Two Places of False Refuge (Rom. 3:19-20)

 

Painting by Willem de Poorter entitled The Parable of The Talents or Minas.

What is our tendency when we are accused of something?  Well, the tendency is to justify ourselves, isn’t it?  This is true even if we are caught red-handed.  We may not be able to deny that we have done something wrong, but we will at least argue that we are not the ones ultimately responsible for the mess we’ve made.  This is true even when God is the one doing the accusing.  Consider Adam and Eve in the garden.  What do they do when God confronts them?  Adam has the audacity to blame God (something it turns out we are all good at) for giving him his wife, Eve.  When Eve is confronted, she blames the serpent.  We are all adept at passing the baton of responsibility.  We are all blame-shifters by nature.

Or consider the parable our Lord spoke about the talents.  The man who received one talent went and did nothing with it, but buried it.  When his master came to receive an accounting of his use of the talent, here was his response: “Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed : And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine” (Mt. 25:24-25).  Do you see what he is doing?  He is blaming the character of the master for his indolence!  

Our Lord didn’t put that detail in there for nothing.  He knows that we want to blame God for our shortcomings.  We are like this man with the talent.  Of course in that context a talent was a monetary weight (a considerable sum, by the way). But it is from this parable that talent has come to means gifts or abilities given to us by God.  And like this man, we are liable to go and bury our talents, do nothing with them, or to dishonor God with them.  Our Lord is saying that in the Day of Judgment, there will be a lot of people who instead of taking the blame for the misuse of their talents, will try to lay the blame off on God.  The parable is meant to convince us of the futility of this strategy, for our Lord goes on to say: “His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (26-30).

Another thing we try to do when confronted with our sins is to fix the past by doing better for the future.  Now of course we should do this.  We should turn from the evil and do the good.  But here’s the problem with too often fail to consider: our future good deeds may keep the future from being littered with further destruction caused by our bad habits, but they simply can’t erase the past.  In terms of what we can do, the past is the past, unalterable and unchangeable.  When it comes to what we owe God, our present obedience doesn’t take away the liability of our past disobedience.  Good deeds in the present don’t atone for bad deeds in the past.  They simply can’t: the good that we do we owe to God; we can’t use that to pay past debts.  It would be like saying if I pay my mortgage this month, it frees me from all the overdue payments of the past.  No, it doesn’t!  Sin must be atoned for, but one thing is certain: we can’t atone for past sin with future obedience.

The apostle Paul knows all this.  In 1:18-3:18, he has laid out the case that all, both Jew and Gentile, are sinners before God.  But the apostle also knows how we want to dodge the charge that we are liable to the wrath of God on account of our sin.   And he knows that the two ways we try to do this are by either blaming God for our mistakes, or instead of turning to God for mercy by trying to just do better while we keep ourselves in the driver’s seat of our lives.  These two verses, which are a final word on the human condition apart from the grace and mercy of God in Christ, help us to see that these refuges are false refuges.  We can’t blame God, and we can’t erase the condemnation of God’s law by keeping God’s law.  In either case, God’s law shuts our mouths from blaming him or from seeking to justify ourselves by obedience to it.  This is the content of these two verses.  But we really need for them to land on us the way they were intended to land on us.  It’s worth meditating on the danger of finding a false refuge in either blame-shifting or law-keeping.  Because if we stay in these false places of refuge we won’t go to the mercy and grace of God in Christ who is the only true refuge, the way, the truth, and the life.

The False Refuge of Blame-Shifting

Now the point of verse 19 is that the law of God, which is the apostle’s way of talking about the entire OT Scripture (not just the law of Moses), it condemns everyone, Jew as well as Gentile.  “What things soever the law saith,” Paul writes, “It saith them that are under the law.”  The verses Paul had just quoted about universal sinfulness applied to the Jews and not just to the Gentiles.  God didn’t give the Gentiles the law; he gave it to the Jews.  And what the Lord has to say about human sinfulness in his law was meant to be taken to heart by those who read the law, namely, the Jews.  They were given so they could gloat in the sins of the Gentiles; they were given so that they could see their own need for divine mercy.  

Indeed, the law was given so “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God.”  The law which speaks of universal sinfulness (10-12) stops every mouth from self-righteousness and self-justification.  It brings us to account before God and renders us guilty.  The law does not justify us; it condemns us.

