Romans 3:5-9 – God’s Vengeance

Lord please guide us through these passages of Your Word as we try and understand our purpose in You and Your purpose in us and the importance of knowing why Your salvation has been given to the world the way it has. Amen

Romans 1:18 states:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 

When we hear the statement that God’s going to punish everybody, some might respond by saying, “But when was my trial and when was I condemned?”

Romans 1 and 2 present the condemnation of humanity—everyone from creation, whether they’re Jews or Gentiles. It doesn’t matter; are all under sin.

In Romans 3 Paul’s engaged in a back-and-forth argument with a hypothetical objector. These objections are common even today, even within Christian circles, where God’s righteous judgment and teachings on hell are often hidden or ignored because they’re seen as unattractive. However, ignoring these truths has serious consequences.

These first 3 chapters of Romans are necessary for anyone who objects to God’s judgment.

The objector doesn’t deny that they’re a sinner, the undeniable truth that all men are sinners has already been established, but they dispute the righteousness of God in response to their sin.

Put another way, they object to God’s judgment. At this point. Now, the objection shifts to God’s judgment itself.

It’s like this objector’s saying, “Yes, I’m a sinner, and you said God’s wrath is going to be poured out on me, but I object on the grounds that His wrath is unrighteous, that His judgment’s wrong!”

We finished off last episode in Romans 3:4 after the question was asked in Romans 3:1,

What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 

Romans 3:3 followed with:

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

Then in Romans 3:5, where we’re starting from in this episode, we have this objection, which we read:

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

The phrase “our unrighteousness” specifically refers to Jewish unrighteousness. This objector is a Jew operating under the Law who hasn’t yet grasped Salvation in Christ. It’s from an Old Testament Jewish understanding.

The Jews already recognised that the Gentiles were sinners. But now Paul spends time addressing the religious people of the day, those who were set up to judge others.

Israel’s unbelief and disobedience appear to interfere with God’s fulfillment of His promises. This raises a question that’s often debated today: “Can man interfere with God’s purpose?”

It’s the leading question in debates about free will and fate. Some argue that human choices can prevent God from accomplishing His purposes. Paul, however, rejects this notion entirely in Romans 3:4 by saying:

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

He’s arguing that God remains faithful and will fulfill His promises, even though Israel failed in obedience. Paul reinforces this truth in Romans 3:4 by quoting scripture, in fact Psalm 51:4 where David speaks to God with a repentant heart, saying, “You’re the judge of me.”  :

That thou mightiest be justified in thy sayings, and mightiest overcome when thou art judged. 

Paul’s stating here that God is justified in His declarations, and He’ll ultimately be proved correct even when judged by those questioning Him.

This objector doesn’t have David’s repentant heart but instead a rebellious heart. He’s saying, “I’m going to judge God.” Paul clearly shows that God is right whether humans try to judge Him or whether He judges them.

He remains righteous because He’s the ultimate judge. The issue here is the condition of a person’s heart in response to Him.

David responded in repentance, even though he was a sinner. He was confronted with the guilt of his sin, the inevitability of death, and God’s wrath against sin. Yet, he had a repentant heart and a promise from God, and he recognised God’s righteousness in judging him.

This objector, however, hasn’t accepted that God’s judgment and wrath against him are righteous. He admits, “Yes, I’m a sinner—you got me there. I don’t do the things that I preach.” But he resists the idea that God’s righteous in judging him. Paul counters, saying, “God is true; and He’s the only one that’s true.”

Then Paul presents this question of verse 5 (Romans 3:5): “If our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, how’s that supposed to work?”

In Romans 2:24 we read that:

For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. 

Paul’s referring to Israel, saying that because of their disobedience, God’s name, which was associated with the nation of Israel, was blasphemed. This was prophesied, and prophecy declared that they’d fail to keep God’s law.

Even way back in Deuteronomy where the law was given, God anticipated their failure. He said, “When you fail to keep this, then remember to do this.”

God knew they’d disobey and embedded the reality of that into His Law and His prophets. When they sinned, they fulfilled what’d already been foretold.

Here’s an example: Jesus’ death was prophesied. The Romans, Israel, everyone killed Him.

