Paul's Defense In Romans Chapter Three

                                               

The Apostle Paul had to diffuse some illogical conclusions he knew he would anticipate based on his teaching on justification by faith with his Jewish readers in Rome. The corrections Paul had to make are no doubt corrections we as teachers of the Word of God must face today.                            

Paul at the end of Romans chapter two is discussing circumcision. Paul explains to his readers that those are who are physically circumcised have no essential advantage over those who are not circumcised if those circumcised (the Jews) are disobedient to the law of God. Paul also indicates those who are not circumcised (the Gentiles) are blessed if they keep the law. In addition this makes them circumcised by the Spirit (Rom 2:29). This is the real circumcision, spiritual circumcision for this is equivalent to salvation.                                                                                

Paul then asks himself a hypothetical question at the beginning of chapter three, “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?” Paul replies that the Jews have an advantage because to the Jews came the oracles of God (i.e. the OT scriptures). Paul then asks a second hypothetical question, “What if some are unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?” (vs. 3). Paul I imagine hearing the absurdity of this question emphatically replies, “By no means”, or in today’s vernacular, “No way!” Here is where the plot thickens. Paul says, “Let God be true, and every man a liar!” (vs. 4a).                                                  

There was no doubt that Paul’s words were misunderstood when he said let every man be a liar. Paul was by no means advocating that men should lie so that God could be glorified through their lying. Paul I believe here was using hyperbolic language saying that if there is anyone who is to be true it is God, and by comparison, all men are liars.        

To put it another way, God’s plans are never neutralized because of the disobedience of men. What God has decreed will always come to pass no matter what man does.                                                                                                         

God cannot lie. Men always lie.                                                                                            

Paul continues in verse 5, “But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (Paul speaking in human terms) By no means! For then how could God judge the world?” But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come? – as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.” (vs. 5-8).                                                                                                                          

Paul continues asking himself hypothetical questions – questions he knows his readers would eventually ask him regarding his doctrine.

Q1. If our unrighteousness displays the righteousness of God why would God afflict            us?                                                                                                                                                   

A1. Man’s wickedness never propels or displays the righteousness of God. Rather, the wickedness of men dishonors God, and that is what incurs God’s righteous judgment. It is absolutely ridiculous to assume that God would get glory through man’s disobedience and then punish him for it. This type of thinking clearly shows the ignorance of some of Paul’s audience.

Q2. There were those that were slandering Paul saying he was advocating evil so that good may come.

This ridiculous conclusion hinged on the absurd belief that Paul was teaching that lying or doing evil was good because somehow it glorified God. So why not do more evil so more good can come as a result? Laymen’s terms: evil is good because it honors God. This was the lie that some said Paul was teaching. Notice Paul says in verse 8 that their condemnation or judgment is just.

                           Why did Paul’s opponents say he condoned unrighteousness?

The reason Paul’s opponents believed that is because they were accusing him of Antinomianism. It means against the law. In this context, against the Law of Moses. There were those that were saying Paul’s teaching of the Law of Grace or justification by faith advocated ignoring God’s moral code in the OT law such as, you shall not commit adultery. You are not to steal, you are not to bear false witness, etc. Their misunderstanding of Paul’s teaching was declaring since we are saved by grace, we are free to do whatever we want – even commit sin since our sins have been forgiven right? Paul deals with an almost identical issue later in this letter. Let’s take a look at it.             

In Romans 5:20 – 6:2 we read, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. So that sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ.”  “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” “How shall we who died to in sin live any longer in it?”                                                                                                                                              

Here Paul makes it unequivocally clear that he is by no means advocating that we sin on purpose. Paul’s teaching on justification by faith does not abolish the law, rather fulfils it Rom 3:31).                                                                                                                                                            

 Concluding, the purpose of God’s holy law was designed to amplify our sin, not to save us. If man does not have a standard on which to compare his sin against the righteousness of God, then man will not have a correct view of his sin, and therefore will not regard his sin as sinful (Romans 7:13b). The Law of God is good because it condemns us when we realize we are unable to meet its rigid requirements. The law of God exists so that when we fail to meet it perfectly, we will feel ashamed and cry out for deliverance from under its heavy yoke (Acts 15:10). This is where the beauty of Jesus Christ’s loving invitation comes in:

           

“Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt 11:28-30).                                                     

The life of the Christian verses that of one who is trying to keep all the commandments of the law is definitely and easier yoke and a lighter burden by comparison.                                              

Continuationism vs. Cessationism

The noun form of these two words would be Continuationist  and Cessationist. What do these words mean? In Biblical terms it is dealing with certain gifts of the Holy Spirit such as: Apostles, prophets gifts of healings[i], miracles, tongues,  (I Cor 12:28-29).

