Romans 3:1-20; Guilty as Charged

Jason Sterling February 15, 2026 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

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Chapters

• 0:00 Reading Romans 3:1–20
• 4:09 Our Instinct To Object To God
• 7:10 Objection One: Does Church Advantage Save
• 11:59 Entrusted With Scripture, Not Owning It
• 15:07 The Law Exposes Sin, Not Shields
• 16:58 Objection Two: Does My Failure Void God
• 20:47 God’s Faithfulness Amid Human Unfaithfulness
• 24:57 Objection Three: Twisting Grace Into License
• 29:07 Grace Redeems Without Excusing Sin
• 32:21 The Verdict Begins: All Under Sin

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:23

If you have a copy of God's word this morning, turn with me to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three. We've been in a study through the book of Romans as a church. And we have been in some very difficult passages in the last couple of weeks. If you were to title them, you could say, uh, cheer up. You're a whole lot worse than you think. Um, and this is part three uh this morning. So listen carefully. This is God's word. Romans 3, 1 through 20. And I would encourage you to keep your Bible open. If you have it, I'll be referring to some verses after verse 20 towards the end of the sermon that I'd love for you to look at. So keep a Bible open if you have one. This is the word of God. Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means. Let God be true, though every one were a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way. By no means. For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God's truth abounds in his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come? As some people slanderously charge us with saying, their condemnation is just. What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks are under sin, as it is written, none is righteous, no not one. No one understands. No one seeks God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave, and their they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asp is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness, and their feet are swift to shed blood, and their path are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. 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. For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. This is God's word. Let's pray and let's ask for the Spirit to help us and be with us. Let's pray together. Father, uh, we pray that you would come and that you would help us with this passage. We come knowing that we need to hear from you. And so would you give us that posture in our hearts? Would we be eager to study this passage, to hear you speak through it through your spirit? So open up our ears, soften our hearts, help us to see ourselves clearly. But don't leave us in despair. Help us to see how beautiful Jesus is because of what is written here about us. Help us to see a great Savior. It's in his name we pray. Amen. I don't know about you, but I've always been fascinated by courtroom scenes. Um courtroom dramas, whether in real life or uh TV shows or movies, like a few good men or or whatever. Um I love those scenes. I love the dramatic moments that happen when the attorney stands up and says, objection, Your Honor. And there's this silence in the courtroom. Everything stops. Everyone's looking at the judge, waiting for him to say two things. What? Sustained or overruled. And when he makes his ruling, it is final. We all have objections to God. Uh, maybe you've never voiced those objections out loud, especially not in church, but they are most certainly there. We object to what God requires of us. We object to the way God operates and what he brings into our lives. We object to the way the gospel confronts us. And it is our instinct to defend ourselves before him. And we use all sorts of ways to justify ourselves. We use religion, we use our morality, we use our theology. And the fundamental difference between someone who follows Jesus and someone who doesn't is not whether or not they have objections to God. It is whether you are willing, a Christian, someone who follows God, is willing to let God overrule them. And that is exactly what happens in Romans chapter three. The apostle Paul has been building his case for two chapters. Chapter one, he looks at the Gentiles, the irreligious, pagans, and he says, You suppress the truth, and it has led to a life of destruction. And every religious person hearing Paul say this would most certainly be nodding, Yes, Paul, go get them. And then in chapter two, Paul spins around and he points the fingers. And remember, he says, Hey you. Two things are objections, the verdict. Objections number one, the verdict number two. The objections we raise. Paul is a very skilled communicator. He understands his audience, he knows what's coming, and so he is anticipating these objections here. And what's striking is how relevant these objections still are today. Let's look at them. Look at verse one. Then what advantage has the Jew? Paul has just been arguing that the Jews are God's covenant people, that they have the scriptures, but that does not really make them right with God at all. And so the objection and the immediate response would be from the Jews, objection. Then what is the point? And the question behind the question is a question we still ask today does it matter to be in the church? Verse 2. Paul answers much in every way. To begin with, the Jews have been entrusted with the oracles of God. I love the New International Version of the NIV here, entrusted with the very words of God. In other words, there is advantage, objection overruled. But not in the way that you would expect. Look at the word entrusted, very significant. Notice it doesn't say you possess, it not you possess the words of God, not you own the words of God. You have been entrusted with the words of God. Think about that word entrusted, and given custody of something precious that doesn't belong to you. And that word tells you everything because it tells you that the word of God is privilege, not possession. And Paul has already told us in chapter two that hearing the law doesn't make you righteous. You have to actually do the law, he says. You have to be a doer of the law. And so the real advantage is not the advantage that we think. God is saying every week, Paul is saying here that God, every week before his people spreads a feast. And he gives us this table that we have access to, and the word of God that we have access to. And it is a privilege beyond anything that can be measured. And so the question is particularly as we move into a new season of ministry, we must always treat the Word of God as privilege and treasure, not as background noise that