Let God Be Found True
1Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision? 2Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the revelations of God. 3For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God? 4May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.” 5But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do. 6May it never be! For then how will God judge the world? 7For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned.
When the Jews criticized the apostle Paul for teaching the Gentiles, Paul rebuked them severely. The Jews prized the law so highly and yet had no true faith, which shows that they had not fully understood the law. The reason is that if they had kept the law fully, they would have known they needed a Savior. The apostle Paul proclaimed that because God had entrusted the law to the Jews, they ought to do better. The people of Israel received the covenant from God directly. What other nation in all the world could become God’s Kingdom of priests and a holy nation?
Deuteronomy 4:8
8What great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you today?
Isaiah 11:10
10It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious.
Exodus 19:5-6
5Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine; 6and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”
People who received such special love are forgetting that grace and sinning by craving the world. They received God’s promises and grace, but because they were not born again they ended up far from God. Had they come to see their sin through the law, they should have repented and turned back when Paul pointed it out; instead, they resented him. But Paul was a Jew and a strict follower of the law, so he already knew what arguments the Jews would raise against him. Over the years many Jews had thrown questions at him as they listened to his preaching. Paul writes this letter by setting down their questions and then answering them himself. Today’s passage might be illustrated like this.
“When a son was born, his father rejoiced as if he had gained the whole world. The father was a man of good character who had also succeeded in the world. He always gave himself to doing good and was respected by many, so he was well able to raise his son. He provided everything the son needed to grow up well. He believed that when his son grew up, he would surely come to see his father’s deep love and be grateful. But the son thought that, being the son, he naturally had a right to enjoy whatever his father had. He used his father’s good name to raise himself up and spent the money as he pleased, sliding down the road of corruption. As the son drifted further toward the world, the father rebuked him sharply, but he had no intention of turning back and only kept company with the wrong friends. People who saw him going astray told him that his father was a good man and he must not live like that, but he did not even want to hear it.
“One day, the son’s friend said that living this way was a great sin against his father, and urged him to try living a good life as his father had told him. Then the son, with a twisted heart, said, ‘The more I sin, the more my father is praised as a good man, so I will sin all the more for my father’s sake.’ He meant that since the more he sinned, the more his father’s goodness would show, surely that was a good thing. Hearing this, the father closed his heart to his son. Then he helped children who were poor but trying to live good lives. The money meant for the son went to children no one had expected to benefit. This is like the grace meant for the people of Israel being poured out on the Gentiles. The father had hoped his son would grow up well and help those in need, but the son did not live as his father wished. From that day on, the son received nothing more from his father. Though the father had closed his heart, he was still waiting for his son to come back, still hoping that he would become a good man as his father wished.”
Romans 3:7-8
7For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned.
The Jews argued that to accuse them of wrongdoing was the same as saying God was in the wrong. They claimed that since they were the people who had received the law directly from God, to say that they would not be saved because they did not obey the law was for God to break his promise unilaterally. True, God did call the Jews, and he did give them promises. But that covenant relationship is formed when the Jews obey the word; God has no reason to keep his promise to those who have broken his law. A son deserves his father’s love when he lives rightly by his father’s words. No father gives money to a son who grows more corrupt the more he is given. In the same way, for those who were meant to meet Christ through the law, keeping the law as works only makes them people who have nothing to do with God.
The Jews said that if God is righteous and good, their disobedience could reveal his righteousness all the more, so wouldn’t that be a good thing? This is like a thief asking: if my stealing has taught many people that the police are the ones who catch thieves, how is my theft a sin? To people spouting such absurd sophistry, Paul said that they truly deserved God’s wrath. It is like a son who talks back, demanding to know why his father brought him into the world only to tell him to live rightly and honestly; such a son richly deserves his father’s stern rebuke.
God chose the people of Israel because he had a great purpose. His plan was to make his name known to the whole world through them. He began it in love, wanting them to be priests who would proclaim Christ so that all nations could receive the forgiveness of sins. But Israel rejected the gospel and lived unfaithfully. Because he could not possibly entrust the gospel to such a people, he chose the apostle Paul and appointed him to proclaim the truth.
