Romans by Chuck Missler Lesson 4

Continuing Heresy
There is a heresy in the body of Christ we need to be aware of: that God
is finished with the Jew and the Church has taken over the promises
that were given to Israel (Cf. Rom 9, 10, 11). This heresy argues that
when Israel rejected her Messiah, she forfeited the promises given to
her by God and those promises now rest upon the Church. It goes by
names such as “Replacement Theology,” “Reconstruction Theology,”
“Dominionists,” “Kingdom Now” et al.

Verse 1]
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

• Pagans were condemned before God (Rom 1)
• Moral Man condemned before God (Rom 2)
• Religious People Condemned before God (Jew)

The first question pertains to Paul’s words in Romans 2:17-24 and the
second question to his words in Romans 2:25-29.

Verse 2]
Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles
of God.

“Great in every respect...” How so, Paul? The casual reader would say the
Jew had the advantage because to him was entrusted the Scriptures:

“Oracles” = lo,gion logion: divine utterances or promises (some not yet
fulfilled!). Jews were not just “custodians” of the Scripture, but the very
recipients of God’s promises. Their scribal diligence was astonishing;
but that is not the issue here…

Spiritual Advantage as a Jew?

• No promises given to the Church in the OT! (Rom 16:25, 26).
– Kept secret (Eph 3:1-6). Ex: Mt 13: “hidden before the foundation of the world…”
• An interval between Dan 9:25 & 27 (between the 69 weeks and
the 70th). This “gap” occurs 24 X in Scripture (Rev 4, 5 et al.).
• The Church was born by a miracle (Acts 2) and will be removed
by a miracle (1 Thess 4:17ff; 1 Cor 15:51ff).
• Understand that Israel and the Church are distinct and mutually
exclusive—they have different origins and different destinies

Let’s look at some of the promises: Gen 17:6-11.
Three ways to become a “Seed of Abraham”:
1) Physical seed of Abraham (some of the promises are to those
direct descendants, even if unbelievers);
2) Believers get spiritual benefits;
3) Gentiles through union with Jesus Christ.

Jer 31:35-37 (!) The world would have to disintegrate before Israel
would be cast off! [Reconstructionists, et al., are calling God a liar!
The reconstructionist heresy led to the anti-Semitism in Europe that led
to the Holocaust; and it is happening again!... Cf. Hal Lindsey’s Road
to Holocaust, Bantam Books, 1989…]

Judgment Declared
"And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying,
If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which
belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes."
Luke 19:41-42

Yet, Israel’s national blindness is not permanent (Rom 11:25). The
“Fullness of the Gentiles” is the gathering of the Church. Israel’s national blindness will be lifted when the “fullness of the Gentiles” be
“come in.”

Verse 3]
For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God
without effect?

“Shall their unbelief nullify the faithfulness of God?”

It is the faithfulness of God that is the issue; not Israel’s unfaithfulness.

Verse 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.

If you don’t believe the promises that God has given the Jew, you are
calling God a liar! [Paul is calling the Reconstructionists liars!] Cf. 1
Jn 5:10; the concepts of unbelief, disobedience, and calling God a liar
are equivalent. Unbelief is not accepting God’s word.

Cf. Ps 51:1-4—David confessed his sin, acknowledged his guilt and
repented (1 Jn 1:9). Repentance is essential to the Jew—and to ourselves
as Christians! Cf. Zech 12:10-13:1 (aleph& tau); Hos 5:15.

Verse 5]
But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we
say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

Implied: “We did God a favor by being so rebellious! Is God going to
judge us for glorifying Him?” The Greek demands a negative answer...
we’ll deal with this later in Romans 6.

Verse 6]
God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

The rabbis knew that the Gentiles were to be judged, so Paul is using
an ellipsis on their own conviction...

Verse 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?

The lie here means moral falsehood. Each individual could claim exemption from the judgment of God because his sin had advanced the glory
of God.

verse 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.

This is an elliptical confirmation of Paul’s message: salvation by grace
alone, not works. Thus, salvation cannot be lost through works—it is
secure eternally. You cannot add to what Christ has completed on the
cross. What keeps you from sinning? A grateful heart, overflowing
with love for their Savior!

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;

(“We” = the Jew; “They” = the Gentile.)

All Are Guilty
Rom 1:18-32: The Pagan Man has the creation;
Rom 2:1-16: The Moral Man also guilty; he doesn’t even
live up to his own conscience;
Rom 2:17-29: The Religious Man (Jew): the greatest historical illustration
that commitment and sincerity
still doesn’t make it.

Man’s Character

Verse 10]
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

All have failed at something.

11] There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

All are willfully ignorant! (Chapter 1:18-32 nailed this thoroughly). This
is a free rendering of Psalm 14:1. Paul told the Athenians, the philosophers
on Mars’ Hill: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at;
but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).