Now, if God said this would happen, and we, humanity, simply fulfilled what He said, aren’t we actually helping God and doesn’t that make us righteous in some way?

This’s saying that God’s righteousness is established through human sin fulfilling prophecy, but Paul demolishes that idea.

Let’s look at Acts 2:23:

Him, (Jesus) being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 

Peter’s making it clear that they killed Jesus. They’re guilty. And yet, God knew this would happen. They didn’t foil God’s plan; they did what was already foretold.

So, many argue that if God said this would happen, and we played a role in making it happen, aren’t we supporting His righteousness?

But in Acts 4:27-28, Peter and John on confronting the rulers of Israel clarifies this:

For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. 

Some interpret this to mean that God predestined everything, but Paul clarifies that just because God foresees the future doesn’t mean He forces people to act it out. He foreknew Jesus’ death, but He didn’t force sinners to crucify Him.

This is where debates around free will and election come to the fore. Some argue that God must control human choices to know the future, but Paul rejects this idea.

Humans are the ones who sin, but God remains faithful despite their failures.

Acts 4:27-28 reinforces that Jesus’ death happened because of sinful men acting by their own choices, not because God forced them to do it.

Peter praises God, saying that Jesus died at the hands of many people, and yet, this fulfilled God’s plan. Jesus’ own prayer the night He was betrayed in Matthew 26:42 was,

He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

The prophets had already foretold it, and now, Peter proclaims that prophecy has been fulfilled.

Jesus fulfilled everything written in the Law and the prophets concerning Him.

Peter’s preaching shows that God knew they’d kill Jesus.

So weren’t they just doing what God wanted them to do?

That reasoning shows up the flaw of sinful humanity, the idea that God needs sinful humans to do His will because He declared what would happen.

This is the false reasoning that Paul confronts in Romans 3.

You can see the same thinking in our culture today. Many people deny that they’re sinners; they don’t like the label, but they will acknowledge that they’re not perfect. While few people will openly claim personal self-righteousness, they will still argue that God’s unrighteous for judging them and that’s precisely what’s happening in Romans 3.

So, this argument is that if evil results in good and evil commends or glorifies good, then evil’s necessary therefore without evil, the good that results from evil would not exist.

It’s like an abusive father who violently mistreats his child. The child grows up and vows that they’ll be a good parent, unlike the father. So, the wicked father then says, “Well, if I hadn’t been so cruel to you, you wouldn’t have thought that way!”

This’s absurd thinking but it’s the reasoning Paul’s addressing.

The miracle’s not that the father was wicked but that the child overcame that wickedness. Good triumphs over evil.

“Let God be true, but every man a liar.”

God is justified in all things, and He will overcome. Yes, good triumphs over evil, but that doesn’t mean evil’s necessary.

Paul made this defense 2,000 years ago but it’s still echoed today by people who resist the idea of God as a righteous judge.

Human history revolves around Christ’s death on the cross. Paul will discuss how Jesus Christ entered the world to deal with sin. But, in this reasoning, if there’d never been sin, Christ wouldn’t have had to come.  That’s the argument being made.

Of course, this is all nonsense because it’s people trying to claim credit and insist that their sin brings about good outcomes. They argue that because the end is good, the means to get there must also be justified.

But the end never justifies the means.

Now, in verse 5, we deal with another question:  Does God need us?

If His righteousness is so great because it’s contrasted against our sinfulness—if He needs sinners to die for, then isn’t sin necessary?

After all, He prophesied that humanity would fail.

Didn’t God know before the world began that Adam would eat the fruit?

So, it must be part of His plan and if He has a plan, a written script in which everybody plays their role, how can He blame us?

This leads directly to debates about Calvinism or the claim that God’s predetermined plan means that everything, including sin, was scripted.

These people argue whether Adam had free will or not. If God knew Adam would sin, then He must have planned and ordained sin itself.

The extreme end of the argument says that God created some people to go to hell and condemned them from the start, making it impossible for them to be saved. That’s how He elected them.

This raises serious concerns about God’s righteous judgment. If righteousness is simply a predetermined concept rather than true justice, then there is no actual judgment, just a script being followed.

But that’s just not biblical.

