WWUTT 1196 Through the Law Comes Knowledge of Sin? (Romans 3:19-20)

There are some who try to define this phrase works of the law as being things that are just particular to Jews or circumcision or something like that.

But the law is any command given by God when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

Find videos and more at our website, www .utt .com. Now here's our host,

Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the Book of Romans, Chapter 3.

And probably a little shorter lesson today as we're only going to be looking at two verses. This is Romans 3, verses 19 and 20.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Now I touched on these verses briefly on Wednesday, but we're coming back again to this today and giving it a little bit more attention.

This brings to a close the argument that Paul has been making since Romans 1, verse 18.

And that is bringing all men under condemnation, Jews or Gentiles, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Now Paul is going to say that in exactly those words coming up in verse 23, but it's in the context of a different argument.

It's in his but God statement. Yes, we've all sinned, but God sent his son to die for us so that all who believe in him will be justified.

And we'll look at that section starting tomorrow. In the meantime here, verses 19 and 20 are the conclusion of the understanding that everyone is under sin.

He said that back in verse 9, for we have already charged that all, both

Jews and Greeks, are under sin. And then brings the point home with the

Old Testament references that we had in verses 10 through 18. So now we get to verse 19 where he says, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law.

Who is it that's under the law? Well, by the argument that we saw in chapter 2, it's the

Jews. The Jews are the ones who are under the law because it is to the Jews, to the

Hebrew people, to the Israelites, that God gave the law there at Mount Sinai. You had

Moses and then all the other prophets who would come after that, revealing the oracles of God. So the

Jews are the ones who are under the law. It is to them the law of God was given. But then you go on here in Romans 3 .19.

It says, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

If the Jews are the ones that are under the law, then why is it that every mouth is stopped and everyone is held accountable before God?

Well, of course, as was argued in chapter 1 and well, even through the mid part of chapter 3, even the

Gentiles have a law in their consciences that they cannot keep.

They impose systems of right and wrong on other people that they themselves can't abide by.

And so being a law unto themselves, all God has to do is judge them by the standards that they imposed on others, but could not keep.

And they're still guilty before God. But even more so, what's being said here is that the

Jews were given the law and they couldn't keep the law. If the

Jews who received the law of God couldn't keep it, then what hope was there for Gentiles, even though they didn't have the law?

It doesn't mean that they're more innocent than the Jews are. It simply means that the

Gentiles were no better off. The Jews had the law and they couldn't keep it. The Gentiles didn't have a law and they weren't righteous.

Therefore, no one is righteous. Doesn't matter whether you've had the law and broke it or you didn't have the law.

No one has any kind of righteousness that they can declare before God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped.

No one is able to declare their own righteousness. That's what's being said there. Every mouth is stopped.

Even those who do not have the law, when they look into the law, they realize, wow, I've been doing wickedly, even though I didn't even know that was wicked.

I recognize now that I have no righteousness. I cannot proclaim before God that that I am holy because the law is showing me that I have no holiness.

Paul is going to talk about that when we get to chapter seven. He says, I didn't know what it meant not to covet until I read in the law.

Do not covet. And then I realized I'm a covetor. So that's what happens with Gentiles.

It's not that in not having the law, they were therefore innocent. But as soon as the law is revealed to them, as soon as they look into the holy law of God that had been given to the

Israelites, they recognize, well, I don't have a holiness either. It simply reveals, it exposes the sin that was already there.

So by that law, every mouth will be stopped. No one will be able to declare their own righteousness.

And the whole world may be held accountable to God. Jews or Gentiles, again, all have sinned and fallen short of his glory.

Verse 20, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

So once again, in the hearing of the law, in the looking into the law, we come to understand and acknowledge that we have no righteousness.

God is holy and we are not. Because we see by the law all the things that we've done wrong, the things that we've broken and recognizing that we need a savior.

See, that's what Paul is really kind of laying out here. Understanding we need a savior to save us from the wrath of God that is burning against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

The statement that he made back in chapter one, verse 18. And then now that the heart has been tilled and conditioned to recognize our sin and need for a savior.

Then Paul is going to lay down the gospel coming up in chapter three, starting in verse 21.

But first of all, here in verse 20, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight.

Now that that term works of the law has recently been a little bit twisted.

Perhaps you're familiar with a brand of teaching that is referred to as the new perspectives on Paul.

It was a term that was coined back in the early 1980s to describe an approach to Paul's theology.

The doctrine that the Apostle Paul lays out in the course of the New Testament. Advocating that first century

Judaism was not a merit based religion. But rather it was a covenant community created by God's grace.

The law, therefore, the nomos in Greek was not a means of getting saved, but rather staying saved.

This is all according to the new perspectives on Paul. This is not how we actually understand the purpose of the law.

