God’s Condemnation of Unbelievers Will Be Just
Romans 3:1-8
Several years ago, when I was a police officer in Albuquerque I received a call to go to a home in the Northeast part of Albuquerque to see if there were any signs that a baby had been born in the home recently because one of the hospitals in town was treating a teenage girl who appeared to have given birth in the last few hours.
After being given permission to enter the home by the teenage girl’s father—I went into the teenage girl’s room and found the dead baby in a small trash can beside the bed.
Of course, the case went to the District Attorney’s Office and for weeks they battled within the office on whether to take the teenage mother to trial for the death of her baby. But in the end, the D.A. made the decision not to prosecute the teenage mother in the best interests of all involved. You see, whereas, the State certainly had the right to prosecute the teenage girl—it did not have the will to do so and the girl went free.
Now not too long ago, you’ll remember the Duke University Lacrosse players who were accused and charged with rape. The District Attorney in that case, Michael Nifong, misused, misrepresented, and withheld the DNA evidence taken as evidence that would have proved the innocence of the Lacrosse player and decided to prosecute them any way. Eventually, the athletes who were charged had their charges dismissed and Nifong was disbarred and even spent a day in jail for his actions. His was a case of having the will to prosecute a case without the lawful and evidenciary right or authority to do so.
And whereas, human courts and thus, justice are always subject to the weaknesses and often times, bad judgment of those in charge—God’s court will have no such problems.
For God not only has the ultimate authority and thus the right to judge and condemn unforgiven sinners to hell—He has the will to do so as well. Furthermore, when all is said and done and those sinners who choose to bypass Jesus Christ and the salvation that is only available through Him find themselves in God’s courtroom at the end of the age their condemnation will be just for they will have received perfect justice in God’s court.
This is the point of the next section we are going to study in the Book of Romans. Turn with me to Romans 3:1-8. In this paragraph, Paul is making the point that since God has the right and the will to judge and condemn His own chosen people—the Jews for their sins—He will certainly have no qualms in judging and condemning Gentiles for their sins either. I mean, if He is willing to judge and condemn His chosen people the Jews—He will by no means excuse the sin of the Gentiles. Thus, Paul’s statement in Romans 3:9 that both Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin and thus under condemnation. He is also going to be making the point that God’s condemnation of sinners to hell is just and cannot be called into question by anyone.
Now, this passage is undoubtedly one of the hardest in all the Bible to understand. In fact, John Piper, whom I consider to be an expositor extraordinaire had this to say about these verses we are about to consider. “I found this passage to be about as hard a paragraph to deal with as any in this letter. The difficulty of following the train of thought in this paragraph is enormous.” Then my personal favorite preacher of all preachers, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who took about 14 years to preach through Romans commented that this is one of the most difficult paragraphs not only in Romans, but also in the whole Bible. So, with this great encouragement—let’s dive in and see what we can do with it.
First—let’s identify the type of literature Paul is utilizing here in these 8 verses.
He is using the method of a diatribe, which was common among the philosophers of his day. In this method of writing, the author raises a series of objections to his own argument and then provides answers to these objections. In this case, Paul is also using a dialogue style of writing in which the objections to his argument are being raised by a fictitious and sarcastic objector who with Greek sarcasm raises three objections to Paul’s main argument that God has the right and the will to condemn His own chosen people—the Jews.
Before looking at the three objections in detail—we need to find and make note of Paul’s main argument in this passage and it is not hard to find—its at the very end of it in the last sentence of verse 8--“Their condemnation is just.” Whose condemnation is just we might want to ask. The answer is those whom Paul’s imaginary antagonist is raising as examples as to whom God does not have the right or the will to condemn. You also see this same main argument in Romans 3:6, where Paul in answering one of his antagonist’s questions makes the point that his objection cannot be true or how will God judge the world. In other words—if your point is true—how can God judge the world justly? It is also seen in Romans 3:4, in Paul’s use of a quote actually ascribed to King David in Psalm 51:4 where we read:
“Against You, You only have I sinned and
done what is evil in your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge.”
