{"id":1355,"date":"2009-11-17T21:21:05","date_gmt":"2009-11-18T03:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1355"},"modified":"2009-11-17T21:21:05","modified_gmt":"2009-11-18T03:21:05","slug":"romans-320-good-deeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-320-good-deeds\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 3:20 – Good Deeds"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Romans 3:20<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law<\/span> is<\/span><\/em> the knowledge of sin.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

No one can do enough good deeds to be saved.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cTherefore<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word dioti<\/span><\/em>, which is a compound word made up of dia<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cthrough\u201d or \u201cby\u201d and hoti<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cthat.\u201d Hence, dioti<\/span><\/em> basically means \u201cthrough that, because of that, or for this reason.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The word \u201cdeeds<\/span>\u201d is from ergon<\/span><\/em> which means \u201ca product of labor, a work, or a deed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cflesh<\/span>\u201d is sarx<\/span><\/em>, which literally means \u201cflesh of a living creature.\u201d It is used here to denote all of mankind, both Jew and Gentile.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJustified<\/span>\u201d is from dikaio\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto declare someone righteous\u201d or \u201cto make someone righteous.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cin His sight<\/span>\u201d is translated from en\u014dpion<\/span><\/em>. This is another compound word. It is made up of en<\/span><\/em>, indicating a static position (in, on, over, etc.) and ops<\/span><\/em> (a derivation of optomai<\/span><\/em> \u2013 to see) which refers to \u201csight\u201d or \u201ceyes.\u201d So, literally this word means \u201cin His sight,\u201d though it is often translated \u201cbefore Him\u201d or \u201cin His presence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cknowledge<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word epignosis<\/span><\/em>, which means more than simply knowing something. It means \u201cto recognize and understand something.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Remember that whenever we see a \u201cwherefore\u201d or a \u201ctherefore\u201d we need to see what it\u2019s there for. In the previous verse we learned that the Law was given so that all those who tried to obey the Law would be found guilty before God without excuse. Therefore, that is, in light of this fact, because of this\u2026 \u201c<\/span>by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight<\/span>.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What Paul is saying is that justification before God cannot be obtained by obeying any set of rules no matter who made the rules. Why? Because it is through rules (Law) that we recognize sin and sinfulness. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you recall the account of the temptation of Adam and Eve, up until God gave them the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were without sin. If they had eaten of the tree before they were told not to, they would not have been sinning; but due to the fact that they had been commanded not to, it suddenly became sinful to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Paul is telling us in these verses is that we cannot become righteous by following any set of rules, whether God-made or man-made. How then can one become righteous before God? Is it impossible? Paul is going to begin telling us in the next two verses.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Just because we can\u2019t be declared righteous through doing good deeds doesn\u2019t mean that we shouldn\u2019t do them. We ought to do them out of obedience and gratitude. In other words, we can\u2019t be saved by doing good deeds, but once we are saved, we should do them because we want to, not because we have to.<\/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<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Truth to Learn No one can do enough good deeds to be saved. Behind the Words \u201cTherefore\u201d is translated from the Greek word dioti, which is a compound word […]<\/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":[493,502,504,276],"class_list":["post-1355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-deeds","tag-good-works","tag-law","tag-sin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-lR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355","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=1355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}