The continuationist believe all of these gifts are in operation today whereas the cessationist believe they have ceased at the end of the apostolic era – the end of the first century. In the writer’s opinion, the continuationist (not all) assume since these gifts are in the Bible and God does not revoke His gifts, then they continue. Furthermore, they would say they have either witnessed these gifts in action, or they have operated the gifts themselves; tongues, prophecy (in the predictive or foretelling since), a word of knowledge. Continuationists also believe in what is called a “latter rain” blessing where the Holy Spirit has been poured out on all flesh just as or even more so than Pentecost. This phenomenon began in the early 1900’s. Some of the “latter rain” blessings include:

a        The laying on of hands to receive the gift of tongues

b       The restoration of the office of the apostle and prophet in the church

c        Receive divine healing through the laying on of hands

d        Women having equal authority with men in the church

In  their worldview, God has us re-living the past in the present. The continuationist  has us traveling back in time 2,000 years to the foundations of the church in the first century. They believe everything that occurred during the era of the apostles and prophets is happening today. This stems from a misinterpretation of Joel 2:23. It reads, "be glad then you children of Zion and rejoice in the Lord your God. For He has given you the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month."

The continuationist (i.e. the Charismatic/Pentacostalist) believes this is making reference to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (i.e. the latter rain) which is untrue. The Lord is talking about actual rainfall in this verse. The Israelites were an agrarian people. They needed the rain to fall on their soil in the fall and spring for them to have a bountiful harvest. The former rains in Autumn (Oct – Dec) prepared the seed, and latter rains (Mar – May) filled the crops for harvest. God was promising a restoration of their land so that it could yield it’s rich wheat, grain and produce blessings.

It is tragic how one verse can be so grossly misinterpreted and a false theology develop around it. This unfortunately has occurred with the Latter Rain Movement which the continuationist beliefs hinge upon.

The position of the cessationist is that miracles, gifts of healings, tongues, new revelation are a thing of the past. I guess some would call cessationists naturalists; meaning they do not believe in the supernatural at all. This would be an extreme case. In the area of tongues, history tells us the gift has already ceased. Many in the Church disagree. The early church fathers such as Justin Martyr, Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine considered the temporary sign gift of tongues as a thing that passed with the passing away of the apostles.

                                                              What did tongues signify?  

Paul in I Corinthians 14:21-22 said, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak to this people, and yet for all that they will not hear Me says the Lord. Therefore tongues are for a sign, not those who believe but to unbelievers, but prophesying is not for unbelievers but for those who believe.

To understand what the apostle is talking about, we have to travel back to the book of the prophet Isaiah.

The prophet had to rebuke the prophets and priests for their drunkenness. As a result of their inebriation they could not provide counsel, proper worship or leadership of the people. They were abusing the privileges God gave them. Because of their persistent wickedness God warns them of impending doom. These foolish leaders mocked Isaiah for his oracles saying he’s talking nonsense to us as if he is talking to babies, that is “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little” (Isa 28:13).  According to the Bible commentator Matthew Henry (18 October 1662 – 22 June 1714), the transliteration of these words in Hebrew are “Tsau latsau, kau lakau." The drunken mockers syllables in completion read like this: “Saw lesaw saw lesaw, qaw leqaw qaw leqaw, ze’ir sham ze’ir sham.” What the mockers were doing was making a sort of a nursery rhyme out of Isaiah’s words. These were the words they were singing in their drunken stupor. It lets you know how apostate they had become. They were mocking the words of God as if it was baby talk, gibberish!  God’s word was supposed to bring about hope and refreshment, but instead they ridiculed the prophet and God’s words (Isa 28:12).

As a result of them refusing to hear the word of the Lord in their own language, God would send a nation against them with stammering lips and a language they could not understand as a sign of judgment on the northern kingdom (the 10 tribes). The Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom of Israel called Ephraim in 722 B.C. Later the southern kingdom (tribes of Judah & Benjamin) would be destroyed and taken captive by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. leaving the nation Israel a desolate wilderness.

