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Subject 9 : Romans (Commentaries on the Book of Romans)
[Chapter 3-2] Salvation from Sins Only by Faith (Romans 3:1-31)
(Romans 3:1-31)
“What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written:
‘That You may be justified in Your words,
And may overcome when You are judged.’
But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’?─as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written:
‘There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.
Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit;
The poison of asps is under their lips;
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
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 says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
People’s unbelief cannot make the salvation of God without effect
The Apostle Paul says that the fulfillment of the law and the redemption of God’s grace are not given to us through our deeds, but through faith. We are saved from our sins and become righteous through the salvation of God. “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much every way! Chiefly to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not!” (Romans 3:1-4)
The advantage of the Jew is that the word of God was committed to them. They lived while hearing His word from their ancestors. Because God committed them His word and it was handed down through them, they thought they were better than the Gentiles. However, the Bible says that God deserted the Jews because they did not believe Jesus who had delivered them from their sins.
Paul says, “For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not!” People’s unbelief can’t make the salvation of God without effect. “The faithfulness of God” means “the sincerity of God.” He means that God’s sincerity and the salvation from sins cannot become invalid even though Jews do not believe it. The word of God’s promise that He saves whoever believes is not canceled even if they may not believe it.
The Gentiles will believe if the Jews do not believe. God says that whoever believes will be saved from sins. Therefore, God deserted the Jews because they did not believe that the word of truth was accomplished according to God’s promise, even if God committed them His word.
The Apostle Paul’s assertion is as follows: God gave the gift of salvation to all humanities. God says that He promised it in the Old Testament and accomplished it by sending Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, to the world. Some people believe the gospel of God, but others don’t. So, whoever believes is blessed of being God’s child, just as He promised. And the blessings of God are not canceled out no matter how many people do not believe.
Whoever believes the truth can receive His great love
Whoever hears the word of truth and believes in it can receive God’s great love, but unbelievers claim that God is a liar. In fact, God accomplished His promise, yet unbelievers are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in the grace of the remission of sins.
Paul says, “Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not!” God promised once and faithfully gave the gift of His salvation and glory to all people.
What does the Bible say the gift of God is? The Bible says that God, the Father, sent His beloved Son and gave the grace to become His children to those who believe in the remission of sins through His Son. Even before the foundation of the world, He planed that He would give all human beings the glory of becoming His children and the salvation from sin through His righteousness. And He fulfilled this faithfully. Therefore, believers are blessed according to God’s word, but unbelievers are judged according to it.
It is very proper for unbelievers to go to hell. God established a law so that we can be saved by the faith in His Word. He also says that the faithfulness of God will never be without effect, even though people do not believe. We are blessed by accepting the faithfulness of God’s salvation. God says, “Let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged’” (Romans 3:4).
Every man is a liar. God is true. Why? Because God says, “As it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.’” God says that He promises in advance and blesses those who will be blessed and curses those who will be cursed. It is just for God to bless believers and curse unbelievers. God says, “Let God be true but every man a liar.”
“That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.” He says that He will save people according to His Word. The Word was made into flesh, dwelt among us and saved us. Therefore, the Lord is justified through His words.
The Lord defeated Satan with the written word of God. The Lord is just and sincere before Himself, Satan and all spiritual beings because He accomplished what He promised. However, human beings are not sincere. Their behaviors change promptly when they are at a disadvantage. On the contrary, God has never broken His promises. So the Apostle Paul says that our faiths should be based on God’s word.
Our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God
Romans 3:5 states, “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)” All human beings are unrighteous, but what shall we say if their unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God’s salvation? What shall we say if our sins demonstrate the righteousness of God?
The righteousness of God is revealed even more because of our sins and unrighteousness. God is really sincere. He is the Lord of salvation, the Savior and the true God who promised to save us with His word and accomplished what He promised. What shall we say if the righteousness of God is revealed because of our weaknesses? Our infirmities reveal God’s righteousness more because we sin until we die.
