The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse – Part 3

05/07/16 (2/29) Video Broadcast

 
Part 3 of the book of Romans: Verse by Verse. We are going through the Book of Romans from one end to the other, verse by verse, examining each one closely so we can get a proper understanding of the Book of Romans, its meaning. And so, if you have a Bible, please do open it to the Book of Romans. We're going to spend the rest of our time here in Romans 3. I don't know that we're going to have 16 parts because there are 16 chapters in Romans, but the first parts here are pretty important, especially the first half of Romans is particularly complex in some places, and so, we're going to examine this a bit more thoroughly. And as we go along, hopefully, as we gain more and more understanding of what Paul is trying to teach we'll be able to move along a little bit quicker, but we do need to start with a good foundation here. So looking at last segments, we did cover quite a bit of ground in Chapter Two. And to summarize the last segment, "We who uphold the law must be careful that we do not practice unrighteousness ourselves." We cannot be hypocrites. Jews are called to repentance. Gentiles who have haven't heard the law given through Moshe are still guilty, having an inherent sense of morality planted in them. Gentiles are also equally called to repentance, and the whole world is guilty being under His law.
And so, both Jews are called to repentance, and
Gentiles are equally called to repentance. Also, "Yahweh will render to every man according to his deeds. Those who do not repent will perish facing Yahweh's divine wrath." Repentance means to change our mind and turn away from breaking Yahweh's law, and turn toward keeping it. That's the meaning of repentance, and I think some people have missed that in our modern generation. But anyway, repentance does not mean we instantly become perfect and never fail again. It simply means we've changed our mind, we're gonna now turn away from breaking the law, turn toward keeping the law. Yahweh's spirit leads us to keeping the statutes of Yahweh. Also believers who break Yahweh's law, cause Yahweh's name to be blasphemed by Yahweh's enemies, of course. Gentiles are joined with the commonwealth of Israel through repentance and faith in Messiah. I didn't say, they're separate they're now joined with the commonwealth of Israel. The same was true in Old Testament times. For instance, the Book of Esther, where the people of the land became Jews. Circumcision is only profitable if one keeps Yahweh's law. Finally, Yahweh gave Israel His oracles which He expected them to teach all nations that they might be, and presently would be if they would teach such, a guide to the blind, a light to those who are blind, a teacher of babes and an instructor of the foolish. So that's the summary of last segment, and we're going to pick up a little bit where we left off, we're going to overlap here a little bit, and start in Romans 2:28. It says, "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter whose praise is not from men, but from Elohim." So we must be Israel on the
inside, not just if you have circumcision, or
something, and an Israelite by appearance only, we must be so inwardly.
"What advantage then has the Jew or what is the
profit of circumcision much in every way?" Chiefly because to them, we're committed the oracles of Elohim. So to Israel is committed Yahweh's oracles and we demonstrate in our last segment that this is Yahweh's Torah, His statutes, His commandments. And so, this is a important element here,
that because Israel has the statutes and
judgments, and had the Torah, that would cause them to be the light to the blind, instructor of the foolish and so on. Alright. Continuing to read here, "But what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of Elohim without effect?" Now the Greek word translated "without effect", means to render idle, unemployed, inactive, inoperative. To cause a person or a thing to have no further efficiency. And we see the way it's translated down here in the King James, destroy five times, do away with three times, abolish three times and so on. To be severed from and separated from, discharged from, and so with that in mind, will their unbelief make the faithfulness of Elohim inoperable, unemployed, inactivate? Having no further efficiency was to basically do away with the faithfulness of Elohim, that's the question that's being posed here.
Certainly not, certainly not.
is used a number of times in the New Testament.
Now, this phrase that's translated "certainly not"
13 out of the 14 times it's used by Paul. "Certainly not" may be a good translation but being that the word is in a tense called the optative, this means it is the highest possible form of
emphasis.
And we see this in the... If you look up the optative in a lexicon, here we have Ferris' Lexicon, it says, "In a few cases, verbs in the optative mood stand apart from the conditional clause to express the strongest possible wish regarding an event. The most common of these appears in the phrase "mh genoito" in the Greek, translated "Elohim forbid" into King James, and we have here, the New King James, certainly not. So, basically, it would essentially mean absolutely not with some exclamation points if the equivalent word to be translated. And I've learned actually to pay close attention to those times where Paul is so emphatic that he actually says this "absolutely not". Absolutely not. No, no a thousand times no, is essentially what he's saying. Because this is interesting, the places he uses it is, it's just interesting, we're gonna see that because he continues to use this phrase 10 times, just in the book of Romans alone. Okay, so back to Romans 3. "Will their unbelief", referring to the Jewish people who were committed the oracles of Elohim, "make the faithfulness of Elohim inoperative or without effect?" Certainly not. Absolutely not. No way. "Indeed, let Elohim be true but every man a liar, as it is written that: 'You may be justified in Your words and may overcome when You are judged.'" So Elohim, he's a truthful one, he is the faithful one, but man, he's got this lying problem here. Psalm 116:1 says, "I said in my haste, All men are liars." I think that's probably where Paul is getting this idea here. But he says, "As it is written that you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged." And he is actually quoting here from the Psalm of David. That Psalm of David when he was sinning with Bathsheba. So, what I see here is that, every single man on planet earth I think is probably at some point been guilty of telling a lie, and so we loose our integrity by that and that alone. Once a person lies to you, you realize that, "Okay, I can't trust them to tell me the truth." And the same is true here he's comparing the righteousness of Yahweh compared to the unrighteousness of man. And so, the fact that man would not be faithful, this does not cause Yahweh to refuse to be faithful. So, if a man's choosing not to believe, they're acting and conducting themselves in such a way that they're not acting like a believer, that does not change Yahweh's faithfulness toward man. Absolutely not, it doesn't change it one bit. So he's quoting from Psalm 51, this David's Psalm, "Against you, you only have I sinned and done evil in your sight: That you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge." And that is what Paul is quoting from here.
