Romans 3.9
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
9 τι ουν προεχομεθα ου παντως προητιασαμεθα γαρ ιουδαιους τε και ελληνας παντας υφ αμαρτιαν ειναι
Observations:
Observations:1. Verse 9. “To return to the discussion,” following Romans 3.1-8 and the casuistic questions about God’s faithfulness, truthfulness, and justice. What should be said? Are Jews superior? Or are Gentiles? There’s nothing to choose here since both were equally indicted, the Gentiles (Romans 1.18-32) and the Jews (Romans 2.17-29). Both ethnic and all linguistic groups are under sin.
2. Whether Jew or Gentile regarding privileges, one over the other in either direction, such is answered by a “sweeping denial. (Murray, 102). Paul answers: “No, not at all.” The sense of the answer is: “not by any means,” “in no respect,” or “altogether not.”
3. Irrespective of birth or privilege, e.g. the Hebrew exposure and possession of the “oracles of God” (Romans 3.1), all--without exception or exemption, are “under sin.” παντας υφ αμαρτιαν ειναι
4. Romans 3.9-20, if we may, is the closing argument of the universal indictment of Romans 1.18-2.24. The gavel has dropped. "All are under sin."
5. The series of statements drawn from the Old Testament are decisive for Paul. There are no rabbis, apocryphal literature or self-statements. The Scripture triumphantly concludes the case.
6. This section deals with sin, loss of communion with God, the fugitive impulse in the fallen human, the alienation of affections, the twistedness of fallen reason in theological matters, inherent opposition to God and His kingdom, and the specifics of sin’s venomous anti-God character, its internal and external nature.
7. This will raise the question of the origin of sin: confer Romans 5.12ff.,
inter alia. To be discussed later.
8. Murray powerfully summarizes it this way: “To be `under sin’ is to be under the dominion of sin, and the pervasiveness of the resulting perversity is demonstrated in the manifold ways in which it is manifested. The apostle has selected a series of indictments drawn from the Old Testament and covering the wide range of human character and activity to show that, from whatever aspect men may be viewed, the verdict of Scripture is one of universal and total depravity. The quotation of verses 10-18 is not deprived from any one place in the Old Testament. The apostle places together various passages which when thus combined provide a unified summary of the witness of the Old Testament to the pervasive sinfulness of mankind.”
Correlations (larger considerations and relationships):1. The classic religions contained a general view that the gods are offended and must be propitiated some way. Humans are hard-wired for his.
2. Contemporaries still think—often—that entrance into Christ’s kingdom is works-based, self-propitiation perhaps with layers of Christian theology. “God judges the heart.” Contemporary evangelicalism has no sensitivities about Law and Gospel.
3. Psalm 143.2; Prov.20.9; Ecc.7.20; Gal.3.22; James 3.2; 1 John 1.8,10 are a few among many texts on the universality of the fall and its effects.
4. Sin is not the result of imitating bad examples: Psalm 51.5; Job.14.4; Jn.3.6.
5. Federal theology re: imputed guilt and inherited corruption.
6. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Pelagius, Hugo St.
Victor, Peter the Lombard, Anselm, Bonaventura, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Socinus, Arminius, Reformation Confessions and liturgies, Barth and Brunner.
7. Arminians and man’s inherited inability and hence, guiltlessness. "God can't judge someone for something he or she is unable to perform," the operational assumption in Arminianism and Orthodoxy. Arminians and a “gracious ability” based on common grace, enabling them to turn to God.
8. Jonathan Edwards on the “natural ability” versus the “moral inability.” Freedom of the Will, 1741. How this corrupted New England Calvinism with the New Haven theology.
9. Martin Luther’s
Bondage of the Will, 1525.
10. Immaculate Conception and the Romish doctrine.
11. Trent, 6th Session, Canon 1: “…although in the free will by no means extinct, though its powers were weakened and bowed down.” In other words, though the will is injured, corrupted and defiled, yet it is not wholly lost, destroyed or annihilated. (Chemnitz, 1.413)
12. Greek patriarch, Cyril Lucar, 1631. Schaff’s
Creeds, 1.57ff. Cyril, later repudiated by the Orthodox, believes: “…the freedom of the will before regeneration is denied. (Ch. XIV).” Pisteuomen en tois ouk anagennhqeisai to autexousion nekron einai. Cyril's views on the effect of the fall is summarized by Schaff: “This is in direct opposition to the traditional Greek doctrine which emphasizes liberium arbitrium even more than the Roman, and was never affected by the Augustinian anthropology.”
13. Arminius is straight from the play book of Orthodoxy: “God has from eternity predestined to glory those who would, in his foreknowledge, make good use of their free will in accepting the salvation, and condemned those who would reject it. The Calvinistic doctrine of unconditional predestination is condemned as abominable, impious, and blasphemous.”
Confessio Dosithei, Schaff, op.cit., I.63. We understand that anti-Reformation man, Metropolitan Jonah, with his fooled appearance at the ACNA hugfest, 23 Jun 2009, tolerated by the duplicitous, cowardly, and un-Reformed in American Anglican leadership.
14. Romanism: “Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted.”
Catholic Catechism, 405. (Misnamed: it should be called the Romanist Catechism since the Catholic Churches of the Reformation own the title. Another usurpation by them.) Paul will take a different view than the Papists.
Interpretation:1. Paul presents total depravity of all humans. They “under sin” and the dominion of sin, with the resulting perversity substantiated by a series of indictments drawn from the Old Testament. These indictments cover the wide range of human character and activity to show that the verdict of Scripture is one of universal and total depravity. For St. Paul, what the "Word " says is what "God says."
Applications:1. Continue to expose the lies of Rome, Orthodoxy, and contemporary evangelicalism (non-Reformed, Arminian).
2. Expose the weaknesses of the Reformed facilitators who are soft on the proud Wesley brothers.
3. Expose the
sola duplicita, non solas, sola admixta, sola confusa, and
sola stupida of the ACNA and its facilitators. The leaders know what they are doing; the poor sheep don’t know and perhaps don’t care.
Caveat emptor.