We’ve all heard many people say that God’s evil and cruel. He uses others for His selfish needs.

This flawed reasoning assumes that God needs people to believe in Him and that He needs religions to worship Him, that He created us to worship Him forever because He desires worship.

But does God need worship? No.

He doesn’t need glory. He is already glorious and whatever we humans do or don’t do doesn’t change that one iota.

We hear Paul saying this to the Athenians in Act 17:25,

Neither is (God) worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; .

People claim God’s evil and cruel because He judges people for things they were never told. They argue that He condemns the innocent unfairly.

They insist that they’re much better judges because they understand that nobody’s perfect, some are better or worse, sure, but nobody’s completely perfect. So, they’d judge fairly! All through history to the present day proves that wrong!

Yet, these objections in these verses in Romans 3 accuse God of lying, claiming that He promised advantages in circumcision, to Israel, that didn’t come true. They argue that He’s unreliable and that He intended to fulfill His purposes through Israel but failed because of their unbelief.

God has no effect on the world! If He did, the world would’ve already changed the way He said it would.

People claim He’s cruel, evil, and unfair, using Israel for His own purposes.

He needed a people to control, to promote His teachings. But now, they’re all condemned.

An honest examination of these objections reveals something striking:

Each accusation against God is actually true of the accuser, not God Himself.

– It’s men who falsely claim personal profit and deceive themselves.

– It’s men who are unreliable and have little effect on the world.

– It’s men who’re cruel, evil, unfair, and use others for selfish reasons.

These statements describe humanity, not God.

But to recognise this requires faith.

If we doubt and object to God, we naturally believe that the problem lies with Him. But, in reality, it’s with us.

The last part of Romans 3:5 is in brackets or parenthesis and says

 (I speak as a man.) 

Paul’s saying that In these objections he’s raising he’s using a typically human argument.

He didn’t speak from his own mind, he represented someone else, who spoke as an objector.

Paul continues in Romans 3:6 where his response to the question of, “Is God unrighteous for inflicting His wrath,” is clear:

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

That’s an interesting question. The answer is that God doesn’t need sin or sinners, and He didn’t create sin and that’s what Paul’s saying here.

Isaiah 45:7 is often used to tie God into the causal relationship of sin. Some argue that God made me this way and this’s another attempt to blame God.

This argument’s not saying, “I don’t think murder is a sin.” Instead, it’s claiming, “If I commit murder, then it’s God’s fault for making me capable of it!”

Isaiah 45:5 states,

I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: ,

That’s the truth of it. God’s done things in our lives we don’t even realise.

Isaiah 45:6

That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.

Isaiah 45:7

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.’ 

See, God made the world, right? So, if there’s sin in the world it’s His fault!  Blame the Manufacturer!

This verse is often misunderstood. Some claim it proves that God creates sin, but it doesn’t say that at all.

Sin is evil, but not all evil is sin.

Look it up in the dictionary.

Yes, evil can refer to wickedness and sin, and the Bible uses it in that way. However, evil can also mean destruction, lack of peace, and calamity—which is the meaning in Isaiah 45:7.

I make peace and create evil. 

Do you see the comparison? What’s the opposite of peace? No peace.

Isaiah is discussing judgment, God’s hand in bringing consequences upon nations that disobey Him, as part of the covenant He made with Israel.

In the beginning, God told Adam:

Eat this fruit, and you’ll die.

That’s not a peaceful thought.

How does God create no peace?  When wicked people reject Him, He judges them.

Many today believe that God only gives messages of peace and comfort. But they really need to read the Bible.

God speaks of destruction and punishment.

He declares vengeance for sin, if you disobey, if you harm others, if you reject His commands.

God punishes sin in the Bible.

The flood is the ultimate example, where the whole world died except for eight souls saved by His grace.

Does this mean God caused the flood randomly? No.

God isn’t fickle, changeable or spiteful and hostile. He doesn’t say, “I’m just going to destroy everything now!”

People say this, but they misunderstand.

God warned people that sin leads to death, but they kept sinning. He provided a way of escape. They rejected it. He warned them for over 100 years. Then, finally, He judged them.