It is man who is not being faithful to Elohim not the
other way around. Yahweh is faithful and the fact that men are disobedient will not change that. And we really need to grasp that as believers. There are a lot of people struggling in the world thinking that because they have lost their faith, that Yahweh has lost faith in them. No, Yahweh is calling them back. And another thing is, because I think a lot of people are struggling with this idea as well, because people who claim to follow Yahweh are unfaithful, this would be unloving or hurtful in their conduct. There are people who would identify Yahweh as being like that also. And they've made a connection between Yahweh and the people who claim to follow Him. But one thing I learned is never identify Yahweh with the sense of those who claim to follow Him, that wouldn't be fair. Think about it, would you hate the high school soccer team because their fans were rude to you? What did the team have to do with that? You hate the company because someone who bought and liked their product mistreated you. And that wouldn't be fair, or even make any sense.
And so we cannot associate Yahweh with those who
claim to be His fans in terms of their sin. Because it's not a religion we're really following. Is it a religion? Some group, or something? Or is it Yahweh who impresses us?
I was never impressed with religion and denomination.
It never impressed me. What impressed me was Yahweh's inspiring example of love and the deep level of wisdom He's giving us, and the amazing grace that He continually gives to us who are otherwise just broken vessels. So yeah, every man a liar. But Elohim is true, He is the righteous one. Us? We've fallen short, and we're pretty helpless without His grace. And so Paul quotes David here, "That you may be just when you judge, and blameless." So when Yahweh speaks, He is just, when He judges, He is blameless. He is just and He is true. And we've come to understand, "He is the Rock", Deuteronomy 32:4. "His work is perfect, all his ways are judgement or justice. A mighty one of truth and without iniquity.
Just and right is he." HalleluYah.
This is actually part of the song of Moshe spoken of in the book of Revelation here.
And so Yahweh is righteous but we are unrighteous.
We have all fallen short. So, Elohim is true, we have failed, we have not been honest, we've not been without sin. And so, Yahweh is capable of judging us. But then he says, "But if our righteousness demonstrates the righteousness of Elohim, what shall we say?" That's important question. Is Elohim unjust who inflicts wrath? "But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of Elohim, what will you say?" Will you say, "Yahweh is unjust"? "Hey, guess what, guys. The more wicked you are, the more righteous He appears to be, and the more stark the contrast is, and the more easily seen the difference is." And so taking that idea to the extreme one could conceivably make the case their sin is benefiting Yahweh because their unrighteousness reveals just how righteous Yahweh is. And so, the idea is, sin all you want because your wickedness shows just how righteous Yahweh is. He stands to benefit from your sin. In fact, He won't even judge you for your sin because, hey, your sin's there just to show how righteous He is. I know it sounds far fetched, but in some circles, there are people who have that kind of mentality. "Hey, it's all right, you sin but he's righteous. It just shows how righteous he is and he is there to forgive you along the way. He won't judge you because that would be unjust. Your sin actually glorifies him because it shows how righteous he is, and how you just can't make it. No way you can be righteous, you cannot do this thing. You cannot walk in obedience because you're just too unjust and he's so holy." This whole thing, and Paul says here, "I speak as a man." Other words, how does man speak? He's a liar, right? That's how man speaks. And so this, Paul speaking as a man says, "Well, you might as well do what you want because your unrighteousness is gonna demonstrate his righteousness. And Elohim would be unjust to pour out wrath on you because that would be unjust. Because hey, you're showing forth his righteousness." And so he says, "No way, I'm speaking as a man here." He's not speaking as if Yahweh would agree with this statement that He is unjust inflicting wrath because He Himself has demonstrated His righteousness through your sin. That's not Elohim speaking here. And so he follows this with again the strongest
possible terms, "Certainly, absolutely
not." 'Cause that case, no one could be judged. He says "Elohim even judged the world in that case, because all your sin does is demonstrate how righteous He is." So it would be impossible for Yahweh to judge the world. So then he says, "If the truth of Elohim has increased through my lie." What's the lie?
Speaking as a man here, this idea here.