How do we know that God is the Lord of love? We can know it from our infirmities. God’s love is revealed through us because we sin until the last day of our lives. The Lord says that He blotted out the sins of the world once and for all. God’s love would be imperfect if He loved only good people who didn’t sin. It is out of His true love that God accepts and deals with us sinners who can never be loved.
We human beings are unrighteous and betray God. We don’t believe in Him and have no lovely side in front of God. Sinners are those who only do evil, but Jesus, who saved us from all our sins and iniquities, has fulfilled God’s love to us.
God says that it was through His righteousness and love that He sent us His only begotten Son to save us from Satan’s darkness and curses, when human beings sinned and were destined to go to hell under Satan’s deception. It is the love and grace of God.
“But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?” says the Apostle Paul. The thoughts of believers and those of unbelievers are divided at this passage. Unbelievers try to be good in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and to be blessed by God. But Paul makes a contrary comment, saying, “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?” Paul says that we human beings cannot do God’s righteousness but only commit sin before Him, and that our evilness comes to demonstrate God’s true love. Yes, it is true. All human beings are wicked and cannot be righteous, but the Lord saved them from all their sins.
We are saved by the righteousness of God
The Apostle Paul says that human beings cannot be righteous and are caught in the snare of sins. The Lord saved such sinners from their sins and loved them. We are in need of His perfect love because we cannot avoid sinning everyday. We were saved only by Jesus’ absolute love, His free grace, and the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul says that his being saved is owed to God’s righteousness. What God did to save all sinners from their sins shows His righteousness. Paul says that believing in the gospel saved him. The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our salvation depends on the righteous act God had done for us. Therefore, sinners are saved from all their sins by faith. Those who are not born again think that they should be good so that they may enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Paul does not mean that we may do evil things on purpose, but people wind up going to hell because they try to do good deeds without receiving the righteousness of God. They must repent to be converted and believe in the salvation God gave them in order to escape from going to hell.
Who can do good deeds in front of God? There is none. Then how can a sinner be delivered from all his/her sins? He/she must change his/her own thoughts. The Apostle Paul says that he was saved by faith. But what do people think? People think that they can be saved by doing good things. That’s why they cannot be delivered. Those who are saved from their sins by believing in Jesus and have the perfect remission of sins, boast only of God’s righteousness and let it be exalted.
However, those who are not born again, though they believe in Jesus, think that they can enter the Kingdom of Heaven by doing good deeds, and will go to hell if they don’t do good deeds. Their faiths are wrong. The faith of the Apostle Paul is the same as that of the born again. Those who are not born again, though they think they believe in Jesus, have wrong faiths because they try to add their deeds onto their faiths. We are not saved by adding our virtuous deeds onto our faiths, but by believing in the righteousness of God: the baptism of Jesus and His death on the Cross.
The righteous cannot sin on purpose
“But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?” The Bible says that our unrighteousness demonstrates only the righteousness of God and His love. The Bible also says, “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’?─as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just” (Romans 3:7-8). Unbelievers’ names are written in the Book of Judgment and they will be cast into the lake of fire. So, they must repent to be converted and believe the salvation accomplished by the water and the blood.
The Apostle Paul says, “Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) Certainly not.” People refute, saying, “Isn’t it unjust for God to inflict wrath on unbelievers and send them to hell just because they don’t believe that Jesus already saved them from their sins?” But Paul says, “Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? It is fair for unbelievers to go to hell because they don’t believe the truth. God is not unjust.”
Romans 3:7 states, “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?” Then people may say, “What? Will you sin on purpose because you have the remission of sins? You will lie more because you are saved by the righteousness of God. Will you sin more on purpose?” But the Bible says that they act in such ways with evil hearts, neither knowing God’s salvation nor believing in His love.