The reason why Paul’s rendition differs slightly is because he is quoting the verse out of the Septuagint, which renders the verse as we have it in our English Bibles. The Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament translated the verse as though God were being judged by the public opinion of men who disagreed with God’s right to judge and condemn them because of their sin.
Nevertheless, whichever translation you use the point is the same—God not only can condemn His people for their sins and will condemn them—He is perfectly just in doing so.
Now with the main point in view—what are the objections? The first objection has to do with challenging God’s right to judge and consequently condemn His chosen people who have a religious heritage, history, and were in fact entrusted with the very words of God in the Old Testament (3:1-2). The second objection has to do with God’s right to judge and condemn His chosen people to whom God has made covenant promises to that must be fulfilled if God is to keep His Word (3:3-4). And the third objection has to do with God’s right to judge and condemn His chosen people for their sins when those very sins actually glorify God by revealing His righteousness as it is contrasted against those people’s unrighteousness (3:5-8a)
So, with all this in mind, let’s jump in and see how Paul answers these objections.
1. Even though God’s chosen people have the advantage of a religious heritage, history, and were given God’s very Word they will be judged for their sins and condemned and their condemnation will be just. (3:1-2)
The first question, Paul’s imaginary antagonist asks Paul is this: “If being a Jew with all the religious heritage and history that goes with being a Jew and having gone through the religious rite and ceremony of circumcision does not make a person OK with God—what advantage is there in being a Jew anyway? Now keep in mind, in this form of question and answer debate the antagonist is not asking his questions to learn God’s point of view. No, he in asking the question is trying to make his point and in this case the point he is trying to make is that there is just no way that God would judge His own chosen people and that if He did—He would not be just.
Now, Paul in answering this sarcastic question does not fall for the bait and try to defend God—he simply answers the question as though it were being asked by someone who really wanted to know what advantage there was in being a Jew. Paul will answer the antagonist’s point about God not having the will to condemn His chosen people and not being just if He did later, in verse 8. But before Paul does this—he answers the question by saying that the advantage to people of Jewish descent is that they were given the very Words of God—the very promises of God if you will. And then he stops as though that were the only advantage but if you have read through the Book of Romans you know that there are other advantages but he doesn’t give them until Romans 9.
The phrase “oracles of God” actually means “the very words of God” or “the very words that God Himself spoke”. And since these divine words communicated God’s divine promises regarding His Creation—the Jews were given and entrusted with God’s own personal promises concerning them and the rest of the world as well. Paul makes it very clear in the way he does not list the other advantages to being a Jew until Romans 9 that the greatest advantage to being a Jew is having been given God’s Word as well as the responsibility of protecting it and supplying it to others throughout the world. Yet, even though God gave them His Word and entrusted them with His Word—this great privilege and ministry responsibility could not keep them from being judged and condemned for their sins.
In other words—God sees no one as being so special and so gifted and so important to His plan that He will not deal with them and their sin. For the unbeliever, this means condemnation in hell. For the believer, it means God’s loving and firm discipline to put you back on track.
2. Even though God has made covenantal promises that are unconditional in nature to His chosen people that must be fulfilled they will still be judged for their sins and condemned and their condemnation will be just and will not impugn God’s promises in any way. (3:3-4)
The antagonist then says—“Well, let’s talk about God’s promises then. If some of God’s people are not faithful to obey His Word—and are then judged and condemned for their sins—won’t this jeopardize God’s ability to keep His promise to the Jews that they would receive a Kingdom and their Messiah in the future. I mean how can God continue to persist in keeping His promises that He made thousands of years ago to people who will not obey Him and who in fact rejected and crucified their Messiah? And the essence of Paul’s answer is that the failure of the Jews does not and cannot and will not affect the faithfulness of God in any way.
Yes, God did make certain unconditional covenantal promises to the Jews however, the failure of the Jews to receive them and appreciate them simply has no effect upon God and His faithfulness to do what He has promised to do. The NASV uses the phrase: “May it never be!” in verse 4. It is probably better rendered: “Unthinkable”; “Impossible”; or “By no means”. And this is a principle that we must grasp—“God’s unconditional promises do not depend upon the faithfulness of man.”
