ONE AND ONLY: How God Uses a Ministry of Death to Preach Life

“For there is no distinction”, Romans 3:22

As I read the third chapter of Romans, I am reminded of the tendency we have as humans to minimize our faults and shortcomings and find all the possible ways we can to promote ourselves and make ourselves look better than we really are.  We try to manifest ourselves as being ‘good’ people. Even amidst loads of obvious wrongdoing, we are determined to come out looking like we are not really all that bad after all. This was certainly the case with Paul’s audience (at least a portion of his audience, as he was speaking to both Jews and Gentiles) in his epistle to the Romans.  And Paul sets out to crush their way of thinking.  In the previous chapter, Paul has just addressed the fact that the Jews were foolishly relying on the law, thinking that being the special recipients of God’s law, being God’s chosen people as it were, was of some inherent value to them in terms of righteousness. Of course, it was valuable in many ways, and Paul begins chapter 3 highlighting the advantages of being a Jew. But the truth of the matter is, these Jews were judging others for the very same things that they themselves were guilty of (Rm 2:1). And, Paul says, “God shows no partiality” (Rm 2:11). Their status as Jews was of no advantage when it came to measuring up to the righteous requirements of God’s law. They were guilty of breaking the very law that they thought set them apart as righteous. The law couldn’t justify them before God.

Nevertheless, these Jews thought they were pretty good. And so, Paul devotes a lengthy section here in the beginning of Romans 3 to making it perfectly clear that “no one does good” , let alone could anyone ever claim to be righteous (Rm 3:12, 10). His words are anything but soft here in verses 9-18. Paul leaves no room for ‘ifs’, ‘ands’, or ‘buts’. His statement ensures that “every mouth will be stopped” (Rm 3:19). In essence, I think what he is saying to these misled, self-righteous, hypocritical Jews is: “stop saying you are good!”

We come to see in Romans 3:22-25 that God is never going to be making any meritorious distinction of those who are justified by their own ‘goodness’ as the Jews so ignorantly thought they were.  If any categorizations are to be made, there is only one ‘category’ that needs attention:  cursed and dead according to the law – a law that, although delivered differently to the Jews and Gentiles, leaves everyone in the same state. (What I mean by ‘differently’ is that the Gentiles were said to have the law written on their hearts, while the Jews received it through Moses as given to the nation Israel). Why?  Paul tells us in verse 23: because “all have sinned”.  He doesn’t say all will sin, but all have sinned.  This is precisely why “there is no distinction”.  All men are characterized by the same nature, and this nature leads to the one universal category into which all men fall: cursed, dead, and in desperate need of redemption.  No distinctions. But man is blinded to this fact by his own unrighteousness and ignorance (Rm 1:18-22). As a means of revealing man’s sin and ignorance, God puts his holy law to work.

There are some important things about the purpose of the law which are helpful to understand.  First, the law reveals sin.  “Through the law comes knowledge of sin”, (3:20).  And second, the law increases sin:  “the law came in to increase the trespass”, (5:20).  The law itself makes it undeniable to all men that there is no hope of righteousness in trying keep it, because it shows us that we have all fallen short of it’s standard.  As God reveals to us that we need something other than the law to make us righteous, he is using the law for our good.  It is a “ministry of death”, (2 Cor 3:7) because it shows ignorant, sinful man that he is dead and that there is no amount of good works or law keeping – nothing at all within himself or his own abilities or efforts – NOTHING that could change the fact he is dead!  Cursed by sin!  If he tries to use the law as a way out, he will actually just make it worse, finding himself a “slave to impurity”, which means his lawlessness will only lead to “more lawlessness”, (6:19).  Man finds himself imprisoned, “held captive under the law”, (Gal 3:23).  This is exactly what God intended.

The law is described negatively in various senses, i.e. “the ministry of condemnation”, the “ministry of death”, as giving sin the opportunity for us to use the law to deceive and kill us (Rm 7:11). To the Corinthian church Paul says that the “letter kills”, (2 Cor 3:6).  Nevertheless, it isn’t really the law, but rather our sin, which makes the law our ‘enemy’ so to speak.  Paul says in Romans 7:13, “Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.”

The law itself is perfect, (Ps 19:7).  It is holy and just and good (Rm 7:12), and it bears witness to the righteousness of God (Rm 3:21).  The righteousness it sets forth as the standard is unachievable by sinful man. And that has really been a main point, all along. It was always God’s plan to use his perfect law to show us that we are not perfect and will never measure up to His requirements of perfection. Praise be to God, rather than show us this grave reality and leave us in hopeless despair, this knowledge instead prepares the way for us to see something much better: His own Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only One who can fix all of our law breaking problems. It was Jesus to whom the law always pointed. He is the only One who can redeem us from the curse of death and make a way for us to be righteous in God’s sight. In all of His wonderful providence, God has used the “ministry of death” to enable us to see the only hope of true life: the person of Jesus Christ.  And Christ our Lord is all the more beautiful to us now that we have seen just how sinful and helpless we really are.  It is in this way that the law “leads us to Christ” (Gal 3:24).  The law itself has shown us that it holds out no hope for our salvation. Our only hope is Christ, who, being God himself, willingly humbles himself to come to this earth as a man who will live the perfect life we could never live – one of obedience, service, and suffering, and will offer himself up to a painful and shameful death on the cross as our substitute, taking our shame and our guilt and dying the death that we deserve to die.

And thus we see how God uses the ministry of death to preach life.  The ministry of condemnation to bring justification and eternal life. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Rm 10:4).

Soli deo gloria!