If Romans one through eight is read and understood by Christians, then the rest of the Bible can be understood. Most people tend to ignore this book because it seems to be very hard to understand. But the reason it seems difficult to comprehend is not because of how the Apostle Paul wrote it, but because it contains so much of the doctrine of the LORD as opposed to teaching about the Christian life. Therefore, it is one of the more important books to read and study. In this chapter the Apostle Paul is again writing about the Jews and about the Law of God. He once again corrects the doctrine prevalent today in most mainstream, organized evangelical establishment churches that the Jews are God’s chosen and special people. He teaches that all people are equal in the sight of God, that all people are sinners, and that all people through following the Gospel can be children of God. Race is not the deciding factor for the LORD regarding who is saved and who is not. So there is no difference between Gentile and Jew.
Verses 1-2 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
Circumcision is a Jewish ritual and identifier. Circumcision is synonymous with Judaism. Originally, only the Hebrew people and then the Jews practiced circumcision. This ritual separated them from the pagan peoples around them. The Apostle Paul asks two questions: what advantage have the Jews over the Gentiles and is there any profit to the Jews for being circumcised over the Gentiles who were not circumcised? He answers by stating that the Jews have a definite advantage to being circumcised and therefore being Jewish. However, their advantage is not that they are a special, chosen race of people. Their advantage is in that the oracles of God were given to them first. The Gentiles later received the same oracles, but the Jews received them first. The Greek word translated as “oracles” is “logion” and it means the words or utterances of God and the contents of the Mosaic law. In other words, God spoke to the Hebrew people through the Prophet Moses and gave the Law and the statutes. This was both an honor and a blessing that the other nations did not have.
Verses 3-4 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
The Apostle Paul asks more questions for the Gentile Roman Christians to ponder. He asks what happened if some of the Jews didn’t believe? Did their unbelief make the faith of God cease? In other words did the Jew’s unbelief change or alter God or His Word in anyway. Did the unbelief of some Jews alter the belief of those Jews who did embrace the oracles of God? The answer was “no”. God is sovereign and depends on no man or woman for His will to be accomplished. What God says is truth and truth cannot be altered. All will be judged by the Word of God. Plain and simple.
Application: The Apostle Paul states emphatically that God is true and every man is a liar. What exactly does that mean? Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 So to deny anything that God’s Word says makes one a liar. To disagree with anything in the King James Bible, the only real Bible in the English language as it is not copyrighted, makes one a liar. To claim that there are other ways to get to Heaven when Jesus clearly stated that there was only one way and that was through Him makes one a liar. To deny the necessity of baptism in Jesus’ name makes one a liar when Scripture clearly teaches that baptism is necessary to be saved and to have sins remitted and washed away. To believe there are three persons in one God when the Scripture clearly teaches that God is one God makes one a liar. To teach and preach and embrace Scofield’s doctrine of a rapture and a thousand year reign when Scripture does not teach either makes one a liar. To believe and teach that the Jews are a chosen people who can do no wrong when the entire book of Daniel predicted the end of the nation Israel and which history supports happened in 70 A.D. when the Jews were disbursed from Judea into various parts of the World never to be a nation of people again makes one a liar. As can be seen, most mainstream organized evangelical establishment churches are full of liars both in leadership roles and in the pews. What happens to liars according to Revelations 21:8? “But the fearful, the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” It is therefore absolutely essential for those calling themselves Christian to know the Bible, to not read into it that which is not there, and to accept all of it whether agreeing with it or not. Salvation and eternity in Heaven depends on it.
Verses 5-8 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) 6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? 7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? 8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
The Apostle Paul asks more questions in order to get his teaching across to the Roman Christians but he makes it clear that he is asking the questions as a man and not as a Christian man. So the question paraphrased is, “If man’s unrighteousness makes God righteous or look better because of it, would that not make God unrighteous for getting angry and punishing man’s unrighteousness as He is benefiting from it?” Here the reader needs to understand that this doctrine of doing evil so that good may come was being taught by the non-Christian Jews of the Apostle Paul’s day and is still taught today. But the Apostle Paul clears this wrong doctrine up by simply asking how will God judge the world if He needs man’s unrighteousness for some benefit. Just judgment cannot condemn sin if the one doing the judging receives a benefit from the sin. Only a righteous and just God can judge righteously and judge based on truth.