But the fact that Paul talks about mouths being stopped is an indication that we don’t want to stop speaking in our defense.  We are like Job, after God allowed Satan to afflict him, who was constantly asking God for a chance to defend himself before him.  Job wanted his time in court.  He wanted to justify himself.  He said things like this: “Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me. There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered forever from my judge” (Job 23:3-7).

We are like this, too.  But what happened to Job?  Well, he got his audience with God.  But notice what happened.  All the things Job wanted to say suddenly didn’t seem worth saying anymore.  “Moreover the Lord answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further” (40:1-5).  What Paul is saying here in Romans 3 is that however we may imagine ourselves to speak up for ourselves on the Day of Judgment, like Job we won’t be able to open our mouths.  Our mouths will be shut.

In what ways do we want to defend ourselves before God?  Well, some people want to blame God for their sinful nature.  They will say things like, “I didn’t choose to be born a sinner.  God, you are to blame for this state of affairs.  I shouldn’t be held accountable for having a sinful nature.”  Have you ever thought that?  Another version of this is, “I didn’t choose my desires.”  The assumption and presupposition behind this statement is that any apparently unchosen desire must be good, or at least blameless.  It’s a way of throwing the fault back at God.  It’s blame-shifting.

But it’s wrong, and if we persist in this kind of thinking and bring it with us when we appear before God’s throne of Judgment, we will find ourselves with closed mouths.  It is true that we are born with sinful natures.  This is the Biblical witness; it is the corollary of universal human sinfulness.  But it is not true that this is God’s fault.  It was Adam’s fault, and his fault alone, that he fell into sin, and in falling into sin he dragged all his posterity into it with him.  It’s hard to see how it could have been otherwise.  We are Adam’s progeny, and we carry with us the consequences of his choice.  

But it’s also not God’s fault what we do with this sinful nature.   God doesn’t drag people into sin.  The apostle James tells us, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (Jam. 1:13-15).  James is clearly saying that if you sin, it’s your fault, pure and simple.  You can’t come before God and blame him for the sins which spring from your desires, no matter how strong or seemingly unchosen those desires were.  And, my friend, count on it: God will shut our mouths if we try to use this excuse.

Or we blame God for our sinful responses to situations.  We say (or at least think) things like this: “God, you put me in a situation that I couldn’t handle.  The temptation was just too great.  You should have done a better job at not allowing me to go there or let that happen to me.  I just couldn’t help sinning.”  Will that excuse do?  Here is what the Bible says about that: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:12-13).  For those who know Christ, this is especially a bad way to argue, for as we pointed out last time in Christ we are no longer under the dominion of sin, which means we don’t have to sin, no matter what the situation is.  As Paul puts it, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom. 6:12-13).  And if you are not a Christian, then the first thing to do is to embrace Christ and to find in him the power to resist the sin in your life.  

But the point is this: no matter how overwhelmed we may feel ourselves to be, we cannot blame God for our sinful response.  If we seek to do this, we will find our mouths shut on the day of judgment.  

Others blame God for the environments in which they were brought up, or to which they became exposed.  Someone may look at this or that believer and compare the privileges they had in their home growing up.  They themselves may not have been raised in a Christian home.  In fact, their parents may have been the worst possible sort, and this understandably rubbed off on them.  As a result, they are living with the consequences of their parents’ choices.  And they blame God for this.  They refuse to take responsibility for the choices they made after such an upbringing.  

In some ways, this is an extension of the excuse that we were born with a sinful nature.  The problem is that though we may not be responsible for the family we were born into, we are responsible for the way we live.  God has not left himself without witness, even in the worst of situations.  His existence is witnessed to by all around us and his law is testified to in our consciences.  And God is able to save the worst of sinners from any environment.  Paul himself was a testimony to this: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:15).  The very worst thing we can do is hide behind such excuses.  We should run to Christ, not hiding behind our past but letting Christ redeem every aspect of our lives.

