Tyndale Open Study NotesRomans 3

Paul waits to explain righteousness through faith (see 3:21) until he first teaches about the sinfulness of all people. Both non-Jews and Jews are equally under the power of sin (1:18–32; 2:1–3:8). Because of this, both groups are in the same situation before God. No one can gain God’s favor by their own actions or obedience (3:9–20). All people need God’s saving action, not their own efforts.

What, then, is the advantage of being a Jew?: Paul advances his argument by asking questions. After preaching the gospel (the good news about Jesus) for over twenty years, he knew what questions people would ask when they heard a specific teaching. His focus on the equality of Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles) before God (chapter 2) naturally invited people to ask if he was removing all Jewish privileges. The question-and-answer style follows the pattern of the diatribe style. In this method, a speaker asks questions and then answers them to correct or guide the listener (see study note on 2:1–5).

• The Jews had the advantage of receiving words of God.

• First of all: Paul does not add a second or third point to his list. He might have forgotten to continue, or first of all might mean "most importantly." However, 9:4–5 suggests what a list of Jewish privileges might include.

• By using the phrase very words (Greek logia, meaning "oracles" or "messages"), Paul emphasizes God's personal communication with his people (see Deuteronomy 33:9; Psalm 105:19). Through this, God gives them special privileges and responsibilities.

• Certainly not!: The Greek phrase mē genoito is a strong way to say "no." Paul often uses this style of argument in other parts of Romans (see 3:6, 31; 6:2, 15; 7:7, 13; 9:14; 11:1, 11).

• As it is written: Paul quotes Psalm 51:4, where King David admitted his sin of committing adultery with Bathsheba (see 2 Samuel 11:1–27). God punished David, and David admitted that God was right to judge him. David accepted that God’s judgment was completely just.

  God remains faithful to everything he has said in the past. This includes his whole revelation. God’s words warn people about punishment for sin, but they also promise blessing for obedience.

how could God judge the world?: Abraham asked a similar question: “Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?” (Genesis 18:25). God punishes all sin and maintains absolute righteousness while doing so. Even when God makes use of human sin for his own ends, that sin still deserves to be, and will be, punished (see Romans 9:10–24).

some slanderously claim that we say: Paul is referring to misrepresentations about his teaching on justification by faith. If a person is made right with God by faith alone, through God’s grace and apart from works, it could seem as if the gospel allows Christians to sin because God forgives their sin when they confess it (see 6:1). One of Paul’s purposes is to help the Roman Christians understand that such misunderstandings are without basis.

• Not at all: Paul's strong response does not contradict his earlier statement in 3:1–2 that Jews have an advantage. However, this advantage has not benefited them because they did not obey God's commands and encountered God's punishment. Jews, like Gentiles (here, Greeks), have sinned against the revelation of God and stand condemned.

• under sin: Being "under" something means it controls a person. The main problem for humans is not only that they have sin, but they are slaves of sin. The solution to this problem is the freedom that Christ Jesus provides. He frees people from both the penalty and the power of sin.

This quotation from Psalms 14:1–3; 53:1–3 directly supports the argument that all people are under the power of sin.

The six quotations in these verses come from different parts of the Old Testament. All of them speak about human sinfulness.

Paul follows a teaching practice used by Jewish teachers. They gathered several Old Testament passages that shared the same theme and placed them together. This method is sometimes called pearl-stringing (linking texts one after another to make a single point).

Paul here speaks about sins of speech. In each of the four lines, he mentions a different part of the body used for speaking.

This quotation from Isaiah 59:7–8 discusses sins committed against others.

There is no: This concluding quotation from Psalm 36:1 effectively summarizes the entire series (Romans 3:10–18). It uses the same Greek words, ouk estin, that begin the first quotation. In Romans 3:10, the phrase is translated “There is no one.”

• Paul refers to the entire Old Testament as the law (see also 1 Corinthians 9:8, 9; 14:21, 34; Galatians 4:21).

• The Jews, who received the Scriptures, were those to whom God gave the law (literally, those in the law).

• How can Paul conclude that the whole world [is] held accountable to God based on Old Testament evidence that Jews are sinful? He uses a common Jewish technique of argument, reasoning from the greater idea to the lesser. The law shows that the Jews, the people God chose, are accountable. So, the non-Jews (Gentiles), who did not receive God's instruction, are even more accountable.

by works of the law: This means obeying the rules given by Moses, the prophet and leader of Israel. While this phrase refers to Jews, the principle extends to all people. If Jews cannot be put in right relationship with God by obeying the law God gave them, certainly other people cannot establish such a relationship through good deeds.

• After a long discussion about the power of sin (1:18–3:20), Paul returns to the main idea in 1:17, which is how to be in a right relationship with God (literally the righteousness of God). In 1:17, “the righteousness of God” is the way that God puts people in right relationship with himself.

• apart from the law: The old covenant looked ahead to God’s righteousness being revealed in his Son, Jesus Christ. Through Christ, God fulfilled the law for us. Because of what God has accomplished for us in Christ by completely fulfilling the requirements of the law, we are now able to come to him by faith, apart from the covenant structure set up by the law of Moses (see Hebrews 8:13).

Paul returns to the central theme of God’s righteousness. This righteousness is revealed in Jesus Christ and is available to anyone who believes.

Paul states this teaching most clearly in 3:21–26. Paul explains it further in 3:27–31. He then shows how it works by using the experience of Abraham in chapter 4.

• by His grace: God places us in a right relationship with him, not because he must, but because God chooses to give us his favor through Christ Jesus. Because we are helpless slaves of sin (3:9), our righteous status before God can never be earned (see 4:4–5).

• through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: In Paul’s day, redemption referred to the price paid to free a slave. God paid our redemption price with the blood of his own Son to rescue us from our slavery to sin (see 3:9). TThis language was used in the Old Testament to refer to the exodus from Egypt, the first redemption of God's people from slavery (see 2 Samuel 7:23). God promised that he would again redeem his people (Hosea 13:14; Micah 4:10).

• As an atoning sacrifice (Greek hilastērion): This Greek word appears in the Greek Old Testament. It refers to the atonement cover, the lid placed on the ark of the covenant inside the most sacred room of the tabernacle. This cover played a central role in the Day of Atonement ceremony (Leviticus 16). Over time, the word came to represent the atonement ritual itself.

  Paul uses this word to describe Jesus Christ. God provided Jesus as the final sacrifice for sin. Through Jesus, God deals fully with human sin. Jesus bears God’s righteous anger against sin himself (see Romans 1:18).

• the sins committed beforehand: Paul refers to faithful people in the Old Testament period whose sins were not punished as strict justice would require. The letter to the Hebrews explains that animal sacrifices could not truly remove sin (Hebrews 10:4).

  So how could God forgive people before Christ? Paul explains that Jesus’s sacrifice works both backward and forward in time. Through Christ, God fully satisfied his righteous judgment against human sin for all people.

Paul builds his argument on the Jewish belief that there is only one God. From this belief, he shows that God offers forgiveness to all people.

If there is only one God, then he is the God of both Jews and Gentiles. Because of this, all people must be able to come to God in the same way. They come to him through faith.

Instead, we uphold the law: Paul knows that some people will object to his teaching about faith apart from the law. It may sound as if he is setting aside the law’s demands.

However, faith does not cancel the law. Faith makes it possible for people to live as the law requires. God gives the Holy Spirit to those who have faith, and the Spirit enables them to do what is right.