Okay? This idea that your sin does Yahweh a lot of good. Okay? He said, "Then why would I even be judged as a sinner? Because, hey, all my best stuff to show us how good Yahweh is and I'm clear, I don't have to worry about it." As if the more sin we do, the more glorious Yahweh appears to be. And so you might as well say, and tell lies, because the contrast will cause the truth of Elohim to be made more manifest. That's the lie. But we know Yahweh will judge sinners. And so that's the wrong way of looking at things. And that's what he's saying. Or why would I even be judged as a sinner? Because hey, all my sin just shows how righteous Yahweh is. All right, so let me add Verse 8 here. "And why not say, 'Let us do evil that good may come,' as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm we say, their condemnation is just." So if we had this attitude of, the more sin we do, the more glorious Yahweh appears to be, you could say, "Hey, let's do evil and good will come out of it." And he says this is a slanderous report about the believers going around those days. It was not true. It was slanderous, based on this idea that our sin glorifies Yahweh so you might as well sin. Condemning such an attitude is just, says their condemnation is just of that mentality. Their slander was not just, but condemnation of that mentality is just. So but it's not the way any of the disciples ever taught this faith. It was, in Paul's words, slanderous to suggest that this is what they were teaching. But I could see that happening, where the disciples are going around teaching why Yahushua has died for the people, and by that death he was glorified, and some people twisting that around and saying, "Well, those believers in Yahushua, they're going around teaching that our sin glorifies the Messiah. It glorifies Yahweh, so go ahead and sin." Especially the Jewish people who would see the Gentiles coming in and still struggling and trying to learn and trying to live right, and these misconceptions going out about what the disciples were teaching. But they were not teaching. That's why I think he really started off here in the Book of Romans emphasizing repentance to probably counter this thing that had been going out, this slanderous report that had been going out that they believed like this. This is not what they were teaching at all.
The need was there for both Jews and Gentiles to
repent.
And so he says, "What then?
Are we better than they?" Who's we? That would be the Jewish people. Are we better than the Gentiles? Not at all. And you kinda look at context here, because if you go back to the first verse, he's saying, "What advantage then has the Jew?" And since we have this advantage, having been committed the oracles of Elohim, he says, "Are we better than they are? Not at all." Just because you have the oracles don't make you any better. Just because you have the oracles don't make you superior. "As it is written: 'There is none righteous, no, not one.' We previously charged both Jews and Greeks. They are all under sin." Everyone's guilty. A lot of people quote this verse here, "There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none who understands, there's none who seeks after Elohim. They have all turned aside, they have together become unprofitable. There was none who does good, no, not one." Now, what he is really teaching here is, he's quoting here from the psalm. He's quoting from the psalm, and the psalm he's quoting from is Psalm 53. Now remember, he's trying to make the point, both Jews and Greeks, both Jew and Gentile are both under sin. Now Isaiah... I'm sorry, the Book of Psalms 53, this section right here, he's talking about Gentiles. If you actually go back, and you need to do this when you study Paul, go back and look at what was being taught. And what you'll find is, he's talking about the utter unbelievers. Psalm 53:1-4: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no Elohim.'" He's not even talking about Jewish people here who believe that there is an Elohim. He's talking about the Gentile who believes there is no Elohim. He says, "They are corrupt, they have done abominable iniquity. There is none who does good." And he's pointing this out to demonstrate that both Jew and Gentile are under sin. That's what he's quoting this for.
"Elohim looks down from Heaven upon the children
of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek Elohim. Every one of them has turned aside, they have together become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people, as they eat bread and do not call upon Elohim?" Again, this is talking about the Gentile unbeliever.
So this is important for us to grasp.
He's putting everybody in a place where they are under sin, both Gentile and Jew, and so next he quotes in Verse 13, "Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues, they practice deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips." And this is a quotation from Psalm 5:8-10, the Psalm of David. David's enemies are people of his own country, like King Saul, they're not faithful to Yahweh says, "Lead me, Oh Yahweh, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth, their inward part is destruction, their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue, pronounce them guilty, oh Elohim, let them fall by their own counsels, cast them out in their, in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you." So David's enemies, a lot of these psalms were written when he was being chased around by Saul, King Saul. And they flatter him with their tongue, but inside they're not faithful to Yahweh, they're full of transgression in rebellion, and this is the same comment that was made by Samuel to King Saul when he said, "You're being rebellious, your rebellion is a sin of witchcraft, your stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has rejected you from being king." So Saul had rebellion in his heart, and it appears to me David's speaking of his own people here, and so both Jews and Gentiles are guilty of being under sin.
So, "The poison of asps under their lips, whose
mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of Elohim before their eyes." And now he's quoting from Psalm 140 where it says, "Deliver me, oh Yahweh, from evil men, preserve me from violent men who plan evil things in their hearts. They continually gather together for war, they sharpen their tongues like a serpent. The poison of asps under their lips. Keep me oh Yahweh from the hands of the wicked, preserve me from violent men who purpose to make my steps stumble. You might make the case since they are gathering together for war." These would be the Gentile nations that are around them. And then it goes on to say, "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." This is Psalm 10:7, "His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression, under his tongue is trouble and iniquity," could be Jew or Gentile.
Romans 3:15: "Their feet are swift to shed blood,
destruction and misery are in their ways. The way of peace they've not known. Their feet run to evil. They make haste to shed innocent blood, their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they've not known, there is no justice in their ways, they've made themselves crooked the paths, whoever takes that way shall not know peace." Then we see Romans 3:18: "There is no fear of Elohim before their eyes." Psalm 36:1, "The oracle within my heart concerning a transgression of the wicked: There is no fear of Elohim before his eyes." And so, both Jews and Gentiles are guilty, they're both under sin and so the question he posed, "Are we better than they are?" Not at all. Both the Jews and Gentiles. We're all under sin, we're all guilty. The scriptures give us the answer, both Jew and Gentile are guilty and so the law of Yahweh causes not only Jews who handled the oracles of Elohim to be guilty of sin, but also the Gentiles, and so he goes on to say in verse 19, "Now we know that the, whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before Elohim, therefore by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is a knowledge of sin." Now this is interesting, because even though Gentiles did not have
awareness necessarily of the law of Yahweh that was
given through Moshe, we examined in our previous segment they're still guilty. And the reason why they're still guilty is because, they have a law in and of themselves in that they have a certain morality that's instilled in them by their creator. They know it's not right to go murder a person, or to do harm to a person, and so they have that innate sense of morality and that's why pretty much every nation on the planet right now has laws against those kinds of things. And so we have that sense of morality built in. And so every mouth is stopped, we're all under the law and all the world is guilty before Elohim. That being the case, "By the deeds of the law, no flesh would be justified." No the deeds of the law only show that you're condemned.
