{"id":1318,"date":"2009-10-25T20:16:49","date_gmt":"2009-10-26T02:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1318"},"modified":"2009-10-25T20:16:49","modified_gmt":"2009-10-26T02:16:49","slug":"romans-39-sinners-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-39-sinners-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 3:9 – Sinners All"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 3:9<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

What then? Are we better<\/span> than they?<\/span><\/em> Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

None of us is better than any other sinner.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAre we better<\/span>\u201d is translated from a single Greek word, proechomai<\/span><\/em>. This is a compound word made up of pro<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cbefore, or in front of\u201d\u2019 and a form of echo<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto have, or to be.\u201d Figuratively, this word means \u201cto <\/span>have preference or preeminence,\u201d that is, \u201cto be superior.\u201d The difficulty with this word is that the way Paul wrote it, it could be interpreted as either in the passive voice or in the middle voice. So it could mean \u201care we excelled (by the Gentiles)\u201d or \u201care we excelling ourselves (above the Gentiles).\u201d Based on what Paul has said in the previous verses and what he will say in the following verses, the middle voice makes more sense. Hence, we could paraphrase this as \u201cDo we (Jews) think that we are better than everyone else?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The words \u201cNot at all<\/span>\u201d are translated from ou pant\u014ds<\/span><\/em>. Ou<\/span><\/em> means \u201cno\u201d or \u201cnot\u201d and pant\u014ds<\/span><\/em> means \u201call the parts\u201d or \u201centirely.\u201d So we could translate this as \u201cEntirely not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul now poses the final rhetorical question in this line of reasoning. You will recall that he is talking about the advantage of being a Jew, yet he is trying to point out to the Jewish Christians in Rome that not only is it not<\/strong> necessary to be a Jew to become a Christian, but being a direct descendent of Abraham has no bearing at all in whether a person is a Christian or not. Nonetheless, Paul demonstrated that the Jews were special because God entrusted them with the writings of the Old Testament.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having argued that God will judge sin and will glorify Himself in doing so, and having shown that Christian doctrine does not teach that we should all sin greatly so that God will be greatly glorified when He either judges or pardons such sin, Paul now addresses the final objection: \u201cAre Jews better than everyone else then?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

This is the root question that Paul has been trying to get to for this entire section of his argument. However, he could not have done so without guiding his readers along step by step. He then immediately answers this question, \u201cNot at all.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Now he says, \u201c<\/span>we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.<\/span>\u201d In fact, almost the entire first chapter of this epistle was dedicated to proving we\u2019re all sinners and we have no excuse before God. <\/span><\/p>\n

All of this groundwork has been laid so that Paul can make one of the most profound and revealing declarations in the entire Bible. He will do so by quoting the very \u201cwritings\u201d that the Jews have been entrusted with, beginning in the next verse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, some Christians have the same attitude that the Jews of the first century had. Since Christians are saved, and we have the Holy Bible as our guide, we feel like we are just a little bit better than everyone else. However, we need to keep in mind that we are just sinners saved by the grace of God. And, without God\u2019s grace we would be destined for the same lake of fire as every other sinner. That should not make us proud, it should make us humble!<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. Truth to Learn None of us is better than any other sinner. Behind the Words \u201cAre we better\u201d is translated from a single Greek word, proechomai. This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[509,559,560],"class_list":["post-1318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gentiles","tag-jews","tag-sinners"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-lg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}