Session 6 – Romans; The Flow of Paul’s Logic: Mark Lanier, 05/11/25

Romans Session 6: The Flow of Paul's Logic
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Mark Lanier: [00:00:00] I would like to join everybody else in saying, happy Mother's Day to the moms out there. Uh, I'm always delighted to get to celebrate with. Uh, my mom, who is such a formative part, um, of who I am, and I see it e even as I age, but I certainly knew it, uh, as, uh, in my youth. So it's a special day to honor moms and we wish, uh, uh, whomever is a mother figure in your life.

Maybe not a biological birth mom, but. Whoever has, has nurtured you in your life, it's a good day to give [00:01:00] them honor. So with that, uh, let's talk about Romans now every year, except during the COVID years, I take two and a half days in the summer and I conduct a seminar for lawyers. It is, um, one where I wind up presenting for about eight hours on one day, eight hours on the next day, and four hours on the third day.

So for 20 hours until I basically can't talk anymore. I talk nonstop. I prepare thousands of slides. I've got it coming up. Uh, in fact, the, the bill on the internet, this is the internet people who launch into greatness. Okay. Excuse the, the, the grandioseness of that claim, but it's [00:02:00] coming up. And we'll have probably a thousand people or so who are there to listen to me try to teach them what, at least at this point in my life, I understand is important in terms of communicating and trying a lawsuit.

Uh, when, when I'm not in here. That's basically what I do. I spend my days practicing law in that seminar, which I've been working on, um, uh, quite a bit over the last several months. In that seminar, I try to address certain questions. I try to address the question of, of what we do when we try a lawsuit, what we as lawyers do, but not just what we do, how we go about doing it most effectively, and why we do it.

In other words, what are the reasons behind how we choose to speak? [00:03:00] I can tell people in an opening statement, here's what you should do, but it's more useful to them as a teaching tool. If I tell them why this is the way you should do an opening statement. If instead of just telling 'em in, cross examining a witness, you don't merely.

Um, sharpen your knife and gut 'em like a Christmas, Turkey. But I explained to them why you do that. In a real sense. The way I do the seminar is in an opposite order, what are we doing? What we do it this way? What's behind it before the how? And so I'll give you the sneak, Pete, this is one example of what I'll be doing this summer.

This is uh, uh, my opening slide for one of the presentations on exploring the science of information retention. By the way, did you see my rocket? Did you see that? This Space City Houston, watch [00:04:00] this.

I teach 'em how to do PowerPoint too, exploring the science of information retention. How do we learn and retain what we learn? It's very important and one of the things that I will steer them to historically, not so much this year because it underlies things, but, but these are some slides from years gone by.

There was a book that's one of those few books that I tend to reread over and over by this fella named Aristotle. And the name of the book is Rhetoric. Rhetoric was ancient academic discipline for how to argue and persuade, [00:05:00] how to give a speech, how to be a lawyer, and give a legal courtroom presentation.

And Aristotle, in a real sense, wrote one of the books on it. He didn't originate it, but he refined it as a way of thinking, and he refined it so profoundly that his book is still available today, and people like me still read it today because it's highly relevant. Rhetoric is not a normal word for us. We can call it instead the art and science of persuasion.

Now, what Aristotle said, and this is so important to the Romans passage we're gonna be looking at, we, Aristotle said, is persuasion is built on three columns. [00:06:00] There are three core principles of support. If you're going to persuade someone. The first persuasion is ethos. Ethos is the idea of the speaker, and do they seem, we get the word ethical from it, but do they seem authentic?

Do they know what they're talking about? It's a focus on the speaker, and that is one of the three pillars for persuading anyone. A second pillar is pathos. Pathos is the audience. Who is the audience and how do they think and, and what are their issues and what's their agenda? And if you wanna persuade someone, you've gotta not just focus on the speaker, but you've gotta focus on the needs of the audience, [00:07:00] the ideas of the audience.