What God permits, He’s often said to create. The word evil doesn’t mean wickedness in this instance, but sorrow, difficulties, or tragedies, those things which are the fruit of evil, the fruit of sin. It’s kind of like the Old Testament way of saying, “The wages of sin is death …” (Romans 6:23).

You ignored every warning, and now you’re facing the consequences.

In Genesis 1 God says, “Let there be light.” And God separated the light from the darkness.

What He didn’t say was that He’d create beautiful things over here and some really nasty sinful things over there and let’s watch them battle it out for a few thousand years!

That’s not what He did, and we know that from the Bible.

Genesis 1 describes God’s creation of the universe as very good.

Sin entered afterward.

Where did sin come from?  Well. it wasn’t invented. Sin is contrary, opposite to God.

If God had created beings without the ability to choose, there’d be no sin, just a universe of rocks and lifeless things incapable of free thought or rebellion.

But then there would also be no people with the free choice to experience His love and grace.

Some ask, “What kind of God would create beings knowing they would sin?”

It’s a question that’s been asked for thousands of years.

But it’s not difficult to understand when we consider God’s purpose, to give grace to humanity.

The reason He created all things was so that all things could ultimately be in Christ, redeemed and saved by Him, experiencing His love and grace.

Sure, God knew sin would occur, but He didn’t create it.

It was the result of human choice, a choice made by beings who God created with a free will.

So, why not just make it so we don’t have free will?

Well, now there’s another problem.  Real love is impossible without choice.

How would we experience God’s love if we had no choice?

Without choice, we’re no different from a machine.

In John 8:44, Jesus called the Pharisees children of the devil.

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 

We notice here that the term “devil” is not the name of the being God created in the beginning.

The word devil means slanderer or adversary, just as Satan refers to opposition. These are terms that describe his wickedness, and they were given to him after he sinned.

Sin didn’t originate with God; it originated with the devil who was the first sinner.

He deceived Eve, persuaded Adam, and so sin entered the world through man as Romans 5:12 details.

1 John 2:16 also speaks of the origins of sin:

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 

God didn‘t make sin, nor did He make us sin.

Some say that God needed failure, a dark side, to make the story look real.

But this is life and reality not a movie script.

Sin is not of God, but of the world.

Carrying on from 1 John 2:16 in verse 1 John 2:17 we see,

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

God is where truth is, and sin is anti-truth.

Romans 3 raises another crucial point and that’s that good never ever comes from sin.

Genesis 50:20 and the story of Joseph is often used as evidence that good can come from sin, but let’s examine what it really says.

Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, a sinful, evil, wicked act.

Joseph says to them:

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. 

Some say, “See! If Joseph’s brothers had never sinned, he would never have ended up in Egypt, where he later became a ruler. So sin led to good!”

But that’s not so.

God meant it for good and used it for good, but He didn’t need the sin.

Joseph’s brothers don’t get any credit for what they did.

They sinned and all their sin did was put Joseph into prison.

How did Joseph get out of prison? Dreams. And Who interpreted the dreams? God.

It didn’t have anything to do with the brothers’ sins. God could have and would have done it regardless of the brothers.

Now, God certainly knew the end from the beginning, but He didn’t need sin.

Good never comes from sin but from God.

That’s the truth that we learn from the Bible.

This is what Paul argues in Romans 3:5.

These objectors in Romans 3 don’t question sin. They question God’s righteous judgment.

They understand that vengeance will be executed by God.

Romans 12:19 says:

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. . 

Why does scripture say this?

Because vengeance means to return or repay affliction for an offense. It’s punishment, retribution.

Vengeance is the righteous judgment in response to sin. It’s His righteous repayment for wrongdoing.

When we place ourselves in the position of receiving God’s wrath, we often try to explain it away. I did it because…

There’s always some exterior force that drove me to it, as if that lessens the sin somehow.

Universalism takes this to the extreme, by saying that God is loving so He would never seek retribution, judgment, punishment, or vengeance!

But Romans 3 directly opposes this idea and if that reasoning were true, God would not be a righteous judge.

Romans 3:1-9 is neglected in this thinking. In these passages Paul discusses God’s vengeance and His righteous judgment, and he also discusses damnation.

