's fallen short of, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone is sinned. So this is God's righteousness that God is making available to all who have faith in Jesus, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile. And then verse 24 says this just being justified or this being made righteous is freely by his grace. So he said through faith, now he's saying it's freely by his grace. And he says it is through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, through the redemption. That word redemption is, you know, in the Jewish mind, it has the idea of buying something back and restoring it to a place, buying something back with a price. It has the idea of buying a slave out of a slave market or it has the idea of paying a ransom to get somebody's freedom. So redemption, it is buying something back with a price and restoring it to its original state of freedom, et cetera. So he says through this whole act of redemption in Jesus Christ, God is giving his righteousness freely by grace to everyone who believes. So this is how we can be made righteous. So he's built up this understanding that clearly we cannot be made righteous through the law. None of us are keeping the law, whether it's written law or the law in our conscience. None of us are able to do that. There is no one who's righteous. We are all sinned and we are all standing guilty before God, but God has done something. He's giving us righteousness. He's giving us this ability to be justified in his sight, to be blameless and faultless in his sight. He's giving it to us and this is how he's giving it to us. All who believe, to all our faith in Jesus Christ, is giving it to us freely by his grace and he's giving it to us on the basis of the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, on the basis of what Christ did by giving the price, the ransom price and buying us out and purchasing us and buying us out and restoring us to where God wants us to be. That's what he's saying. And he continues, verse 25, about Jesus he says, God has made him our propitiation. That word there in the Greek actually should be translated mercy steed. In English they've just translated as propitiation, which is an attempt to capture what would happen at the mercy seat, but the Greek literally means mercy seat. So he says in verse 25, God has set Christ as our mercy seat. Now mercy seat is going back into the Tabernacle of Moses and they had the outer court, the inner court and the most holy place or the holiest of holies. And in the holiest of holies, there was the Ark of the Covenant, which was basically a wooden box covered with gold. Inside which were kept the Ten Commandments and Aaron's rod and so it is kept. So it was a symbol of God's presence, the box, the Ark of the Covenant. And on top of the Ark of the Covenant was a golden mercy seat. It was a seat like a chair made of gold, a gold mercy seat. And it was a symbol of that's where God said, I will meet with you. My presence, my glory will be there and I will meet with you. I will speak to you. And that is where the high priest went and he sprinkled the blood of the atonement. He sprinkled the blood. So when he sprinkled the blood, atonement was made and God said, that's where I will meet with you. Basically it's in the sign of man being reconciled to God and God, man being able to meet with God because of the blood of the atonement. So the word propitiation is an attempt to capture, you know, that whole picture of atonement at the mercy seat, man being reconciled to God, man being able to speak to God. So what Paul is saying is Jesus has become our mercy seat. Jesus has become the place where atonement was made, where man has been reconciled to God. Man is able to meet with God. Now man is able to be blameless, faultless, justified righteous with God. So he says, God set him forth as our mercy seat, verse 25, by his blood. This Christ gave his blood through faith. That's what God asks of us, have faith. And he says, this whole thing demonstrates God's righteousness and his God himself is being righteous in doing this. Because, you know, in the past, God overlooked sin. That means he didn't pour out all the judgment on sin. Right then, he reserved it to be poured out here at the cross. And in doing so, God has been righteous. Verse 26, that he is righteous because sin has been judged. And therefore, he's not only righteous and just, because sin has been judged. But he's also the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. That means God is saying, I have judged sin, so I'm a just God. I'm a righteous God. I've judged sin. But I'm also able to justify those who have sinned because their sins have been judged in the redemption that's in Christ. So Paul is basically saying, you know, God can both be the judge, the one who condemns sin and the one who forgives the sinner because of the cross. Because of Christ being made our mercy seat because of the redemption as in Jesus. God is just. God is righteous. He's also the one who makes us righteous, the one who makes us justified. He's doing both. He's judging sin, but he is acquitting the sinner. He's able to do it because of the cross. But with me there till verse 26. Any questions? Right. Okay. Thank you. Everyone's following. So Paul has come to this, helped his audience. See this. Now we are all sinners. God is the righteous God. He's judged sin. That means he's being a just God. But he's justifying the sinner. He's being a merciful God. He's giving us his goodness. Right. So what is the conclusion? What