Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #14 in Romans 3,  and we are continuing to read Romans 3:7-8:

For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? 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.

These verses are continuing the same argument that was made earlier as we read back in Romans 3:5:

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

We discussed that.  God is not unrighteous to take vengeance.  And it is true that God takes the sinful deeds, and acts of men and turns them – really overcoming them – and He glorifies Himself through them as far as those that have committed those sins, if they are God’s elect, and God had arranged for the forgiveness of their sins.  It is also true that the multitude of their iniquity greatly glorified God and His righteousness because the more ugly and filthy sins a sinner commits in his life, the more the forgiveness of those sins highlights the grace of God, the love of God, and the mercy of God to have satisfied the Law’s demands for all those transgressions by washing them away. 

Of course we know this was only possible if He had paid for the sins of that person.  God has never (and could never) simply waved His hand and dismissed the evil deeds of men.  He cannot overlook them or ignore them as if they never happened.  Then He would not be a faithful and just Judge.  The Law of God must be satisfied regarding the iniquity of the elect, and that is where Christ comes in.  But in satisfying the Law’s demand for the iniquity of these chosen people, it was necessary that Christ die: “For the wages of sin is death.”  He had to pay the penalty on our behalf, and there we see the incredible love of God.  Christ is God, what a wonderful fact that He would humble Himself to bear the offenses of the rebels that would offend Him.  And yet, that is the Gospel of the Bible.  That is God’s salvation program, so it is a fact that the elect’s unrighteousness has commended the righteousness of God.  And it is a truth, as it says in Romans 3:7:

For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory…

Here, we should not think that Paul was necessarily referring to himself, but it would apply to him because he was a sinner.  Actually he was a very grievous sinner in his zeal to please God because he persecuted the people of God.  Paul is speaking as a man, as we are told that in Romans 3:5-6:

Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

So he was speaking as a man, and remember what it told us in Romans 3:4:

God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar…

In his role speaking as a man for sinful mankind, especially those who were elected to receive the grace of God in His magnificent salvation plan, it is stated again in Romans 3:7:

For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

Given that the man who is speaking is trying weasel his way out of being judged by God without the atoning work of the Lord Jesus being performed on his behalf, he comes up with a wicked idea out of man’s vain imagination, trying to reason and argue with God: “You cannot hold me accountable, God.  After all, when we get to the conclusion of the matter, while it is true that I am a sinner, my sin has given you wonderful occasion to be greatly glorified and honored.”

Of course that idea is completely false.  It is completely erroneous.  It is not true that man’s sin glorifies God.  This fact is stated later in Romans 3:23:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

So sin is a failure to glorify God.  It is an offense.  It is contrary to the glory of God.  It dishonors Him, and it gives Him no glory whatsoever.  It is something that is rebellious.  It is not the sinful actions of men that glorifies God, but it is the reversal, or the overruling of man’s sinful actions, where God operates to bring about His sovereign will in salvation.  Even as God controls all circumstances and arranges all events, He can work through the sins of men to do what He wills to happen, but those sins do not give Him glory, as Romans 3:23 points out that sinful men come short of the glory of God.

So, again, it says in Romans 3:7:

For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

Then the thought continues in Romans 3:8:

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.

This is a very revealing verse regarding the opposition of the unsaved person to the truth of the Gospel.  It is showing us that wicked men will slanderously report that the people of God say certain things that the people of God, in truth, do not say.  They misinterpreted, or it is said in error, or intentionally.  But more than likely there is a disregard or carelessness in reporting the truth that the people of God, His elect, proclaim.  That is, there are those that have positioned themselves on the other side in this battle that has raged over the course of time.  There are only two sides.  There is the side of God and His kingdom, and there is the side of Satan and his kingdom.  God’s side is light.  Satan’s side is darkness.  God’s side is truth.  Satan’s side is the lie.  It is unfortunate, but it is a fact that many people, especially professed Christians that never became born again in heart, are in darkness, and they are under the power of sin and Satan.  When they hear the truth, they often believe it not, as Jesus said in John 8:45 regarding the reason that the Jews did not believe Him: “And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.”  It implies that if He spoke a lie, they would have believed Him, but because He spoke the truth, they did not believe Him.  The Jews of that time were like the professed Christian during the church age that heard biblical truth proclaimed on various points of doctrine during the New Testament era, but they spoke against those things.  They spoke evilly of these things.  Sometimes when they heard truth being taught by the true people of God, their report was false.   They were not faithfully reporting what the people of God actually taught. 

We have experienced this.  EBible Fellowship has experienced this, and God’s true people have experienced this, especially at the time of the end, during the last few decades during the Great Tribulation and during these years of the world’s final judgment.  We have taught things (especially on social media platforms, where we can see the things they are posting about us), and sometimes they will post directly, and say, “EBible is teaching this or saying this…”  And I have seen, repeatedly, where someone will say we are teaching something, but it is not true because we never taught it – and never would – but it is being shared that we had taught it. 

You know, we are not that hard to reach.  Someone can contact us and say, “Have you taught this thing?”  And we could respond and say, “No, we have not taught that particular doctrine.”  But they do not bother to contact us because it serves their purpose to speak evil of a ministry they do not like because of our teaching.  Some of the teachings they can understand, but they do not like those things, so it is almost as though they are saying, “We are against them.  We cannot stand them.  We do not think they are of God, and they are not true and faithful, so we will just say this against them and that against them, and not bother to check to see if it is correct.”

And that is the idea here in Romans 3:8:

And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come?

That is not what the Apostle Paul, the elect of God, or God’s Word is saying just because God is able to use the wicked deeds and dealings of sinners, and through His salvation program glorify Himself in paying for the sins of His elect, and thereby highlighting all of his wonderful and beautiful attributes – His goodness, mercy, grace, and love.  But that does not mean, “Let us do more evil, because the more evil we do, the more good will come.”  And that is what some affirmed was said because they misheard, as there is a problem with the natural-minded man and his hearing when it comes to hearing the truth of the Word of God.  He has a legitimate problem in not having “ears to hear” or “eyes to see.”  He cannot discern spiritual truth, so, obviously, he is receiving the information in a warped and twisted manner, and what was actually said does not register with him.  Although this is more of a spiritual problem, as they may understand intellectually what is said, but we would have to acknowledge that it could be that it also leads to misinterpreting the things that are being taught from the Word of God, and believing that they are hearing something else.

Of course that was done to the Lord Jesus oftentimes.  A good example was when the false witnesses (whose witness agreed not together) came before the Jewish council that was seeking to destroy the Lord, and they said, “This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.”  And yet, Christ was speaking of the temple of His body, but they were applying it to the physical temple.  Again, there is the problem with the natural-minded individual when it comes to spiritual truth or spiritual understanding.  He lacks it.  A thing was said by Christ that was meant to be understood on the spiritual level, but man applies it to the “natural,” and he misapplies it.  He comes to a wrong understanding, and then he affirms that Jesus said it, but Jesus was not talking about the physical temple.

So that is true, but there is an even more ominous and wicked way that men affirm that something was said by the people of God when we have not said it.  They have a blatant disregard of the facts, and they do not have the decency to confirm what was taught before repeating it, and saying, “This is what they are saying.”  And this is more like a willful desire to do harm to the individual, the ministry, or the doctrine that is being taught.

Lord willing, we will talk more about this in our next Bible study, especially this word translated as “slanderously reported.”  It is a very interesting word, and we will see how that word is used in other places in the Bible.