Therefore, Paul says that the truthfulness of God has abounded to His glory, owing to our sinfulness and lies. But people confuted against Paul with their own thoughts, saying, “You may commit more sins if you believe that you are saved by faith without deeds.” It is not true that people sin only by the will to sin. They cannot avoid sinning because they were born as sinners. It is natural for an apple tree to bring forth apples. The Bible says that it is also natural for a human being who is born sinful to continue sinning. The Lord saved such sinners with His righteousness, and they can be delivered only by accepting the salvation of the Lord.
“And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’ ─as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just”(Romans 3:8). Those who are under the deception of false teachers while assuming they believe in Jesus think in this way. The Epistle to Romans was written by the Apostle Paul about 2,000 years ago. Many people at that time thought this way, just as today’s unbelievers do. False believers think just as the unbelievers at the time of Paul did, saying, ‘Will you purposely sin more if you have the remission of sins, are sinless, and know that your future sins are forgiven?’
Unbelievers act according to the faithless thoughts of the flesh. They cannot enter the truth of God’s salvation because of their false thoughts of the flesh. Of course, even the righteous still sin after they received the remission of sins, but there is a limit. The Bible says that sinners continue sinning because they don’t realize they are committing a sin and don’t know it to be a sin before they are born again of water and the Spirit. However, the Bible says that the righteous cannot sin recklessly because they are under God’s reign.
Some people told the Apostle Paul, “Don’t you do evil things so that good may come because God saved you from all your sins? You’d better do more evil deeds for the righteousness of God to be revealed more.” Paul says that their damnation is just. He means that it is right for them to be judged and go to hell. Why? Because they do not depend on faith, but on their deeds.
The righteousness of God never becomes invalid
The Apostle Paul says, “For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?” Will their unbelief make the salvation of God without effect just because they don’t believe in God’s salvation? People are saved if they believe, but they lose the grace of the remission of sins if they don’t believe. The righteousness of God stands fast. Do you understand? Those who go to hell volunteer to go to hell because they chose not to believe. The works of God and the grace of salvation from sin never become invalid. They stand fast.
The salvation of the Lord has no relation with human efforts, based on the deeds of the law. It is in relation only to believers. Believers are saved according to God’s truth, but unbelievers will go to hell because they are not saved by rejecting His truth. God sent “a stumbling stone and a rock of offense” (Isaiah 8:14). Whoever believes in Jesus is made righteous and has eternal life, however wicked he/she may be. Whoever doesn’t believe in Jesus will go to hell because of the wages of sin, however good he/she may be. Jesus is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to those who don’t believe in the forgiveness of sins.
There is no righteous person who has sin
The Apostle Paul talks about the faith to salvation to those who pretend to be good, so people regard Romans as the word of God that tells about faith. Some people wonder about those who identify themselves as the righteous. In fact, those whose sins are forgiven by Jesus are righteous because all their sins are forgiven. “Jesus is faithful” means “He faithfully saved sinners from their sins.” Some people say that they are ‘delivered’ sinners, but there cannot be such people before God. How can a person still be a sinner after he/she has been delivered from sin? We are saved if Jesus saved us and are sinners if Jesus did not save us. There is no “middle” in salvation.
Is there a righteous person who has sin? There is no righteous person who has sin. The person is a sinner if he/she has sin, but righteous and sinless if he/she believes in Jesus. How can we settle the problem of daily and future sins? People think that they are inevitable sinners because they sin everyday and will sin until they die. However, we are made righteous by believing in the gospel that says Jesus took away the sins of the world, including future sins, at the Jordan River and was crucified.
“A righteous person who has sin” does not make any sense. Is it reasonable to think that a person is still in debt though he/she already paid his/her debts? Let’s suppose that there once was a man who had a lot of money, but his son fell into a bad habit of buying candies on credit at all the stores of the town everyday as he grew up. However, his rich father had paid enough money that exceeded his son’s life long debts to every store in advance, he could never be a debtor even though he enjoyed eating candies everyday without paying money until he die.
