Romans 3 Bible Study Guide
Romans 3
Recap: Romans 2 ended with Paul saying that our hearts/motives are what matters over being Jewish and being circumcised. We are saved by our faith and following Jesus, not by our ethnicity!
3:1-8
1-2: Paul is not saying that being Jewish is therefore no longer a special thing. For God still choose them to reveal the Laws of God and used them as his Prophets.
3-4: Even though the Israelites constantly were unfaithful, God was still faithful towards them.
7-8: Some Jews thought Paul taught the doctrine of “cheap grace.” That is that God receives more glory when Christians do evil and are forgiven. Therefore, why can’t Christians sin as much as they want to give God “glory?” (Paul addresses this in Romans 6).
Question: Since God does forgive us, why should we fight sin and temptation in our lives?
3:9-20
The Jews, who were God’s chosen people, had the Law (the OT Mosaic Law) and could not keep it. The gentiles who did not have the Law still had their conscious, which they disobeyed. Therefore, we all deserve God’s punishment. Even non-Christians today if they are honest will admit that even they do things that they consider to be “wrong” sometimes. This means that none of us are righteous before God. We all deserve punishment since everyone has disobeyed God.
20: The law required perfect obedience to God’s will. All people fell short which is why they needed animal sacrifices (and why we need Jesus as our final sacrifice). This means that no one is justified by his or her works (that is, seen as righteous before God). Therefore we need someone to justify us on our behalf (Jesus!).
Question: Why do you think this is hard for us to fully believe at times? We all struggle at times with thinking we are not good enough or need to clean up our act before the next time we pray, read our bible, etc., for God to really listen to us.
3:21-31
22: Our righteousness (right-standing before God) is by faith alone for every person.
23-24: We are justified through faith in Christ and his work on the cross.
27: This verse shows us that Christians cannot be arrogant. We are saved because of what Jesus did, NOT because of anything we have done.
31: Because Christ has saved us, we should honor Him with our lives, not live and do whatever we want. If we truly trust in Him, we will follow how He calls us to live.
Question: We should follow Jesus not because we “have to,” but because we want to. When we realize what He has done for us, it should make us want to follow Him with our lives. How does understanding what Jesus has done for us push us to follow Him with our lives?