May it never be!

[Romans 3:1-18]

There is a principle of discipleship that we must keep in mind in our life of faith.  The principles are “Self-denial” and “Self-sacrifice”.  Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mt. 16:24).  We cannot follow Jesus while pursuing the lust of our eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.  We must follow the Lord while putting down what we have to put down.  However, there are times when we try to follow Jesus without letting go even though we know the things we need to let go of.  Therefore, as disciples of Jesus, we must realize the self-denial that Jesus is talking about.  Also, we tend to follow Jesus without suffering and sacrifice.  In other words, we have an old instinct to walk the way of the cross that Jesus went without bearing the cross given to each of us.  That is why Jesus calls us to self-sacrifice.  We are not ignorant of this principle.  We just can't put it into practice.  This is what Titus 1:16 says about this phenomenon: “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, ….”  We say we know God with our lips, but we deny that God with our lives.  There are three dangerous sinful elements in our lives that deny God like this.  It is none other than ‘unbelief’, ‘unrighteousness’ and ‘arrogance’.  Our unbelief distrusts God's faithfulness.  Our unrighteousness makes us think that even God is an unrighteous God.  And our arrogance judges and condemns others with the spirit and attitude of ‘I am better than you’ with sense of spiritual superiority and of privilege.  The apostle Paul says in Romans 3:1-18 that “May it never be!” (v. 6)

In today's text, Romans 3:4, 6, 9, the apostle Paul, writing a letter to the saints in Rome, said three times, “May it never be!”: “May it never be!” (vv. 4, 6) and “Not at all” (v. 9).  Indeed, what is Paul euphemistically denying by saying, “May it never be!”?

First, the apostle Paul emphatically denies that our unbelief can never nullify the faithfulness of God.

Look at Romans 3:3-4: “What then?  If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?  May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, ….”  Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the saints in Rome, especially Jewish believers who believed in their own righteousness in a sense of spiritual superiority, and said that as Jews, compared to the Gentiles, received much external grace but there is no benefit to them because they didn’t faithfully endure it, but rather they would be in God's wrath and unable to escape God's judgment.  In Romans3:1-2, two external graces received by the Jewish believers are mentioned here. They are circumcision (v. 1) and entrusting the law (word) of God (v. 2).  The pride that the Jews had, that is, what they took pride in was the law and circumcision.  As God's covenant people, the problem with these two graces bestowed by God was that the Jews could not internalize them, but only externalized them.  In other words, the Jews externally received the law through Moses along with circumcision, a symbolic element of being God's covenant people, but they considered themselves righteous by keeping the law.  Therefore, they were in the midst of pride in their own merits, spiritual superiority, and arrogance.  Only the righteous should live by believing in Jesus, but they did not.  Their problem was that they did not try to be justified by faith in Jesus Christ.  In other words, the list of sins of the Jews was unbelief and unfaithfulness.  They were not justified by faith in Jesus Christ, nor were they faithful to God as His covenant people.  Therefore, Paul asks a hypothetical question in verse 3 to the Jewish believers in Rome who are committing such a sin, saying, 'If you do not believe in the truth that you are justified by believing in Jesus (unbelief), and even though you are entrusted with the word of God, you didn’t diligently teach yourself and only love to teach others (2:21) (unfaithfulness), your unbelief and unfaithfulness will never nullify God's faithfulness.

How great is this word of comfort to us?  I personally like 2 Timothy 2:13 – “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”  The reason I like this word is that when God exposes my unfaithfulness, I am comforted by the fact that God continues to be faithful to me even in the midst of my unfaithfulness.  In particular, the fact that God is the God of God, that is, the faithful God can only be faithful, is a great encouragement to me.  My and your God is a faithful God.  Even if we are unfaithful, He is faithful.  I hope and pray that you believe that our unfaithfulness can never nullify God's faithfulness.  In such faith, we should never try to look like believers in God only outwardly like the Jews.  In other words, we should not be superficial Christians.  We should never judge others with a sense of spiritual superiority while considering ourselves righteous like the Jews.  This is a false life of faith.  Our lies must be exposed more and more (Rom. 3:4).  Our hearts, which are deceitful above all things and exceedingly corrupt, must be thoroughly exposed by the holy Word of God (Jer. 17:9).  In the midst of this, we must be able to confess, “let God be found true” (Rom. 3:4).  And in front of the true God, we must be found as true Christians.  In other words, we must become Christians inwardly (2:29).  We must keep in mind that we are justified only by faith in Jesus Christ.  We must not forget that our salvation is entirely by God's grace.  In the midst of this, we must internalize the grace of salvation that God has bestowed on us.  In other words, as those who have received salvation through faith, which is a gift from God, we must live a faithful life before God.