God cast off the Jews, but not completely. We know this because the apostle Paul was himself a Jew. Here we see how unchanging and consistent God is. Just as he had planned from the beginning, he raised up Paul, a Jew, to bring the gospel to the Gentiles, and made him serve as a priest through the Gentiles’ repentance. Here there is something the Jews must clearly understand. They are indeed the chosen people, the nation that received the law; but if they do not fully carry out the calling God gave them, even that promise is of no use.
Deuteronomy 8:19-20
19It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish. 20As the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you wouldn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice.
God declared plainly that if the people of Israel were unfaithful to his word or lived in unbelief, he would withdraw the promises he had made to them. He said that the earthly and spiritual blessings they had received would be cut off. This is possible because it is God who gave and God who takes away. Yet their unbelief does not void the prophecy of the Messiah contained in God’s promise. That prophecy is not an agreement God made with people but a plan he himself established, so human sin cannot bring it to nothing. God’s work is accomplished by God. Human sin cannot hinder his plan. The heart of Paul’s message is that the plan God has set, God’s own work, does not halt because of human sin. Just as heaven and earth cannot become one, human sin cannot defile God’s faithfulness. So, just as the son, however much he sins, cannot stop his father’s good work, human sin cannot hide the holiness of God.
When the son was born, all he could do was cry. The father soothes the crying baby and feels joy and happiness. He is glad, not because he gets something good from the baby, but because he sees his child behave and grow as befits each age. We too must grow in proportion to the years since we met God, because if we hear the word and are not changed, we will become a grief to God. If we believe in Jesus Christ, who is life, and do our best in what is given us, God will look on us, receive glory for himself, and give us salvation. But if we do not live by the word, our sin cannot affect God, yet we ourselves will be judged. So no matter how much people sin, their sin does not touch God. The Jews thought that if they sinned, the responsibility lay with God, who made them sin; they thought this because they had not truly understood the law. God gave them the law to show them that human beings cannot keep all of it, and therefore need Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.
Genesis 3:9-10
9Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
Adam betrayed the God who loved him so dearly and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Having disobeyed the word, Adam could no longer remain beside the holy God, who cannot bear to look on sin. When God created humankind, he did not clothe Adam. Once Adam sinned, he saw his own flesh and became a being who could no longer bring God joy. Satan corrupts people by making them care more for the flesh than for the spirit. In the garden of Eden they had only to enjoy the peace and rest God gave, but they fell for Satan’s deception and disobeyed the word. When they ate the fruit God had commanded them not to eat, good entered them but so did evil, and they became beings who could not glorify God. It was God who gave Adam the garden of Eden and gave him Eve, and it was God who filled the garden with every kind of fruit so that they could enjoy peace and rest. When Adam was not thankful, he forgot that God had given him life and the garden of Eden, and he took Satan in.
God has given us everything as well, our health, our possessions, even our families. The moment we forget this, thankfulness will vanish, and we will set ourselves above God and grow proud. Because we have eaten that fruit, both good and evil are in us, and depending on which side you stand on now, good may work more powerfully in you, or evil may. That is why, like the apostle Paul, we must confess that we die daily in order to stand firm in our faith. Picture a balloon squeezed in the middle, one side good and the other evil: when the good side swells, the evil does not disappear. If you let your guard down with drink, drugs, gambling, or temper, the evil side grows larger. It takes only a moment for the good heart to shrink and the evil heart to grow. If we do not strive to live with a good conscience, we may stumble.
In 2 Timothy 2:11-12 we read that if we died with the Lord, we will also live with him; that if we endure for the sake of Jesus Christ, we will also reign with him; and that if we deny the Lord, he also will deny us. The first thing we need is to die with the Lord on the cross. Because our greed, our lust, and our old nature do not die, we covet the world and deny Jesus Christ, who is helping us not to sin.
