Epistle of Paul to the Romans
Compiled by WD Kemner July 2024
Chapter 3 Overview
Three objections to the Gospel from Jews and the response from Paul.
Romans Chapter 3 verses 1-2
Concordance: Jewish Advantage
1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
An advantage for the Jew. The Gospel was given to the Jew.
Romans Chapter 3 verses 3-4
Concordance: Heathen
3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
Just because one person does not believe, that has no bearing upon the truth.
Quoting Psalm 51:4.
Romans Chapter 3 verses 5-8
Concordance: God’s Righteousness
5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
Verse 5:
If our sin magnified God, in that, the deeper into sin a man gets the more pronounced is the righteousness of God. Is God wrong for taking vengeance on that sinner?
Verse 7:
If God’s truths are magnified by my lying and thus His glory is increased, why then should I be declared a sinner?
Verse 8:
Instead, let me do evil so that good can come of it. There were people making the false statement that this was indeed what Paul was preaching.
Romans Chapter 3 verses 9-12
Concordance: Man’s Righteousness
9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Are the Jews therefore Better than the Gentile?
Romans Chapter 3 verses 13-18
Concordance: Heathen - Unrighteous
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
The ENTIRE world is guilty, both Jew and Gentile. They are guilty of the above items.
What is the purpose of the law then?
Romans Chapter 3 verses 19-20
Concordance: Deeds of the Law
19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Because we have the law, we now are aware that we have sinned and are guilty in the sight of God.
We are guilty, therefore what possible hope can there be for us?
Romans Chapter 3 verses 21-22
Concordance: God’s Righteousness
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
The law is no longer needed for God’s righteousness
Instead, it is now available by “faith” to EVERYONE. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile. It is free to anyone who simply believes in Jesus Christ.
Romans Chapter 3 verses 23-26
Concordance: Salvation
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Webster Dictionary 1828 Edition definition of “Propitiation”:
”The act of appeasing wrath and conciliating the favor of an offended person”
Romans Chapter 3 verses 27-28
Concordance: Justified by Faith
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Justified By Faith Not by Works
Romans Chapter 3 verses 29-31
Concordance: God of the World
29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
The subject of this chapter, is he God of only the Jews?