And the audience is one of the three focus points in the art of persuasion. The third Lagos, our logos, if you pronounce it the way we grew up, pronouncing it in Lubbock, Lagos, we get the it it's, it is often translated word. In John one, one in the beginning was the word. It's that word logos, but it also, we get the word logic from it.

We get the ology that fits at the end of so many different things. And anthropology by ology. Um, the ology means the study of, because logos in the Greek is the idea of, of a logical message. And for Aristotle, [00:08:00] and remember, Aristotle is writing three to four centuries before Paul.

For Aristotle, they already knew. The ancients knew. If you want to effectively communicate and persuade, you've gotta focus not just on who's giving the message. Not just on who's receiving the message, but you must focus on the message itself because a persuasive message has gotta be built upon logic.

It's gotta make sense. Nobody's gonna be persuaded by a bunch of gobbledy gook. Things need to be thought out in a reasonable manner and presented in a reasonable and coherent fashion if it's to be persuasive. [00:09:00] And I tell you that because Paul writing Romans isn't simply hammering out a quick email to send, he has composed.

A letter that is a letter plus so much more, and it is not just right, but it is responsible of us to examine Paul's logic. So I've divided this class today into three parts. The first part, the is a pillar where we're just going to look at the flow. Of Paul's logic and try to understand what his logical thinking is.

How is this flowing in his mind? What is his Aristotelian Aristotle [00:10:00] based? What is his message put together as to try to help the reader be persuaded? Then the second thing we'll do is we'll put up the column for the passage itself. I'd like to see how much of Romans two 12 through 3 21 we can get through.

We'll come back and revisit it, but I want to try to get through a bunch of it in an overview fashion for this class and we'll end with why does this matter to us? What are our points we can take home this week from this class? So y'all with me. Yeah, let's start with the flow of Paul's logic and I mean, it's, it's distinct, man.

I mean, he's got it down to the inch. He's, he's laying this out. And if you were here for the first class, this is our sixth class on Romans. If not, you can find it on the internet. Thank you. Internet wonders, um, the wonderful [00:11:00] volunteers in this class who, who helped get that done. Um, and, and that includes camera, sound, everybody else.

If you miss the first class, I said when we read the New Testament letters, it's helpful to think about eight different steps that we might go through. And they don't have to be in that order necessarily, but how we look at the historical context of the letter, the literary context, the textual analysis, and we're doing much of that today, but the historical context is what was going on in Rome.

And, and um, uh, what Rome was like, what culture was like. The literary context is the fact that this is what we could fairly call a rhetorical letter. It's not only a letter that's written. To address the events in Rome, but it's written in a [00:12:00] way that is very much a formal rhetorical argument. And toward that end, if you go back to lesson one, you'll recall, or maybe this was lesson two, where I talked about Marcus Tulio, kicker Cicero, we would say today.

Um, but uh, Cicero, we know more of his writings than anyone else in that era. And what we know from all of his writings includes where he was teaching his son how to be a rhetorician, how to do rhetoric, how to do the art of persuasion. And he said in a persuasive argument at the beginning, you put a partio and a partio is the section in your argument.

That renders the whole speech clear and lucid. It's a summary statement. [00:13:00] Uh uh, I sometimes refer to it in the practice of law as a power statement. It's what lets the jury or the audience or the readers know what the whole thing's about, all wrapped up into one tight sentence. As close as you can get, Cicero continued to say in the partition the matters which we intend to discuss are briefly set forth in a methodical way.

They thought logically then that's not an invention of the industrial Age or the scientific revolution or the age of Enlightenment. They were very logical process thinkers, and Cicero added that. The forum should have the following qualities. It should be brief, but it should be complete and [00:14:00] it should be concise.

Now Paul is putting together, and Cicero predated Paul by 50 years, but Paul is putting together a letter where he is fully aware of this as part of a rhetorical or, or a rhetoricians argument I should say. And so what we have in Romans in chapter one verses 16 through 17 is his parit. It's that concise, complete, brief statement of what his letter is about, what his argument is, what his effort at persuasion is trying to accomplish.

