What Are You Thinking?
Romans 3:1-8
When reading Romans, one must remember that the Jews are God’s chosen people. In Genesis 17, we have the Abrahamic Covenant in which God makes a promise to Abraham to bless his offspring and make a holy nation. This nation is the Hebrew nation. They are God’s chosen people and the nation that He has chosen to work through and bless the world. We, the gentiles, are simply benefiting from God’s covenant with Israel. The promises of the Bible were to the Jews and now we are able to partake of God’s grace because He is a loving God. We are adopted into the family, hence; receive the blessings purely through God’s goodness. In addition, God is not done with His people.
Romans 3 starts off by dealing with the pride issue. The Jews were very proud in that God chose them. However, Paul quickly reminds them that with great advantage comes great responsibility. God chose to give His oracles to the world through the Jews but there in is great responsibility. They are God’s mouthpiece to the world.
Secondly, Paul deals with the fallacy that man’s disbelief nullifies God’s faith. Paul reminds them that man is a liar and God, and only God, is truth. God’s character is impervious to man’s disbelief.
Verses 5 and 6 deal with our unrighteousness commending God’s righteousness. There are a surprising number of people who feel they can learn from sin and God will turn around and bless it. That philosophy goes directly against this passage. If God is going to use sin to promote His glory, how can he turn around and judge sin. God hates sin. He is sovereign enough, and gracious enough to be able to use our downfalls but his delight is in obedience not sacrifice.
This flows into Paul’s next point. In the words of my friend Mack Taunton, “It’s never right to do wrong to do right so do what’s right to do.” Doing evil just to try to accomplish good does not change the fact that evil is inherently evil. Just do right.
A perfect example of this is King Saul. They are going to battle and the foe is all around and Saul is scared and impatient I Samuel 13. Samuel tells Saul to wait for him to offer the sacrifices to God as a blessing before the battle. Saul then takes it upon himself to offer the sacrifice because Samuel is not there. As soon as he offers the sacrifice, Samuel comes and God deals with Saul’s disobedience. Saul had the right motives but it was disobedience and it cost him the kingdom. He does not learn the lesson because only a few chapters later, he does it again. He keeps the sheep and oxen to “offer” to God and keeps King Amalek alive and Samuel has to slay him. God is pleased with obedience not sacrifice. So, what will you do? As always, the choice is yours. Let us turn this wicked world upside down for the cause of Christ through die-hard obedience.