WELCOME
PRAYER
SONG
SILENCE
Romans 3.4
December 27th 2020
So last week we had a radical time together explaining Paul’s words to the Jews.
In it, we talked about how he made one point perfectly clear – those who did not have the Law but lived according to the moral code – not killing their neighbor, not committing adultery, not lying, not stealing, etc. would be seen AS IF they were circumcised Jews . . .
AND . . .
that those who had the law but disregarded it – stole, dishonored their parents, bore false witness . . . would not only be seen as non-Jews, but would be judged by those Gentiles who lived without the Law!
Tables overturning folks!
So today we will begin in Romans chapter three where Paul continues on with his thought and asks a rhetorical question of his reader, saying:
Romans 3:1 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.
3 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.
There is a lot to consider. So jump back to verse 1 where Paul now says
Romans 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
It seems that Paul here is attempting to provide a pre-emptive answer to the response every Jew would have after reading last week’s verses where Paul showed that there was no profit in just being a Jew by birth and circumcision relative to God.
And the first objection he seems to try and head off at the pass would be, “Well, what’s the benefit of being a Jew then?”
It’s a good question.
I mean, if a heathen could be seen “as if” he had been circumcised, what’s the point of being a Jew, really?
In verse 2 Paul responds, saying
2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them (the Jews) were committed the oracles of God.
Above anything and everything else, Paul says the principal benefit of being a Jew is they produced, processed and possessed the sacred Scriptures, or what Paul calls the “Oracles of God.”
And Paul doesn’t just say that the Jews possessed the oracles of God but writes, “unto them they were “committed,” or entrusted.
The Greek word or phrase for “committed” here is synonymous with the idea that God had complete confidence in the Jews to bring forth His Word to the world safely.
Throughout the world, many cultures are generally known for being more adept or committed to some things over others.
If God was looking for a culture to create rugs, he might have called on the Persians.
And if he was entrusting people with the care and creation of cheese he might have called upon the French or Swiss or Northern Utahns.
Wine, call on the Italians – why not?
And the Scotch/Irish might be in charge of all whiskeys.
It’s funny how insightful God is for there are no people on earth more adept (or who dispatched this sacred trust for God’s Word) than the Jews.
We are talking a people devoted to a most tedious, careful, deliberate care of creating and protecting the sanctity of inspired writ.
Let’s talk about this a minute.
When it comes to manuscript evidence, the New Testament has hundreds of times more evidence than the Old. There is a reason for this.
Critics (who like to challenge the reliability of the Bible) have pointed out that the oldest version of the Old Testament is less than 1,500 years old.
That’s not too old when we consider the story goes back some 4500 years.
Their point is that after centuries of copies upon copies, errors HAD to have crept in, right. Remember, I am just talking about the Old Testament here.
One of the first biblical verses that speaks of scriptural preservation is found in Deuteronomy 31:24-26
“And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.”
It is here we see the beginning of the sacred trust given to the Levites to safeguard the Scriptures.
The “writing of words” spoken of here refers to the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which as a group of books are known as the Law, the Pentateuch (in Greek) or Torah (in Hebrew).
From this time (written here in Deuteronomy) forward, the religious leaders of Israel became the zealous guardians of the Scriptures.
Later on, after the Babylonian captivity of Judah, these Scriptures were almost “worshipped as much as was the Creator Himself” (which lead to problems which we will discuss in a minute). In fact, in some ways, we can almost say that the love that the Jews had for the “written Law” was tantamount to idolatry!
I mean they watched over these Sacred Writings more carefully than any other possession in the Holy Land.
This was both a good thing and a bad; good, in that it preserved them to this day in reliable form. Bad, in that “printed words” cannot save anyone. Something every Christian has to also realize.
When Moses died, Joshua, his successor, instructed the Israelites to have a special concern for “all the words of the law” (Joshua 8:34).
And he showed their import by his actions. On one occasion, he told the people to sit down and the whole Law was read to them. This reading probably took several days because the Torah was a lengthy volume.
Because of this (and other influences) the Jews developed a great reverence for the Scripture within just one generation after the Exodus.
Now the Levites were not the only ones involved in preserving the Scriptures.
God knew that the day would come when His people would reject Him as their king and that they would insist on having a human king in His place.
Knowing a human king over Israel was inevitable, God gave Israel instructions on what the new king should do (as found in Deuteronomy 17:18-19). Listen to what God said to Kings over Israel:
“Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall WRITE FOR HIMSELF a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes . . . ”
The kings of Israel not only had to study and obey the Law, they also had to write THEIR OWN personal copies of it! Did you know that? That is serious stuff – demanded especially of the KING. But it shows the import of the Word to God toward His people and those who lead them.
Now, Israel’s profound reverence of God’s word brought about the creation of a copying system which is nothing short of astounding!