The Lord saved us with the righteousness of taking our sins onto Him once and for all in the Jordan River. He perfectly saved all of us. Therefore, we can never become sinners again, however weak we may be. God says that we are made righteous if we don’t deny what He did.
People can neither believe the gospel nor be born again with carnal minds
Christians who identify themselves as ‘delivered’ sinners think with carnal minds. To be spiritually minded is to believe in God’s word. The carnal mind is a human mind. It’s human wisdom. The flesh cannot help sinning, but we can become righteous by believing in the baptism and the Cross of Jesus. The Bible says that we can never become righteous and sanctified by trying not to sin.
Can one enter the Kingdom of Heaven by becoming a holy person who never sins again after believing in Jesus? Or is it possible only by the salvation once for all? Are sinners actually made to be righteous by the grace of the remission of sins? It is impossible for you to be righteous with your carnal mind. The flesh never can become righteous. The flesh always wants something to eat whenever it feels hungry.
It is impossible for the flesh to be sanctified because the flesh has lusts and desires. Because of that, we are made righteous only by believing in the water and the blood of Jesus. Can we enter the Kingdom of Heaven by not sinning anymore and cleansing ourselves as pure as snow? It is prideful thinking for a human being, who has the lusts and passions of the flesh, to become sanctified by avoiding to sin. It is impossible.
People can neither believe in the gospel nor be born again because they think about faith with carnal minds. Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).
It is impossible to become righteous with a carnal mind. You may also think it is impossible because you will sin tomorrow, even though how thoroughly you repent and believe in Jesus until today. You may think, ‘How can I say I am without sin when I continue sinning even now?’ Is it possible for you to become righteous if you think carnally, as the flesh does? It is impossible to become sanctified with the flesh.
However, God can make us righteous
However, God can perfectly save us even if a human being can’t. God can cleanse our consciences and make us confess that we are righteous and that He is our Father and our Savior. You have to know that faith begins from believing in the true word with your heart. It begins with the word of the truth. We are made righteous by believing in the true word with our hearts. We can never be made righteous by the deeds of the flesh.
However, those who are not born again cannot free themselves from their own thoughts because they are locked in their thoughts. They can never say they are righteous because they think with carnal minds. On the contrary, faith by which we can say we are righteous begins with knowing the truth of God’s word. If you really want to be born again, you can surely be born again only by hearing the true word through a concretely born again person because the Spirit in the born again saint pleases to work with the truth and “searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). People can be born again when they hear the word of God through the righteous because the Spirit dwells within the righteous, who have been born again. I want you to bear it in mind. You have to meet the righteous, who are born again, if you want to receive the grace of being born again.
Abraham begot Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was born of a bondwoman. Ishmael was already 14 years old when Isaac was born. Ishmael persecuted Isaac, who was born by a freewoman. Who actually had the right of succession? Isaac, who was born by the freewoman Sarah, had the right of succession.
Isaac had the right of succession and was approved even though Ishmael was older and stronger in the flesh than Isaac was. Why? Isaac was born after the word of God. Faith that is established by human thought is like a sandcastle. People can be born again only when they learn the truth of God’s word and believe it.
“What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one’” (Romans 3:9-10). What do these passages mean? Do the passages indicate the state of human beings before being born again or after being born again? We were all sinners before we were born again. “There is none righteous” was the state of human beings before Jesus blotted out all the sins of the world. One can never become sanctified without believing in Jesus.
The word “gradual sanctification” came from idol worshippers of the heathen religions. The Bible says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” How can one become sanctified by training oneself? A human being cannot become righteous by himself/herself. There is no one who will become righteous or who became righteous by oneself. There is no one who is sinless by his/her efforts. It is possible only by the faith in God’s word. The Bible says, “There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God” (Romans 3:11).