                This started the diaspora of the Hebrews.

So we see that when Paul says that tongues (or better interpreted languages) are for unbelievers, it meant in particular unbelieving Israel. In the NT the tongues was a judicial sign against Israel, that they would be set aside by God to make room for the Gentiles due to their unbelief (i.e. the pagans, heathen, non Jewish peoples) to be saved, and enjoy the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant.

Let’s look at a couple of verses to amplify this point.

Acts 13:46-48 reads, on the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. When the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and contradicting and blaspheming they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first, but since you reject it (italics mine), and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold we turn to the Gentiles. For the Lord has commanded us:

“I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to
                                                       Ends the of the earth.”

                                                                                    

                                                              Quoted from Isaiah 49:6

Now when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed unto eternal life believed (vs. 48).

We see here the Jews rejecting God’s word which began the judgment of  them being temporarily set aside to due to their unbelief, and the grafting in of the Gentiles into God’s olive tree (Read the entire chapter of Romans 11 for Israel’s current status and their future).

We also read where Peter preached the gospel to Cornelius’ house in Acts 10. The Holy Spirit fell on them as they believed and spoke with languages (vs. 44-48). These too were Gentile converts.

In Acts 8 we read of Philip preaching to the Samaritans who were Israel’s Gentile mortal enemies. So at the beginning of the Church we see that God was fulfilling his promise of including all nations in His kingdom.

This new nation was and is the Church. We are now in the “Time of the Gentiles” (Rom 11:25).

Once the judgment fell on NT Israel which some cessationists believe occurred with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D., the sign was fulfilled and the gift of tongues ceased. What is interesting to note is tongues is not mentioned in the latter writings of the NT. I Corinthians one of the earlier writings was written around 55 A.D. Neither Paul or the other apostles mentioned tongues after this date. Paul’s prison epistles were in the 60’s with his last book written to Timothy around 68 A.D. Peter’s epistles were around 64-65, and 67-68 A.D. John’s books were around 90-96 A.D. What we are hearing today as tongues is not the Biblical gift, but a dangerous counterfeit. Please remember, tongues was never a non-language, unintelligible gibberish or babbling to build someone up. Biblical tongues were known human languages supernaturally spoken by people who never learned the dialect. It was an endowment sovereignly bestowed by the Holy Spirit (I Cor 12:11).

The main point of contention between the continuatioinist and cessationist is the issue of tongues. The first group insist the gift is operative, but the gift they are promoting isn’t the Biblical gift; it’s a counterfeit with a bunch of unintelligible syllables that do not make sense. In extreme cases, the practice could be demonic. The second group (at least some), insist the real gift of languages was a temporary sign gift of judgment to Israel in two ways. 1) It signified them being set aside because of their unbelief. 2) It also signified the Gentiles being grafted into God’s olive tree (Romans 11). Once the sign was fulfilled, Israel’s judgment of unbelief punished, and the gospel being made available to the rest of the world, the gift ceased to operate. As mentioned earlier, the early church fathers wrote on this; the gift ceasing with the death of the apostles.

In conclusion, it is the writer’s opinion that whatever position one holds, we MUST put our personal influences and biases aside, and run to the scriptures for our answers to these crucial matters. There are those that will say they have seen the genuine gift of tongues in operation in modern times; that is someone in the church speak in a real language they never learned and interpret that language (i.e. prophesy) speaking the wonderful works of God with unbelievers in the assembly who knew the language natively and was convicted of sin due to God’s power in operation and became saved. Why? Because the person who spoke the language never learned it. It was a supernatural manifestation of God (I Cor 14:24).

To the cessationist this is more hypothetical than actual. The cessationist is more to the letter of the law in that where it says in I Corinthians 13:8 that tongues will cease, they insist tongues did cease and do not continue now so no event such as a real languages manifestation in the church can occur today whether actual or even hypothetical. In their mind God is not going to resuscitate tongues or any of the other gifts such miracles, healings, predictive prophecy, the apostle and prophet.

What gifts we know abide today are the teacher, prophecy (expository preaching and teaching), the evangelist and Pastor.