These are the matters which we intend to discuss. Briefly set forth in a methodical way. Cicero on what the Parit is. This has [00:15:00] to have brevity, completeness, and conciseness to quote Cicero on what it should have, and that's what Romans one is. Romans one, 16 and 17. It's where Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel.

And that word gospel and Paul, as we explored and will continue to explore means the the message, the good news being Jesus Christ died for your sins. He was buried and he was resurrected. That's the good news. And he says, it doesn't shame me that Jesus Christ died, buried, resurrected for my sins, because that the death of Christ and resurrection is God's power to save everyone who believes to the Jew first, also to the Greek, because in the death, burial and resurrection of [00:16:00] Christ, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith.

For faith or to faith as it's written, the righteous will live by faith. Now this is Paul's Partio. This is his argument that he has set out. It's the letter what he wants to persuade, put in one brief fashion. And so as he's done, so we've got Paul's good news, his gospel, and the good news for Paul is that Jesus died, was buried and resurrected on our behalf.

That's the good news. He says it so plainly in one Corinthians 15 when he says, uh, brethren, I would remind you of the gospel that I preach to you. Namely, Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried according to scripture on the third day arose. [00:17:00] That's the gospel. That is the good news. So if we're to think logically or methodically about this, I ask you this question.

You ready? See if this doesn't make sense that this is Paul's thinking. If Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection is good news for us, then take it away. Remove it, erase the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. What is life without that? How is that bad news? If him dying for us is the good news. If he hadn't done so, what's the bad news?

Why is it bad news? But for Jesus dying for our [00:18:00] sins,

and Paul then launches into an ancient courtroom metaphor because methodically, he wants to show first. What life is like in the judgment of God without the death of Christ. If we remove the death of Christ from the equation, what does the world, what does existence and what does eternity look like for all of us?

And that's where Paul begins. And so last week we looked at the principles by which Paul or God sits in judgment. The picture that I've put up here, uh, thank you. Artificial intelligence for creating it is of a [00:19:00] Roman trial and, and trials back then, as I told you last week, were a big deal. It was sport. I mean, it was a popular community affair.

People turned out to watch it. They couldn't watch it on TV because they didn't have TVs yet, so they just went and watched the real thing, and they were just as captivated by it as you might be by any TV show. And it was held outdoors, generally, not always. And the judge would sit on a dais. And the witness or the accused would stand before the judge and arguments would be held, and the judge is to make a decision.

The judge's decision should be based upon a righteous application of the law. [00:20:00] And so what Paul starts out his courtroom metaphor with is an explanation of God's principles of how he judges, and that's what we saw. And I've selected out just a couple of the verses to give us the flavor as we move into this week.

We know that the judgment crema, that is the legal word for a judgment. That's the legal word for what the judge announces. We know that the judgment that God delivers rightly falls on those who practice sin. Now, he's put a list of sins in the previous chapter,

but he doesn't say, uh, sins that I've listed. He says Toyota in the Greek, that means [00:21:00] sin. You know, things like that. Such things doesn't have to be the greed he talked about. Doesn't have to be. The sexual immorality he discussed says God's judgment, his pronouncement. Guilty, not guilty, rightly falls on those.

Who do these things, and that's a right fall. That's, that's a correct judgment. No kangaroo court here. No favoritism here. No vindictiveness here. Just righteousness. It's just beautiful truth. And then he says, Paul says that God will render. To each one according to his works. And this [00:22:00] word render from atomy is a legal word.

It's got application in real life as well, but it was used in a courtroom proceeding to reference the idea of delivering a verdict. In fact, render is still a word used in many courtrooms today. I have tried many. A case where the judge says in the instructions to the jury, when you render a verdict,

render, God will announce the verdict to each one according to how they lived.