Romans 3:4
4May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.”
Paul told the Jews that even if the whole world joined together and gained great power, it could not stand against God. Even if people establish their own righteousness and gain the world’s power and authority, they cannot stand against the faithfulness, holiness, and almighty power of God. Those who have repented and turned back can see deeply how helpless and insignificant they are before God. So they know they cannot ask God in his wrath why he is sending them suffering, and they live a life of continually turning back to him. Even so, the Jews were busy covering their sins with excuses.
Romans 3:5
5But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.
The Jews reasoned that if God’s goodness has nothing to do with ours, there is no reason for us to bother trying to be faithful. If their sinning displayed God’s goodness, so much the better, so why should they be rebuked? Their sins, they meant, were instruments revealing God’s goodness, so shouldn’t they be praised instead? They were saying that for God to judge those who had displayed his goodness would be a wrong on God’s part. Their point was that God had chosen them, given them the law, and promised to bless Abram’s descendants, so it was not right for him now to be angry because they had sinned. It is like a son who, rebuked by his father for squandering money, answers that his father once said he loved him and would sacrifice anything for him, so it is not right to be angry like this. Because they did not know God’s true purpose, they grew proud in proportion to the weight of the love they had received. The grace God gives is an expression of love that asks us to grow, in measure with that grace, into people who resemble Jesus Christ and bring glory to his name.
Psalms 116:5-7
5Yahweh is Gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful. 6Yahweh preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me. 7Return to your rest, my soul, for Yahweh has dealt bountifully with you.
Deuteronomy 7:9
9Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,
These verses portray God’s character well. God did not promise to bless the Jews because they were Abram’s descendants; he promised to bless to a thousand generations those who love him and keep his commandments. Though this merciful God had made the promise himself, he could not simply stand by and watch those who had failed to overcome sin; that is what moved him to judge them. God has the right to judge, because he is holy and just. Even so, the Jews forgot God’s holy character and judged everything with themselves at the center, so rather than repenting they kept making excuses. They said that if God’s truth had abounded to his glory through their lie, how could he judge them as sinners? The Jews think this way because they did not truly understand the love with which God bore with them to the end.
God has said that idol worshipers and those who commit sins like theirs are equally sinners. They should have grasped this rightly and held a sound faith, but because they could not shed the pride of being the chosen people who had received the law, they are heaping sin upon sin.
Romans 3:8
8Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned.
Paul told the Jews, who believed that having the law was enough for salvation, that the law is not a way to be saved by works. They objected that Paul was trying to abolish God’s law. Convinced that the law alone would save them, the Jews took the apostle Paul to mean that there was no need to keep the law. This thinking came from the selfish notion that they alone knew the law. Paul held the law dear, so he was by no means trying to do away with it; he wanted to show them the Christ to whom the law points, Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the law.
Already caught up in the idea of being a chosen people, and gripped by the belief that keeping the law would save them, the Jews would not accept any explanation Paul gave. Though it is only right that sin be judged, the Jews refused this. In verse 9, then, Paul asks what then, are we better than they? No, in no way, for we previously warned both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. In other words, Paul is saying that everyone in this world is a sinner. Paul too was a Jew who had a chosen people’s pride, and though he was now working as the apostle to the Gentiles, he always longed for the Jews to be saved. He explained the law and faith to them in detail and earnestly hoped they would see that they were sinners and come back, but in the face of their endless excuses Paul rebuked them: since all human beings are sinners, no excuse will help. He told them that however much they insisted they were not sinners and called God a Father who always forgives, God does not simply pass over sin; if they did not repent, they would be judged. Paul preached the gospel because he longed for the Jews to be saved, but defiled like whitewashed tombs, they did not turn back.
Friends, to repent of our sin we must receive Jesus Christ, who bore the cross, and only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we truly repent. As sinners we have weak flesh, but if we find the courage to die with the Lord on the cross and receive the grace to live with him, we can be born again. May you live as God’s treasured people, enjoying peace and rest beside our gracious and righteous God.