Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #6 in Romans 3,  and we will read Romans 3:3-6:

For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 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. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

We will stop reading there.  We have spent a good deal of time looking at the fact that the Lord gave Israel His Word.  He committed unto them the oracles of God, putting them in trust with them.  It was an advantage and blessing for them.

Now when we come to verse 3, there are a couple of questions raised: “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?”  What if some did not believe?  Of course this would tie in with our discussion of Israel being the caretakers of the Word of God, and with Israel’s response to that duty over the course of their history.   Again, just to remind us, Israel is representing, or pointing to, the churches and congregations.  In fact, the truth is that the New Testament corporate church really performed in an equivalent matter to Old Testament Israel in their stewardship of the “lively oracles,” the Word of God, the Bible.  In other words, the churches did not perform better than Israel did, but they failed in an equally miserable way, and that is why at the end of the church age, God cut them off. 

And we will look at a passage that is also in the book of Romans where God warned the New Testament churches and congregations.  He directed their attention to Old Testament Israel, and He warned them that if they conducted themselves in a similar way, they would experience a similar fate (judgment), and that is exactly what we have come to understand, as we have the privileged position of having lived during that time of the end of the church age, and the end stage of earth’s history.  We have lived during that time for many years now, so we can see it very clearly.  These things have really materialized in our day, and these things are read and understood like today’s newspaper.  We can see it so readily.

Let us look at this verse in Romans 3:3:

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

The words “not believe” are really a translation of one Greek word.  It is the word for “believe,” with the alpha prefix attached to negate it.  It is Strong’s #569, which is “ap-is-teh'-o,” which literally means “not believe.”  The second word is the word “unbelief” in the second part of the verse, and this is Strong’s #570, a related word, and it is translated as “ap-is-tee'-ah.”  It is the exact same thing with the alpha prefix attached to a word that means “believe,” so it is “unbelief.”  Since they are different Greek words, I suppose the translators did not want to translate them in exactly the same way.  To “not believe” is to have “unbelief.”

So the question was asked, “For what if some did not believe?”  God had given them His Word, and entrusted them with His Word, and it was the living Word that could bring salvation.  And yet, what if some in Israel did not believe?  It is almost shocking to consider and think about them not believing?  Was there some fault on God’s part because of their failure to believe such a glorious Word?  And that is what this verse is getting at with the question, “Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?”  That is, God gave them the Word, and yet, when we read the Old Testament, we read, again, and again, of Israel and many occasions of their unbelief.  It seems like it almost made the faith of God without effect.  It seemed almost void.  It seemed to come to no good result.  No – that idea is not permitted by the Bible. 

So let us begin by looking at this word “some” in Romans 3:3: “For what if some did not believe?”  When we look at the history of Israel as the Bible records for anyone to read, we do not think of just “some” that did not believe, but we think of “many” in Israel that did not believe throughout their history.  And yet we should not think that when God uses the word “some” that it means just a handful, or just a few of the many.  It is not getting into the specifics of numbers, but it is just how God has formed the question.  We can find similar statements, if we turn to 1Corinthians 10 and a couple of other places.  We read in 1Corinthians 10:7:

Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them…

The context is Israel in the wilderness, and God says they were examples.  Examples to who?  They were examples to the New Testament corporate church, just as the Lord would make them an example in Romans 11.  God is saying that this is what happened to them because of what they did in response to God’s Word.  Due to their failure to hearken and obey, God brought judgment repeatedly upon them.  I should have read verse 6, so let us start there, in 1Corinthians 10:6-7:

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.  Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Then the account continues, telling about their sins in the wilderness and the judgment of God that fell upon them for those sins.  Again, it says, “Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them…”  There were a great many in Israel who were sinning against God’s commandment regarding idols and they were involved in idolatry.

Also, this word “some” is used in Romans 11, which I have referred to a couple of times.  Let us go now to Romans 11:13:

For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

Here, Paul is under the inspiration of God as God moved him to say these things.  He is addressing the Gentiles: “For I speak to you Gentiles…”  Who are these Gentiles?  They were the ones that would be in the churches.  They are the pastors, elders, deacons, and congregations of the New Testament church, so Paul was speaking to the churches and congregations.  Then we read in Romans 11:14:

If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.

He is referring to the Jews because Paul was a Jew.  He was “a Hebrew of the Hebrews,” as we read in Philippians.  So he was speaking to them with the hope that some of his own flesh, the people of Israel, might become saved.  Then it says in Romans 11:15:

For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?

Notice the language that says that Israel was cast away.  And they were because God had cast them away, and Paul is recognizing that.  Then it says in Romans 11:16-17:

For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

This language is really not complicated.  It is simple, but we have to stop and tie things together so that we are able to follow it.   You  know, it is one thing to sit down and study this, but it is another thing if you are listening to a Bible study, and you are trying to follow along quickly as we go to various Scriptures.