He says, son of man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his father, and then he will repay. It's still the word apo from Atomy. It's still render. Same word. We've just trans changed the translation. He will render to each person according to what he's [00:23:00] done. Everybody's gonna get the verdict.

And to those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he'll give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and don't obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, they'll be wrath and fury. Now, as we read this, none of us need to be smug. All of us should be realizing what Paul is saying here, that if God judges us according to works, look I, Hey,

I've done some good things. I'm telling you it's Mother's Day.

I got, I got flowers. Surprise mom.[00:24:00]

There's a story there. But anyway, but even the best thing I've ever done is tainted with at least a little bit of selfishness. I want to, I wanna look good. I want her to be proud of me. I want her to know I love her. There's a lot that I'm getting out of this

self seeking. That's in almost everything we do. Don't obey the truth. Well come. I'm good often, but if you wanna ask me, Hey, have you lived a life where you always obeyed the truth? I'd be lying if I said yes.

Paul continues. There'll be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil? Mark, have you ever done evil? Well, define evil.[00:25:00]

Compare it to the purity of God's goodness in love. Have you ever done evil all day long?

Paul says, there's glory and honor. Peace for everyone who does good. Of course, we worship a savior Jesus who said. Don't call any man good. Nobody's really good, except God the father.

God shows no partiality. Now the Jews back then would read this and they'd say, well, I thought we got a break 'cause we're Jewish. We read this and we think, well, we thought we got a break 'cause we're Christian. God's not showing partiality as if, if you remove the death, barrel and resurrection of Jesus.

And you just look at his principles of judgment. There's no partiality. Those are his principles of judgment. It's like this, [00:26:00] if you live perfect, great. If you don't, uh oh.

And that's where we are in this letter so far as we get to the sections that I want to talk about today. But in the sections we talk about today, he divides up the Jews and the Gentiles. For a bit of it, not for all of it, but for the Gentiles. He says, look, they lived without the law. They didn't have the law of Moses.

They didn't have the prophets. They didn't have God instructing them on what they needed to do. But even though they lived without the law, as compared to the Jews who had the law, who had God's words, who had the will of God, the Oracles of God. Who had the instructions of God, who were told what to do, even those without the law are gonna perish.

The fact they didn't [00:27:00] have the law of Moses is no excuse, and those who had the law of Moses, they're gonna perish too. It's just what's gonna happen because the bottom line is this, everybody has sinned and fallen short. Of God's glory. It's that simple, everyone. Now we are so good at judging sin. I've got a dear friend who sent me an email, um, working through the devotional book for this year that I, that, that I did.

And, and on one of the days I was talking about our remorse, our godly remorse over things we've done wrong. And he says, you know, I still think that there are times where God can't forgive me. I've done too much, too wrong. I'm like, do you honestly think, do any of us ever really think that we are, can be so vile that we have [00:28:00] gone beyond what Jesus Christ is able to pay, that we can send so much that he, he, he's not good enough to pay the debt.

Everybody is sinned. It doesn't matter if you're. I, I don't care where you rank on the FBI's most wanted list. You say, well, let me babysit your kids. I'm just number five on the most wanted list. I'm not like number four. No, you ain't getting near my kids. So logically, if Jesus' death Bureau and resurrection is good news, how is life without it bad news?

Those are God's principles of justice, and those are the principles by which he's going to judge. So now let's see how Paul explains that. In today's passage, Romans two 12, everyone who has sinned [00:29:00] without the law, all these are the Gentiles. They didn't have the law of God, but everyone who has sinned without the law will also perish without the law.

All who've sinned under the law will be judged by the law. Now, this again, is laden with legal terms. This is his courtroom metaphor. You might as well get out Blacks, ancient Greek law dictionary. The words send without the law. Ah, nomos, the phrase under law in NoMo, these are, can be used to reference different legal jurisdictions.

So if I get a lawsuit that I need to bring, um, I met, uh, a friend this morning I [00:30:00] hadn't seen in a while. Um, her husband is a lawyer. Really good lawyer and he does the same kind of work I do, and he's not here this morning, but I can guarantee you if he was, he and I could have a long dialogue about where we should bring a lawsuit.