But what about what he said back in Romans 2?
He said, "Not the hearers of the law are just in sight of Elohim, but the doers of the law will be justified." What does that mean? How could that be? You have here, "The hearers of the law are just" and up here it says, "by deeds of the law no fuss shall will be just." How do you reconcile that? How do you bring that together? Very simple. Very simple. Both statements are true, only the doers of the law will be justified, that word justified means to be declared righteous. To be just, is to be declared righteous. That means we can only be justified, or declared righteous if we have been a doer of the law. Now, anyone out there who can claim that if they looked back on their life they could say, "You know what? I've been a doer of the law." No. Nobody. No one's righteous, not Gentiles, not Jews, nobody. We are all charged as being under sin. He just said that, right? That's what he just said, that everyone's under sin. And so, what He's explained to us here is that we're all guilty. We have not been a doer of the law.
And because of that, by the deeds of the law, no
flesh can be justified. The law simply tells you what sin is. That's its role here, is to inform you of what sin is all about. And so, we're all guilty because we've not been a doer, we've been guilty of violating it. And so, by the deeds of the law, nobody can just buy it. No one can say, "I am righteous, because these laws tell me how righteous I am." The law simply informs you what righteousness is, what sin is. That's its role.
And so many times, we see that in Scripture.
By the laws of knowledge of sin. We see this in Romans 7:7: He said, "I would not done sin except through law. For I have not known covetousness unless the law said, "Ye shall not covet." 1 John 3:4 says, "Whoever commits sin transgresses also the law, for sin is a transgression of the law." So everything
we have read up to this point in the book of
Romans, has confirmed the same thing: The law is what causes us to be charged with sin and to ultimately be condemned apart from Messiah.
So looking back at this verse again, every person
on earth, Jew and Gentile is guilty, we're all in a place where we are guilty before Yahweh, we're all under the law and no flesh can be justified by the law because the law only condemns us. It only shows us, "Guess what, buddy? You're a sinner." That's what it does.
However, we have one who was born under the law,
who was able to to redeem those who were under the law. His name is Yahushua Ha Mashiach. Galatians 4:4 says, "When the fullness of time had come, Elohim sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those that were under the law that we might receive adoption as sons." So even though Messiah was born under the law, the law did not condemn him. He was actually able to be justified by the law because He never broke the law one time...
"For not the hearers of the law were just but the
doers," and he actually was a doer of the law and so He was justified. We, however, are under the law and found guilty. So being under the law does not mean you're condemned, it just means you're being held to its standard, to be perfect in your conduct under its requirements of you. That's what it means to be under the law. That's the meaning of it. That you are being held to the standard of the law for you to be determined whether you are righteous or whether you are unrighteous. Yahushua was under that standard and was found to be justified. We, however, were not. We are not found to be justified by the law. We're found to be worthy of condemnation. Every mouth has stopped. All the world is guilty. No one can escape. So continuing on: "But now, the righteousness of
Elohim apart from the law is revealed, being
witnessed by the law and the Prophets.
Even the righteousness of Elohim through faith in
Yahushua Messiah, to all, and on all who believe."
Okay, what He's saying here is the righteousness
of Elohim, as witnessed by the law and the Prophets, will be given to all and will be given on all who believe. So this righteousness is going to be placed on us and given to us who believe through faith, through faith. And this is all predicted, where? In the Prophets and in the law itself, it's all predicted that this was going to happen.
So this other element to Yahweh's righteousness is
being brought up here. We see He's righteous but because His righteousness is in Yahushua the Messiah, we as men and women are capable now of being made righteous through Him. The righteousness of Elohim is given to each us of who believe. It's given to all and on all who believe.
But this is done apart from the law.
It's all done apart from the law. It's witnessed in the law but the actual process of righteousness being placed on us through Yahushua the Messiah, does not take place as a result of the law directly. It's witnessed in it, though. What is he talking about? We got to understand this. This is very important. We can't be justified by the law. The law can't declare us to be righteous, it only declare us to be unrighteousness and so how are we going to get justified? It's strictly by faith in Yahushua who is righteous. We've all sinned and come short of Yahweh's glory. But Yahweh's righteousness is able to be imparted to us through Yahushua, and the Law and the Prophets predict this very thing. And you might say, "Well where is that at? Where is that in the Old Testament, Tom? This sounds like Pauline doctrine being espoused here. Where is that in the Law and the Prophets?"