Notice here that is says, “…if some of the branches be broken off,” and that is referring to the nation of Israel.  God is not saying that all the branches were broken off because some of the Jews remained a part of this tree, or vine, who is Christ Himself: “I am the vine, and ye are the branches,” as Christ said in the Gospel of John.  To be a branch of  the vine or tree (and Jesus is the tree of life), it means “life.”  It means you will live for evermore.  But if you are cast away or broken off, that is a grievous judgment of God because you are no longer in the vine.  You are no longer in Christ.  You cannot have salvation apart from Him. 

We must be in Him, so this is telling us about God cutting off national Israel, and we know that at the time Jesus was hanging on the cross, the veil of the temple was rent in twain, exposing the “holy of holies,” thereby voiding the idea of it being holy.  It was no longer the holy temple, and, therefore, Jerusalem was no longer the holy city, and Israel was no longer the holy people.  They had become like anyone else among the nations of the world, and that is also a point that is being made here.  Since they are like the nations, in the New Testament era they could be grafted back in; they could become a part of that tree of life, or that living vine, who is the Lord Jesus Christ.  They could potentially have experienced salvation like anyone else because God is not a respecter of persons. 

So the Apostle Paul was seeking to provoke to emulation those who were his flesh, that some of them might be saved, and that they would realize this.  Of course we know that God certainly did save Jew and Gentile over the course of the New Testament church age, and even in the Latter Rain period after the church age ended.  There were many more Gentiles because the Jews are just one nation, and they are a small nation out the whole of the world, so the overwhelming number that God saved would be of the nations (Gentiles).  Nonetheless, God would save those He intended to save of the physical descendants of Abraham, just as He would save the Gentiles He had determined to save.

Again, it says in Romans 11:17:

And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

(It is referred to here as an olive tree, not a vine, but it is the same idea.  Christ is the olive tree.)  So he is saying, “If you are grafted in, Gentiles…”  That is, the churches and congregations are like Israel that is being pictured as the branches of the olive tree.  And now the New Testament churches were the ones that were grafted in to partake of the root and the fatness of the olive tree, but now the warning comes in Romans 11:18:

Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

In other words, you do not have Christ.  Remember the “root of Jesse,” which is a reference to Jesus.  If you do not bear the root, you do not abide in Christ.  Then it says in Romans 11:19:

Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.

The New Testament churches could say that, could they not?  But here is the response in Romans 11:20:

Well; because of unbelief they were broken off…

And that is the message in our verse in Romans 3:3:

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

So we see there was a penalty for their unbelief.  It was a terrible thing.   Because of unbelief, they were broken off.  Then it says in Romans 11:20-21:

…and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

There is the warning to all churches:  Beware!  Take heed.  Look at what God did to Israel.  Take that example in 1Corinthians 10 to heart, and realize what God did to the natural branches because Israel was first, were they not?  God raised up Israel, and they were His outward representative to all the nations of the world.  They represented the kingdom of God on the earth for many centuries.  And yet, due to unbelief, He cut them off.

Therefore, “Beware, churches,”  just as God warned the churches in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3 with the addresses to the seven churches.  Again, and again, the warning was stated.  For example, it says in Revelation 2:5:

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

There is no mistaking that language unless you willfully ignore it and dismiss it.  Also, we know that with each address to the churches, it ended this way, like in Revelation 2:11:

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches…

So Christ was not just speaking to the church at Ephesus when He said He would come quickly and remove their candlestick, but it was to all the churches (plural), or the perfection of churches, the seven churches.  They represented the New Testament corporate church.  They were to do the “first works” because they were under a works relationship to God’s Word, whereas individuals can be under grace. There is also a works relationship for individuals, if they want to go that route, and they can try to keep the Law, but no one is able to do so.  But as far as grace is concerned, God only bestowed grace upon certain individual sinners who happened to be the ones He had elected before the foundation of the world to obtain His grace.  He does not bestow grace upon an entity like national Israel. They did not receive (saving) grace as a nation that was the people of God.

But those in the churches say, “Oh, but that was the Old Testament, and this is the New Testament, and this is the time for grace, and we stand by grace before God.  Yes – we have our sins, and we do not pretend to be perfect.  But that is what grace is because God is merciful and forgiving, and He forgives all our sins.”  No – He does not forgive a single sin, corporately.  God does not forgive the sins of a corporate church collectively.  He does not forgive the various denominations and their various churches regarding their sins against His Word, and their failure to properly believe and be good stewards of the manifold mysteries of God’s Gospel.  He does not forgive their sins, although He put up with them, and He gave them space to repent for almost two thousand years.  But the definite warning was this: “Beware!  Look what I did to Israel.  And if you do not repent, I will come and take away the candlestick, the light of the Gospel.”  We can understand that to be the “daily,” which is completely wrapped up with the Spirit of God and the salvation of God, and the Light of truth, the Lord Jesus Christ.  So when we came to the point in time when the space to repent was over, it was the end of the church age, and God came to visit, and He saw the sins of the churches.  Without Christ in the midst, all He could see was their unrighteousness, their unfaithfulness, and their unbelief.