Because there are rules that say you can bring the suit here or you can bring it there. But you are not allowed to bring it in this jurisdiction. Over here, there are, there are jurisdictions it's called, there are places where you're allowed to bring the case and places where you're not. And this jurisdictional language is being used here by Paul, he says is, you know, in the courtroom metaphor, there are places that are what we'll call without the law.

It didn't have the law of Moses, and there are places that had the [00:31:00] law, but all who sinned without the law are also gonna perish in that jurisdiction and all who have sinned under the law. They're gonna perish under the law. It doesn't matter because this is the way God is going to judge. And that word judge that is used here.

They will be judged. That word judged is a legal proceeding. They will be. You cannot escape the jurisdiction of God. You can't say he is got no right to haul me into court. I don't live under the law of Moses. I never had it. You may be in a totally different jurisdiction. He's still got authority over you.

And that's what Paul is saying here, and he, and he [00:32:00] hits the Jews a little bit extra and says, don't look. It's not the hearers of the law either. Just 'cause you got the law and you've heard it. Those aren't the people who are righteous before God. It's, it's based on what you do is the doer of the laws that will be justified.

Again, another legal term. It means a legal declaration of a favorable verdict. You want a good verdict in the court of law of God? You better live good, perfect, holy,

because if you do, that's fine, but the problem is you don't.

And so the problem is those without the law perish and those under the law perish. He continues when Gentiles. Who don't have the law by nature, do what the law requires. [00:33:00] There are a law to themselves, even if they don't have the law. You may not have the law of Moses, but you ought to know better than to go out and kill someone.

You may not have the law of Moses, but you ought to know better than to be a thief.

Almost every society, not everyone, there's some wrinkles around the edges, but almost every society recognizes certain moral truths

because we're hardwired for that as creatures made in the image of God. Even people who don't believe in God are hardwired for that and do philosophical gymnastics trying to justify this innate morality. They [00:34:00] know when they refuse to credit one who hardwired it into them. But the bottom line is, so Gentiles don't have the law.

It doesn't matter. Bye-bye. Have a good day. Sorry. You're outta luck. You see the Gentiles show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness. That bears witness, by the way, that's a legal word. It's a, it's a courtroom terminology for testimony. Uh, bears witness with, but, uh, uh, oh, that's not it.

I highlighted the wrong word. It's here. It's Sue Marillo. Sorry. Started this at four in the morning. Um, bear witness, [00:35:00] that's courtroom terminology. Boy, that's just gonna really bother me. If you're watching this on the internet thinking he must have failed his Greek class. I didn't fail it over this.

And their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. 'em, see, they, they, everybody's got a conscience. You can take the Gentiles that don't have the, the teachings of the Bible. If we will use anachronistic vocabulary, you can take them. They still have a conscience that's either going to accuse them or it's gonna excuse them.

Paul was recognizing of the fact that sometimes we'll rationalize what we're doing, but the fact that we have to rationalize it tells us we're doing something wrong.

And, uh, I love [00:36:00] Paul's inserted this little a in here, uh, the Greek ada. Um, it, it, it, it doesn't really, it's translated or, but it's a lot more emphatic than just, or it's like boom, it's got a little boom to it. So he said, look, there are conflicting thoughts cues. Then he is thinking, it is like Paul's thinking, okay, well some of them have seared their conscience and it doesn't accuse them.

They rationalize it, so it's like boom. Or they even excuse themselves. It's kind of Paul being Paul on that day when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Now that word judges, again, is the judicial word. It's actually in the future tense here, uh, will judge. It's a formal action of a judge rendering a decision.

It is when the judge announces the verdict and he says, on that day, when [00:37:00] according to my gospel. And, uh, this is interesting too. Lemme see if I've got it here. Yeah, here it is. Um, ang gallion mo ang gallion gospel, the, the death barrel or Resurrection of Jesus on our behalf. And when Paul says mine in the genesis here, it, it means a variety.