They have all turned aside
“They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable” (Romans 3:12). Is a human being useful in front of God? A human being is useless before God. All those who are not born again yet are useless in front of God. Don’t they point fingers at heaven while fighting and cursing against God, resenting Him for not sending rain even thought they are all created by Him?
“They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable,” said God. How can a person who has sin in his/her heart glorify God? How can sinners, who cannot settle their problems of sin, praise the Lord? How can a sinner praise the Lord? Sinners cannot give glory to God.
Praise ministry prevails these days. Sinners used to write the lyrics to gospel songs, quoting the Scriptures in Revelations. “Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13) The Lord is worthy to be praised of course, but only the righteous can praise God. Do you think that God accepts the praises of sinners with joy? Sinners’ praises are like Cain’s offering. Their praises are vain and are sung toward an empty sky, even though they think they praise the Lord. Why? Because God does not rejoice over them. God never hears sinners’ prayers (Isaiah 59:1-2).
The Bible says that they have all turned aside and they have together become unprofitable. The words “they have all turned aside” means that they believed their own thoughts, rejecting God’s word. The true judgment is made by the word of God. Only God judges. Humans cannot judge. The words “they have all turned aside” means that they turned to their own thoughts. They always say things such as, “I think in this way and believe like this.” Those who don’t abandon their thoughts give way to their thoughts, so they don’t return to the word of God.
Those who are not born again think they are their own judges. It is not important to them what is written in the word of God. They cling to their own thoughts and judge what they agree to be true or false, saying, “I think like this and believe in this way. That is not the same as what I’m thinking.” How can they find the truth? God says all human beings have turned aside to their own thoughts. We must not turn aside to our own thoughts. We must instead return to the Lord. We have to be saved in the just way. We have to be judged in front of the true word. Then what is righteousness?
We must be born again by the word of God
Righteousness is the word of God, which is the truth. The word of God is the canon, which refers to a ‘measuring rod.’ We must know that the word of God is a criterion or a benchmark. “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). Who was with God, the Father and the Holy Spirit? He is God, the Word. The Word is God. Jesus Christ, our Savior and King of kings, is the Word, our God.
It is written that the Word was with God in the beginning. Who was with God? The Word. So the Word is Jesus, our Savior and God. The Savior is God. An exact representation of His nature is the Word. So the word of God is different from our own thoughts because the Word is God. It is very ignorant for a human being to try to understand the word of God with his/her own carnal thoughts.
Therefore, God can use a person who stands fast in His word and in faith. The person who stands fast in the word of God is faithful and useful before God, and God blesses such a person.
Can one do what is good? The Word, who is God, says there is none righteous, no, not one. However, some think, ‘There seems to be a person who does good.’ In fact people play the hypocrite in front of God. We must know that we have no side of righteousness before we are born again.
All human beings rebel against God. They are cheating each other and even God while pretending to be holy, good and merciful. It is to challenge God for them to pretend to be good. Only God is good. It is to be against God and rebel against His truth to pretend to be good without being born again and believing in His love and righteousness.
Do you think only serious sinners are judged by God? Whoever is not born again, even if he/she a Christian, cannot escape God’s wrath. Therefore, abandon your hypocritical way of life and hear the word of God. Be born again. Then you can escape the judgment of God.
Have you ever seen an evil person who is not full of the obsession to be good among those who are not born again? People are full of the obsession to be good. Who taught this? Satan. A human being originally can never be good. A human being can lead a good life when all his/her sins are blotted out in front of God. Then does God tell us to do evil things on purpose? No. God tells us to receive the remission of sins because we were already infected by sin before we were born and were destined to go to hell. God wants all of us to receive His true word so that we may be saved.
Satan always speaks a lie through unbelievers
“There throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:13-18).
“With their tongues they have practiced deceit.” All people are good at deceiving. God says about Satan, “When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources” (John 8:44). All those who are not born again say, “I really tell the truth. It is true,” but their sayings are all lies.