Well, I wanna spend some time here explaining why
this is in the Law and the Prophets, this entire concept: Yahweh's righteous and he's gonna make you righteous through the coming Messiah. In the Law and Prophets, it is revealed. And we have to understand that because we need to be able to explain this to the unbelieving Jew. We need to understand this because it will be the foundation for a lot of things that Paul teaches here in the Book of Romans. And so, we're gonna begin here by looking at a verse in Isaiah 54: "No weapon formed against you shall prosper. Every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn." Very similar wording to what we're seeing here in the Book of Romans that Yahweh is just in his judgement and no one can condemn him. He is righteous. They said, "This is the heritage." And heritage is inheritance of the servants of Yahweh. "And their righteousness is from Me," says Yahweh.
And so, the righteousness that the servants of
Yahweh have comes from Yahweh. And so, all others who would seek to establish
their own righteousness by their own power, by their
own whatever, he's gonna rise against them in judgment and say, "No way." Another verse I want
us to look at, because this is very important for
us to understand and grasp this. This righteousness that comes from Yahweh will actually... The channel through which it would come would be the coming Messiah according to the prophets. Jeremiah 23:5-6 says, "Behold. The days are coming," says Yahweh. "That I will raise to David a Branch of A King shall reign and prosper, execute judgment righteousness. and righteousness in the earth. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Now, this is his name by which he will be called,
Yahweh, Tsidkenu is how the Hebrew reads.
"Yahweh Our Righteousness." Now, why else would the Messiah be called "Yahweh Our Righteousness" unless it was through Him that Yahweh would bring us His righteousness.
This righteous servant, this righteous king, the
son of David who's righteous. We know scripture says, he's going to justify many. Isaiah 53:10 says, "Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief when you make His soul an offering for sin." Now, a sin offering has to be without fault, has to be without blemish. And Yahweh was willing to make the soul of Yahushua a sin offering or Asham in Hebrew, a guilt offering. "He shall see his seeds." Spiritually speaking, that's us. It means the resurrection. He shall prolong His days, the Resurrection and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand." It is Yahweh's pleasure. He sees the labor of his soul and He's satisfied." "By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities." he bears the iniquities. This is righteousness that is given to others because And so, he bears the sin, he bears the iniquity and we are imparted righteousness. This righteousness that came from Yahweh. Righteousness that came from Yahweh. Yahushua bore that righteousness. He is Yahweh, our righteousness, and he is righteous one who would bear the iniquities of the able to cause us to be declared righteous. Why? people. He would be the offering for sin and he would bear our iniquities. And earlier in this chapter, 53, it says, "All Because he bears our iniquities. This is all predicted in the prophets. And so, the servant of Isaiah 53, it's seen as a
we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned every one to his own way." Every one of us are guilty. And Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So Yahweh placed our sin on him, and imparted his righteousness through the Messiah to us. This is all predicted in the Prophets. I love it. I just love that. And there are other Scriptures that speak of this very same thing. Isaiah 45:23-25 says, "I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return. That to me, every knee shall bow. Every tongue will take an oath." Now, Yahweh swears by himself. I mean, there's not too many times in Scripture he actually swears by himself. He swore by himself that, to Abraham and his seed that they would inherit the land, and so on. But here, He does it again, and we're going to take an oath, every time we'll take an oath, saying, "Surely, in Yahweh, I have righteousness and strength." So two things that can only come from Yahweh. Number one is righteousness, and number two, strength. The strength to walk in righteousness. The strength to live and to have our being. And it says, "To Him, to Yahweh, men will come and will be ashamed." Because they're going to try to come to Him with their own righteousness, and he's gonna say, "Sorry, but it's not good enough.
Only My righteousness will be sufficient.

Only My righteousness will satisfy Me, and that can
only come from through the Messiah Yahushua." That's why he's the way, the truth, and the life. And no one can come to the Father, except through him. This is all predicted ahead of time.
And so, in Yahweh, shall all the descendants of
Israel be what? Declared righteous. Through him, Israel will be safe. Through Messiah, Israel will be safe and dwell safely, and through Him, we will receive justification. Through Him, we will receive righteousness, and every tongue is gonna have to acknowledge that. Every knee will bow, and say, "Only in You, Yahweh, do I have any righteousness at all."
Another verse, Isaiah 59:15 says, "So truth
fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey." And Yahweh saw it. It displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered if there was no intercessor. No intercessor, so therefore, his own arm, his own arm brought salvation for Him. His own righteousness. It sustained Him. "For He," this is talking about Messiah, "put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing. He was clad with zeal as a cloak." The arm of Yahweh.
Quite similar to wondering if there's no intercessor.
We see this is very similar to Yahushua made intercession for the transgressors. His righteousness sustains Yahweh. Yahushua is called, 'Yahweh Our Righteousness'. It's only through Yahweh's righteousness that we're good enough to be pleasing to Him. And His own arm brought salvation to Him. This arm of Yahweh is very interesting. Throughout the Book of the Prophets here, Isaiah 40:10 says, "Behold the Master Yahweh shall come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for
Him." "Behold, His reward is with him.
His work is before Him. He will feed his flock like a Shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those who are with young." It is the arm of Yahweh. That is Yahushua the Messiah, and Yahushua the Messiah is the arm of Yahweh, spiritually speaking. That's why he is at the right hand of Yahweh. Seated at the right hand of Yahweh. He is the arm of Yahweh. Through Him, the lambs would be gathered, and carried, and led. And he will rule. Yahushua, this arm of Yahweh, will rule. And that's the whole reason why Isaiah 53 starts off by saying, "Who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?" Because He has all predicted the prophets. Not everybody's gonna believe in Messiah.