It can be taken a lot of different ways, but I understand it to mean the gospel as Paul has delivered it. What's the good news to Paul because that word gospel is used for good news in all sorts of different arenas in the first century. But Paul has this almost singular, certainly unique use of Ang Gallion as as the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

That's the good news. Becky said to me last night, she said, well, you want the good news or the bad news? [00:38:00] I am like, well, I don't want any bad news. Well, it turned out the news was both. So just asking for the good news got me the bad news, but that good news is just what that, that word means you ain't gion.

So Paul wants it specific. My good news, God will judge the secrets of men. By the death, burial and resurrection of Christ on their behalf. That's my good news. He doesn't want you to lose the thread of the good news while he is walking through these principles of judgment that will condemn us all. By the way, I love this passage here where he says, um, this is just a side note, uh, when he'll judge the secrets, secrets, here is kta.

There are two Greek words for secrets that are, that's used by Paul Kupita used here, and ion used in like [00:39:00] Ephesians where Pastor Jarret's preaching from right now. Ion, which we get the word mystery from ion, are, are secrets that are associated frequently with some divine, um, uh, uh, being or, or a, a sect or a group that, that are gonna uncover some important divine news.

Kta, on the other hand, is a secret that I've got that I'm gonna keep and I don't want anybody to know it. A little difference in nuanced meaning there. Paul says, on that day, when according to my gospel, God will judge those things that you've kept deep inside that you don't want anyone to know. But the good news is he can.

He can judge them by the death barrel and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf. Now he keeps in his thread, if you call yourself a Jew and you rely [00:40:00] on the law and you boast in God, so now he shifted from the Gentiles and he's talking about the Jews. If you do and you know his will and you approve what is excellent, because you're instructed from the law, say, yeah, that's what the law says.

Yeah, I approve that. Yeah, I believe in the law. You can say that till you're blue in the face. You can be sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind. I told them what they ought to do. I know that Bible and I told them they were wrong. If you are a light to those who are in darkness, I mean, what can you do?

You can lead a horse to water. Can't make 'em drink. I've done my share. If you're an instructor of the foolish, shouldn't do that, idiot. That's the kind of stuff that God says no. If you're a teacher of children[00:41:00]

having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, I have read the Bible, the B-I-B-L-E. That's the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God. Let me tell you what it says for you. You can do all of that, but are you listening to what you're saying? You who teach others don't. You teach yourself, you preach against stealing.

Do you steal? I don't steal.

You ever take something that doesn't belong to you?

Think of what that might mean. Peter Brule, the, the Bruger, the elder in the 15 hundreds, I think 1570s, somewhere around there, about a year before he died, painted this painting. It's called The Blind Leading the Blind. I love this [00:42:00] painting. So you got, they're all connected by a staff. This blind guy has already fallen into the ditch.

This blind guy is about to fall after him. And then these are all fallen too. And all of them, you can see, if you look at it close enough, you can see their eyes. They all have different eye problems. And so it's a bunch of blind people all falling and, and he paints it on a slope. It's not painted with them just across the, the screen.

It's on a slope because that gives it action. You're following, you got the flow, and what's the flow doing? It's going down. The blind are leading the blind. And if you read art historians who comment on this, there are lots of different interpretations of it. And heavens Peter is not alive, or Pieter is not alive to tell us, but I give you mine.

Look at this. He's got the church here and the church kind of divides the two. One of 'em is already in the ditch. Man, he gone [00:43:00] this one. He got no hope and he certainly has no hope. Looking away from the church. On this side, you've got the ones who, at least one seems to be looking a little bit that way.

The other's not so much, but perhaps there's some hope for them. But their only hope to keep them from falling is by changing where they're walking and not following the blind. The blind. Leading the blind is not a new concept. Jesus talked about it in Matthew.

