Or, Trusting God When the “Faithful” Aren’t Romans 3:1-4 February 6, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

There is a wonderful simplicity in the Christian life and in the worship of the church. It is so simple that in one sense a definition is not needed. What is needed is faith in God through Jesus His Son. The “student” nuance of the word disciple isn’t as helpful as the “follower” emphasis. There really is a distinction between knowing God and knowing about God. There is a distinction between going through religious motions and loving the motions because of loving the Lord.

It’s also true that being alive is fairly simple: breath, eat, drink, sleep. Do you need to track your calories and steps and REM cycle minutes? All the generations before us stayed alive (long enough) to see the next generation without collecting any such stats. When you look into it more closely, the body is wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). The body has a lot of moving parts, and especially when something goes wrong, you may be benefited by more specific study than eating a cheeseburger and taking a nap.

As we get to know God Himself we do find that He is wonderful. He is full of wonder and He does wondrous works.

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,and his greatness is unsearchable.One generation shall commend your works to another,and shall declare your mighty acts.On the glorious splendor of your majesty,and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.(Psalm 145:3–5)

He shows you who He is, what He cares about (including you), and how all creation and chronology are under His creative control. Should we be surprised that our God, whose thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9), authors a story with some thick characters (thick as in not skinny, and thick as in not so smart) and subtle tensions and plot twists? We could be dismissive of these wonders and say we don’t care, but we wouldn’t do that to a friend, let alone our heavenly Father. We could freak out and say we can’t keep track of all these wonders and worry that we’ll get it wrong. Or we can say, “This is our God. Tell us more!”

There is milk and meat in Romans 3:1-8. There are ABC level and 500 level realities. They are given to us so that we might not miss God. There is story, there is theology and theology proper. There are Jew/Gentile, sovereignty/responsibility, Covenantal/Dispy, revealed/ordained will matters. There are warnings and encouragements. All are ours if we receive it from God from faith to faith.

Romans reveals the righteousness of God in the gospel (Romans 1:17). There are two species of gospel-needers: the unrighteous and the selfrighteous. The unrighteous refuse to thank God and God gives them over to what they think they wanted which destroys them. The self-righteous may thank God with their lips, and they have been given special privileges, but they think that’s enough. Paul addressed the need of the unrighteous first but he writes about the need of the self-righteous more. Both need salvation, both need faith.

In the last half of Romans 2 the Jew is ultimate example in privilege and pretense and in missing the point. The Gentiles who don’t worship God blaspheme Him without good reason on their own, and the Gentiles blaspheme God with good reason due to the hypocritical, sanctimonious people in Israel (2:24). The Jews had God’s Word but many didn’t follow it. They had the seal (of circumcision) but not the heart for it. The outward only goes so far, even when the outward is God-given.

Does that mean all the externals are worthless? Even more, does that mean God’s choice of, and promises to, the Jews were worthless? And if He is sovereign, and if all this refusal-of-thanks happens for His glory in the end, then how can He judge and punish with justice all the so-called puppets who are just doing what He predestined?

These are questions that Paul raises[...]