Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #11 in Romans 3,  and we will be reading 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?

I will stop reading there.  Although we are moving on to verse 5, I wanted to read some of the earlier verses, and I think you will understand why later. 

In verse 5, we find curious language, so we really have to think about it in order to understand it.  It says in Romans 3:5:

But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

First of all, it says, “But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God,” and this follows the earlier verses where we find man’s unrighteousness in view.  For example, it said in verse 3: “For what if some did not believe?”   To “not believe” is unrighteous.  Then it said, “Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?”  That is, God’s salvation program is a program of the faith of God.  “No man is justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ,” and Christ is God (God manifest in the flesh).  Therefore, the salvation program of God stands by the faith of God, and that is helpful to us because God is mentioning this in regard to the unbelief and unrighteous acts that the Jews were guilty of, so their unrighteous acts and their instances of unbelief failed to make the faith of God of without effect. 

That is why verse 4 stated, “God forbid,” which in the Greek is “may,” and “ghin'-om-ahee,” which means “may it not be,”  meaning it certainly is not the case.  Then it went on to say, “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.”

Now I will read verse 5 again.  It says in Romans 3:5:

But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say?

This wording can be hard to understand.  It is written awkwardly, and the point of it does not seem very clear in my mind, and it is saying something I am not getting.  But I think it will help if we start by looking at this word “commend.”  We will just look at a couple of verses where this word is found, and then we will come back and see if we have a better understanding of what is said here.  Let us start by turning to 2Corinthians 10, and let us read the last two verses in 2Corinthians 10:17-18:

But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

Here, God is letting it be known that if a man commends himself, it does not mean he is approved.  But the individual who is approved is the one whom the Lord commends.  We can readily see that God’s salvation program is in view.   What is it that the corporate churches and their gospels are guilty of?  It could be summarized by saying that they commend themselves.  They have taken God’s salvation to themselves through their own works, such as accepting Christ, their work of faith, saying the Sinner’s Prayer, and so forth.  It takes various forms, but then the pastor tells the person, “You have accepted Christ.  Welcome into the kingdom of God.  Welcome into the congregation of the saints.”   And if these things were not stated outright, it was definitely implied that the thing the person has done in making a decision for Christ has saved that person. “It has lifted you up into the heavens spiritually, and therefore you are approved before God.  You are accepted in God’s sight.  He now forgives all your sins.”  It is all implied in this kind of gospel, which is a false gospel because it involves self-commendation: “I am a child of God because of what I have done.” 

You see, it is a very proud gospel that emphasizes the individual man, and the true Gospel of the Bible does not do so – it never emphasizes man in the matter of salvation.  The true Gospel of the Bible diminishes a man to the point of being nothing more than a “dead, stinking, spiritual corpse” that must be acted upon if there is any hope for him at all, and God is the one who must take that action to save a sinner by His faith.  It is His work of faith.  It is the Lord Jesus Christ’s work of faith.  It was God who chose us in salvation and infilled us with His Spirit.  God did it all, and He gets all the glory: “But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”  And this was said right before verse 18:  “For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.” 

You see, if you commend yourself, you are glorying in yourself.  You are glorying in something that belongs only to God.  Salvation is of the Lord, and He is the one who must carry it out.  And yet the sinner has dared to interfere and intermeddle with all wisdom, and he dares to insert his will and his choice over the will of God.  As the Lord Jesus said, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.”  This was said only to those elect saints.

So this is one verse we have to keep in mind, and note that “to commend” has to do with the proper commendation of the Lord commending certain ones, and not man commending himself.

We also read in Romans 5:6-8:

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God commended His love toward us (the elect).  Remember that He whom the Lord commends is approved, and this was when God approved the souls that were predestinated to receive it: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  And that death must be traced back to the foundation of the world when God commended His love toward His people.

So we have seen how the word “commend” is used in these verses, so let us go back to Romans 3:5:

But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

Now we can begin to get some understanding.  “But if our unrighteousness…” and this refers back to “unbelief,” the sin of man.  But it also refers to the fact that the faith of God is what justifies the sinner.  It is through the faith of God that salvation occurs because man is not able to obtain unto the righteousness of God through his own merit.  Man is a sinner.  He has unbelief, and he cannot commend himself in any way through his own works, or through his own efforts to keep the Law of God and to do acts of his own righteousness.  Man’s sinfulness and his inability to do that which is upright and obedient to the commands of God commends the righteousness of God.  That is, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and because salvation is only by the faith of Christ, therefore man’s unrighteous deeds and his sins tend to “commend the righteousness of God” in that it shows that the righteousness of God is approved.  It is exalted in opposition to mankind’s failure to please God and be righteous before Him.  In other words,  man’s sins (or Israel’s sins), in their unbelief and unrighteousness, have ultimately led to giving God greater glory.  God receives all the glory.

Therefore the thought arises, “Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?”  That is, is it just of God to punish sinners for their sins?  Afterall, they cannot do otherwise, according to the Bible.  And if God is glorified and exalted through their sins, and if He is exalted through His attributes being magnified, would God be truly righteous to take vengeance?  Or to say it in the opposite way, “Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?” 

Then notice it says in parenthesis: “(I speak as a man).”   We know the Apostle Paul wrote under inspiration of God.  Is this telling us that now he is no longer speaking under inspiration, and that what is being said in this verse is not inspired?  No – everything that Paul wrote down or what he spoke to Tertius, the scribe, as God moved Paul to declare these things, is the holy Word of God.  It is from the mouth of God through Paul as the instrument, and it is all fully inspired of God: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God,” including this verse.  So it cannot mean, “I speak as a man, and these things are not the inspired Word of God.”  He was giving “voice,” as it were, to the mindset of men (the unsaved, natural-minded people of the world, whether they were of Israel of old or the New Testament churches) who might accuse or charge God with this.

Once we understand that when it says, “But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God,” and how it has to do with God’s salvation program, and that God’s salvation program is one wherein God gets all the glory because God does all the work (and it is not of man),  then we can see where this accusation is coming from.  We can see that is a similar charge to what we will see later in Romans 9 regarding God’s election plan.  After declaring, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,” God said it was before these twin sons were born, and it was according to election that his election program might stand, a similar accusation is made in Romans 9:14-16:

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Then it says in Romans 9:19:

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

Do you see how this is similar to what is said in Romans 3:5?

But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?

To take vengeance means to find fault with the sinner and to bring judgment upon him for his fault, his transgression.  So, again, it says in Romans 9:19:

… Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

Then it says in Romans 9:20:

Nay but, O man…

And that would relate back to the idea, “(I speak as a man).”  Again, it says in Romans 9:20:

Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

Then it goes on to explain that God is the Potter, and man is the clay.  As the Potter, God can make one unto honour, and another unto dishonour, as He so pleases, and He is right and just in doing so.  And that is the point back in Romans 3:5-6:

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?

You see, He can not be unrighteous in judgment.  He must be righteous, or He would not be able to judge the world.

Notice that Paul refers to God judging the world as a matter-of-fact thing.  It is absolutely certain to happen.  And because it is a certainty that God will judge the world and because He must judge the world in righteousness, then it is being presented as evidence that He is “not unrighteous who takes vengeance.”  He is not wrong to hold man accountable to His holy and righteous Law.  When man comes short of the glory of God, then God can pronounce his guilt and condemnation.  God is perfectly righteous in doing so.