Even that's predicted.
"For He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him."
Isaiah speaking here, saying, "We.""We", as in
Judah, the Jewish people. We did not accept him. We despised Him. Well, I guess there wasn't enough beauty there on the outside. They weren't looking toward the spiritual end. So this whole thing about the unbelief of Judah and the righteousness of Yahweh coming through the Messiah and that Yahweh's righteousness would be placed in him, and that would be imparted to us. This whole thing is all predicted. And so, everything that Paul is saying has already been written before. He just happened to come across a nice little goldmine here and he's sharing it with the people of Rome, the brothers there. So the righteousness of Elohim, apart from the laws revealed being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of Elohim through faith and Yahushua Messiah. That's all revealed and witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. And of course, if you understand, "Well, where is it in the law?" If you understand the feasts and the fact that the Passover Lamb died for the people that they might live, you know that Yahushua died at the exact hour passover lambs were being killed in Jerusalem,
so that the people might live.
So that we might escape the world, escape Egypt behind us and move forward. We're saved by the blood of the lamb as we go through this wilderness, and we're baptized into the Red Sea and in the cloud as the water and spirit. And we trek through this wilderness where we learn the Torah. And we learn the way that we ought to walk, and we encounter trials and tribulations, and testings, so that we might know that man does not live by bread alone but every word that proceeds out of Yahweh's mouth. All these things were in this journey with Israel. And the Gentiles who joined with Israel, since there's a mixed multitude that joined Israel and went through the desert with them, in the wilderness, and into the promised land with them. So Jew and Gentile were both delivered. Likewise for us, both Jew and Gentile are both offered salvation and are delivered by the blood of Yahushua, our lamb.
And as the law was given at the time of Pentecost,
we have the Messiah who gave the Holy Spirit at the time of Pentecost, so we might be able to have the power, the strength to walk in righteousness as was predicted in Isaiah.
And then, we have the last trumpet, coming of the
Messiah, and so on... The Feast of Trumpets at the last part of the year in the Fall, and just goes on and on about how the feast days and the things written in the Torah are beautiful pictures of the plan of salvation, but the law itself cannot save us.
And so, we learn by witness here of the Law
and the Prophets, the righteousness of Elohim that's imparted to us... Yahushua was laid the iniquity of us all. He is called Yahweh Our Righteousness because it's through him we receive Yahweh's righteousness. This is all very important for us to grasp and understand because Paul is not spouting off some new doctrine, it's not some thing he invented on his own, it's straight from the Law and the Prophets. He's teaching the Romans the things that were already seen in the Law and Prophets, but a lot of the people did not understand that.
So let's go back to Romans 3.
"For all have sinned, all have fallen short of the glory of Elohim, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Messiah Yahushua." Let's read the whole thing again, "For now righteousness of Elohim apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and Prophets, even the righteousness of Elohim through faith and Yahushua, to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference. All have sinned, Jew and Gentile, all have sinned, fallen short of the glory of Elohim, being justified freely by His grace, being declared righteous by His grace." For free. No charge, through the redemption that's in Messiah Yahushua. And so this righteousness gets to be imparted by His grace.
That's how it works.
That's the process behind... That's the mechanics behind it, so to speak. Because even the Old Testament teaches us we can't receive righteousness through the law. Even the Old Testament taught us that we can only receive righteousness through this coming Messiah, through whom we would all receive, hopefully through faith, we receive Him. But to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed? But we have to recognize ourselves as sinners, apart from whether we're Jew and Gentile. Apart from Yahweh's righteousness being imparted to us, we're all not gonna be declared righteous because we've not been a doer of the law. And so by grace, through the redemption that's in Messiah Yahushua, we are able to be justified. It requires redemption. Redemption. To redeem means to buy back, to purchase. We're slaves and we sold ourselves to sin. Yahushua came, purchased us with His own blood, that we might be justified, declared righteous, by Yahweh's grace, through this redemption process and because of the righteousness that is in the Messiah Yahushua. And that righteousness that was in Messiah Yahushua, what did, Yahushua say? "Well, why do you call me good? There's one good. Elohim." So even His righteousness came from Yahweh, the Father. And so we are able to receive that through Yahushua. Let's continue here.
Verse 24, "Being justified fully by His grace through
redemption that's in Messiah Yahushua whom Elohim set forth as a propitiation." Now that's a complicated word. We see here, a lot of people don't fully grasp that word. Propitiation is kind of a, not a word you see every day or hear every day, is it? Propitiation. But actually this word, propitiation by His blood, is even more complicated. The Greek there, hilasterion. But what is this word? It's interesting. It's only used twice in the Greek text. The other place it's used is here in Hebrews 9:5, it says, "Above it," talking about the Ark here, "were the Ark of the Covenant, which is essentially the the cherubim of glory overshadowing the hilasterion." So the Messiah is this
lid.
So, you go back and you find out, what does this hilasterion, which is this item that's on the Ark,
word mean in the Hebrew?