Those who emphasize that their sayings are right are liars. Have you ever seen swindlers say, “I am a liar and a swindler,” when they try to cheat others? They speak as if everything they say is true. They can convincingly say, “Let me tell you something. If you invest your money in this, you can make big money. If you invest one million dollars, you can make as much as the principal soon and you will make ten million dollars in a couple of years. It is a fantastic investment. Do you want to invest?’ Those who aren’t born again always deceive with their tongues.
When Satan speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources. A preacher who is not born again always tells a lie. He/she claims one can be rich if one offers a large amount of tithes. Is there any passage in the Bible that says one can become rich if he/she becomes an elder? Why do people try to become elders? They try to be elders because they are led to believe that if they become elders, God will give them earthly blessings. They are deceived because they believe that they can have the grace of wealth if they become elders. They are caught in the snare of deceit.
Have you ever become an elder by being deceived by such a lie? Many people have lived like beggars after becoming elders. I know many of them around me. False prophets who are not born again appoint the rich as elders of their churches. Why? Because they want the elders to make big contributions to their churches. Sometimes they appoint people with no money as elders because they want to make them their blind followers.
The common saying, “One will be blessed with wealth if he/she becomes a elder,” is a lie. There is no mention of this in the Bible. The Bible says God’s servants would rather be persecuted rather than have the grace of riches. The Lord says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
“The poison of asps is under their lips,” states the Bible. Human beings really have the poison of asps. What do those who are not born again say to the righteous? They curse the righteous and speak like asps. The Bible says, “Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
What is the purpose of the law?
The passage, “As it is written,” means that it is the quotation from the Old Testament. The Apostle Paul quoted the Old Testament many times. He said, “Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” I feel pity for those who go to hell without knowing the way of being born again.
Romans 3:19 states, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” God inflicts wrath according to the law. The reason Paul says, “it says to those who are under the law,” is because God gave the law to those who are not born again, who don’t know sin and who don’t consider sin as a sin, in order to enlighten sinners, who can never keep the law, on their real existence. God did not give us the law to make us keep it. Then does God say that He destroyed the law? No. He gave us the law through Moses to give us the knowledge of our sins. He did not give us the law to make us keep it. The law of God has a role of teaching us how sinful we are.
Nobody can be righteous by the deeds of the law
Romans 3:20 states, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Born again Christians know that no flesh will be justified by the deeds of the law. The Apostle Paul and all the servants of God say, “No flesh will be justified by the deeds of the law.” There is no one who keeps the law and who will keep it in the future. Therefore, we must confess that we can never become justified by the deeds of the law. Our deeds cannot make us righteous.
The Apostle Paul knew and believed this. Can we be justified by keeping the law? Can the law justify us? When you read the Scriptures, do you think it is right to believe that our flesh changes to be justified and enter into the Kingdom of Heaven by doing good deeds after believing in Jesus? No, this is not true. It’s a lie. The fact that one enters the Kingdom of God by gradually transforming to be justified is a lie. All the people who are not born again are under the law because they think they must keep God’s word with their own deeds. It makes them try to keep the law and pray for forgiveness daily. It’s due to their fastening the first button in the wrong way. The law gives us the knowledge of being sinners. Sinners’ efforts to keep the law is due to their ignorance and their own thoughts, which are against the salvation of the truth and are out of the flesh. It is a wrongly oriented faith.
The Doctrine of Sanctification, which says that we incrementally change to be justified, is also found in other secular religions in the world. Buddhism has a similar doctrine, the doctrine of Nirvana as the Christian doctrine of gradual sanctification. Many people say that their flesh can be sanctified more and more and they can eventually enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But the truth is that the Lord sanctified our spirits once and for all.
Even the righteous cannot become sanctified by the flesh. Those who don’t have the Spirit cannot become sanctified. The more they try to do good deeds, the more serious a sinner they become. It’s because they have sin in their hearts. Something dirty frequently comes out of them and makes them dirty, however hard they may try to outwardly cleanse themselves, because they are full of sin inwardly. It is the real existence of a sinner.
