Hello again and a belated happy new year! It’s been a little while since our last study together, but we’re finally getting back on track. In the last session of ‘Wrecked by Grace’, we were looking at Romans Chapters 1-2, focusing on the first 2 pillars of the Gospel - The Unrighteousness of Man & God’s Perfection. Today we will be picking up where we left off and delving into the next Pillar, we find in Romans 3.

As ever, please incorporate this into your own personal study. Don’t substitute the Bible for devotionals alone!

What to expect:

WEEK 2,3 & 4: Pillars of the Gospel:

READINGS: Romans 1-4:

Background to Romans
Importance of the Gospel
Pillars of the Gospel

The unrighteousness of man
God’s perfect Judgement
The Law of God
Saved and Justified by Grace

Pillar 3: The Law of God:

The necessity of the Law
The Intention of the Law
The fulfilment of the Law

Read through: Romans 2: 12-29 & Romans 3

The introduction of this next pillar begins in the final stanza of our previous chapter. In chapter 2:12-29, Paul begins to explain the relevance, application and weight of God’s Law.

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
~ ESV ~

It’s quite a heavy verse I’ll admit, but there is so much to unpack here, that’s vital to our next Pillar. If you remember, in the last session we began looking at “The Unrighteousness of Man” and what scripture has to say about our inherent wickedness - that we’re all unrighteous and guilty of sinning against a holy and perfect God. Now it’s important that we establish a solid understanding of those first two principles in order to understand the third… and you’ll soon see why.

1 . The necessity of the Law:

It’s often said (including by myself) that the old testament is hard to read because of the constant seemingly brutal depiction of God throughout it. He seems to be forever angry, with an unceasing need to punish people at any given moment. Now, at first glance (and without studying scripture in relation to the rest of the Bible) we can easily come away with this negative impression of who God is and how he feels about us. But it couldn’t be further from God’s true nature.

Here’s where understanding the first two pillars is key…

What we usually mistake for God’s brutality, is actually His divine justice. A concept we don’t really grasp and very rarely agree with. But, regardless of how we feel about the judgement of God; the when, how, and to whom His judgement falls, is indisputable.

We believe that God is both Holy and Good. But to be Holy is to be perfect and to be Good, is to be completely Just. These are terms that, for the modern reader, have lost much of their meaning and been watered down over time. For us, to be perfect is simply a state of striving to achieve the image of flawlessness. But with God, His perfection is a state of being - He is the very definition of perfection, untarnished by weakness and failure. The same applies for His Goodness and Justice.

With human “justice”, there’s room for error and misjudgement. Sadly, prejudice and bias all too often influence both our opinion and delivery of justice to others. You can even escape (or at least mitigate) the justice you deserve, should you jump through the correct hoops and tick the relevant boxes. In truth however, real justice involves everyone getting what they deserve regardless of who they are… and neither we, nor anyone else, can do anything to forestall that verdict. But unlike us, God is truly fair and equal.

As we've already seen in scripture, we are all guilty of sinning before God. Whether we want to admit it or not, each one of us “fall short of God’s Glory” (as we’ll read later in Romans 3:23). This has nothing to do with our perceived goodness or moral aptitude, but instead refers to our efforts to achieve “goodness” in comparison with a Holy and perfect God.

God being perfect, demands nothing short of perfection from his people. This is where His Holiness and His Justice overlap; you see because God is both Perfect and Just, he must judge everything and everyone to the same degree of Ultimate Perfection. It’s like in a court of Law. The Judge is expected to be the absolute embodiment of Justice, representing the Law in all its finality. Because of this, regardless of who stands in the courtroom on trial, they should be judged against no other standard than the one set by the Law itself. If the Judge (as sometimes happens) fails to judge someone on this simple premise, we quite rightly would argue that he carried out a misjustice. The same applies to God and his divine Justice.

As He is perfection itself, He also becomes the standard of perfection to which we are compared and judged. And guess what… we don’t come anywhere close! We have the wonderful, but yet troublesome, gift of free will and we all know where that often leads us:

We live as we see fit
Say what we want
Go where we please
Treat others how we choose
And so on.

Because of the decisions we make, we have willingly put ourselves at enmity with God - covering us under his wrath and judgement. What we see throughout the old testament, is not mindless, rampant destruction, but the punishment brought on a people through their own wickedness.

