Romans III

Rom 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision?
Rom 3:2 Much every way: first of all, that they were intrusted with the oracles of God.

Here is a reasonable question, then (in the first century) and now. The question is almost rhetorical in nature. There were then, just as there are now, Jewish Believers. Just as God had promised Abraham the Jewish Believer was meant to be a blessing from God to the whole world. Please do not jump the gun on my assertion about the Jewish Believers, most of you will, so, I'll explain. Being a Jew involves two different aspects of life;
1.the nationality
2.the religion.
We are fortunate in more ways than one with our Jewish friends. The very first Christians were Jewish, the most notable of whom was Saul of Tarsus, later renamed Paul, Disciple of Jesus. In addition to these forerunners there are, today, Christian Rabbis and Jewish Christians seated in their churches. We have the good fortune of being able to ask them questions concerning the traditions and the feast days of celebration and learning from them.

Rom 3:3 For what if some were without faith? shall their want of faith make of none effect the faithfulness of God?
Rom 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.

I read many postings, published on the Web and have encountered many individuals that claim to be the New Israel because they contend that God, the Father, has washed His hands of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but this is not, nor shall it ever be true. Folks are busy, today, building boxes to put God into and this is not only an exercise in futility, it heresy! No “man” is able to even understand God, let alone define the limits of God, there are no limits, god is inexhaustible! And for God to abandon the descendants of Jacob/Israel is for God to become a liar and that will never be! In Due. 7:9 we see that God promised to be faithful to His Chosen People for a thousand generations. If we use a conservative number, say 25 years, for a generation that is twenty-five thousand years. From studying the scriptures we find that the Earth will only stand for about seven thousand years before God burns it up and recreates it. For this reason it makes perfect sense to conclude that God meant forever. No matter that some, yes, even most turn away, god has always had a remnant.

Rom 3:5 But if our righteousness commendeth the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath? (I speak after the manner of men.)
Rom 3:6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

We must always be careful when we read the Word of God and we need to cease redefining the terms that are clearly expressed and defined by example in the Bible. i.e. I am oft barked at for the lack of love in some of my messages and mt replies to other posters. I try to remember what I have learned in these years of guided study of the Bible. God loves everyone of the persons that He will individually judge and sentence to Eternity in the Lake of Fire. In like manor God made me an Evangelical Teacher and when I rebuke a person and suggest that they do a Spiritual inventory, it isn't because I hate or dislike them, it is out of love for them that I seek to keep them from digging that hole so deep that they will never climb out.

Righteous Judgment feels and seems cruel, only, to the unstudied and the unwilling. We must be careful in this because we can fool people but you may rest assured that God not only sees and hears, He knows the real reason buried inside our hearts. The next time a person slings Matt. 7:1 at you, pull out your Bible and read the entire chapter or, even better, all of the Sermon on the Mount.

Rom 3:7 But if the truth of God through my lie abounded unto his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
Rom 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.
Rom 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin;
Rom 3:10 as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one;
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God;
Rom 3:12 They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; There is none that doeth good, no, not, so much as one:
Rom 3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; With their tongues they have used deceit: The poison of asps is under their lips:
Rom 3:14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Rom 3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Rom 3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways;
Rom 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known:

We must never forget the thrust of Chapter three, only God is righteous and for that reason we are commanded to put on the Full Armor of God. (Eph. 6:11-18 & Acts 17:11) If we are faithful to do this one thing until the day we transition over into Heaven, we will be found to be a faithful servant of God. By misreading, misteaching and misunderstanding it has become a popular concept to study until we know the Word and I tell you that this is not true. We are admonished to study, read, the Word of God as the Bereans did, daily! Today, I have been blessed with a computer and an Internet connection. When I can no longer see, should I live that long, I have two CDs of mp3 files that I have burned and can put them into my computer or CD Player and still hear the Word of God as others read it to me. We are, simply put, unable to live a holy life except that we, actively seek after the Holy Spirit.

