Romans 3 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Rom 3:1-8

1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.

3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written:

‘So that you may be proved right when you speak
    and prevail when you judge.’

5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7 Someone might argue, ‘If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?’ 8 Why not say – as some slanderously claim that we say – ‘Let us do evil that good may result’? Their condemnation is just!

No one is righteous

A. Find Out:

1. What advantage DID the Jews have? v.2
2. Why doesn’t man’s unfaithfulness annul God’s faithfulness? v.3,4
3. What did man’s unrighteousness do? v.5a
4. What were some of them saying? v.5b
5. How were others putting it? v.7
6. What were others claiming Paul was saying? v.8

B. Think:

1. What problem was Paul highlighting first of all in this passage in respect of the Jews? (v.3)
2. How was God glorified by people sinning?
3. How was twisted thinking saying we ought to sin more?

C. Comment:

Paul moved from stating that Jews were sinning (in Ch.2), and were thus the same as Gentiles, and starts using a question and answer approach to make his point.  Wouldn’t it be better if they weren’t a chosen people at all, because their failure merely shows God up in a bad light. He is of course using the things that some of them were actually thinking and saying.  But, Paul responds, merely because man fails that doesn’t make God a failure!   God is still righteous and just, even if His chosen people aren’t!

Well, comes back the imagined answer,  if our unrighteousness only goes to accentuate God’s righteousness, aren’t we doing Him a favour,   helping everyone else see Him as He really is?  That’s silly, counters Paul, if sin helped Him be glorified, He wouldn’t be able to judge it.  No, that’s a silly argument, because we know He does.

Paul confronts this stupidity head on.  God didn’t make a mistake making the world knowing that sin would come in.   God didn’t make a mistake making Israel, knowing they would fail.  He has a way of bringing righteousness out of all this through Jesus Christ, His Son;  that is His plan, and there was no error in it!

D. Application?

1. Thank the Lord that He doesn’t make mistakes!
2. Thank Him for redeeming you from sin.

Passage: Rom 3:9-20

9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:

‘There is no one righteous, not even one;
11     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.’
13 ‘Their throats are open graves;
    their tongues practise deceit.’
‘The poison of vipers is on their lips.’
14     ‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’
15 ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16     ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.’
18     ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’

19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

A. Find Out:

1. Who are under sin? v.9
2. Who is righteous? v.10
3. Who understands & seeks God? v.11
4. What have their words & actions done? v.13-18
5. What does the Lord do? v.19
6. What effect does it have? v.20

B. Think:

1. How have man’s actions towards God seen to be sin?
2. How is the world’s behaviour characterised?
3. What is the point, therefore, of the Law?

C. Comment:

Paul has gone to some lengths to show that all men are godless and unrighteous. He showed that godlessness led to God’s wrath releasing unrighteousness on mankind (Ch.1).   He proceeded to show that there were no exceptions and Jew was as bad as Gentile (Ch.2).   He then showed up the fallacy that sin could be good and now he comes to the climax: everyone is guilty!

Everyone, says Paul, is under (the power of)  sin.  You see it in the way people don’t seek God, in the way they speak and the way they act.  And as for the Jews with their Law, all that does is highlight their predicament, they try to keep it but they can’t keep it all and they are, therefore, sinning as well.

At the beginning of the Gospel is man’s predicament: man is a sinner and therefore under God’s righteous judgement!  Every man is a sinner!  There are NO exceptions except Jesus Christ. This is the MAJOR problem of mankind that the Gospel addresses.

If you don’t recognise the problem you won’t need a solution, you won’t need the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. That is why Paul has taken so long at the beginning of this letter to deal with this matter.  This must be the starting point before the solution can be considered.

D. Application?

1. Ask the Lord to help you face the truth: you NEED a Saviour!
2. Thank Him that Jesus has done everything for your salvation.

Passage: Rom 3:21-26

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished 26  – he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

A. Find Out:

1. What 3 things are said about the new righteousness? v.21
2. How does this righteousness come? v.22
3. What has EVERYONE done? v.23
4. How is everyone justified? v.24
5. What did God make Jesus? v.25
6. Why did God do this? v.25,26

B. Think:

1. How previously had people sought to be righteous?
2. How, says Paul, is a person made righteous now?
3. What part in all this did Jesus play?

C. Comment:

These verses are the heart of Paul’s Gospel. First, a NEW RIGHTEOUSNESS has been revealed. Previously people had tried to be good or keep the Law, and all had failed, i.e. no one had been able to be righteous. Now, Paul says, God has revealed a new righteousness that has nothing to do with keeping the Law.

Very simply, you ARE righteous if you truly believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Son and He’s died for you. The Bible teaches that Jesus died as a sacrifice for sins. Now, in the Old Testament, the sacrifice bore the sins of the person presenting it; it took their place. In the same way Jesus carried OUR sins, took our guilt and shame, and died in our place. Believing that and responding to that IS righteousness.

He then says that God shows His justice by this. Every sin that is committed deserves to be punished, HAS to be punished. Justice demands sins be punished. Now Jesus has died in your place, taking the punishment for all those past, (present & future) sins you’ve committed. Justice has to be seen to be done. This is what atonement means, and it leaves us justified, cleared of our guilt, made right before God, clean and free to live!

D. Application?

1. Jesus has cleared our record! Before God we stand free from condemnation, free to enjoy Him.  
2. Thank, praise & worship Him for the wonder of this.

Passage: Rom 3:27-31

27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the ‘law’ that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

A. Find Out:    

1. What is excluded? v.27
2. How is a man justified? v.28
3. Over whom is the Lord, God? v.29
4. How will He justify the circumcised? v.30a
5. How will He justify the uncircumcised? v.30b
6. How are faith and the Law related? v.31

B. Think:

1. Why might men have had reason to boast or be proud previously?
2. Why isn’t there room for boasting any longer?
3. How is the Gospel the same for all people?

C. Comment:

We saw above that Paul had been speaking about a new form of righteousness that came from believing in Jesus instead of trying to keep the Law (which every person failed to do). He now points out some further consequences of this.

First of all, there is no room in this Gospel for anyone to feel proud about achieving salvation. Previously a person might have felt good because they kept more laws than many other people. Indeed, the Pharisees had felt like this, but, says Paul, there is no room for boasting now because it’s not a matter of how many rules you keep or how well you keep them, it’s simply a matter of whether you have faith in Jesus.

Not only that, he continues, it’s absolutely the same for a Jew as for a Gentile, there’s no difference. But, someone might ask, doesn’t that do away with the Law? No, replies Paul, because when you are moving in faith in respect of Jesus, you will find you are indeed upholding the Law, doing the things in it without thinking. This is a wonder of the Gospel; it takes your mind off achievement but enables you to do it! As we respond to God’s love through Jesus, our love for Him will lead us to “keep His rules” anyway.

D. Application?

1. Are you still a “rule keeper” or do you keep the rules as you love Jesus?  
2. Thank Him for the wonder of what He has done.