We go back here, Exodus 25:17 says, "You shall
make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half
cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half shall be its width. You shall make two cherubim of gold of hammered work, you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat." So this word translated "mercy seat" is actually kinda poor translation. What does the word mean? Kapporeth is mercy seat, is how it's translated. Place of atonement, the golden plate of propitiation on which the high priest sprinkled the seat seven times on the Day of Atonement, symbolically reconciling Yahweh and His chosen people, the sight of gold on top of the Ark of the Covenant which measured two and a half by one and a half cubits on it, and part of it were two golden cherubim facing each other, whose outstretched wings came together above the constituted throne of Elohim. It's only translated "mercy seat" in the King James, but notice it's from 37:22. And 37:22, it's a kapporeth, and so 37:22 is kafar, which means to cover or to purge, to make
an atonement, to make reconciliation.
And so, that's actually the name of that lid. It has to do with a purging, a covering, an atonement that takes place. An atonement for sin is actually translated atonement, 71 times. Purge, seven times. Reconciliation, four times. And so it has these themes behind what Messiah has actually done with His blood is atonement, purging, reconciliation, a pacifying, a purging and so on. That's the meaning behind it.
So it's a very fascinating connection here, I think
between the witness here and the Law and the Prophets, and what Messiah has done for us. And so what is this? What is this all about? Well, this word literally has to do with this covering over the Ark. And so the Ark actually rested on the earth.
It rested on the ground, it wasn't on a table.
It rested on the ground. And inside this Ark was the Ten Commandments, the And on the side of the Ark was the Book of the Law. manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. And above the so called mercy seat, the kapporeth, is Yahweh's presence which dwells between the two cherubim. So between heaven and earth, what's being pictured here in this Ark, are the things that... The things that are below Yahweh's presence are the things He's provided for us.
Inside the Ark, we have the Torah, they give us
the Ten Commandments in stone. And also, we have on the side of the Ark the complete Torah. And we also have the manna that He fed Israel with. And we also have this Aaron's rod that budded, which was a proof of the priesthood taking place, the earthly priesthood coming through the line of Aaron. And so, it was also demonstrating a pattern of salvation through those sacrifices. But then there's this covering, this lid over the Ark, spiritually representing that on earth, we can only gaze up and see the face of Elohim if we're doing so through Yahushua, the Messiah. And the things He brought to us, the things that were below Him. He brought a Savior, who is pictured in this mercy seat, this covering. The mediator, the go-between, the intercessor, the same word translated atonement, the atoner, cleansing us from all of our iniquities. And so that we are recipients of all these
things that came down from heaven, the Messiah, the
Ten Commandments, the manna, and the witness of the priesthood, the rod that budded almonds and things like that. And so, these all connected though to His plan of salvation. He's demonstrating His own righteousness and our sin by the giving of the Torah which exposes us, but He also, Messiah is pictured in the bread that came down from heaven, the manna, is seen in that, that he who'd partake of that manna would live forever. We partake of that manna at the day of Passover and we receive the fact that He's our sacrifice, that's seen in the Aaron's rod that budded, in the priesthood and we also now have the Law of Yahweh through Messiah Yahushua who's dwelling in us. And so, all these things came down from heaven. So as that Ark sits on the earth, all these things came down from the throne room to us, that we might know the way of righteousness and that we might know the one through whom righteousness is possible, Yahushua Ha Mashiach. So looking at the Scripture, it says, "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Messiah Yahushua whom Elohim sent forth as a propitiation by his blood." As a covering of the Ark, that thing which He would demonstrate his righteousness.
Because in his forbearance, Elohim had
passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of one who has faith in Yahushua. Isn't that amazing? Yahushua was sent forth to be this Ark covering, this atonement through His blood. His life would demonstrate Yahweh's righteousness and it's through Yahweh's righteousness in the Messiah that we are able to be forgiven. And in Yahweh's forbearance, He passed over the sins that were previously committed so that He could demonstrate we're unrighteousness, He's righteous, and He's not only just, He's willing to be a justifier, the one who would cause one to be just, the one who would cause one to be righteous as long as we have faith in Yahushua. And it all comes together as a beautiful picture, a
beautiful display of glorious, glorious grace
and righteousness. So guess what? We have no right to brag about anything. So where's boasting? Verse 27, excluded, "There's nothing there we can boast about in and of ourselves." Where's the boasting? By what law? Of works? Only by faith. And when we boast by faith, we boast only by what Yahushua has done for us, not what we were able to manage on our own. Of faith, we're made righteous. So of works we're nothing. Therefore, we conclude a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. So we can be justified, we can be declared righteous even though we have not been a doer of the law.
Or is he just a mighty one of the Jews only?
Is he not also a mighty one of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since there is one Elohim who will justify both the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Very simple. So he is bringing everyone to a place where they are acknowledging Yahweh as righteous, we are unrighteous, and we need the blood of the lamb to make us righteous. We need his righteousness in us for us to be righteous. And this was all predicted and a pattern was set forth for us in the Torah and even in the Ark of the Covenant. So next question is, "Do we then make void the law through faith?" Certainly not. There's that word again, strongest possible terms, "Absolutely not". No, no, a thousand times, no. Can't do it. You don't make void the law. And this is exactly what is being taught by some people today. The law has been rendered null and void.
Well, let's see what this word "void" means in the
Greek. This is what has not happened to the law. In fact, it's only not happened to the law, it's absolutely not happening to the law.
What's the word mean?
Katargeó 2673, the law has not been rendered idle. It's not unemployed, it's not inactive, it's not inoperative. It does not cause a person or thing... It does not have any more... We're not in a state where it has no efficiency, put it that way. It does not lack force, influence or power. It has not ceased. There's no end to it, its not been ended or it's done away with. It's not annulled, it's not abolished. It hasn't been ceased to exist, it hasn't passed away. Hasn't been done away. We have not been severed from it, separated from it, discharged from it, or loosed from it. Our faith has not caused the law to be terminated its intercourse with us.