do I really want you to know? This is in the last few verses, verses 27 to 31. Verses 27 to 31. Who has to read? Sorry. Conant. Conant didn't read. 27 to 31 please. Anyone. Can I read it, sir? Go ahead. Where then is bursting? It is exploded on what principle on that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintained that a man is justified by faith. fight by faith apart from observing the not the God observing the law is God the God of Zeus only it is not the God of Gentiles to yes offer Gentiles to since there is only one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised to throw that same fact do we then nullify the law by this fact not at all rather we uphold the law so verse 27 through verse 31 thank you right so it says okay so what's the conclusion says you know where can be boasts where is boasting it is excluded it's nobody can boast no one can you know take any credit for themselves how is boasting excluded because of the law of faith where is boasting it's nobody can boast it is excluded why is it excluded because of the law of faith this verse 28 this is the conclusion man is justified by faith or man is made righteous by faith he's put in a right standing that God he's made faultless and blameless before God by faith outside of the deeds of the law that means it's not dependent on the deeds of the law we're doing things of the law so he says look this is a conclusion I want to bring all of us to understand Jews and Gentiles he's writing to these believers he's saying you know you see how he's developed the whole thing Jews we can't talk too much I know you have the law but you've all broken it Gentiles there's a conscience God can hold you accountable for but the fact is all of us have sinned and God has given is giving us the solution through Jesus Christ so none of us can boast and we're all justified by faith so verse 29 is the verse 29 is the God of the Jews Gentiles yeah he's God over everybody right he's God of the Jews he's got the Gentiles and both Jews and Gentiles are going to be justified the same way which is through faith that's verse 30 whether you're circumcised as whether you're Jewish the uncircumstance Gentiles it is going to be through faith that we are going to be justified so that's the main thing he's getting to and he says well then what's the use of the law well he's saying we are not getting you know we're not making white the law though saying the law has been useless no it has served the purpose that we make the laws void through faith no we established the law how do we establish the law because we have stated nobody can keep the law all of us are sinners and the law serves that purpose the law has exposed and we're all sinned that all Jew and Gentiles are standing built guilty before God and God has been just in condemning the sin the same sin which the law condemns God has condemned is he has judged it in the person of Christ and through that he can justify people of faith in Christ so faith in effect has established the law because faith has brought everybody to this because everybody has come to this place where you have to have faith in Christ because on to the law we've been our weaknesses been exposed our sin has been exposed so faith in effect establishes what the law has always been telling us that we have fallen short of God's glory so that's what he concludes now at the end of verse chapter 3 right that we are justified by faith but they are Jew or Gentile we're all justified by faith God is God of the Jews and also of the Gentiles and this type of faith is just you know is establishing or affirming what the law has been saying we are saying that we cannot keep the law when we come by faith we are saying we cannot keep the law therefore we have faith in the person of Christ so we are establishing we are affirming the law saying yeah we can't keep it we are sinners everyone with me so far okay so that brings us to the end of chapter 3 next week we'll get into chapter 4 where he tells us more about the importance of faith right so till now he says look so right now the conclusion is faith in Jesus Christ that's the only way we can have we can be justified we can become blameless before God and then chapter 4 he emphasizes faith right so we will pick that up next week can we close in prayer please I would thank you for listening and somebody could close in prayer and be able to dismiss after that thank you for the good for the good we just come before you're shown for the good once again for the good thanking you for the good for your your bird and in the subject for the good for the good thanking you for the good to bless us father God thank you for you wisdom and knowledge for the good that we be understood for the good the nicely the subject for the good the Roman book and a father God for the good thanking you for the good understood that we justify justified by faith for the good thanking you for the good help us to stay for the good to help us to walk by faith for the good to every step and every movement for the good for the good just give you more revelation and your blessing and your wisdom knowledge for the good thanking you coming time I'm just submitting to your hand for the good everyone does and all the student father come just submitting to your hand you just take care of everything for the good thanking you almighty Jesus name I pray amen amen thank you everyone thank you for being in the class today enjoy the rest of your day let's see you shortly by now thank you thank you thank you so thank you thank you