Sinner.

 

His Righteousness.

 

God - My Help.

 

It Just Isn't Fair.

 It just isn't fair. We hear this all the time and guess what? A lot of times it is true. Life isn't fair by a long, long shot, yet we want it to be. Something inside of us cries out for fair dealings. We cry out for justice for all, not just a select few. We want things to be RIGHT because we know we live in a messed up, twisted world that has skewed things so completely it can never straighten them out, never.

When God destroyed all the land living things in the flood except Noah and those he saved on the ark, he did so because things had become so wicked. He wanted man to have a fresh start. Man took that fresh start and I imagine for a while they appreciated it and acted accordingly, but then the evil nature of man took over. Incentivized by Satan at every moment of every day, man once more returned to their evil ways.

Today we wait for and long for the return of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, so there will be an end to all evil. Justice will only then be fully realized for all.

We can cry out that God Himself isn't fair and cite many examples of what we claim is His unfairness, and injustice- but in the end, we will be shown beyond any doubt that all God did was fair and just.

May we stay strong in Christ, awaiting the day of redemption, clinging to Christ as our hope now and forever. May we seek forgiveness when we lack fairness and justice in our own actions, and strive to live as Christ would have us live trusting always and forever in Him, by His mercy and grace, His amazing love!

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God Will Be Justified.

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.

"That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged." God is now accused by Satan of injustice and indifference, and even of cruelty.

Thousands have echoed the charge.

But the judgment will declare the righteousness of God. His character, as well as that of man,  is on trial. In the judgment every act, both of God and man, that has been done since creation will be seen by all in all its bearings. And when everything is seen in that perfect light, God will be acquitted of all wrongdoing,  even by his enemies.

Entrusted.

Romans 3:1-18:

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.

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. 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.

9 What then? are we better than they? No, in nowise; 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.

13 Their throat is an open sepulcher; 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.

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"Committed."

The advantage of the Jew was not simply in the fact that to them were made known the oracles of God, but that "unto them were committed the oracles of God," or "they were intrusted with the oracles of God."  That is, the law was given to them to hold in trust for others, and not simply for their own benefit. They were to be the missionaries to the whole world. The advantage and the honor conferred upon the Jewish nation in intrusting them with the law of God to make it known to the world, can not be estimated.

Tell It to Others.

When Peter and John were arrested and threatened for preaching Christ (who is simply the living law in perfection), they said, "We can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Acts 4:20.  They who appreciate the gift which God commits to them must tell it to others. Some think that it is useless to carry the gospel to the heathen when they hear that God justifies the heathen who walk according to the little light that shines to them just the same as he does the person who walks according to the light that shines from the written word. They think that the wicked heathen are in no worse case than the unfaithful professed Christians. None who appreciate the blessings of the Lord could think so. Light is a blessing. The more people know of the Lord, the more they can rejoice in him, and all who truly know the Lord must be desirous of helping to spread the "good tidings of great joy" to all the people for whom it is designed.

God's Faithfulness.

Ro. 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

"What if some were without faith? Shall their want of faith make of none effect the faithfulness of God?" A very pertinent question. It is an appeal to the faithful of God. Will he break his promise,  because of man's unbelief? Will he be unfaithful because man is unfaithful? Will our wavering cause God to waver? "That can not possibly be;" for this is the force of the expression which is incorrectly rendered, "God forbid." God will be true even though every man be a liar.

"If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he can not deny himself." 2 Tim. 2:13.

"Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds." Ps. 36:5.

Power and Faithfulness.

Some one might hastily affirm that this overthrows the previous statements, that only those who have faith are heirs of the promise; for "how can it be that only the faithful are Abraham's seed, and thus heirs, if God will fulfill his promise even though every man disbelieves?" Very easily, when we consider the Scriptures and the power of God. Listen to the words of John the Baptist to the wicked Jews who could be fitly characterized only as "vipers:" "Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." Matt. 3:9. God will bestow the inheritance only on the faithful; but if every man should prove unfaithful, he who made man of the dust of the ground can of the stones raise other people, who will believe.'

God's Law - An Advantage

 

Oracles of God (His Spoken Word Included)

 (Excerpt) 

Objections Answered. 

The first part of the third chapter of Romans consists of questions and answers. 

The thoughtful reader of the epistles of Paul must have noticed the frequent occurrence of questions in the midst of an argument. Every possible objection is anticipated. The apostle asks the question that an objector might ask,  and then answers it, making his argument more emphatic than before. So in the verses next following it is very evident that the truths set forth in the second chapter would not be very acceptable to a Pharisee, and he would combat them with all his might.

The questions raised by the apostle are not difficulties that lie in his own mind;  this is clear from the parenthetical clause in verse 5, "I speak as a man." 

With this in mind, we may read Romans 3:1-18:

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. 

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. 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.

9 What then? are we better than they? No, in nowise; 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. 

13 Their throat is an open sepulcher; 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 Oracles of God." 

An oracle is something spoken. That which was emphatically spoken by the mouth of the Lord is the Ten Commandments. See Deuteronomy 5:22. 

Deu 5:22  These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me. 

Stephen, speaking of Moses receiving the law, said,  "This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sina, and with our fathers; who received the lively oracles to give unto us." Acts 7:38. The Ten Commandments are primarily the oracles of God, because they were uttered by his own voice in the hearing of the people.

But the Holy Scriptures as a whole are the oracles of God, since they are the word of God, spoken "in divers manners" (Heb. 1:1), and because they are but an expansion of the Ten Commandments. Christians are to shape their lives solely by the Bible. This is seen from the words of the apostle Peter: "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God."1 Peter 4:11.