Paul continues and says, that's what you do. You. You say, someone shouldn't commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? Well, no, I don't commit adultery. Time out. Remember what Jesus said? If you look after a woman with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery.

You who? Ab Poor idols. Do you Rob Temples? [00:44:00] No. I don't even go to temples. Time out. Do you put things in the place of God? Do you value things the way you should value God? You who boast in the law are dishonoring God by breaking the law. It's written the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

I'll put it this way, Jesus said, you'll know they are Christians by their love and greater love has nobody than to lay down their lives. And who should I love? My neighbor, and who is my neighbor? Whoever is in need. Now, how many of us love our neighbor like ourselves? The way the law told us to do

is the church [00:45:00] known among the heathen for being a place of love and compassion and caring for those who need help.

I mean. Circumcision was a label they used for following the Jewish law. Circumcision would mark you out as a Jew. Male. Circumcision indeed is a value if you wanna obey the law, but if you a law breaker, par taste, no mu, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision again. We've got a legal phrase here. This is a technical term for someone who's violated the legal statutes.

You could be all the Jew you wanna be, but if you're not following the law, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, his uncircumcision is better than, look what you do matters. [00:46:00] You might not be Jewish, but if you're following the law better than a Jew, the Jew's got no right to judge you.

He who's physically uncircumcised, but keeps the law condemns you who have the written code and break the law. In other words, by Jews, they're riding off in the sunset with the Gentiles. In the worst of luck, luck's not the right word. No one is a Jew who's merely one outwardly circumcisions, not outward and physical.

You're not gonna be saved because you followed this ritual or that ritual. A Jew is one inwardly. You've gotta focus on what's inside Jew, and that's where we're all condemned. We might look hunky dory on the outside, but what's inside that heart and what's inside that mind? Him. Where are those Gupta, those secrets?[00:47:00]

Circumcisions. A matter of the heart by the spirit, not the letter. His praise is not from men, but from God. So what advantage is it to even being Jewish? Well, there is advantages. Paul says much in every way. For starters, who do you think was given the fiduciary responsibility of keeping scripture alive?

They were entrusted with the Oracles of God. They had to write it down. They had to memorize it. They were Jewish prophets who edited it, who put it into a coherent order. This is a legal terminology. Entrusted, it's a reference to a, a, a fiduciary obligation. And yeah, some were unfaithful, but that doesn't nullify God's faithfulness.

This is still what it is. Let God be true [00:48:00] even if everyone else is a liar. Legal term by the way, means, uh, someone giving false testimony. As it is written, and I say legal term, I wanna make it clear the words used outside of the legal courtroom, but in a legal courtroom, that's how it's used as it's written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you're judged.

All of these are legal terms. Go back justified in your words, declared not guilty and prevail when you are judged, when the judgment comes down. But if our unrighteousness, Akia, it's a weird word of sorts, serves to show the righteousness of God, what do we say? Say, okay, well if, if God is glorified and shown to be so pure and holy by the fact that I'm bad, probably would be good for me to be really bad [00:49:00] so I can bring God lots of glory.

I met a lawyer one time who went to church and he was at church. I said, now what do you do at the church? He said, I supply the sin for the preaching

more. I got to know him before I realized he was telling the truth there. Uh, blacks law dictionary will tell you this. Unrighteousness, ADI, uh, uh, Akia is a violation of law or justice in a sense. If we violate God's law and that serves to show how righteous God is, is that a good thing? He says, uh, heavens no.

God is unrighteous to inflict wrath. Wrath is the penalty assessed by a court. By no means how could God judge the world? But if through my lie, God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned? You know, if, if I'm helping God out by being a [00:50:00] liar, he oughta cut me some slack for that. Why not do evil so that God's goodness can be shown?

You know, some people slander charge us for saying this, but their condemnation is just don't slander me for that. Paul was always having to deal with this. Oh, mercy. Okay. Paul was, I don't have my glasses on it. It looked like class was over. It's not. I've got six minutes. I can keep moving. Their condemnation is just look, here it is.

