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“If you’re able...” Reading Rom. 3:9–20. “Thanks be to God.”
In Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the hero of the story is Atticus Finch. The story is set in the 1930s in the fictional town of Maycomb, AL. He’s a white lawyer asked to defend a black man named Tom Robinson who is accused of a crime against a white woman. The state presents its case, and then the state rests.
Then Atticus begins his defense. He calls one witness to the stand, Tom Robinson. Tom presents a compelling version of events that makes him innocent of the crime. By this point in the book, everyone knows he’s innocent.
Tom Robinson is an honest man, but he’s in an impossible situation in the 1930s in the Deep South. To no one’s surprise, he’s convicted. Atticus thinks there’s good grounds for appeal, but Tom tries to escape and is killed in the process.
What drives the story is the obvious injustice being done. An honest man is being accused of a crime he didn’t commit by a crooked prosecutor and he’s declared guilty by a biased jury.
We feel righteous indignation as we read or watch this story, and that’s exactly right. It’s how you’re supposed to feel when such injustice results in such tragedy.
Atticus has a defense to make, because Tom is innocent of the crime.
But today we find ourselves in a very different courtroom drama. It’s a criminal trial, but the trial goes very differently than in Harper Lee’s novel.
We are in the New Testament letter of Romans. In Rom. 1:18–3:20 there’s a lot of courtroom language.
Paul in some ways is speaking as God’s prosecuting attorney. In Rom. 3:19–20 is really where the prosecution rests. But as we’ll see, there’s no Atticus Finch to stand up and defend us. We’re guilty, and there’s no question about it.
We’re in a series in Romans 1–5 we called Better than You Think. It means that the gospel of Jesus Christ is better than you think. As good as you think it is, it’s better.
But we get to the “better than you think” part of it first by spending time realizing you’re “worse than you think.” Rom. 1:18–3:20 is a totally honest but very dark picture of humanity.
It’s the bad news that prepares us for the good news.
Sermon: As the prosecution rests, what is the conclusion of the matter? (1) The Jews are condemned; (2) the world is condemned; (3) our works are condemned.
Prayer
Paul starts off by speaking to “those who are under the law,” which means the Jews of Paul’s day.
As the prosecution rests, the Jews are condemned.
This is not Paul being anti-Semitic. Remember, he’s a Jew! In another passage he calls himself “a Hebrew of Hebrews” (Phil 3:5), and in Galatians 1:14, “And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.”
He’s simply being faithful to the gospel message. And ultimately, the gospel message is an offer of SALVATION and not simply a word of condemnation.
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But now we’re at the point of the trial where the prosecution will rest. These are a few final thoughts before the argument turns in a radically different direction.
His final witness for the prosecution was “the Law” (Rom 3:10–18), the very thing the Jews held up as an escape from prosecution.
The Jews assumed that if they had the Law they were good. If they were circumcised, they were good.
And these are good things! But they aren’t enough to make up for all the failures by the Jews to live according to the Law of Moses—those things we heard about last week in Rom. 3:10–18.
Jesus says something similar in John 5, that he wouldn’t be the one at the end, really, who accuses the Jews. Instead it will be Moses:
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:45-47)
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We shouldn’t think of this as an issue far removed from us. We...
These are good things! But having the Bible, being baptized, and being part of a church can’t save us! Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is what saves us!
For some of us, our testimony is that we grew up surrounded by the Bible, by Christians, by a good church—maybe this church. And maybe we thought we were Christians.
But then something happened to make it clear, we were as spiritually dead as a rock. And then we called out to God to be saved, and Christ came into our heart forever.
The Bible, baptism, and a church are truly good things. But they can’t save us. Faith in Christ is what saves us!
Read Rom. 3:19.
With the prosecution against the Jews resting and their guilt assured, now Paul widens his gaze.
As the prosecution rests, the world is condemned.
He takes in “the whole world.” Every race, tribe, tongue, people, nation, every person from every generation.
“Every mouth is stopped.” All are “accountable” and ready to be condemned. None of us have any righteousness, any goodness, anything to offer themselves.
“Accountable” is a Greek word used only here. It means “liable to be tried” or “brought to trial” (Liddell&Scott).
Remember what Paul said that we looked at last week, his list of Old Testament Scriptures. In the first quotations the words cut deep, but they aren’t exaggerations:
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside;
together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.” (Rom 3:10-12)
The repetition is powerful: “none...no, not one...no one...no one...no one...not even one.”
How many? “Not even one.”
And the result? “Every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable.”
Douglas Moo:
The image, then, is of all humanity standing before God, accountable to him for willful and inexcusable violations of his will, awaiting the sentence of condemnation that their actions deserve.
Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans[1]
The prosecution rests—and there’s no defense to make.
