ROMANS 3 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 424] ROMANS 3 (NOTES OF A READING)
Ques What is the superiority of the Jew when all are under sin? How do you reconcile the two?
CAC Paul tells us that the superiority and profit they had lay in the fact that they had communications from God; no other nation had the oracles of God. God had been graciously pleased to put the means of faith amongst them. Everything that faith required as foundation was there in the oracles of God whether man believed them or not. If there were those that did not believe, it did not lessen the value of the oracles for those that did, and I suppose it is so today. The greatest advantage of the christian profession lies in this, that the oracles of God are there; they are not in the heathen world. “The faith of God” is the faith that has God as its object. God had furnished His people with everything, so that His people might have the faith of what God was.
Rem Stephen says in Acts 7: 38, “This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers; who received living oracles to give to us”.
Rem Paul says they were entrusted with them. Is that true today in christendom as to the revealed mind of God?
CAC Yes, it is. People do not pay much regard to the oracles of God, because they do not think much of God. Faith would have nothing to go upon if there were no communications from God.
Rem “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4: 22).
CAC So that if they had not faith there was no excuse whatever. There is no excuse whatever if people have the Bible, or if they have only the sun, moon and stars, or only the knowledge of good and evil. But if they have in addition to that the oracles of God, they are indeed without excuse.
[p. 425] Ques How do men come into touch with the oracles of God?
CAC I suppose by a sense of their need. The oracles are the communication of the mind of God. I suppose primarily among the Jews it was the Scriptures — “Ye search the scriptures”, the Lord said (John 5: 39).
Rem I suppose the point is that whether men believe it or not, or accept it or not, it makes no difference.
CAC Yes, “Let God be true, and every man false”, Paul says.
Rem The reference to Psalm 51: 4 would show the effect on man when light was there.
CAC David had to learn by experience what he was, that God might be justified. A way was opened up in repentance. These chapters are to shut us up to God. They make very plain that there is no righteousness in man for God, and if God had not righteousness for man, the case would be hopeless, would it not?
The “faith of God” is the faith that leaves man out of account and thinks only of God. The whole Old Testament could be summed up in that; it was only to show that nothing was of any value but what was of God. What the gospel reveals is that there is such a thing as righteousness of God. You get in this chapter the three expressions, “the faith of God”, “the faith of Jesus Christ” and the “faith of Jesus”. We cannot now have the faith of God without having the faith of Jesus Christ.
Ques Did the thief on the cross submit to the righteousness of God?
CAC I believe he had a sense that all the value of the One who had done nothing amiss was for him. He felt, what is in this Man is for my benefit. It is not what is in heaven but what comes into this world that is a test — the presentation of Himself. It is not only the test, but the way of all blessing.
Rem This epistle brings out what God is in relation to man [p. 426] and His glory.
CAC That is the great point in it, and that there should be faith in God and in Christ.
Ques What is the force of “the truth of God” (verse 7)?
CAC Well, I suppose the truth of God was made to appear in man being a sinner. God had borne witness to man that he was a sinner, and God’s truth bore witness to it. We have to come to it in our souls that we have not a scrap of righteousness for God. Man’s condition as a sinner justified God.
Rem The end of verse 7 is not very clear to follow, “Why yet am I also judged as a sinner?”
CAC You are to answer the question; he leaves it to every reader to answer. There is only one answer possible, ‘Well, because you deserve to be, Paul’! A sinner will be judged because he deserves to be judged. It is made very apparent that what God has been saying for thousands of years is absolutely true, every word of it is true.
Rem The note says, ‘he remained true in spite of my failure (my being a sinner)’. God was misrepresented in the sinner.
CAC If he does not acquire righteousness in some way he will most certainly be judged for he deserves to be judged. Man being such a sinner only proves God has been perfectly right from the beginning in what He said of him.
Rem The men in John 8 only considered themselves in accusing the woman. They went out.
CAC They were actually rather a fine set of men because their consciences were active, but it would have been better if instead of going out they had all knelt down and said, ‘We are just as bad as she is, if not worse’. It is important to recognise that we belong to this bad stock. It is not what I am personally, personally I have not done some of these things stated here. It is the description of a stock. These things have all come out in Adam’s race. In Mark 7 there is a terrible list of things given which come out of the heart of men. Every human being belongs to the stock that [p. 427] has committed these things. All this is to bring out the necessity for the introduction of another kind of Man. It is here the state of man, and when we read it we feel ashamed that we are human beings.
Rem David felt this.
CAC There was something in David that was the result of new birth; his sin brought to light something that was of God in him. And God is working to bring to light what is in certain men because He has put it there — something that is quite different from the moral evil and wickedness that belong to this fallen stock.
This righteousness is available for men on the principle of faith in Jesus Christ; it is in another kind of Man altogether from the man that sinned; a Man came in who did no sin, who knew no sin and in whom sin was not. Well, He is the object of faith, man can believe on One that is altogether lovely and perfect, and righteousness of God comes in as connected with another Man and with His death. Not an atom of worthiness is required from man in the flesh, he is utterly unworthy, and the sentence of death has been passed upon him.
Rem There are five quotations here from the Psalms and one from Isaiah. It is not a mere question of doctrine but of experience.
CAC All these passages come from scriptures where you find God does work in man. There is something alongside of this dreadful nature that is the work of God. These things have never been true of the saints viewed as such; they all have to acknowledge that they were true of them as natural men belonging to Adam.
“But now without law righteousness of God is manifested”. It was quite clear in the Scriptures that righteousness did not come in on the line of law, but afterwards. Adam and Eve got righteousness in type and they did nothing at all to merit it; and Abel too, God testifying of his gifts. There was no law to keep; here was an ancient saint [p. 428] that was righteous without doing anything for it. So Noah was “heir of the righteousness which is by faith”. There is plenty of testimony in the Old Testament that there is such a thing as righteousness provided for man by God, to which the law making nothing perfect could have nothing to say; law gives the knowledge of sin.
You see, righteousness must be a righteousness that comes up to God’s estimate of righteousness. If left to men what a poor righteousness it would be! We are all ready to say we fast twice in the week and give tithes of all we possess; it is enough to set us up as men in business for righteousness. The righteousness of God is on the ground of the death of Christ and is a flawless righteousness; it will stand the searching light of the great white throne if necessary. “By faith of Jesus Christ” (verse 22). It is very important that Jesus Christ should be preached — “The preaching of Jesus Christ”, Paul says — so that men might see what a perfect contrast He is to the children of Adam, so perfectly for God’s pleasure. Jesus Christ is that kind of Man, a different order of man entirely from Adam and his race. So that this deals not only with man’s sins, but with his state. And he comes down to “the faith of Jesus” (verse 27), which is very beautiful, Jesus Christ being somewhat in His official character as displacing every other man. It is as if to say, Is anyone attracted to the beautiful character of Jesus, to ‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild’? If anyone is attracted to Him so as to believe on Him, God justifies him, God gives him a perfect righteousness.