What It Really Means to be Right with God

I. Questions That Reveal God's Character - Romans 3:1-8
A. The oracles of God - Rom. 3:2; Acts 7:38
1. Question - What advantage does the Jew have? - Rom. 3:1
2. Answer - Recipients of the oracles of God - Rom. 3:2
B. The faithfulness of God - Rom. 3:3
1. Question - What if some did not believe...does this nullify God's faithfulness? - Rom. 3:3
2. Answer - God be true and every man a liar - Rom. 3:4
C. The righteousness of God - Rom. 3:5
1. Question - If our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God...is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? - Rom. 3:5
2. Answer - This prevents God from judging the world - Rom. 3:6
D. The truth of God and the glory of God - Rom. 3:7
1. Question - If the truth of God abounds through my lie unto His glory, why am I judged as a sinner? and doesn't such a truth give me the right to hold a view that says, "Let us do evil that good may come."? - Rom. 3:7-8
2. Answer - Those who hold this view have a just judgment - Rom. 3:8b
II. Scriptures That Reveal Man's Character - Romans 3:9-20
A. All men are equally and legally charged to be under sin - Rom. 3:9 (cf. Rom. 2:11-13)
B. The condition of all men (without exception) as sinners - Psa. 14:1-3
1. None righteous - Rom. 3:10
2. None who understands - Rom. 3:11
3. None who seeks after God - Rom. 3:11
4. All have turned aside - Rom. 3:12
5. All have become useless and worthless - Rom. 3:12
6. None who does good - Rom. 3:12
C. The manifestations of man's sinful character and state
1. The throat, tongue and mouth - Rom. 3:13-14 (cf. Psa. 5:9 & 140:3)
2. The feet and the ways - Rom. 3:15-17 (cf. Isa. 59:7-8; Prov. 1:16)
3. The attitude of heart - Rom. 3:18 (Psa. 36:1)
D. All men are equally guilty and accountable to God - Rom. 3:19
E. No man (flesh) can be right with God by his own works of law - Rom. 3:20
(cf. Gal. 3:21)
F. The law gives man an experiential knowledge of the depths of sin - Rom. 3:20: Rom. 7
III. Redemption That Reveals God's Grace - Romans 3:21-31
A. Being justified (right with God) apart from the law - Rom. 3:21
1. The way we are justified - "freely"- Rom. 3:24
2. The source of our being justified -"His grace" - Rom. 3:24
3. The cause of justification ð "the redemption in Christ Jesus - Rom. 3:24
B. God's righteousness displayed on the cross - Rom. 3:21, 24-25
1. The Old Testament witnessed about the cross - Rom. 3:21
2. Christ in His death became the propitiation-cover or "mercy seat" for sinful man - Rom. 3:25
3. God remains just in the way He justified us by what happened on the cross - Rom. 3:26
C. The message of redemption itself infuses the necessary faith into us in order that we might believe - Rom. 3:22-23, 26 (cf. Rom. 1:16-17)
D. The gift of "the faith of Jesus" detaches us from ourselves and causes us to boast in the Lord exclusively - Rom. 3:26-31