We can see this when we read about the burning of Sodom and Gomora, or the Canaanites being eradicated by the Hebrew army. They all had opportunities to turn from their sin and worship God, instead of the false gods like Baal… but they didn’t. Instead they chose to continue, for generations, engaging in acts such as, adultery, slavery, child sacrifice, polygamy, idol worship and so on. This way of life could not go unanswered, as it was evil and risked corrupting both Israel and the surrounding nations; One of Israel’s own Kings (Solomon) even married a Canaanite woman, who claimed to be a goddess! Her influence over the King led Israel to the worship of Baal and to engage in the sickening act of sacrificing children on his altar.

God could not and would not stand by and allow the people to whom his son Jesus would be born from, defile themselves in such a way. So the root of the problem had to be dealt with.

When we read about God’s judgement upon a people or nation, before allowing our personal opinions to guide a response, we should remember that our judgement is woefully inadequate and corrupt in comparison to the opinion and standard of God. He is just in all that He does and whether we understand a decision, or agree is irrelevant. It’s a dangerous game to believe that we have any right to judge or condemn God, because of how we feel.

So what do we understand so far?

God is Perfect and Just:

Requires the same level of perfection in His creation.

We are not perfect:

Through our own free will, we continue to choose what “feels” best to us… usually with a selfish motive behind it.

Left here, there really isn’t much hope at all. But, this is where the Law comes in. Hence the necessity of it.

2 . The Intention of the Law:

As we can deduce from Romans 2:12, the Law was given to us that we may find the hope of redemption and reconciliation. Paul states that “those who sin without the law will perish without it” but for us we will “be judged by the Law”. There’s a clear difference here. Those under the Law have the means to escape the ultimate perishing that those without the Law will experience.

God was not content with our current standing before him, so in His Grace he offered us His Holy Law, as the guide by which we must live our lives. The intention is clear and simple, keep the commandments and never falter in following each one… ever. Be perfect to the standards that the Law lays out and you’ll be able to achieve the holiness God expects and escape His judgement.

Simple right?

You’d be forgiven for thinking that this is a seriously tall request!

From the moment the Law was granted to Moses, Israel and all of mankind were bound to it. The Jews were obsessed with striving to meticulously keep each and every command, observing all the rituals/sacraments possible. They were so consumed by it, that eventually the Law became the very object of their faith. You could argue that the idea of “being holy” had become the purpose of life and not to live for and worship God himself.

So much so, that around 613 extra laws were added to the existing list!
Suddenly the Law becomes about keeping rules for the sake of keeping rules.

However, it actually had a much greater purpose and intention than simply being followed… the people just didn’t understand it.

*{Lisbon Bible (1482), listing the 613 commandments from the Torah}*

In Matthew 5, Jesus addresses this issue in his famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’. In verses 21-30 we see Jesus challenge the current understanding and application of the Law, rather amazingly. He says:

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
~ ESV ~

He goes on to make a similar point with other commands, accusing the people of missing the whole point of the Law in the first place. See the implication here, that sin does not qualify as sin just because we act it out, but it begins first and foremost in the heart. Merely harbouring anger against somebody is already breaking the command in question here. And as James 2:10 tells us, if we break even one law, we break them all.

Right now you’d likely be thinking, surely this is impossible then? Well that's exactly the point!

The real intention of the Law was not to save and reconcile us, through OUR careful observation of it, since we could never hope to uphold it. To paraphrase Tullian Tchividjian:

“The Law was never meant to be a ladder which we climb, but an impassable wall that we crash into and finally admit that we can’t do it on our own”

This here is the complete purpose and aim of God’s Law, as far as we’re involved. As a means of salvation the Law was perfect, but weakened by our sinful state. Not that the Law was made weak, but its ultimate ability to save human beings was incomplete and needed someone who was capable of fulfilling it. The real intention of the Law was to act as a mirror, by which our efforts and striving are constantly compared to the standard required by God. Which is absolute perfection.

We see Paul also cover this in Romans 3 and he makes the point very clear in verses 10-18:

“None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” We can never hope to achieve the expectation that the law holds”
~ ESV ~

Paul quotes the Psalms here to emphasise his argument, that any hope of fulfilling the Law ourselves is folly. There is no hope in this - it’s futile to even consider it doable. He then goes on in verses 19 & 20 to say:

“19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

~ ESV ~

Here Paul begins to draw our attention to the real power and application of the Law. Like a magnifying glass, God's Law continually exposes our weaknesses and failings, reminding us just how sinful we truly are. Reminding us just how much we need our Saviour. We can do nothing without Him, as He is our hope of redemption and freedom, since He alone has done what we could not and fulfilled the demand of the Law.