The Levites created a system of making new copies of the Old Covenant as old copies wore out and (listen) once they were worn out, they were destroyed which is why there is so little mss evidence for the Old Testament around today.
Also, knowing it would be easy to make a mistake in copying a new transcript, they developed what I see as a very tedious process. We’re talking meticulous RULES for transcribing.
For example, when a person was making a new text, he had to copy the original page with such exactness that the number of words on the copy page could not be changed.
If the original page had 288 words, then the page being copied had to have the same 288 words.
Each line on a new page had to be exactly the same as the line on the old page.
If the first line on the original page had nine words, the first line on the copy page had to have nine words.
After a page was copied, the number of letters on that page was counted and compared with the original. Then the center word on the copied page was checked to see if it was the center word on the original. This ensured proper replication.
Scribes did their job not by paragraph, not by sentences, not even by words, but letter by letter.
According to Davidson in his book, The Hebrew Text of the Old Testament, we read:
“A synagogue roll [remember that they did not have paper as we do today] must be written on the skins of clean animals, the length of each column must not extend less than 48 or more than 80 lines; the breadth must consist of 30 letters. No word or letter, not even a yod, must be written from memory… Between every consonant the space of a hair or thread must intervene, between every book three lines. Besides this, the copyist must sit in full Jewish dress, and wash his whole body” (The Hebrew text of the Old Testament, Davidson).
Additionally, the sinews connecting the pages had to be of clean animals too.
When each page of the whole book was finished, a separate person would count the number of phrases in entire book and compare it to the new version.
If ANY of these were off, any, the whole new version was tossed . . . and the scribe started over.
These are just a few examples of the great detail that went into ensuring the accuracy of the Scriptures of the Tanakh, or the totality of what we call the Old Testament.
There were many other steps taken in the process.
Bible scholar Bullinger described the additional safeguards this way:
“The scribes would “fence” the Scriptures because it locked all words and letters in their places…
They would then record the number of times several letters would reoccur in the books; the number of words, the middle word; the number of verses, and the middle verse; the number of expressions and combinations of words, etc… All this (Bullard says) for the set purpose of safeguarding the Sacred Text, and preventing the loss or misplacement of a single letter or word” (Bullinger’s Companion Bible).
Because of all of this these men had no worry whatsoever that there might have been an error.
Now the ancient Israelites kept a copy of the Scriptures in Jerusalem’s first temple. They put it inside the Ark of the Covenant. This copy became known as “The Temple Scriptures.” Today we would call this copy “Israel’s master copy” of God’s word.
Even though the first temple was destroyed and the Jews were taken to Babylon, the Scriptures were preserved.
While in Babylonian captivity a group of Levites who became known as the Scribes painstakingly copied and disseminated the Scriptures out to other Jews. And one of the most pivotal historical figures during this time was Ezra.
It was Ezra the priest, assisted by the priests and Levites of the Great Assembly or Synagogue, who completed the final editing and canonization of the Old Testament Scriptures in the late fifth century B.C. (or about 500 years before Christ)
When Jews returned to Palestine, the Scribes continued to take an active part in preserving and distributing the Scriptures.
When the second temple was built, another master copy was put in the Holy Place within the temple ark.
By the time Jesus was born, the content of the Old Testament was four hundred to five hundred years fully established among the people.
But also about this same time that Jesus arrived another problem had developed. The Scribes had become so obsessed with counting the jots and tittles (small demarcations in the text) that they forgot the essential meaning behind the sentences they were transcribing!
Its fascinating but so easy to occur in humans, to worship the creation (mean spend more time idolizing it) rather than on the creator who gave it. Their obsession to such detail caused Christ to say,
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. ” (Matthew 23:23).
As a side note, a “jot” is the smallest letter in the Greek or Hebrew alphabet and a “tittle” is a small point or stoke added to some Hebrew letters to distinguish them from other letters that look similar.
We might see existing to some extent today. Years ago, when I traveled weekly to and from Salt Lake, I would sit in the food court writing waiting on my flights.
Working in this food court was a middle aged man who every time he saw me, would leave his job and comes over and talk with me.
He is a walking genius of scripture, knowing more about the Word of God than anyone I have ever met or heard. He could recite details of almost every book in scripture and every translation and had an encyclopedic knowledge of verses and their locations as this was his life’s passion – to the point he never married, and cared nothing for monetary gain – he still lived with his mom and worked the counter at a fast-food place in the airport.
But from what I could tell ALL that he knew of the scripture resided in his head. And when I tried to converse with Him about Jesus, about His walk, about what faith he maintained – about ANYTHING that had to do with Christian life, he would say something like, “yeah, yeah, yeah, and all that, yeah, yeah yeah, believe and be saved, but did you know there are really supposed to be 68 books in the Bible . . . not sixty-six?”