But this is that teaching that kind of emerged there in the early 80s and has been advocated by guys like N .T.

Wright. So then the expression works of the law, as we would have it here in Romans 320, and Paul uses it elsewhere, like with the

Galatians. According to the new perspectives on Paul, the expression works of the law is only in reference to those laws that were particular to Jews.

Or rather, what were symbols of ethnic Jewish privilege. Things like circumcision, the

Sabbath laws, and the Mosaic code. So when we read works of the law, that's all that's talking about.

Just those things like circumcision. But that can't possibly be what that means. Since, as Paul goes on here, he says, through the law comes knowledge of sin.

How would an adherence to circumcision, the Sabbath laws, and the

Mosaic code bring about a knowledge of sin? It wouldn't. And Paul even makes the argument, again, coming up in Romans 7, that when he looked into the law and he saw, you shall not covet, it exposed to him that he's a coveter.

He's a sinful man. The law says don't covet, but I recognize that I covet. So therefore,

I've broken the law. I didn't even know what it meant to be a coveter until the law told me do not covet.

So the law is any commandment that God has given. Any command of God is the law.

And there is no command that we can keep that brings us righteousness.

You can't do it. And that's been the whole argument over the course of Romans 1, 18 to this point in chapter 3, verse 20.

Paul is saying, there is nothing you can do. Nothing makes you righteous.

You can't do it. You have dead, dirty hands. Every deed you do is going to be dead, dirty deeds.

You're not ever going to bring about some manner of righteous work that's going to earn you favor before God.

It cannot be done. It couldn't be more clear than what he laid out in chapter 3, verses 10 through 18, where he said none is righteous.

Nobody. No one. No one even understands. No one seeks for God.

We're all seeking our own way. No one's seeking the path of righteousness. We're looking out for ourselves.

We're not looking for the goodness of God, since the sinful nature of man makes us, by our very nature, rebellious against God.

We don't want God. We want what we want. We want what our flesh desires.

We've taken those things that God has given to us, the mind that he has gifted us with in order to give him glory, the body that we have that we should be using to worship

God with. We've taken those things and we've sought after our own pleasures, not those things that delight

God. That is every person. Every person is that way. No one is righteous.

All, verse 12, all have turned aside. Together they have become worthless.

We were certainly made to glorify God. We were made in the image of God to bring him glory.

But in not doing that, in going after our own way instead of God's way, we made ourselves worthless.

Now, when we desire for a person to repent of their sin and come to a knowledge of God and believe in the gospel and worship the

Lord Jesus Christ, the reason why we do that is because we recognize that a person's been made in the image of God.

They have been made in an image that was intended to glorify God. That's why both men and women are made in the image of God.

As we have it in Genesis 1, 27, it's not just men that are made in the image of God, but male and female.

He created them. Both men and women are meant to be holy and righteous as God is.

But in our sin, we don't do that. We do what is unholy and what is unrighteous.

So, taking that image that was made to be a reflection of God and instead doing what is sinful and disgusting with it, then we have blasphemed

God with the very gifts that God has given to us. That's what makes us worthless.

And that's why we are fit for destruction. We are ready to be judged by God in his holy and righteous judgment against those who have done so sinfully and wickedly with the image that we were made in.

The image of God that was meant to be a reflection of God. So, when instead we commit those things to sinfulness and unrighteousness, it's as if we're reflecting

God as being unrighteous. And we've been made worthless and we're worthy of destruction.

So, when we see a person going about sin and we know that they are under the judgment, the wrath of God, we don't want that to happen to them.

So, we share the gospel with them. We're warning them of the danger. We don't want them to be destroyed in God's righteous judgment.

And so, we tell them, you've sinned. And you bring the law to them. You show them what sin is.

Because, again, they probably don't know that they've done anything unrighteous that is worthy of God's judgment.

So, you show to them in the law how they have murdered. And Jesus explains in Matthew chapter 5 that murder is not just simply destroying somebody else's body.

It's the very fact that you've hated someone in your heart. You hate that which has been made in the image of God.

You hate that which is supposed to reflect God's image. So, therefore, you are a murderer.

You would want to destroy in your heart that which bears God's image. So, you are a murderer at heart.

If you're not loving your neighbor, then you're not keeping God's law. For as Paul is going to say when we get to Romans 13 .10,

love is the fulfillment of the law. So, if you're not loving, if you're hating, you're actually breaking the law.

That was the point Jesus was making in Matthew 5. So, when you say to somebody, have you ever murdered anybody? And they say, no,

I've never killed anybody before. Well, have you ever hated anyone? Because Jesus says that in your heart, it's the same as if you've murdered them in your heart.

If you even call them names, you're worthy of the fire of hell. Have you ever lusted after anyone before?