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[i] This gift the writer believes is not in operation today. For if it were,

Why aren’t people being instantaneously healed by these so called “faith healers”

Like in the days of Christ and the apostles? If this gift is operative, the cemeteries,

And hospitals, convalescent homes should be empty. Organic terminal diseases should

Be cured.

What is the effectual Call?

The word call in the Greek is Kaléō. The Hebrew word is qārā. Both words mean a general call. In relation to salvation, its meaning is referring to those God has chosen to be recipients of His saving grace.

The calling of God is an invitation to repent of sins; that means forsaking of your sins and turning to Him for salvation through Jesus Christ. There is what is called and outward call. This is where the gospel is preached to all people. The outward call of God is resisted and rejected by men when they hear the gospel message and are commanded to repent of their sins that they may have life. An illustration of this is in the parable of Matthew 22 which is the parable of the wedding banquet. In this parable the king prepares a banquet for his son. The king sends out his servants to bid those invited to come, but all of them make excuses for not coming. In addition, those who refuse kills the king’s servants [(i.e. the believers (vs 6)]. When the kings receives this news, he is furious, and sends his armies to destroy those who killed his servants (vs 7).

Those that refuse to come to the wedding feast are non-believers.

The king then commands more servants to go to everyplace and bring whomever they can to the wedding feast. They do so, and at last the marriage feast is filled with guests (vs 8-10).

                

These represent the called, true believers.

But, there is one guest who came to the supper with improper clothing. The king questions the stranger because he was not wearing the proper attire (vs 12). The guest was dumbfounded, because he knew he was not properly dressed. As a result, the intruder is thrown out of the marriage celebration and is cast into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (vs 13).

What is Jesus trying to explain to us in this parable?

The king is the Father God. The Son is Jesus Christ. The servants are the prophets. Those bidden to come that make excuses and refuse are unbelieving, apostate Israel initially, and eventually all unbelievers. As mentioned the guests are the redeemed. The one not wearing proper attire is an unbeliever masquerading as a true one. Several places in the Bible white robes are symbolic of righteous deeds and holiness.

Revelation 3:5a says, “He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white raiment…”

When the fifth seal is opened, the apostle John saw under the altar the souls of those who were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony they held. And they cried with a loud voice saying, “How long O Lord, holy and true do you judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”

And white robes were given unto every one of them (Rev 6:9-11a).

We read in Revelation 7:14 that there is an innumerable multitude in heaven wearing white robes because they washed them in the blood of the Lamb.

In Revelation 19:7-8 we read, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white – for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”

Just like the parable in Matthew 22 with the supper for the king’s son where everyone had to be properly attired. The Lamb’s bride (the church and Israel) had to wear the right clothing.

Romans 13:14 commands us to put on (italics mine) the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof.

     All the redeemed wear the proper clothing.

Scholars believe that when the one that entered the wedding banquet without proper clothing in Matthew 22, he was showing contempt for the king. Spiritually speaking by wearing wrong clothing which represented deeds, he was trying to establish his own righteousness and gain acceptance by God which is what the world does everyday.

In the natural sense to wear improper clothing when the king supplied you the right attire is dishonoring, and puts one in harms way before the king. Its even more horrific to dishonor the Father God by showing up to the Son’s marriage feast with filthy rags, and expect the Father to accept such.              

                  

These are the ones that despise the outward call of God to repent.

The effectual call is that inward calling where God draws the elect to His Son (John 6:37,44,65). Scholars and contemporary theologians say this call of God is different from the general outward call which can be resisted. The inward call of God ultimately CANNOT be resisted by the stubborn will of man. In order for the inward call to be effective, God has to overcome the evil, stubborn resistance of man; love on him in such a supernatural way so that all he wants is what God wants for him which is rebirth, repentance, faith, and salvation. When one is effectually called by God, this process is guaranteed to occur.

Why? Because God determined that it would happen before the world was ever created (Eph 1:4).

Listen to God’s word, “Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called (italics mine), and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Rom 8:30).

When God predestines someone, the rest of the blessings automatically follow: called, justified, glorified. All past tense verbs.

God’s plans never fail so all of those whom He effectually calls will or even more emphatically 

HAVE to repent, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved.                

This is a blessed promise and command of the Lord. We cannot alter it by complicity or noncompliance.

Concluding, we see here the sovereignty of God and the sovereignty of man. The former leads to everlasting life and peace. The latter leads to everlasting damnation and torment.