Remember Gentiles, Jews, without the law under the law, bottom line is gone. Gone see ya because the bottom line is all of sin and fallen short of God's glory. Paul says it. Are we Jews any better off? Not at all. We've already charged. All Jews and Greeks alike are under sin as it's written. None is righteous, not one.

No one understands. Now he's just quoting all these passages [00:51:00] out of the Old Testament here in machine gun fashion. Ta. Okay, we'll get into those next week. We'll come back and explore it. But nun's, righteous, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They've become worthless.

No one does good. Not even one. Then he shifts and he quotes from Psalm five in one 40. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive the venom of asks is under their lip. And then their mouth is full of curses and bitterness from Psalm 10. Their feet are swift to shed blood in the paths of ruin and misery in the way of peace.

They've not known. It's a reference to the proverbs, but also found in Isaiah 59 more directly. There's no fear of God before their eyes. Psalm 36 1. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law legal term, so that every mouth may be stopped. The whole world may be held accountable to God.

This is the way it is. These are the principles of judgment. [00:52:00] This is what happens to those who are under the law, are not under the law. Everybody by works of law. And, and in the Greek here, it doesn't say by works of the law. Um, it just says by works of law. And it's not always the case that the, the Greek construction's called an arthrex.

It's not always you, you can take it too far. But I think Paul here purposefully doesn't put the word the, because he means any law. The law of the Jews or the law of the Gentiles that's written on them by works of law, no human being will be declared, okay, you got no hope in you. You got no hope in your performance.

You got no hope in how good you are, but now, and that new knee, that butt is one of the most tremendous pivot points. In the Bible, but now [00:53:00] there is a righteousness of God that's been made, shown, shown, manifested apart from law. There is something, even though the law and the prophets bear witness to it, there is something that's apart from law and again.

This is righteousness of God apart from law, and that cross should be down on the, apart from the law. And that's, that's, that's not just the flow of Paul's logic, but that's what he has said here. Does that make sense? And that's the good news and that's where we're headed. But it leaves us here today in our points for home.

There, but for the grace of God, go every one of us. That's right. Nobody's good enough. Nobody's good enough. I don't care how [00:54:00] many times you've been to church, I don't care how many times you've taken the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, I don't care how many times you've been to confession, I don't care how many times you fill in the blank, you are not good enough.

Amen. But also there's nobody who's so bad that God doesn't have saving power because Jesus didn't die for selected really not two bad sins and leave the really bad ones away from the cross. He has the power. For salvation to everyone. Alright, we've got two minutes. I won't make it through this song, but this song is your third point for home.

Are you ready?

Praise to Almighty, the King of Creation.[00:55:00]

Praise him for, he's.

All ye.

I'll take it down. We should have a responsive phrase. To the wonderful God who is righteous and has righteous means and, and, and basis for judging, but has found [00:56:00] in a righteous way an avenue by which he can extend mercy to all. Who will ask him to all. Who come to him in faith. To all who say, Lord,

I can't do it on my own. I have failed miserably and based upon the past, I have no doubt I'll fail miserably again. All I can do is ask for your mercy in Jesus Christ and trust that you. Will regard the death of Christ on my behalf as payment for my sins. And it's that simple and it's that profound, and it's why my Romans professor in Greek said, the most profound thing, no, the most simple thing [00:57:00] about the gospel is the death of Christ for our sins.

The most profound thing about the gospel. It's the death of Christ for our sins. It's simple and profound, all wrapped into one. Let me pray a blessing over you and I'll see you next week. God willing. Father, I thank you in the name of Jesus for the honor of getting to work through this powerful, fundamental truth that you have secured for us through the heart and mind and inspired pen of Paul.

And secured through the ages by faithful and loving church and holders of scripture. Lord, may your spirit convict us of sin and righteousness and judgment. May your spirit convict us of the mercy you have for us in Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we pray. [00:58:00] Amen.