Election
If “none seeks,” then all that “seek” do so upon God’s initiative =
Election! Cf. Lk 4:25-29; Jn 6:43:47 [We will explore this further in
Romans 8:29-30.]

Verse 12]
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

They have deliberately turned their backs on the truth. They have dis-
honored God instead of glorifying Him. (What use are they?) They do
not follow after that which is good. [Man does not evolve upwards: he
devolves downward!]

Man’s Conduct (His Speech)
Verse 13]
Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

Quoting Ps 5:9. Asp = Egyptian cobra. Cf. Ps 140:3. The most painful
sin? Gossip!

14] Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

Man’s tongue is a window into his heart. Cf. Mk 7:18-23; Mt 12:34-
37; Cf. Rom 10:9, 10!

Man’s Conduct (His Actions)
Anatomical order: from the inside outward... throat, tongue, lips...
feet.

Verse 15]
Their feet are swift to shed blood:

(Isa 59:7) The 20th century was the bloodiest in history; cf. Behold a
Red Horse briefing pack; cf. Eph 6:15

Verse 16]
Destruction and misery are in their ways:

Man has no fulfillment except in glorifying God.

Verse 17]
And the way of peace have they not known:

Eph 6:15. There is no peace when separated from God.

Verse 18]
There is no fear of God before their eyes.

(Quoting Psalm 36:1) As in the days of Noah: “The end of all flesh
has become before me.” Gen 6:12, 13; Deut 5:29.

The Mystery is Why Does God Save Any?
Verse 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.

Deut 27:26; James 2:10; Gal 3:10, 11 (q.v. Hab 2:4!)

Verse 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.

The beginning of the answer: acknowledgment of reality:
1) To show us what sin is;
2) To drive us to sin more (!?): Rom 5:20-21
3) To drive us to our knees! Gal 3:24. Faith (in Christ) alone

Verse 21]
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

“But now...” Marks the key conclusion: The Gospel as the (only) remedy. A major division: now the solution!

“The Righteousness of God” is the theme of the Epistle to the Romans.

Jer 23:5, 6 (“The Lord our Righteousness”: the name that refutes the
claim of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.); Ps 43:1, 2: Luther noted this was on
the basis of God’s righteousness... not man’s! The only righteousness
that counts is one that is given; Ps 32:1, 2 (quoted in Rom 4) Luther
called this psalm “a Pauline Psalm”;

Isa 53:11—it’s the Cross that justifies. Religion doesn’t work; it is
simply a person’s attempt to justify himself before God. From Gen 3:21
on, God covered them...“Without the Law”—apart from the Law (Acts
10:43); “Deliver me in thy righteousness” (Ps 51).

Verse 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 [distinction]:

Verse 23]
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The pagan, the moral man, the religious man–all have fallen [keep
coming] short of the glory of God...Job 25:4-6.

Verse 24]
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Four critical words: “Justify,” declare legally without guilt; righteous
not a process: all at once...

“Freely” [gift], “without a cause,” (Jn 15:3); “Grace,”
To earn salvation by works would be to put God in man’s debt.

“Redemption”: set free from a slave market by paying the ransom (Cf. 1
Jn 5:19; Jn 12:31; Eph 2:2,3; Col 2:14: Heb 2:14, 15; 1 Pet 1:18, 19).

When John the Baptist first introduced Jesus to the public (Jn 1:29),
he summarized the God’s remedy to our failures: “Behold the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sin of the world.”

God’s Greatest Problem: How to Be Just and Yet
Justify Sinful Man?
The greatest barrier: God’s own character!

Verse 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;

Propitiation = the greatest love word in the Scripture!

Expiation = atoning or suffering punishment for wrongdoing: making
amends; something done, or given, to make up for a wrongdoing.

God’s Greatest Barrier: His Own Character
1) Sovereign; accountable only to Himself.
2) Omniscient; knows all.
3) Omnipotent; all powerful, visible and invisible.
4) Omnipresent; (particle physics: non-locality...).
5) Love;
6) Immutable; unchanging.
7) Just; the standard of His own character: absolute righteousness.
Links back to (1).

Verse 26]
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

“That..” The most important purpose clause! This is God’s greatest
problem: “that He might be just, and [yet] the justifier of him...” Jesus
is the solution!

Verse 27]
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by
the law of faith.

Faith is taking God at His Word.

Verse 28]
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without [apart from] the
deeds of the law.

Abraham was reckoned to righteousness by his faith when he was still
on Gentile ground (Gen 15:6), two chapters before the covenant sign
of circumcision was placed upon his flesh. [This will be developed in
Chapter 4.]

Verse 29]
Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

Verse 30]
Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

Verse 31]
Do we then make void [nullify] the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we
establish the law.

...in the purpose that the Law was given:
1) To show us what sin is;
2) To drive us to sin more (!?): Rom 5:20-21
3) To drive us to our knees! Gal 3:24. Faith (in Christ) alone.

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Chuck Missler lessons and talks:
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Prophecy Simplified (previously What is truth?)
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