Day 120 – Tuesday, June 17, 2025

One Year Journey Through the New Testament

Romans 3

Welcome to our journey through the New Testament!

God’s Judgment Defended

1 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? ² Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. ³ For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? ⁴ 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.”

⁵ But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) ⁶ Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?

⁷ For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? ⁸ 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 3:1–8, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• Paul opens this chapter with a question about the efficacy of circumcision. Does it really profit the Jew? Well, they were given the truth of God to begin with. Unbelief will not negates the faithfulness of God!
• God is always true, and any man that denied Him is a liar.
• Our sin does not make grace better. Our sin is covered by grace, but God is still righteous.
• The world is condemned by the law (the law serves a purpose), but God’s grace is available to the Jew and the Greek, but should not be abused.

All Have Sinned

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ As it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;

¹¹ There is none who understands;

There is none who seeks after God.

¹² They have all turned aside;

They have together become unprofitable;

There is none who does good, no, not one.”

¹³ “Their throat is an open tomb;

With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;

“The poison of asps is under their lips”;

¹⁴ “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶ Destruction and misery are in their ways;

¹⁷ And the way of peace they have not known.”

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, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. ²⁰ Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

(Romans 3:9–20, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• No man is greater than another. The plight of humanity is that we all sin.
• He poetically describes all the ways that man is sinful, and sums it up by saying that no flesh will be justified in His sight.

God’s Righteousness Through Faith

²¹ But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ 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, ²⁶ to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 

(Romans 3:21–26, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• In this passage, Paul tells the truth that all through salvation history, the plight of man has been destined to be solved by faith in Jesus Christ.
• All have sinned and fall short!
• We are only justified by His grace. Jesus paid the price, and has passed over our sins to demonstrate His ability to be just and to justify the sinful.

Boasting Excluded

²⁷ Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. ²⁹ Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, ³⁰ since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹ Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. 

(Romans 3:27–31, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• Because man in sinful, and has no power to be forgiven outside of Christ, we cannot rightly boast.
• Sin is forgiven and man is justified only by faith.
• The Jews cannot boast of the law, for all are justified by faith, Jews and Gentiles, we all are dependent upon His grace!
• The law shows us our sin, but the grace of God shows us the remedy, and faith in Christ brings the remedy to bear on our sins.

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All Scriptures from New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

Join us this afternoon at 5:00 pm for a discussion of this chapter live online. Live@5 with Dr. Greg Sloop can be found on Facebook on the Dr. Greg Sloop page or on the Kannapolis Church of God Facebook page or Youtube page. Another blog will be posted each weekday at 6:00 a.m.