Last week’s sermon passage was about as complicated as it gets, due to several textual issues:
(i) The phrase ‘not at all’ (Rom 3:9) is better translated ‘not altogether’. There IS an advantage in being a Jew (i.e. they have the Scriptures; the treasure map to God – Rom 3:2), yet it is only a partial advantage, as one has to respond in faith, which the wicked Jews did not (Rom 3:3).
(ii) When Paul says ‘Jews and Gentiles alike are ALL under sin’ (Rom 3:9b), he doesn’t mean every person on the planet; he means all the wicked. Similarly, the ‘all’ in Rom 3:24 is not every person on the planet, only those who believe (Rom 3:22).
(iii) The OT passages Paul chose to support his argument DON’T speak against all of humanity; they speak only against the wicked. There ARE passages that speak universally (e.g. Num 23:29; 1 Kings 8:46; Eccles 7:20), but Paul ignores them.
Thus Rom 1:16-3:18 is not Paul building a case against all of humanity, as many believe; it is Paul outlining the Gospel of God, where God has always saved the righteous and condemned the wicked.
However, the REAL TREASURE is last week’s passage comes in Rom 3:19-20. God’s condemnation of the wicked is designed to show the righteous that they too deserve to be condemned. The reason the righteous know this is because of the law, which makes us ‘conscious of sin’ (Rom 3:20). Just like Barabbas realising it should have been him on that cross, Christians too realise the only reason we avoid the same fate at the wicked is ‘there but for the grace of God go I’.
The enormous beauty of the gospel of God is that God had promised all along to forgive the sins of his people. PRAISE BE TO GOD for this promise of forgiveness. Today’s passage brings Paul’s treatise to it’s climax, by showing HOW God could make this promise to forgive.