This state of being is opposite to those who have the remission of all sins. They can lead clean lives even though they cannot help sinning with their fleshes. Sinners who are born infected with sin spread sin all their lives because sin comes out of them against their wills. They have no choice but to get a healing shot that can eliminate their sins once and for all. The shot is of the gospel of God’s truth. They can be delivered from their sins by hearing the word of the remission of sins. I want you to hear the word of being born again and receive the remission of sins.
Who can completely live by the law? Who can perfectly live according to the law even if he/she is born again? Nobody. In Romans, it is written, “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” It’s so simple. Adam and Eve were deceived by Satan in the time of innocence and were sold under sin. The sin was handed over to their descendants who did not know God’s word. They did not know that they were born sinners even though they inherited sin.
After the time of Abraham and Jacob, the Israelites forgot about the faith and their sinful existence though their ancestor Abraham was made righteous by faith. So God gave them His law to let them have the knowledge of sin and wanted them to receive the remission of sins by believing in His promise. Do you believe this?
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is manifested
Romans 3:21 states, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, Being witnessed by the Law and the prophets.” The Apostle Paul says that the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed. The words, “Being witnessed by the Law and the prophets,” indicate the Old Testament. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the righteousness of God, which was revealed through the sacrificial system. The gospel reveals the righteousness that leads us to receive the remission of sins through the sin offering.
Romans 3:22 states, “Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference.” Our faiths are in our hearts. The author and finisher of faith is Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12:2 states, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” The author and finisher of faith is Jesus and we believe in the true Word, which is God. We must learn and believe in the true words of the Bible from the born again servants in order to be saved from all our sins and to live by faith. We must believe in Jesus with our hearts.
God says, “Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference.” Therefore, we are made righteous by believing in the true word with our hearts and have the confirmation of perfect salvation by confessing with our mouths. We cannot be saved by our own deeds, but by faith. We give thanks to only the Lord and the church of God.
Do you happen to be bound by your deeds though all your sins have been blotted out? You are righteous regardless of your flesh’s weakness if you believe in God with your heart. The Holy Spirit testifies the word of God in your heart saying, “You are righteous,” because He leads us to understand the true word when we hear the word. Were you saved by faith after hearing God’s word?
“Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference.” Whoever learns and believes in the word of God, which is the truth, can be saved from all his/her sins.
Jesus washed away all sins from the beginning to the end of the world
Romans 3:23-25 states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.”
The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We received the forgiveness of sins and became justified freely by His grace and love while sinners go to hell. We reached the glory of God and became justified. God set forth Jesus to be a propitiation by His blood through faith.
Verses 25 and 26 state, “Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Here, the words, “set forth,” mean that God sent His Son Jesus to be a propitiation for the remission of sins for the whole universe.
Jesus took away all the sins of the world by His baptism. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. Let’s think about the beginning and the end of the world. God delivered us by the faith that washed away all our sins from the beginning to the end of the world. God set forth Jesus to be a propitiation through the faith in the truth. It was not until I believed in the gospel that I realized the words, “to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.”
All our sins are eliminated when we believe in the word that says Jesus washed away all our sins by His baptism and blood. We received the remission of sins once and for all, but our flesh still continues to sin. The flesh sins due to our weakness. However, the Bible states, “God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” Sins that the flesh commits even now and in future are sins that were previously committed from God’s point of view.
Why? God made the baptism of Jesus the cardinal starting point of our salvation. Therefore, the present sins of the flesh are sins that are past, in God’s perspective, because the remission of sins was accomplished by Jesus Christ once and for all. The present sins are sins that were already blotted out. The words, “God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,” mean that “He had already paid the wages of sins of the world.” All the sins of the world were already forgiven through the baptism and the Cross of Jesus.