And they say, well, yeah, sure, I lust all the time or whatever. Well, you say to them, Jesus says that's the same as if you've committed adultery in your heart.

That you've slept with somebody you are not married to.

That is breaking the seventh commandment. Have you ever told a lie before?

Yes, I've told lies before. Okay, that's breaking the ninth commandment.

Have you ever coveted after something that didn't belong to you? Somebody else's thing, but you thought you had to have it in order to be happy.

Yeah, sure, I've coveted after things before. Well, that's the tenth commandment. And so you show to them through the law, you've broken all of these laws.

If God was to judge you by this standard, would you go to heaven or hell? And they're more than likely going to say, if I have to go by this standard, then

I'm probably going to go to hell. I haven't kept any of these laws. And so you show to a person in the law of God how they have sinned.

And it shuts their mouths. They cannot proclaim their own righteousness. It says in the book of Proverbs, every man thinks he is right in his own eyes.

But through the law comes knowledge of sin. So you demonstrate to them you're not as good as you think you are.

And if God is going to judge you by even the ten commandments, you're not going to pass that test.

So that every mouth may be stopped. They recognize what they have done with God's image. They have followed after sinful passions rather than giving

God glory and honor and praise. So that they may be held accountable to God.

They may recognize their need for a savior. And then you give them the gospel. That's what Paul has done here.

He's been talking about the sinfulness of man, Jew or Gentile. How we're all worthy of the judgment of God that is coming.

And yet he has given us his son so that by faith in Jesus, we would be justified. Paul is preparing the heart for the message of the gospel.

Everyone has sinned. Everyone needs a savior. Jesus is that savior. And as he had stated back in Romans 1 .16.

I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

So I rabbit trailed there a little bit. But coming back to verse 20. By works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight.

Once again, we're not talking about just laws that are specific to Jewish people. We're talking about every commandment that has ever been given by God.

There is nothing that you do that makes you righteous. And you might argue with that.

And you say, well, what about belief? Because Jesus says, repent and believe the gospel.

That's in Mark 1. That was how he proclaimed the message of the kingdom from the very beginning. So if belief is something that you do, then therefore am

I not doing something to merit salvation? Since that's what it takes in order to be saved? My answer to that question is no, you're not.

Because even belief and faith is a gift from God. Once again, Ephesians 2 .8

and 9. If you've been listening to this program a lot, you've heard me say this many times. By grace you are saved through faith.

This is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. Not a result of works so that no one may boast.

By grace you are saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.

Grace. Salvation. Faith. These are all works of God.

Hebrews 12 .2 describes Jesus as the author and the perfecter of our faith.

He gave us our faith. And he perfects us in that faith. In Philippians 1,

Paul is saying to the Philippians, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it on the day of Christ.

Jesus began this work in you. It's not your work. It's God's work. As Paul also says with the

Philippians, For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So you do not do anything to merit your own salvation. It is all the work of God from beginning to end.

Now as far as you are concerned, when you heard the gospel, yeah, you made a decision. You repented of your sin and you believed in the

Lord Jesus Christ. But when you study the doctrine of it, according to his word, you recognize you didn't do anything at all.

It is by the grace of God that you came to faith in Christ and therefore salvation.

It was all his work. It was never yours. So all of the praise and the glory goes to God.

It is not to man. It is unto God so that no one may boast. He is the one who works in you to bring about saving faith.

In John 6 29, Jesus said, This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent.

It is God's work that we have faith. Yeah, Jesus commanded repent and believe. And you're only able to do that because of the

Holy Spirit that has worked in your heart to do it. Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

They will not follow the voice of a stranger. My sheep whom my father has given to me.

They follow my voice. And so you became a follower of Jesus because the father gave you to Christ.

Matthew chapter 11. Jesus says, No one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him.

All of this work is, is God's work in our hearts and praise be to his name so that we would give glory unto him.

No one may boast in their own works in their own righteousness. We celebrate God for the work that he has done through his son,

Jesus Christ in our lives. Let us conclude with prayer. Heavenly father, we thank you for the goodness you have shown to us, even your good work to expose to us our sin so that we would recognize our need for a savior.

You sent somebody to us to teach us the law that we would know we had sinned and fallen short of God's glory.

And we were under the judgment of God. If we did not repent and come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, gave himself for us as an atoning sacrifice so that all who believe in him will not perish under the judgment of God.

You were gracious. You sent an evangelist to us. We now have faith by the

Holy Spirit that is within our hearts so that we may become followers of Jesus and be cleansed of all unrighteousness.

Lead us in your truth today. Help us to celebrate you for the goodness that you are doing in our lives and never boast in anything that we've done, but giving

God the glory for all that you have done. And we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt

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