just takes up space. Here's what the Apostle Paul means when he says advantage. Here's what the advantage really is. He says the in plainly in verse 20, through the law comes knowledge of sin. So the advantage is of being God's people isn't that it is a shield that protects you. It is that it actually the word of God is a light that exposes our need for grace. To show up, to have our Bibles, to be on the membership role. We think that's the advantage. And the apostle Paul is saying it belonging is not enough. Paul is saying the advantage isn't that you have God's word on your shelf, it is that God's word has access to you to do its work in you. Second objection, verse three. What if I fail? Does my unfaithfulness cancel God's promises? Well, this is the anxiety of everyone who's tried to live up to God's standards and they realize that they can't. He is talking to everyone who says in the first objection and thinks, Well, okay, accountability, I need to respond to God's word in faith, I can do that. Well, then Monday comes or Sunday afternoon comes and you fail miserably. And so, what's the point of trying if you can't keep up? If you keep falling short. That's the objection. Verse four by no means let God be true, though everyone were a liar. Objection overruled. God's faithfulness does not depend on your performance. Even if everyone fails, God remains faithful. In scripture, you see this image that's used in the Bible of marriage. God is the faithful groom. And we, God's people, are the adulterous spouse. Hosea and Ezekiel, that's really the whole entire story of Israel. It's our story. Abraham was a liar, Moses was a murderer. David was a murderer and an adulterer. The apostle Paul was a terrorist. And yet God remained faithful. You see, the scandal isn't that we wander, the scandal is that God stays. You see, we're not married because we're faithful, married to God. We're married to God because He is faithful, because He never leaves us nor forsakes us. To say it another way, our unfaithfulness, this is what Paul is saying, does not nullify God's faithfulness. It actually magnifies it. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, or maybe you've been hurt by the church, please do not judge the faithfulness of God by the faithlessness of us, of his people. And if you're a Christian this morning and you keep failing, God's faithfulness is what transforms you. The fact that he stays. It's not trying harder, it is actually finally stopping trying to earn God's love and approval and receive his faithfulness. And when you do that, real change starts to happen because you stop carrying the burden of maintaining your righteousness and you start resting in his. That's not a heavier burden, that is the light yoke that Jesus promises when you follow him. Third objection. This is perhaps the most twisted. Look at verses five through eight. If my sin makes God's grace look better, why would he judge me? I'm just making God look good. You see, this is the ultimate self-justification. Because it takes the beautiful truth that God can bring good out of evil and it turns it into a license to sin. And look at Paul's response at the end of verse eight. Their condemnation is just. Translation, objection overruled. Don't confuse how God uses sin with the idea that he excuses sin. God definitely takes evil and turns it into good, but that is never an invitation in the scriptures to sin and actually do evil. Think about the story of Joseph. His brothers sell him into sin years later. Remember, he confronts them and he says, You meant it for evil, God meant it for good. And now imagine one of his brothers responding and saying, Well, see, it all worked out. I'm glad we sold you. See how twisted? You'd be horrified. And yet that is exactly what we do when we use God's sovereignty and control as a cover for our sin. Just because God redeems our messes doesn't need mean we need to make one. If you're using God's grace as a cover for sin, then you don't really understand grace. Because grace doesn't say behavior doesn't matter. Grace says that your behavior can finally change because God has done what you could never do. And think about what we see at the cross. We see God's hatred for sin, and you see God's love for sinners, right? He died. Our sin was so terrible that it cost the Son of God his life, but you see mercy, and that Jesus was, because he loved us, was willing to pay the price himself. Grace calls us to die to sin and live to righteousness. So never mistake God's mercy for indifference. You see the pattern? Every objection is an attempt to defend ourselves. We are looking for a loophole. I'm a part of a church. God will be faithful anyway. I can sin and God will use it for his purposes. Objection overruled every single time. So we're all out of options. We have no place to go. And that is exactly where Paul wants us. Because now we're ready to hear the verdict. And that's the second thing. Please understand before we jump into this what Paul is doing. He is rightly trying to level us. He is trying to get us to stop trusting in everything else and start looking to Jesus. Paul is not being harsh. He is trying to create in us a hunger for the gospel, a hunger for Jesus, for us to see Jesus and why he actually matters and why he's so important and so beautiful. Because you cannot treasure the Savior until you are willing to admit that you desperately need saving. That's what Paul is doing. Verse nine. What then? Are we Jews any better off? The Jews are saying, wait, Paul, I hear you. We're different. We're God's people. Surely that has to count for something. No, not at all. For we are already charged, have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. Notice the phrase all under sin. Not just committing sin. We are under sin. So this is positional language. This is a status designation. Think about it this way: you travel internationally, you go to customs, you give them your passport. They look at one thing. They don't ask you, hey, are you a good person? They ask you one question. What country are you from? And that determines everything else. That determines what line you stand in. That determines what questions they ask you. That determines whether you get welcomed or get flagged for some reason. It's not about your behavior, it's about your status. And Paul is saying that every one of us, every human being, is carrying the same passport. And stamped across it is under sin. Now, you didn't earn it because you were particularly bad. You were born with that status. And no amount of good behavior changes what is stamped on your passport. And that's what Paul is saying here by under sin, that sin has touched everything, our minds and our motives, and our relationships, and our best