Application: In October on the day of Atonement Jews gather to confess their sins. Most people think this is admirable because they think the Jews are confessing to one another the sins of the past. However, this is not the case. They gather and confess the sins they intend to commit in the coming year. Catholic priests expect their parishioners to sin and tell them that sinning is going to happen, but all can be fixed by just coming to confession and putting money in the box. It is not uncommon the hear congregants in various denominational churches state, “I am a sinner saved by grace.” If that is the case, then the congregant was never saved in the first place. It is not possible to be a Christian and a sinner at the same time. Period. When true conversion occurs, the LORD writes His Law in the new Christian’s heart. This means that the desire to sin goes away and the Christian no longer wants to engage in the sins of the past. Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to “go and sin no more”, not “if you continue to sin just come back to me and confess it and all will be well.” The Church of Jesus Christ is to be pure and holy. “That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:27
Verse 9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
Should the Gentile Christians think of themselves as better than the Jews? Are they better because they have believed and have faith in the LORD Jesus Christ? The Apostle Paul again confirms that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles and therefore both can be saved from sin, death and Hell, and both can remain in their sins and end up in Hell. So, of course, Gentile Christians are not superior to Jews or to anyone else.
Application: In the Apostle Paul’s day the Jews believed they were superior to all other people in the world. Nothing has changed in the Jews’ thinking as today they still feel they are superior. Why? Because they received the Law and the ordinances as recorded by the Prophet Moses along with various promises from God. Today the real god of the Jews is intelligence as they believe the Gentiles are too dumb to rule themselves and so the Jews have infiltrated all governments, schools, legal institutions, and of course banks. They truly believe that God promised them the ruler-ship of the whole world and so their plan that has been formed for hundred of years is to form a one world government in which they rule and reign. Their other god is money, hence their ownership of central banks worldwide and of major banking houses and money exchanges all of which are used to finance their goal of ruling the world. And the root of all their endeavors is pride and the belief that they are superior to all others. So again, Christians of any race cannot believe they are superior to others because of their faith and obedience to the Gospel. However, they do have an advantage over the Jews in that they have the Holy Ghost/Spirit given to them by promise to guide and protect them in this earthly life and they have the promise of eternal life in Heaven because Jesus Christ paid the price for their sins and so their sins are not just forgiven, but they are remitted or paid for in full.
Verses 10-12 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
The Apostle Paul is quoting from Psalm 14 and Psalm 53. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, (Jews and Gentiles) to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Psalm 14:1-3 (Parenthesis mine) “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Psalm 53:1-3
Application: The children of men means all children regardless of gender, race, nationality, or language spoken. The natural condition of mankind is one of sin. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9 Any attempt at righteousness by the power of the flesh is futile. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6 So the natural condition of mankind is one of filthiness. And the carnal or natural man does not seek God which is why this can be stated in verse eleven and the two Psalms above. It is God who seeks men. It is God who chooses men. Men do not choose God. “I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not:I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.” Isaiah 65:1
Verses 13-14 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
A sepulchre is a place for the burial and storing of the bones of dead men and women. There is no light or life in a sepulchre. So the metaphor here is that unrepentant Jews and Gentiles are taking in to themselves death and they are full of spiritual uncleanness. They use their tongues to deceive others and cause harm and/or death. An asp is a small venomous serpent whose bite is usually fatal. These people are serving Satan and nothing good or righteous comes out of their mouth. Jesus in His encounters with the religious Jewish leaders of the day had several things to say about sepulchres. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, of all uncleanness.” Matthew 23:29 “Woe unto you for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them, and ye build them sepulchres.” Luke 11:47-48 Jesus also had something to say to the scribes and Pharisees about snakes. “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Matthew 23:33
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them 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 there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Romans 3)