(beat)
Some people can become so intellectually obsessed with the Word they lose the ability to apply it’s contents – which is the reason we have the Word – to get the contents in and through our brain as a means to deposit it in our hearts.
We might see the written word, however, as one half of the gift God has give us as believers. The other half is His Spirit.
To appeal only the Word of God is akin to holding the most powerful chainsaw in your hand but lacking any fuel to power it.
Simultaneously, there are those who believe themselves so completely “spirit led” that they have little use of the living word and, setting it aside, rely solely on “the Spirit” to guide them.
Here we run into what can become a horribly subjective approach to God – one that includes both good . . . and the insane.
To prevent either extreme, God has given us a two-part system (for in the mouth of two witnesses shall all things be established) and His two part system includes:
Reading , hearing, and studying His Word, BY Listening, hearkening, and dying to self through the Holy Spirit. It is the one-two punch and the force and power that it contains is unstoppable.
What is interesting is that this one-two punch gift was present in the incarnation of His Son – Human and God with us in the flesh, living by the Spirit. The Letter of the Law (physical and in print, so to speak) and the Spirit of God.
People wanted to make his flesh King, but to really know and worship Him is all by the Spirit.
Has the Old Testament been accurately preserved for us today? ABSOLUTELY! Noted Bible scholar Jack Finegan said,
“It has been… estimated that there are …variations in hardly more than a 1000th part, of the text.”
This means the Old Testament is at least 99.9% true to the original! And every challenge against it has proven faulty over the years. The Dead Sea Scrolls have supported this.
Soooo (listen, this is the point of the passage) to possess the Word of God was, of course to the Jews, a supreme privilege, as it became their guide in everything that pertained to them in that life and in the life to come. AND SO IT IS WITH US.
We live at a time when the thoughts and ideas of Man have taken precedence over the Word of God.
People mock the word of God, call it ancient myths and customs that have no application in this modern age. They turn to themselves, heaping fables upon their itching ears, claiming personal revelation more advanced or true that God’s word.
But listen to Roman 10:17 regarding the import of God’s Word today.
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Interestingly, Ephesians 6:17 calls the Word of God the, “Sword of the Spirit” which tacitly ties it to the workings of the Holy Spirit. And we pointed out last week, citing Hebrews 4:12 and relative to the circumcision of the heart that
“ . . . the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Spiritually, it is no more mandatory to read and search and study and hear the Word of God by the spirit any more then it is mandatory for a person drink water.
Don’t want it, refuse it! Spend no time in it or hearing it. We are free to ingest what we will instead.
But the end result will be the same spiritually, as it is physically for those who refuse H2O – spiritual dehydration.
Show me a Christian who chooses to read and hear the Word taught and I will show you a Christian who deals with life’s trials and successes with an inner-strength not found anyplace else in this world.
Conversely, show me a believer who chooses to refrain from being in or hearing the Word and I will give you a person who is constantly tossed to and fro by the trials, tests, and temptations of life.
I applaud this audience for seeking Him, in spirit and truth, through a contextual study of His Word by the Spirit.
I am as blessed and pleased to offer up its contents to you and see myself as a man operating a water stand in death valley.
One small aside – will someone ask me about what we call the New Testament in the Q and A? Thanks.
Now Paul steps into what appears to be a new line of thought here. And it seems to be that he is anticipating yet another question from the Jewish reader. Remember, the first objection was:
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
And this he answers – the chief advantage was the Jew were the trustees of the oracles or written will of God.
Then here in verse three he presents us with another rhetorical question, asking:
3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
Notice first that Paul rhetorically askes, “For what if SOME (of the Jews) did not believe?”
Not all Jews were unfaithful – Paul, and Peter, and James and Barnabas were not unfaithful, so his comments last week were not condemnatory on ALL Jews, but only toward some.
3 For what if some (of those who possessed the Law, Jews) did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
This is oddly written in the King James, but the meaning seems to be
“If some of the Jewish nation have abused their privileges, and acted contrary to their obligations, would their wickedness annul the PROMISE which God made to Abraham, that he would, by an everlasting covenant, be a God to him and to his seed after him?”
In other words, “Will God, therefore, by stripping the Jews of their peculiar honor, as Paul has suggested in the previous chapter, will He cancel His promise to the nation because some of the Jews were faithless?”
See, Paul had maintained that the Jews were sinful because they had not obeyed or believed God. Here, he rhetorically asks if this means that God will be unfaithful to the promises He made to Abraham with regard to them.
The fact that God chose them as his people and entered into covenant with them seemed to imply that all Jews would escape hell and it is somewhat evident that many Jews believed that they would all be saved to Abraham’s bosom.
They supported this belief by pointing to the covenant God made with their fathers.
But in chapter two, Paul implies that, in certain respects, the Jews were on a level with the Gentile nations; that if they sinned against the Law given them, they would be treated just like the uncircumcised heathen.