Therefore, God already blotted out all the sins committed from the beginning to the end of the world. So all sins are previously committed in God’s eyes. People in the world are committing sins that were already blotted out by the Son of God. Jesus already washed away the sins that would be committed in the year 2002 about 2,000 years ago. Do you understand this?
God already blotted out the world’s sins, including your and my sins. Do you see what this means? You may be confused when you preach the gospel to other people if you don’t understand. The words, “God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,” mean that God overlooks all sins because He had already eliminated them about 2,000 years ago. The sins of all human beings were already judged because Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River and was crucified. God passes over all sins because Jesus was sent to the world and perfectly justified all human beings once and for all. Therefore, God does not charge the blame on the sins that are committed by all the people in the world and were already blotted out by Him, but on their unbelief in the baptism and the Cross of Jesus.
Do you understand what the Apostle Paul means? It is very important to us who are saved. Those who are not born again will go to hell because they ignore it. We must hear and have the right knowledge of the word. It will be very helpful to your faith and to your preaching of the gospel to other people.
Where is boasting then?
The Bible says, “To demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” God teaches us that the sins of the past were already blotted out because God set forth Jesus to be a propitiation. Therefore, we are made righteous by faith.
Verse 26 states, “To demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” “At this present time” God gave the world everlasting life so that the world would not perish. At this present time, God sent Jesus Christ to demonstrate His righteousness and accomplished what He promised. The Lord demonstrated His righteousness. God sent His only begotten Son and let Him be baptized and crucified to show us His love through the salvation of the truth.
The Lord came to sinners as their Savior. “To demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” God is righteous and eliminated the sins of the world once and for all. We believe in Jesus with our hearts, so we have no sin. Those who believe in Jesus truthfully are without sin because He washed them away and even saved them from their future sins. Believing in what Jesus did with our hearts saves us. Our deeds are not included, not even 0.1%, in the faith in His salvation
Romans 3:27-31 states, “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and uncircumcised through faith. Do we then made void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
The words, “We establish the law,” mean that we cannot be saved by our deeds. We are imperfect and weak and had to go to hell before the law. However, the word of God made us righteous and perfect because we were saved by His word. The Lord tells us that our flesh is still imperfect even after we are saved from all our sins, but He perfectly delivered us from all our sins. We can draw near to God by believing that Jesus saved us.
“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” We must know the law that God established and that the law is everlasting in His Kingdom. “By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith,” says God. Do you comprehend this? God saved us from all the sins of the world. We are saved when we believe according to the truth. We have to remember that the works of the law cannot save us.
God talks about the law of faith through the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 3. God says, “Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?” (Romans 3:3) Believers stand fast by faith, but unbelievers tumble down. Those who do not have the complete faith in the gospel of the truth will go to hell, even if they think they believe in Jesus.
God perfectly saved all of us from all sins
God established the law of God so that those who believe according to their own thoughts may stumble at the law of faith. God perfectly saved all of us from our sins. Romans chapter 3 talks about the law of faith. We are saved by believing in the true word. We inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and have peace by faith. Unbelievers cannot have peace. Instead, they go to hell. What is the reason for it? First, they are judged according to the law of God’s truth because they did not receive the word of God’s truth. Salvation comes from God’s love and we are saved by knowing the truth and by believing what the Lord did with our hearts. Do you understand?
I praise the Lord who gives us this faith and His church on the earth. I give thanks to the Lord who gives us the truth, the faith and the word, which the Apostle Paul had, and who revealed the secret of the remission of sins to His church. I praise Him from the bottom of my heart.
We thank the Lord because He saved us through His baptism and the death on the Cross. We have no choice but to go to hell without this faith and His church. We were sinners, who could never be saved by nature, but we believed to righteousness with our hearts. We become His children who believe unto righteous with the heart and are made unto salvation with the mouth confession (Romans 10:10).
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