efforts. And it's not saying that we are as bad as we could possibly be. It is saying that there's no part of you that sin has not reached. If you're looking for a theological word, this is what theologians call total depravity. Totally affected, not totally ruined. You might think, well, how can you say that about everyone? That's a fair question. And Paul, again, he knows you're going to ask it. And so he proves it. Like a good prosecutor presenting the evidence. And he quotes six Old Testament passages back to back. And he works through the human body. Think about total. It affects everything. He works through the human body from the inside out. It is not random. He is giving us a full diagnosis. Look at verses 10 through 12, the foundation. None is righteous, no not one. No one understands. No one seeks God. No one does good. You hear the repetition? No one, no one, no one, not even one. He is closing every loophole. Some of us might hear this and say, Well, that can't be right. And I know plenty of people that are searching for God. Well, notice Paul does not say no one seeks spirituality. Doesn't say no one seeks peace, or no one seeks meaning in life. No one seeks God. And there's a difference. You can seek God without wanting God Himself. You can want His comfort and not His authority. That is not seeking God, that is actually using God. And if a person is seeking God, it is because God has already been seeking them. And then he moves to the body. He starts in verse 13 and 14 with the mouth. Their throat is an open grave, their tongues deceive. I mean, think about that image. He is saying that your mouth is like an open grave. Think of so here's the picture. Think about digging up a grave and standing over it. What would come out of that? It would be the smell of death, and it would smell like rotten decay. That is our speech. That is what it does. It doesn't just offend people, it actually decomposes things, relationships, and trust and reputation. He's saying that our mouths have the power to make things rot. 15 and 17. Our feet or our actions, they're swift to shed blood. We pursue our own interest. And the whole time we are leaving a path of wreckage behind us. Verse 18, no one fears, has the fear of God in their eyes, from heart to the mouth, to the feet, to the eyes. It's a diagnosis of the whole person. Every part of us has been compromised by sin. There are no exceptions. You want a picture? Let me give you a picture. Instead of Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m., let's move it to 6 p.m. You come home from work, you're exhausted, you're frustrated because you've had a terrible day at work. You sit around the dinner table, someone asks you about your day, and you launch into a coworker, and you talk about how incompetent they are and how clueless they are. Your tongue. Leaving a path of misery, even in your own home. And then you get in bed at the end of the evening and you start scrolling through social media and scrolling on your phone, never once considering what God might think and have to say about your evening and how you just spent it. No fear of God before our eyes. I give you that because Paul's not talking about criminals. He's talking about us on an ordinary Tuesday evening. Our throat and tongues and feet and eyes. You see, they tell the truth about us, even when our mouths will not. And that is exactly, I'm trying to sprinkle in gospel here. That is exactly who Jesus came to save. Not the person who has it all together, not the person who can get through a Tuesday without their throat becoming an open grave. No. Real sinners that desperately need a Savior. That brings us to the verdict. Look at 19 and 20. Close your mouth. That's what he's saying. Be muzzled. Every mouth may be stopped. Why? Who's doing the muzzling? The law of God. Keep reading. For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Complete silence. But please notice what kind of silence this is. This is not admitting that you've done wrong. Most people can do that. Yes, I messed up. I'm sorry. This is way deeper. This is realizing that your good stuff also needs the blood of Jesus and cannot save you. The law given wasn't given to save you. It was to show you your need of saving. A Christian is someone who, yes, repents of the bad stuff, but a Christian is also someone who repents of their own righteousness. The things that they're trusting in to make them right with God. You see, that's a different kind of silence. That is truly having our mouths stopped. The charge, all under sin. The evidence, none righteous. The verdict, guilty. And now here is where you would expect the gavel to fall. Right? Case closed, guilty as charged. That's not what happens. Courtroom goes silent. There is no defense. There is no evidence to present your good works inadmissible, your intentions irrelevant, your religious pedigree and goodness overruled. And then the judge speaks. This is key, apart from the law through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. But now. Those two words, maybe the two most important words in Scripture. But now, because they change everything. Yes, we're guilty. The verdict stands, but God has done something. He's provided a righteousness that doesn't come from us and doesn't come from our performance that actually comes from outside of us. It is a righteousness. Remember this from a few weeks ago, from God that we receive, we do not achieve. And here's the great news it's it's available not just to some people, it's available to all, for all who believe. And so that means wherever you are this morning, moral, immoral, religious, irreligious. Maybe you've been trying really hard to be the person you think God wants you to be, or maybe you've just given up completely. The throat, the tongue, the feet, the eyes, all of it can be made clean through the blood of Jesus Christ and through faith in him, through a righteousness that's not your own. We're actually going to do a deep dive into that next week. And we're going to learn just how God can remain just and also justify the ungodly, how he can be loving and also holy, how Jesus becomes our righteousness. Today I want you to have your mouth stopped. But remember that God is not silent, that he is speaking over you this morning, and he is offering you Jesus, who speaks a better word than anything that you could ever say for yourself. Will you come to him this morning? Let's pray. Father, we confess that we are guilty as charged. That we have nothing to say in our defense. Thank you that you do not leave us silent and condemned, that you give us Jesus. Thank you for speaking words of hope through Christ. I pray that we would experience those words of hope as we come to this table. In Jesus' name. Amen.