So here, Paul is addressing what value is in the promises of God? Do His promises become vain? Or, as it reads, “Does it make the faith of God of none effect?”
In verse four, Paul answers this, saying
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.
Let’s talk about this first line – “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar.”
In the Greek, “God forbid” is really, “Let not this be!”
Paul is saying, “Don’t let this thought in anyway be supposed by anyone!” as a result of my teachings (in chapter two).
“For the faithfulness of God is always and forever true.”
Men may be liars, and sinners but this does not make God a liar or sinner! Men may be unfaithful but this does not make God unfaithful!
Even if every man on the face of the earth believed or taught a lie this would not make it true or God and His Word a lie.
“Let God and His Word be true,” Paul says, “and every man a liar!”
It was NOT God who was unfaithful when some Jews chose to reject the confines of their covenant with Him. He is always true to all of his promises every time . . . it is men who are always the failing part.
To bring this home to roost, Paul supports his writing by referring to King David’s own words, which the Jews adored and He adds
“as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.”
In this verse Paul quotes from Psalm 51:4 (which is David’s great confessional prayer following his sin of adultery). There in the Psalm David says:
“That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings.”
What David is saying there is, “Lord, whatever You say is right! You are justified in all your sayings.” And he continues
“And mightest overcome (be the victor) when you are judged” In other words, David is saying, “Lord, You are always the Overcomer and the Victor! You are always right and you will always win every case -even when others think they can judge you!”
(BEAT) (Lower and slower)
“Let God forever and always be true in every case, and every man a liar.” Whatever God says is right! Whatever happens is good because it is in only and always in His capacity to change or alter it! Whatever we are presented with He will always be the victor when assessed by man.
Man is so constituted that we at times might think we have a right, let alone an ability, to question God or challenge His ways.
Reading the book of Job, we come to a story where the man essentially loses everything in life. He gets so low that he comes to the point where he is actually sitting in the dirt scraping pus-filled scabs off his flesh with a piece of broken pottery.
We might convince ourselves that at the end of this trial God would come to Job apologetically – praising Job for passing the test; that maybe He would possibly say He was sorry for hell Job had been through.
Not so.
How does God speak to Job when we finally hear His voice at the end of the narrative? Listen to the tenor of his first words God says to Job:
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.”
Human ego somehow allows itself to think that we are so important God has to answer to us! Explain, God, why babes drown? Why did you let my spouse cheat on me? What are thinking giving me cancer? Why don’t you fix this world, God?
I read a book a few years back by the infamous atheist, Christopher Hitchen’s. The title, “God is not Great.”
Hitchen’s seems to believe he knows better, and that God is a liar and every man is true.
Right after I read the disappointing book, I learned that Hitchen’s died of complications from esophegial cancer. I can’t help but believe that maybe Mr. Hitchen’s somehow heard God’s very words to Job:
“Where were you, Christopher, when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.”
Paul was very wise in using these words from David’s prayer of confession at this point. There was hardly anyone that the Jews looked up to more than David, the “Godly king of Israel,” the one who wrote so many of the Psalms in God’s Word.
And Paul is indirectly reminding them here that even King David was unfaithful! An adulterer and a murderer! But he appeals to David’s own prayer where David himself says:
“Lord, You are always right and I am wrong!”
David knew that he was guilty and relied upon God’s mercy and goodness! And if David was guilty and condemned, this fact would certainly condemn every Jew (I mean, what Jew who would dare say that he was better than David)?
(By the way, when we get to Chapter 4 Paul will tell us how David was saved! Which, remember, is the ultimate purpose of this phenomenal letter to the Romans).
So, whatever the outcome or consequence,
God being true is always the first great principle no matter the consequence. The question here that remains in the text is, “If God is true to his promises, how could those Jews who were found unfaithful be cast off?”
The promise made to Abraham, and the fathers, was not unconditional. It was not absolute that all the Jews would be saved.
There was an implicit agreement that they were to be obedient to God under the Law, and that if they were not, they would be cast off. (Genesis 18:19 makes this plain).
So, while God is always true Paul here is still building the case that will soon show that the Old Covenant was not the best means of salvation but instead one lacking in true efficacy when applied to humans because even though God is always true, men rarely are. And a conditional agreement between the two would never be successful in redeeming us.
Nevertheless, what a great state all of Christiandom would be in if more people the world over approached God and their lives with this attitude – “Let God be true and every man a liar.”
“Take my health, you are true.
Take my wealth, you are true.
Take my children, my job, my 401k, my future, but you are true. Always true.”
When the world hates me, and the earth renounces me, and my heart breaks from pain, you are true.
When we are in despair, and full of care, no hope to bear, you are true.
The fact that we fail and fear and sin and turn never ever means He fails, or turns or ceases to love. He is always, eternally true whether we are or not.
Questions/Comments/Prayer
