Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #12 in Romans 3,  and we will be reading 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?

I will stop reading there.  We have already discussed the first part of this verse.  The point that is being addressed has to do with the fact that men are sinners.  Men do wickedly.  The salvation that God has provided is according to God’s righteousness and God’s faithfulness, and it is all by God’s actions, so He gets all the glory.  We know this is what the Bible teaches regarding God’s predestination of certain souls, and the carrying out of the atonement for those souls at the foundation of the world on their behalf.  It was all done by God’s grace, according to the mercy He bestowed upon the elect few.

If God had not intervened in this way in taking action for these few, then none would have been saved.  So that is the backdrop for the charge that will be made, as man’s unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God.  Since all men are wicked, and none are good, and none can become righteous before God through their own works, this tends to exalt the wonderful, magnificent salvation plan of God, as well as all His glorious attributes that come into view, such as His mercy and grace, and so forth.  Therefore the question comes.  Is God unrighteous in taking vengeance upon all those others that He did not bestow His grace upon?  He did not extend the sceptre of grace to them and grant them the gift of salvation as He did for the elect.  Is God unrighteous in taking vengeance upon unsaved mankind?  Of course this is spoken of as a man, as the Apostle Paul wrote under inspiration.  This is the thinking of the rebels that are in their sins.  

And the answer is, “God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?  You see, there cannot be unrighteousness with God who takes vengeance, and vengeance is the pouring out of His wrath.  It is the time when God exacts vengeance and punishes the wicked for their many transgressions of His Law, and that pouring out of wrath is the “day of wrath” that the Bible speaks so much about (and has warned about for so long) must be according to righteousness.  God cannot be unrighteous in taking vengeance.  Of course it is impossible for that to be the case because the Person of God is righteous.  We know from 2Timothy 4 that God is said to be the righteous judge, as it says in 2Timothy 4:8:

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

The statement is made, “…the Lord, the righteous judge.”  He is the Supreme Judge.  That is for certain.  God is the highest of judges.  We understand that in our legal system there must be a hierarchy of judges.  We have local judges, state judges, federal judges,  and even Supreme Court judges in the case when a lower court judge passes a ruling that may not be just, and then people can appeal to higher courts until it reaches the Supreme Court.  It has been commonly recognized and understood that the Supreme Court has the last say, and their judgment is final.  It becomes the ultimate judgment.  The Supreme Court is viewed as the highest of courts, but the truth is that there is a “court” much higher than that, which is God Himself.  He is the highest Judge.  He is “the most high,” as the Bible calls Him, and God’s Law book is the Bible.  And that is not just using a “figure,” but it is a fact.  The Bible reveals the Laws of God.   It is the righteous standard of the kingdom of God, and God adheres perfectly to this righteous standard that is the Bible.  God has magnified His Law above all His name.  It is a perfect standard.

We have talked about this before, but on this earth we enact laws and if our judges and lawmakers had wisdom, they would enact laws that are in agreement with this perfect and holy standard called the Bible because it is absolute and pure righteousness whenever we read a Law of God.  By the way, this is what the Bible tells us of itself in Psalm 19:8-9:

The statutes of JEHOVAH are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of JEHOVAH is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of JEHOVAH is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of JEHOVAH are true and righteous altogether.

The statutes, judgments and commandments of JEHOVAH are found in the Bible, and they are pure and perfect holiness, and absolute righteousness.

Psalm 119 is a beautiful Psalm that delights in its description of the Word of God, the Bible, in verse after verse.  It is the largest Psalm.  We read in Psalm 119:7:

I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

Also, it says in Psalm 119:172:

My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.

God is righteous.  The Lord Jesus Christ is “is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,” as we read in 1Corinthians 1:30.  He is also said to be the righteous judge in 1John 2: 1 because He is the essence of righteousness, and Christ is the Word made flesh, the Word that was with God, and was God.  You see, there is no way to separate Christ from the Word of God, the Bible.

And as Christ is righteousness, so are God’s commandments: “…for all thy commandments are righteousness.”  The Word of God is super holy, and super perfect and pure.  You know, that is all that can be asked of judgment and the Judge that passes the judgment.  Of course, if men were in their right minds (and not in their fallen spiritual condition), they would want this.  The truth is that the best thing is for a judge himself be righteous, and that he apply a righteous standard or law to his judgment, and that is exactly the case when it comes to the God of the Bible and the Law He applies to the ones who have transgressed His Law.  The Law of God and everything it says will be righteous: “…the judgments of JEHOVAH are true and righteous altogether.”