What is your excuse?  What are you hiding behind in order to keep from dealing with the sin in your life?  In what ways are you trying to register a protest with God?  My friends, I warn you, such a protest will get you nowhere.  It won’t do you any good.  It won’t make you right with God.  If you persist in it, you will find yourself in Job’s shoes, realizing as you stand in the presence of the holy God that your arguments are not nearly as bulletproof as you imagined them to be.  Every mouth will be stopped, and all the world will become guilty before God.  It is inevitable.  When we bow the knee on Judgment Day, there will be no doubts as to the justice of God’s judgment.  My friend, place your hand over your mouth and let God speak.  Hear his word, not your own!

The False Refuge of Law-Keeping

However, that’s not the only way we can try to deal with our sins.  Another way we can wrongly respond to the Biblical accusation that we have sinned and come short of the glory of God is to try to fix ourselves by ourselves.  It is the way of self-righteousness.  Finding that we are under the wrath of God because of unrighteousness, we seek to remedy the situation not by turning to the mercy of God in Christ, but by trying to be righteous, by doing better, by turning a new leaf.  

But this is just another way of seeking to be right with God through law-keeping.  And the apostle says that this is impossible: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”  Therefore, that is, since the law of God shuts our mouths and  declares us to be guilty and condemned, we cannot be justified by it.  The law cannot save us; it can only condemn us.

To really understand what the apostle is saying here, let us ask two questions of the text.  First, what does he mean by “the deeds of the law”?  And second, what does he mean by “shall no flesh be justified in his sight”?

What is meant by “the deeds of the law.”

What does Paul mean here by the law? There are some who want to relegate Paul’s reference to the law here to things like the prescription of circumcision and other things that were boundary markers for the Jews, things that made them different from the Gentiles.  But Paul is not just referring to the law of circumcision: by the law of God he is referring to all the OT, including the enduring commandments of God which apply to all men everywhere in every age.  Paul had just been quoting, for example, in verses 15-17 from the prophet Isaiah, who was not incensed about circumcision but about the breaking of the Ten Commandments.  So to seek to justify yourself by the deeds of the law includes every effort to seek salvation by being a better person.  And this is what the apostle argues is impossible.

What is meant by “shall not be justified.”

Is Paul saying that no one is saved by good deeds, regardless of whether a person trusts in the grace of God through Christ or not?  Or is he saying that those who trust in their keeping of the law will not be justified before God?  I put it this way because there are a lot of people even in the Christian world who think that a person can be saved by the grace of Christ even if they refuse to trust in him as Lord and Savior.  In other words, in this view a person could go on trusting in their own righteousness and yet still be justified by the grace of God. In this view, a person could live and die as a Muslim who is trusting in his keeping of the Koran and yet go to heaven because of Christ.  In this view, a person could be in any kind of religion in which they were seeking to be justified by some kind of law keeping and yet be saved.  But is this consistent with what Paul is saying?  Is he saying that you can’t be justified by works even though you trust in your works to be justified? Is this what Paul is saying?

No. When the apostle says that “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in God’s sight,” he is saying that those who cling to their works apart from Christ will not be justified.  Remember what he will say about his fellow countrymen: “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:1-3).  It is no sign of the new birth or of God’s grace that someone is zealous for God, or is a good person as the world counts a good person.  Paul is praying for the salvation of those who were “going about to establish their own righteousness,” but had “not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”  In other words, Paul is not just saying that a person is not saved by their good works.  That is true enough.  But he is also saying that all who trust in their righteousness apart from the righteousness of God which is only found in Christ(4) are not saved.

Now just to be clear here, I’m not saying that a person has to perfectly understand the doctrines of grace to be saved.  I’m not saying that you even have to understand the doctrine of justification by faith alone to be saved.  We are not saved by our commitment to doctrine per se, but we are saved by our trust in the person of Christ.  In any case I am saying, because I think the Bible says this, that those who cling to their own works instead of Christ will not be saved.  That is what I think Paul is saying here.  

Why is this?  Why can we not be justified by law keeping?  It is because “by the law is the knowledge of sin.”  Now it is true that the law is a standard of righteousness.  It is true that we should seek to conform our lives to the standard of God’s law.  But though the law can guide us, it cannot save us.  When it comes to being right with God, all the law can do is to reveal to us that we are sinners.  It condemns; it does not justify.  