I mean, here you have this great nation—the nation of Israel to whom God has made great and wonderful promises and yet they continually pursued disobedience rather than obedience and went so far as to actually reject and kill the One Whom the fulfillment of their promises was to be found in—But in spite of all this—God is not going to reject His people the Jews.
Yes, He will punish and condemn those who persist in their rejection of His Son but He is going to raise up a remnant whom He will draw to Himself through Christ and will save and He will fulfill His promises in and to them. This is the great mistake, I think, with Covenantal Theology—which most Reformed people hold to and in fact most of my heros in the Faith hold to. They believe God’s unconditional promises will be fulfilled in us the church rather than in Israel because of Israel’s apostasy. And that kind of reasoning goes directly against the grain of what Paul is saying here as well as against the nature of God and God’s unconditional covenantal promises—which He always keeps regardless of what man does or does not do.
This is very comforting to me because it means that for the Christian like me who has a knack for unfaithfulness—God is still going to remain faithful to His promises to me and will finish the work He began in me (Phil. 1:6).
Look at 2 Timothy 2:11-13.
3. Even though the sins committed by God’s people have actually been used by God for His glory they will still be judged for those sins and condemned and their condemnation will be just. (3:5-8)
Finally, Paul’s imaginary antagonist makes his last point, which is—if the sins of God’s people don’t thwart or nullify His plans and promises in anyway so as to not diminish His glory because a God who can be thwarted by man cannot be very glorious—they then must glorify God. And if this true that our sin somehow glorifies God—why will God judge and condemn His people for these very sins, which are being used by Him for His glory? Another way of looking at it is—if God’s people’s sins show the stark contrast between their unholiness and God’s holiness so that God is made to look good by their looking so bad—why would God judge and condemn them when they are really making Him look good?
Note Paul’s response in v. 6. This argument cannot be true because if it were—How could God judge the world. But since God is going to judge His people for their sins even when their sins do indeed glorify Him in a negative sort of way by bringing attention to His holiness—this judgment must be just because God is holy and just. In fact, if you follow Paul’s argument to its final end you would see that if God did not punish all sin and condemn the unforgiven sinner for his or her sin, regardless of who they were—God would not and could not be ultimately glorified as God.
Listen—whereas God is glorified in everything including people’s sin because their sin reveals His righteousness—He is ultimately glorified in the way He deals with the sinner. In the sense of the sinner who rejects His forgiveness and the salvation that only is through Christ—God is glorified in the eternal punishment and condemnation of that sinner. However, in the case of the forgiven sinner who has trusted Christ for salvation God was and continually is glorified in that He punished and condemned our sin in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ who took our place on the Cross. And if indeed God is glorified in the punishing of the believer’s sin by punishing it and condemning it in Christ as He died on the Cross then God certainly has the right and the will to punish and condemn the sinner who refuses His salvation—thus as the end of verse 8 states--Therefore, their condemnation is just.
CONCLUSION
Now why all the fuss about God’s right and will to condemn His own chosen people for their sins? Because God wants us who are not Jews but rather Gentiles to get the point that if God has no trouble condemning His own chosen people to hell for their sins—He will certainly have no problem condemning those who are not His special and chosen people to hell for theirs as well.
You know, if I come to the point where I get disgusted with my lawn which I worked hard and long to grow and which I have invested countless gallons of water in and which I have mowed and picked weeds out of for years—and one day I just dig it all up and burn it—Do you think I’d even think twice about doing the same to the arid patch of sparse range grass that is in my back field?! That’s God’s point here. Its as though He were saying—If you don’t think I will judge you for your sins and then condemn you to hell and be just in doing it—look at what I did to my own chosen people the Jews.
Even more powerful than that—if God was willing to crush His own Son on the cross of Calvary for the sins of those who would believe in Him and be saved—do you really think He will not crush and condemn for all of eternity the sinner who refuses Christ Jesus?!
Now why is God making this point that He has the right and the will to condemn any of us to hell—because it is only as we see that we are lost that we will run to Him for the salvation He so freely offers in Christ Jesus. And if you have already run to Christ for salvation and perhaps have forgotten what could have been—maybe this passage will remind you and all the rest of us who have been saved by Christ what we were saved from.
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