Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #10 in Romans 3,  and we will be reading Romans 3:4-6:

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?

In our last study, we were looking at the first part of verse 4, especially the statement, “yea, let God be true, but every man a liar.”  And we see that this definitely is the case, as the Bible presents God as the Truth.  He is the essence of truth.  His Word is true.  Everything about God identifies with truth.  That is a characteristic or attribute of God.  It is chiefly identified with the Bible and the kingdom of heaven.

Then, it goes on to say in Romans 3:4:

…but every man a liar…

This is also a true statement according to the Bible.  Man was deceived by the lie at the beginning back in the Garden of Eden.  At that point, he died in his soul existence and became a servant to sin and to Satan, the father of lies.  Men were now the children of the devil with a heart deceitful above all things that prefers and chooses the lie over the truth.

It goes on to say in Romans 3:4:

… as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

This appears to be a quote from Psalm 51, and the last part of  the verse matches what we read here.  I will read Psalm 51:1-4:

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

We see that the last part of Psalm 51:4 uses very similar language: “…that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.”  We know that Psalm 51 was written after Nathan the prophet was sent by God to David, and he told him a parable about a man who had everything, and yet, he took his neighbor’s only lamb.  David was outraged, saying the man should die.  Then Nathan declared, “Thou art the man.”  And he told him that God knew all about what David had done by committing adultery with Uriah the Hittite’s wife Bathsheba, and then covering it up by having Uriah slain with the sword of the enemy.  After the Word of God came to him through Nathan, David was convicted of his sin, the terrible transgressions he had done, and he cried out, “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”  And then he said in verse 4: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” That is, sin is against God because sin is the transgression of the Law of God.  And some may not have a problem sinning against God’s Law, but when people find out about the sin, then they suddenly feel remorse about having done wrong to their fellow man.  And yet, God knew it all the time because the Bible says, “…all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”  He has always known fully about it, and many times we realize that God knows about it fully, but we do not have that conviction, or that tremendous sorrow over our sin, until it comes to the surface to the ears or eyes of our fellow man.  And that should not be.  It should not be because all sin is against God, and we need to recognize that God is always with us, and we should have that remorseful action immediately in the presence of God, and not just when it (our sin) is exposed to others.

Again, it says Psalm 51:4:

… that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest…

That is, when God speaks.  David was acknowledging his guilt.  He was acknowledging his shame and the fact that he needed to be cleansed from his sin.  It is a full confession of wrongdoing for the sin that he did, and, therefore, he was praying to God.  “I admit this to you.  It is before you, so that you will be justified when you speak concerning this transgression.  It is all laid out before you, and you will judge me accordingly.”  Of course God did not need David to lay it all out.  God does not need any man to confess and admit what he did because God fully knows it, but it is very proper to do so, and the good thing is that David was not trying to justify his sin.  He was not trying to make excuses for his sin.  He frankly admitted it, and he laid it all before God, and when God speaks He is justified because the things He will say will be His judgment.

Now concerning David and this incident, through Nathan the prophet God told him that he would not die, although the Law of God decrees that one engaged in adultery should die.  The Law of God decrees that one who murders someone should die: “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed…”   So on both counts, David should have died.  God should have slain him, but he did not die, and this is where God’s magnificent, merciful, and wonderful salvation plan comes into the picture.  David’s sin of adultery and murder (and the sins of all of God’s elect) and all the filthy deeds he had done had all been laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and He was struck dead.  Christ was smitten for David’s adultery and murder.  He was slain as the Lamb of God, and Christ bore it all, and He paid the penalty, which is why David did not die.

God did chasten David severely, and He told him that the sword would not depart from his house as a result of these sins, but he was spared the death penalty.  So too it is with any of God’s elect people as we sin after we have become saved.  God has already given us a new resurrected soul, and He has forgiven all our sins, and when God forgives all our sins, it occurs at the moment of the application of the blood of Christ at the moment of salvation.  And this salvation had to have taken place before May 21, 2011, because that is when the “day of salvation” ended.  But when God mercifully, graciously, and kindly granted forgiveness to a sinner for the mountains of iniquity he was guilty of, then he was washed and cleansed of all iniquity and forgiven for all His sins.  At that point, it could be said, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…”    We are forgiven.  We are not condemned.  We will not die. 

You know, the fact is that even if we became saved on the last day before May 21, 2011, then we have been saved for several years now, and we have certainly sinned in our bodies because that is where sin occurs once we have received our new resurrected souls.  But whatever sin we have done in the flesh since that time has also been forgiven, and yet, God will chasten and correct us.  He will not pour out wrath upon us because that was accomplished in Christ, but He will chasten us to change the behavior and move us away from that sin so that we come to abhor it, turn from it, and repent, bringing the body under.

Here in Psalm 51, again, it says, “…that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest…”  When God speaks, that is the Word of God, and back in Romans 3:4, it said, “…… as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings…”  The word “sayings” is the plural word of “log'-os,” the Greek word translated as “word.”  The Word of God identifies with the judgment or Law of God, which are synonyms for His Word.  Then, finally, it says in Psalm 51:4:

… and be clear when thou judgest.

The Hebrew word translated as “clear” is #2135 in Strong’s Concordance, and it is found in Job 15:14:

What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

The word “clean” is the word translated as “clear.”  Notice that the first part of the verse matches the second part of the verse, although it uses a different word, and this would be an example of Hebrew parallelism when it says, “and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?”  So to be “clean” or “clear” is the same as being “righteous.”  We are familiar with another verse in Job 14:4: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” This has to do with children, and since both parents are sinners and the child is born as a result of the parents coming together and God blessing that union to bring forth a child, then the child is said to be “conceived in sin,” and “born speaking lies,” or born a sinner.  “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  And that does not start at age twelve; it starts at conception.  That means that man is born unrighteous, wicked, and evil, and he is already set against God in his heart. 

So here it says in Job 15:14:

What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

All the descendants of Adam are unrighteous, for all have sinned, as it says in Romans 4:23:

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

There are no exceptions, so none are righteous; no not one.  So that would mean that none are “clean” or “clear.”

It also says in Job 25:4:

How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

So God again uses Hebrew parallelism, but instead of using the word “righteous,” he uses “justified,” and then the second part of the verse uses the word “clean.”  No man can be justified with God in his sinful condition.  No man can be justified by the works of the Law, but that is the only way that a sinner can obtain salvation, so he must keep the Law perfectly, but not one is able to do it.

The other way to obtain justification is not through man’s efforts – through his works or anything in him – and that is through the salvation of God that imputes the righteousness of One (Christ) toward the many that were chosen.  It is the righteousness of Christ that is counted for their righteousness, and, therefore, they become righteous in God’s sight and “clean” or “clear.”

Again, going back to Psalm 51:4:

…that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

That is, God will judge man and pronounce His judgment, and His judgment will be found in His sayings (when He speaks) in His Word, the Bible, and that judgment will be righteous.  It is righteous judgment, and we have heard that before.  Actually, the Lord makes a special point of emphasizing this in Judgment Day, and Judgment Day is the time when God carries out the judgment of all the unsaved.  Judgment Day is according to God’s righteous judgment program.