To once again quote Tullian:

“The only hope we have for ourselves, is to give up hope in ourselves!”

3 . The Law Fulfilled & Upheld:

This leads us nicely into our final principle of the Law.

Thank God for Jesus! Without Him, we’d have no hope of ever finding favour with God and escaping His judgement. You see once again, God in His Grace, offered a way out for us. First He gave us the Law, as the instrument by which we could be saved; but knowing that we could never meet its requirement, He had in mind to not only provide the Law, but to also fulfil it himself!

The final paragraph of Romans 3, beautifully encompasses all of this. From verse 21 onwards, Paul speaks of the righteousness that has been deposited into our account, now through Faith and not our own Works. We’re reminded that the Law has been fulfilled in its entirety and the reward offered to all those who choose to put their hope and trust in Jesus Christ.

It’s for this reason that we call Him the “Author and finisher of our Faith” as written in Hebrews 12:2.

This is the power of Grace. God himself took on the impossible task and paid the penalty we could never hope to endure and fulfil.

We leave chapter 3 with the final declaration:

“Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.” ~ ESV ~

Paul touches on a topic that’s often left out from conversation within churches… That the Law has not only been fulfilled, but also upheld.

Fulfilling the demand of the Law is amazing as it is… but this alone isn’t the full work of Christ. The Law didn’t become obsolete and therefore irrelevant, just because of the cross. In fact you could argue that it became all the more poignant, because of Jesus.

A common criticism, both in Paul’s day and the present, is that those who preach Grace have a much lower view of the Law - that we don’t take it as seriously or value it as much as others. The argument often draws its basis from a strawman, with no relation to what we actually believe or preach. For those who have met me or heard me speak, they will know that it is far from what I really think about God’s Law.

Of course, anyone who believes that the Law has no relevance today is drastically wrong! You can’t be a genuine Christian, if you haven't first been crushed by the weight of the Law. Being made aware of our sinfulness in the light of God’s perfection and holiness, is what forces us to turn to Christ as our only hope in the first place. Hence the importance of the 4 Pillars we’ve been unpacking so far!

In this life, the Law will continue to be the standard by which mankind is judged and held against. But unlike before, it’s no longer just our own righteousness and works measured on the scale. As we’ve already covered, those who are in Christ Jesus, are recipients of His righteousness and it has been counted to us as if it were our own. This means that when God looks on us, He sees the perfect work and righteousness of Christ and will judge us according to it.

So for those of us saved by the blood, we are also regarded as having upheld the Law (before God) since Christ had already upheld it for us, through His life on earth. And guess what… There is nothing you or I can do to undermine that wonderful truth.

It should go without saying that this doesn’t mean we get to carry on living as we see fit, without consequence. There will always be repercussions for the things we do in this life and we will be brought to account for them in the end. But we must never forget that inevitably we will continue to make mistakes. If we’re truly saved and understand the cost of Grace, we should naturally feel the sorrow that comes with dishonouring God - be that, through our words, thoughts or actions.

However, we can take great comfort in the knowledge that the sorrow and shame we may feel, will not last and it certainly isn’t a result of a return to God's anger over us. The verdict of ‘Law breaker’, that was once held against our name, has been dealt with, once and for all. We have since been vindicated and freed, through the blood of the Lamb.

We are both Saved and Justified (which we’ll cover in our next study together). There’s such Joy and Peace in that wonderful truth, wouldn’t you agree?

Thank you for joining this week’s study of ‘Wrecked by Grace’. I know these are rather long and to give you plenty of time to work through them, I will upload each session every other week instead of each Friday. There will be a different article on the other Friday, to break it up a little. There is no expectation for you to complete a study in one sitting and you can take as long as you need… It's always important to study at your own pace.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading through Romans chapter 3 with me and I can’t wait until our next study together, where we will break down chapter 4 to uncover the final ‘pillar’ of Grace. In the meantime though, have a great week ahead and God bless!

Wrecked By Grace - Romans 3

What to expect:

Pillar 3: The Law of God: