Whose Damnation Is Just

2017-02-12

But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? 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. (Romans 3:5-8)

We saw previously that God is good and just to judge sin because all sin is ultimately rebellion against Him. We also saw that our sin actually confirms the righteous judgment of God and He is glorified. The next logical question to ask is if God is unreasonable in taking vengeance on the sinner. The result, once again, is the emphatic “God forbid.”

Those who use the grace of God as a license to sin are wicked. The “I speak as a man” portion in Romans 3:5 shows us that it is human nature to use God’s mercy and grace and twist it. In Romans 3:7, we see how that God’s name is glorified regardless of what we do, that somehow that excuses our sin.

Romans 3:8 suggests that even Paul’s preaching of the gospel of grace is somehow used as a license to sin. However, Paul is quick to say of anyone who teaches such a thing: “whose damnation is just.”

There are many who have taught such heresy that people can now sin freely because God is a God of grace and love. I have known such people. I think that whenever we secretly excuse our sin we also believe this lie.

Because we as human beings try to excuse our sin in any way that we can, Paul writes these verses before he makes his final case for the depravity of humankind. We even try to make our sin glorifying to God! How terrible is that? By the end of this chapter, we will see the grace of our God in the Lord Jesus Christ is far-reaching. We are condemned sinners in need of a Savior.