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Paul Anticipates How a Pharisee Would Question Chapters 1-2
What does a person need to be right with God? Only one
thing is acceptable, and that is God’s
righteousness. Our self-righteousness is as medical waste surgical rags.
Paul has shown in Chapter 1 that the pagan person’s open immorality, idolatry,
materialism, hedonism, and sinful attitudes against God in their family line
and their suppression of their consciences resulted in His wrath coming in
three stages. 1) He removed the barriers and allowed them to sink lower into
immorality and denial of the truth 2) He removed the barriers and allowed them
to go into sexual perversion 3) He removed the barriers and allowed them to
develop a depraved and defective mind, sold out to naturalism and open wickedness.
Meanwhile, the religious man, illustrated by a Jewish Pharisee, did not participate
in this outward defiance of God’s character, rule, and commands. The religious
man was given to the hypocrisy of practicing these sins in private less
frequently. So, with greater truth and warning from God, the Jewish person
added hypocrisy to immorality, idolatry, love of possessions and theft. Having God’s
truth worked to increase the punishment on those who refused to live by faith
and walk in loyal obedience to Yahweh. They had wrongly exalted the ceremonial
law and oral tradition over the moral law. So, now that Paul has declared all
Gentiles are sinners and all Jews are sinners, he anticipates an argument from
the Jews, which further reveals their hypocrisy. The Gentiles admitted they
were violating their consciences and living wickedly. Thus, Paul asks the
questions a Jewish Pharisee (legalist) would ask and then answers them.
I.
Anticipated
question # 1 found in vs. 1-2
A. {Q}
Paul, if a person is not a real Jew by circumcision or by birth, then what
advantage is there in being Jewish and practicing Judaism?
B. {A}
There is much advantage in being born Jewish and following the law because the
Jews were entrusted with Special Revelation (Hebrew Bible) and they had authoritative
directives of what God likes and dislikes and His nature. The Jews had the very
words of God written down and read to them weekly
II.
Anticipated
question # 2 found in vs. 3-4
A. {Q}
Does the unbelief of a group of Jews reverse all of God’s promises and make Him
unfaithful to all those covenant promises?
B. {A}
Do not say or even think this! This is blasphemy. God Forbid! No way! This
question attacks the character of God, His sovereignty, His unchangeableness,
His faithfulness, and His holiness, which includes keeping His word. No, the
Old Testament teaches God cannot lie, but all men are liars (Num 23:19; Deut
32:4; 1 Sam 15:29; Psa 116:11, 51:4, 100:5). Men are deceivers and liars, but
God is always true to His Word. God’s holy faithfulness and His divine purposes
cannot be overturned by the unfaithfulness of man. When David’s sins were
revealed, God remained holy and faithful when His servant was not. The Messiah
still came through David’s genealogy.
III.
Anticipated
question # 3 found in vs. 5-6
A. {Q}
If our unrighteousness, by contrast, clearly displays God’s righteousness, is
not God unjust for punishing us in His wrath for contributing to His glory?
(Paul’s Disclaimer: This is the natural man talking; I would never say this.)
B. {A}
Do not say or even think this! This is blasphemy. God Forbid! No way! You so-called
Jewish man, wake up. You just created a god who would be incapable of judging
even the most wicked human or angel. That is not the God of the Bible, who will
judge all sin and sinners (Gen 18:25).
IV.
Anticipated
question # 4 found in vs. 7-8
A. {Q}
Why am I being judged as a sinner if through
my hypocritical life and mouth God’s truth is amplified to His glory? We are
only being deceptive and doing evil simply so God’s glory can be enhanced and
increased when people view the difference between us and God, like Paul
teaches.
B. {A}
I know some are falsely accusing us of teaching this blasphemous and evil
error, but anyone who thinks and talks like this will receive his/her just
condemnation from God. This type of reasoning will result in severe punishment.
V.
Anticipated
question # 5 found in vs. 9-18
A. {Q}
Are we not as Jews less guilty of sin than the Gentiles?
B. {A}
Not in any way. You are guiltier because you had more sources of truth.
1. We have already stated the charge: both Jews and Greeks
are all under the power of sin. (A review of chapters 1 & 2)
2. Your
Hebrew Scriptures reveal the depravity of both the Jewish and Gentile person’s
heart. Job 14:4, 15:14, 40:4; Psa 5:9, 10:7, 14:1-3, 36:1,3, 53:1-3, 130:3, 140:3,
143:2; Prov 1:16, 6:18, 20:9; Eccl 7:20; 2 Chr 6:36; Isa 31:1, 59:7-8 (also see
Matt 12:34)
C. What
is the spiritual condition of every human since the rebellion and fall into
sin?
1. There
is not one righteous person on the earth, NONE (vs. 10-12)
2. There
is no one who understands his unrighteous condition unaided
3. No
human on their own seeks for God, NONE (Eph 4:18-19)
4. All
have turned away from God—the source of life and truth
5. Man
has joined others in sin to be utterly corrupt, rotten to the core
6. There
is not one human who does good on their own according to God’s
righteous standard, not even one out of
billions of humans. For a good
work to be acceptable to God, it must be done
by one in a covenant
relationship with Him, done in faith and love
to the glory of God.
D. What
is Paul’s evidence of human radical, pervasive, and total depravity? vs. 13-18
1.The
words humans speak vs. 13-14
2.The
actions humans do (man’s history of bloodshed) vs. 15-17
3.The
worship humans offer (a lack of love, loyalty, and worship of the true creator
God) vs. 18
VI.
Can sinful humans
undo their sin record by starting to keep God’s law? No! vs. 19-20
A. The
law shows people they are accountable, without excuse and guilty before God
B. The
law reveals to us that many more things than we thought are sinful and wrong
C. No
human can be declared righteous before God simply by starting to follow the law’s
instructions. The law cannot save now and never could. It reveals, not delivers
D. Roman’s
theme: The righteousness of God revealed and applied to sinners