So, is God unjust for inflicting wrath or vengeance? No.

That claim would only be true if sinners don’t deserve judgment.

But, if sinners do deserve judgment, then it is not cruel it’s righteous.

Paul says that God is able to bring good out of evil, but there’s no excuse for committing that evil.

God’s purpose is never for people to sin.

God knew they’d crucify Jesus on the cross, but He didn’t cause them to do it.  He didn’t force them to hammer the nails into His hands.

Likewise, God didn’t make Judas betray Jesus.

God foresaw these events. He knew beforehand what would happen and He prophesied them, but He did not make them do it.

Sometimes, people use Exodus 4:21, which says that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh to justify the idea that God causes man to sin.

Sometimes the Bible says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart as in Exodus 8:15.

It also says that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, without saying who did it as in Exodus 7:13.

But who really hardened Pharaoh’s heart? We could say that it was both God and Pharaoh; however, whenever God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, He never did it against Pharaoh’s will.

Pharaoh never said, “I want to do what’s good and right and I want to bless these people of Israel” and God answered, “No, for I’ll harden your heart against them!”

When God hardened, He allowed Pharaoh’s heart to do what Pharaoh wanted to do. God gave Pharaoh over to his sin just as Romans 1:18-32 explains.

The Old Testament showed God’s judgment through the law.

The New Testament doesn’t remove judgment. It offers salvation from judgment because Someone else, Jesus Christ, paid the penalty that the judgment required.

People love stories about retribution where the villain deserved punishment!

We understand justice and vengeance and righteous retribution.

However, we also know that if punishment is given to those who’re innocent, that’s evil.

Many claim that eternal damnation in hell is evil because they believe sinners don’t deserve it.

But God doesn’t send innocent people to hell.

Romans 12:19 tells believers:

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. .

It’s not ever our job to be the avenger.

Ultimately, God’ll judge all things and set everything right.

Now in Romans 3:7-8 we hear aul expand on this idea of man’s unrighteousness leading to God’s glory and we read,

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.

Paul’s drawing attention to the fact that there was a movement around that was slandering him by reporting, wrongly, that he was preaching that it was ok to do evil because good would come of it.

He’s forecasting a just damnation on those that are propagating this lie. Pretty strong language that!

Now we move to Verse 9 – Romans 3:9,

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; 

We’ve seen that the previous verses Paul uses a hypothetical objector who questions what Paul says in the previous chapters of Romans chapters 1 and 2.

This hypothetical Jewish objector that Paul uses to illustrate his point goes on by asking the question, “Are you saying, then, that we Jews are better than those sinful Gentiles?

The answer is that the Jews are no better and no worse. All are sinners.

Paul’s shown, through using these objections, that the Gentiles and the Jews are lost as are all men. All people are under the power of sin and the Jews are no different from Gentiles in this respect.

Paul quotes scripture Scripture to confirm all that he’s said.

Psalms 14:1, Psalms 14:3 ; Psalms 53:1-3 ; Psalms 5:9 ; Psalms 140:3 ; Psalms 10:7 ; Isaiah 59:7-8 ; Psalms 36:1 .

The whole human race is proved to be bad and nothing good and everything bad is in man.

We need to be reminded of this truth in this day where man’s lost condition’s no longer believed, and where religious teachers, unwilling to upset their audience, lead them into a false sense of their own goodness and greatness.

Thousands follow the unscriptural teaching of a Fatherhood of God apart from true and saving faith in the Lord Jesus.

Mankind largely rejects the very idea that they’re lost in sin and believe they can do something themselves, without the word of God and without His saving grace and without the cross of Christ to meet God’s requirements, but they cannot. All human efforts in doing good works are futile.

If there is salvation at all, it must come from God.

“That’s so negative,” many people say. Well, very often reality is negative however, smack in the middle of this dark and dreary reality a righteous God beams through to mankind another reality.

This time it’s a reality of overwhelming joy.

It’s the wonderful story, the good news of His redeeming love and His perfect wisdom where not only does He satisfy justice perfectly but at the same time is able to offer amazing grace freely to all sinful mankind at an unimaginable cost to Himself, the death of His perfect, only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.