Essentially it has not been destroyed, the same
word Yahushua himself used, "I don't think I've come to destroy the law. I did not come for that reason." So law is not null and void. No, our faith does not do those things to the law. Our faith causes the law to be established. Histemi means the law has been caused or made to stand. That's what happened to it. It's set up, it's there.
It's in the presence of others, in the midst
before judges, before members of the Sanhedrin, it's a place, made firm, it's fixed, it's established. It's kept its place. Its stance is kept intact.
It's established, it's caused to stand, it's
upheld, it's sustained. The authority or force is still there, set in the place of balance that goes on to way... One way it's translated, to stand, or stand over or by, be standing firm, like the foundation of a building, to continue safe and sound, unharmed, stand ready prepared, to have a steadfast mind quality, one does not hesitate, one does not waiver. Obviously, the word means stand. Right? It's still there.
So, in spite of the fact that the law itself cannot
make us righteous, it has not been rendered null and void. And in fact, it's being established by our faith.
It's not null and void and absolutely, it's not null
and void. Absolutely not. Certainly not. The strongest possible terms, the optative in the Greek, it's not been rendered void and null. It's not been done away with. None of those things. It can't get any clearer than that one in my opinion. That mean it's just about as clear as a sunny day. I mean, it's right there in front of us. There's no way you can get around that one. So everything we have read up to this point has taught us that okay, yes, the law cannot cause you and me to be declared righteous. We need a savior for that. We need Yahweh's righteousness placed in us for that. But that doesn't mean the law was done away with, it's been abolished or made void. In fact our faith we establish the law because we are demonstrating first of all the law stood and it condemned us, so we needed it. It was there to condemn us and therefore it caused us to want to come to the side to begin with. But also we establish it by working it out, by living as Yahushua lived, by instructing others as he did in Romans 2. He says, "You instructor of the foolish and teacher of babes and so on." The law is still here. It's just it cannot be used to justify us. It could be used to justify the Messiah who kept the law. But it cannot be used to justify us who have broken the law. That doesn't mean the law is null and void. It's still for today. It still ought to be observed today. There's no other way of looking at it, in my opinion just looking at the scriptures. So whenever Paul refers to this, 'certainly not', a lot of times that 'certainly not' centers around, "No. You can't go off in sin" is essentially what he's saying. In these instances when he says, 'certainly not'. That's pretty consistent throughout all of his letters as we'll find out here as we continue in the book of Romans. So we've completed chapter three. I hope that it has been a blessing to you. Lots to be gained from understanding the foundation, which is the law and the Prophets. And we'll find out as we look at the law and the Prophets, that the things that Paul is teaching us here wasn't really new at all. It was something that was already written before hand. We just have to dig deep in order to find it. So we'll continue to dig deep as we look into Romans 4 and beyond in the coming segments. But we do want to go ahead and do our summary here of Romans 3. It is. First of all, any unfaithfulness on the part of man does not make Yahweh's faithfulness of no effect. Secondly, 'certainly not' is the strongest possible objection one could have in the Greek language there. Thirdly, every man is guilty of telling a lie at some point in their life, but Yahweh speaks the truth. Therefore, Yahweh is just in His condemnation of sinful men, because He is righteous, we are unrighteous. And the fact that our sin demonstrates how righteous Yahweh is does not justify man's sin or give 'em an excuse to commit sin. Not one bit. Also, both Jews and Gentiles are under sin as evidenced by the scriptures. No one can be justified by the law except Messiah who Both Jews and Gentiles are under the law. was born under the law, yet he was without sin. And so he could be justified. He was a doer of the law.
The Law and the Prophets show us that man can only
be made righteous through Yahweh's righteousness. That's what the Law and Prophets witness to us.
The Law and the Prophets also show us that Yahweh's
righteousness would be in the coming Messiah and we would receive Yahweh's righteousness through Him.
The items in the Ark represent the things that
Yahweh has given to man from the throne room, place where He dwells. The Messiah is the propitiation or atonement, or mercy seat or cover the Ark through which man can be in a relationship with Elohim, the Father, and approach that throne room. In past time, Yahweh passed over the sins of men, so that His righteousness would be revealed.
Yahweh's righteousness reveals our
unrighteousness and His righteousness redeems us from our unrighteousness through the Messiah.
We have no right to boast.
We did not obtain righteousness by our own deeds but Yahweh saved us by His grace and not by our own works. We don't have the right to brag about anything. It's only through faith that we are made righteous. Our Elohim justifies both a Jew and a Gentile because both Jews and Gentiles are under sin, right? And finally, our faith does not mean Yahweh's law is null and void. Our faith causes Yahweh's law to stand. And that would summarize the third chapter of the Book of Romans and may Yahweh continue to guide us as we continue our examination into this awesome, amazingly deep, and very wonderful writing by our brother Shaul or Paul the Apostle. Until next week, brothers and sisters, may Yahweh bless you, may Yahweh strengthen you, and may Yahweh cause His righteousness to be imparted to you through Yahushua, the Messiah, our Master and our Redeemer. Blessed be His name, HalleluYah.

This archive is from the EliYah.com Live Video Broadcast