It is not a light thing when people go contrary to the commandments, or the Law of God.  This is also true when the Bible brings forth a doctrine, a true and right doctrine that was derived properly, biblically, and, therefore, lawfully, just as the Law would have us to do so as we search the Scripture, comparing Scripture with Scripture, and carefully harmonizing our conclusion with the whole of the Bible.  In other words, we take the doctrinal conclusion, which is a “law in the making” as the Bible comes together to present a teaching, and that really becomes a Law.  

For example, regarding the doctrine that we were to come out of the churches and flee to the mountains (God) because the church age was over, that doctrine became a Law of God as it was rightly derived from the Law book, the Bible, and those who failed to obey it transgressed the Law.  And there was a penalty for the multitudes of professed Christians that were in the churches when the Bible did bring forth this Law.  God said He had sealed up the words until the time of the end, and that meant that God would bring forth Laws at the time of the end, and this Law had to do with fleeing the corrupt corporate church and going out into the world, according to the commandment of God.  “Flee to the mountains,” was a commandment.  “Depart out of the midst,” was a commandment.  And it was according to the Law book.  When they failed to hearken and obey, the penalty was death for those that remained behind.  They were bundled as tares for the burning, and when Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011, that is what took place.  All those within the corporate church were instantaneously burned up, as it were, in spiritual judgment.  There was no hope because there had been no Latter Rain in the congregations (during the Great Tribulation), and on May 21, 2011, the Latter Rain ceased to fall outside the churches too.  So where was the possibility of salvation for them?  It was as though they were cast right away into the flames.

And that was according to Law.  The doctrines of God are according to Law.  Sometimes they require action, and sometimes they just require adherence and submission of our understanding to them.  And if we refuse to submit our understanding to them, it is a form of willfulness, is it not?  It is a form of disobedience to refuse to humble oneself before the teaching of the Law of God, like the doctrine of Christ having paid for sin at the foundation of the world, and not at the cross.

Someone insisting upon his own understanding of the Law is developing his own law contrary to the Law of God.  And we can be sure that when someone develops their own law on a point of doctrine, their law is unrighteous, in opposition to God’s Law.  It is an unrighteous law, and it is a sinful thing, and it is a transgression of the Law because the Bible tells us to submit to all of God’s commandments in perfect submission, which can only be done in the heart or soul of the one God has saved.  So we know that God is the righteous Judge, and His Law book, the Bible, is His righteous Law.  It is absolutely without error.  There is no injustice in it despite what men may say.  And it is because the Bible is absolute righteousness that we read of men in Romans 3:9-10:

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; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

None are righteous.  Why not?  What is the standard of righteousness?  “All thy commandments are righteousness,” according to Psalm 119:172, and man has broken the commandments, just as God first gave commandment to Adam, “…in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”  And he did die because he broke just one Law.  You see, the Law is righteousness.  It is all righteousness, and if you break one point of the Law, you are guilty of all.  You become unrighteous.  That is all it takes because it requires righteousness to live.  God is righteous.  He is the great I AM, the ever-existent One.  He is the essence of life because He is righteousness. 

If it were true (according to the accusations that unrighteous men make against the Holy and just and righteous God) that there was even one judgment or Law that God did by being unrighteous, for example in taking vengeance, then God in all of His being would become unrighteous.  That is the way “righteousness” works.  As people, we tend to look at men in the world, and we see some things we count for goodness or righteousness, and we say, “Oh, he is a righteous man, a good man,” because he pays his bills on time, or because he paid us back.  You know, we tend to apply very personalized standards of righteousness to someone we like: “Yes, he is a good guy.”   But if we do not like someone, we say, “He is a bad guy.”  That is not what God does.  He applies His Law equally to all, including Himself, and whether someone is liked or disliked does not enter into the judgment.  It is all according to His right standard of justice, and that is not how men apply it.  But if God were unjust on a single point, He would be guilty of all.  So God is not unrighteous who taketh vengeance, and then it says in Romans 3:6:

God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

He can only judge in righteousness – holy, perfect righteousness.  The Bible insists that this is exactly what is happening in our time.  God, the righteous Judge, is applying the righteous standard of His Law, and He is judging the world in righteousness.