Second, the apostle Paul euphemistically denies that God can never be unrighteous.

Look at Romans 3:5-6: “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.)  May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?”  The more our lies are exposed, the more we realize the truth of God.  The more our unfaithfulness is exposed, the more we realize God's faithfulness.  Because of the true and faithful presence of God, the more our unrighteousness is revealed, the more clearly God's righteousness is revealed (v. 5).  Then we can never say that God inflicts wrath on us because our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God.  Paul's logic is the question, how can God justly judge the world (v. 6) if we think that God is on the side of unrighteousness like we are and that He will bring His wrath on us because our unrighteousness demonstrates God's righteousness (v. 6).  Also, we cannot say that it is good because God does not judge us even if we continue to do unrighteousness, knowing that God is glorified even through our unrighteousness (v. 7) (Park).  However, Paul says, “why am I also still being judged as a sinner?” (v. 7) and “Their condemnation is just” (v. 8).  In other words, even if our unrighteousness reveals God's righteousness, God is never unrighteous.

As we have already meditated on in Romans 1:18-32, we have learned that God's wrath is directed against those who suppress the truth with unrighteousness (v. 18), against those who exchange the truth of God for a lie (v. 25), and against those who don’t see fit to acknowledge God any long (v. 28).  God gave these people over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper (v.28), that is “all unrighteousness” (v. 29): “wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful” (vv. 29-31).  We should not continue to do unrighteousness because God's righteousness is revealed by doing such unrighteousness (3:8).  In the midst of this, we must not think that God, who brings out His wrath, disciplines and judges us unrighteously (vv. 5-6).  Our God never does.  He is never the one who disciplines and judges us in unrighteousness. Our God is a righteous God who will never be unrighteous nor can He be unrighteous.  The righteous God forgave our sins and justified us through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 4:25).  Therefore, we, who have been justified by the merits of the cross of Jesus, must live only by faith (1:17).

Thirdly, the apostle Paul euphemistically denies that we are never better.

Look at Romans 3:9 – “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.”  Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the saints in Rome, especially with the Jewish believers in mind, and started Romans 3 with the question, “Then what advantage has the Jews?” (v. 1) and concluded that “Are we better than they?  Not at all” (v. 9).  In other words, in conclusion, Paul is writing to the believers in Rome, especially Jewish believers, that both Jews and Greeks are under sin, and that there is nothing better for Jews than for Greeks.  In particular, starting with “as it is written” in verses 10-18, Paul declares that God’s eternal truth is that we are all under sin: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.  Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.  The poison of vipers is on their lips.  Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.  Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.  There is no fear of God before their eyes.”  In the end, Paul says that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin because they do not fear God and do all unrighteousness.  Therefore, to the Jewish believers who judge (condemn) their Gentile brothers in arrogance with a sense of spiritual superiority, Paul is saying that they are no different.  In other words, Paul teaches that superficial Jews are not qualified to condemn their Gentile brothers with a sense of privilege through the law or circumcision they received from God on the outside.  Paul says that since we are all under sin, we can never boast that we are better than anyone else.

There is a Korean proverb that says, ‘Measuring the height of an acorn.’  If we look at the Internet dictionary, the meaning of the proverb is ‘a word that refers to a quarrel between people of moderate degree, and a word that means that there is no need to compare because they are similar’ (Internet).  We must not break the harmony of the community by judging our brothers and sisters in Christ with a sense of spiritual superiority or privilege in the midst of arrogance while comparing ourselves to each other.  I am never better than you, and you are never better than me.  We believe in Jesus through the merit of the cross of Jesus, that we are all under sin, and we are forgiven of our sins and justified.  There is no such thing as our merits.  We are saved only through the merits of Jesus.  It is the absolute grace of God.  However, who dares to boast about how many years he has attended church with a sense of spiritual superiority, how much he has served the church, and boasts in the church and exalts himself?  Paul says: “Do nothing out of strife or vainglory, but in humility let each esteem others better than himself” (Phil. 2:3).

Our unfaithfulness can never nullify God's faithfulness.  Our God is a God who can never be unrighteous.  We are never better than other brothers and sisters in Christ.