(a foot note: The truth of man is told by what he or she does when they are alone! What do I mean? When I google a topic there is no-one to watch me. If I search for a Bible reference I will receive the same results whether I use a lower case or an upper case letter in my search. Out of reverence for my LORD I always use the upper-case g when spelling God and I will type everything else, save Bible, in lower-case. Who cares, God does! Who's to know, God does1)

Rom 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Rom 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God:
Rom 3:20 because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.
Rom 3:21 But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Rom 3:22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction;
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

Here, once more, we see the thrust of Chapter three expressed (v:10) in v:23. For a man that prefers the Roman Road method of guiding lost souls to the foot of the cross, these are fundamental passages (vss.10 & 23) to be built upon. We, everyone of us was born in and were, before our salvation experience, rooted in sin. As it is expressed here, it is important that we remember that we, the Church Body, are nothing more than a group of sinners, gathered together to lift up and to strengthen each other as God has forgiven us and wishes to forgive everyone.

Rom 3:24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Rom 3:25 whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God;
Rom 3:26 for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.

Propitiation... our atoning sacrifice. Jesus, the Son of God went to the cross He did not deserve, that I might be excused from the cross that I do, not did, deserve.

Rom 3:27 Where then is the glorying? It is excluded. By what manner of law? of works? Nay: but by a law of faith.

In Hebrews 11 we see that Abrahan had faith and that it was reckoned to him Justification, Imputed Righteousness.

Rom 3:28 We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
Rom 3:29 Or is God the God of Jews only? is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yea, of Gentiles also:
Rom 3:30 if so be that God is one, and he shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith.
Rom 3:31 Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish the law.

This last verse is most often ignored. Jesus, in the Gospel Accounts promised us that not a single stroke of the Law, a.k.a. Mosaic Law, would ever pas away and here we see that Paul is stressing the point that we, Christians, establish the Law. When I read through the Law, all six hundred and thirteen of them, I see the perfect word picture of the only True and Loving God.

God Is!

There is a mystery that should not be! From the time, just before, I became a Christian I have been aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life and when I teach that truth or when someone will ask me how I know that I am correct about this or that point of scripture and I tell them, “I know it because the Holy Spirit teaches me that it is this way,” I am hit with, Do not try to invoke the Holy Spirit on me,” or, “Don't you dare get holier than thou with me!” Folks “claiming the name of Christ for themselves” seem not to know the Spirit that, if saved, is resident in their very life from moment to moment. (John 14:16, chap. 15:26 and chap.16:7-15)

When I was a lost man I believed the Holy Spirit to be, just, another ghost story but for a person to claim the name of Christ and then to,not, know the Holy Spirit is illogical form, even, the World's point of view. When we have read Acts 2 one of two things exist in our lives, immediately! Either we know that the disciples were indwelt by the Holy Spirit or we do not believe the whole Word of God!

For those that do not believe the entire Bible to be the Word of God, I find them to be in dire straits. Omnipotence is one trait that belongs, only, to God. Our Omnipotent God is the Living God, the God with no beginning and with no end. God is so, unimaginably, powerful that He spoke and where there had been nothing, there suddenly was everything... the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, millions of stars, billions of planets, moons, stars... everything. Not only did He create everything... it is He that manipulates and holds it all in place! (Psalm 104) There is no-one like God!

But some believe that men have overridden the Will of God and have polluted the Word of God, the scriptures. Others believe that the Bible has been mistranslated by men. That would require that, either, God be strong and powerful enough to sustain the positioning of the planets, stars and moons but not be strong enough to prevent men from polluting His Word to us.

Some claiming the name of Christ have told me that the Word of God can be found in the Bible but not all of the Bible is the Word of God. This idea not only contradicts the Holy Spirit that in-fills me bu creates it's own set of problems. First John 1:1-3 cannot be true, were this heresy true but if this is true and the Holy Spirit of God does not in-fill and indwell the Saved man, who is qualified to stamp this or that portion as the Word of God and to void or ignore the rest? We, people, have already crucified God in the flesh, some two thousand years ago and if that is not true... all is useless, there can be no salvation!

The truth is that, except we believe, we cannot be saved! Also, the truth is that God is!