The law condemns us because the standard of God’s law is perfect obedience.  God’s law declares to us that he doesn’t accept a partial obedience in the place of perfect obedience.  It’s why Paul tells the Galatians, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith” (Gal. 3:10-11).  No one is justified by the law because no one keeps the law perfectly.  No one can match the holiness of God with their own life.  No matter how good we look in the eyes of men, apart from Christ even our righteousness is nothing but a bunch of filthy rags.  He doesn’t accept present obedience in lieu of past failures.  Perfect obedience is demanded.  But we are all sinners; therefore we are condemned.

The law also condemns us because it demands obedience from the heart.  But again, though we are so clever at being outwardly righteous, we all know that in our hearts we are not.  What if God were to play the thoughts of your mind from the past week in this auditorium right now?  Would you stay for that?  I don’t think there is barely a person on the planet who would have a conscience that hardened who would not be completely ashamed of themselves if their inmost thoughts were known by others.  But here's the thing: God knows our hearts!  He knows that we do not love him with all our hearts.  He knows how in love with ourselves we are.  He know that we do not love our neighbor as ourselves, however outwardly polite and respectable we might appear.

The law also condemns us because it cuts across cultural definitions of righteousness.  It is so easy to be righteous in ways that the culture appreciates while being totally deficient in other ways that God demands.  It doesn’t matter how much you stand against racism on the one hand or wokeness on the other if you are not loving your spouse and faithfully leading your children in the ways of God.  It doesn’t matter how much you denounce greed in others if you are in love with this world.  The law by which we will be judged is not man’s law but God’s law.

God’s law says that you cannot have any other god before him.  It condemns every form of idolatry,  putting the creature in the place of the Creator.  It condemns the dishonor of God’s name whether by our lips or our life. It condemns us when we seek to find rest apart from Christ.  It condemns those who dishonor God-established authority, whether parental or governmental or ecclesiastical.  It condemns those whose hearts are given to hate and who act out on that hate.  It condemns men and women who do not respect the institution of marriage or their marriage vows.  It condemns people who take what does not belong to them.  It condemns those who will not tell the truth.  It condemns those who crave what they do not have and should not have.  

Can you honestly say you have perfectly kept God’s law?  Will you try to say, as one young man tried to do with Jesus, “All these things have I kept from my youth up” (Mt. 19:20).  Of course, at the same time, this young man at least knew that something was missing, for he immediately asked the question: “What lack I yet?”  And Jesus told him: “One thing thou lackest” (Mk. 10:21).  There will always be one thing, and it’s usually that one sin that we love so much that we don’t want to turn away from it to turn to Christ (Mk.10:22).  Precisely because none are righteous, no, not one (Rom. 3:10), it follows that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in God’s sight.  There is no hope for those who attempt to catapult their way into heaven by their good works.  

Pay attention to those words: “in his sight.”  In God’s sight.  So what if everyone thinks you’re a swell gal or guy?  The question is not what others think but what does God think?  How do you know what God thinks?  Look in his law, for there you will find the reflection of his holiness.  But when we look we find ourselves, not justified, but condemned.

Why has Paul just spent the better part of two and a half chapters arguing that all are under the wrath of God because all have sinned?  He is doing it because the gospel is the solution to the need presented by our sin.  If we aren’t convinced of our sin we won’t be convinced by the gospel.  And here’s the thing: God doesn’t tell us how bad we are just to make us see how bad we are.  He does it because he wants unrighteous people to become righteous through faith in Christ.  The bad news of our sin makes way for the good news of a perfect righteousness in Christ which is freely given by grace to all who come to God by him.  In the following verses (21-26) we have the gospel in one paragraph.  The gospel tells us that those who stop seeking refuge in blame-shifting or law-keeping can find true righteousness – a righteousness given to us as a gift through Christ so that on the basis of it we can be declared just and right with God.  That is incredibly good news, and Paul will go on to tell us all the wonderful implications of this gospel in the chapters that follow.  But for now, the main point is this: if you see your unrighteousness, don’t try to avoid it through blame-shifting or fix it through law-keeping.  Rather, I urge you to embrace the righteousness of God in Christ which is freely given to all who trust in him. 

My friend, embrace the gospel of God.  And then, if you have embraced the gospel of God, you also need to embrace the people of God.  Follow Christ, be baptized, and find a home in the church.  The doors of the church are always open!