If Atticus Finch was our defense attorney at this point, he’d look at us in the eye and say,
“You and I and everyone else are guilty of these charges. The Prosecutor is right. We committed these crimes. There’s no defense to make.”
Paul the Prosecutor has one final point to make in these chapters, and it’s an important one.
Paul the Prosecuting Attorney ends this section by making a simple statement with a vital truth.
Read Rom. 3:20.
As the prosecution rests, our works are condemned.
If it’s true that Jew and Gentile are both condemned, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the mass of humanity guilty before God, that that means “works of the Law” can’t “justify” anyone. Obeying God’s written Law can’t justify anyone.
***Remember that justification means being declared righteous before God. It means achieving the standard necessary so that God looks at us and says, “You are righteous in my sight. You are righteous in my uncompromising, unbiased evaluation.” But Paul says, “works of the Law” can’t “justify” anyone.
The Jews had the Law for 1,500 years with hundreds of thousands of Jews living and dying under the Law during that time. Many of the heroes of Judaism lived during that time—Joshua, David, Solomon, Ruth, Esther, Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezrah, Isaiah, Hezekiah, Elijah, Elishah.
But Paul says that the best of these could not be justifed by “works of the Law.” And if it’s true for the best of them, then it’s true for all of them.
And when we get to the passage from last week, Rom. 3:9–18, we realize this isn’t just a Jewish problem. It’s a human problem.
In 3:9, Paul said, “All, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.” And was the list of OT Scriptures to prove it.
The reason “works of the Law” cannot justify is that “works” can never justify.
Romans 4 will make that very clear. In Romans 4 Paul will look at Abraham and point out that he was justified by FAITH and not by works.
If works justify, then God owes us justification like “wages” (Rom. 4:4). But that’s never how a person is justified, not even the great Abraham. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Rom 4:3).
Abraham was justified by faith “as a gift” (Rom. 4:4).
What Paul says in chapter 4 is that God “justifies the ungodly”:
And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. (Rom 4:5)
*******
It’s hard to think accurately here. We like to think of ourselves as exceptions.
As Paul develops his case, we thought maybe we would be one of those whose “works” were pretty good and might actually bring a positive response from the Lord.
Cyber-security. An expert in the field of cyber-security said it’s like running from a bear. You don’t have to be faster than the bear. You just have to be faster than the guy next to you. The standard of measurement is the guy slightly slower than you.
We like to think of God’s judgment that way. I’m not perfect, I know. But I’m a whole lot better than seriel killers and dictators and war criminals.
But that’s not how God’s judgment works. His standard is himself. His own righteousness and holiness.
We’re a long way from that standard of measure.
The truth is, we often use a standard of measure that has nothing to do with God’s measure at all. “I feel condemned and hate myself because...”
We feel terrible about these things. And they can be truly painful.
But a lot of times our self-hatred has more to do with pride and embarrassment than actual conviction of sin.
And even when our sin contributes something to our condition or situation, it’s often not the sin part of it that troubles us. It’s the embarrassment, the fear, the wounded pride.
But with God, what makes us accountable before him is our sin. It’s our sin that takes away any standing we might before him.
In other words, the way we don’t feel bad about our sins—just reveals more about our sins!
As we close, these verses have given us the final words of the Prosecution. As the prosecution rests, (1) the Jews are condemned, (2) the world is condemned, and (3) our works are condemned.
But the point is not to leave us in this place of being condemned before God.
It is God’s love speaking here—not his hatred!
It is God rescuing us—not God refusing us!
It is God speaking to lead us to Christ!
Rom. 1:18–3:20 is an honest picture of what we’re like in ourselves and apart from Christ.
The best of us are only slightly better than the worst of us. All of us are guilty and condemned and can only stand silent before our true accuser.
And our Accuser doesn’t have a limited jurisdiction—but a complete and total jurisdiction over every part of you. He can call us to account for stray thoughts and words we said to ourselves and actions we thought about but never committed. And of course he can call us to account for words we said to people and actions we committed that affected people.
His jurisdiction includes “the whole world.” To anyone else, this would be laughable. But not with the living God. The creator of the heavens and the earth, and the ruler of all things and all people can rightly call “the whole world” to account.
But getting to this point where “every mouth may be stopped” is so that “every mouth may be stopped” trying to defend itself. The Solution will never be found trying to defend ourselves.
The answer is to stop defending yourself and to call on the name of the Lord:
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Rom 10:13)
That’s true if we’re enemies of God and need to be saved: Call on his name!
But it’s also true if we’re Christians and feeling trapped in our sins or overwhelmed by our failures or aware of our weaknesses: Call on his name!
“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved!” (Acts 16:31). That’s the great solution.
Prayer and closing song
[1] 2nd ed., NICNT (2018), 214.
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