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Romans 3: The Law and the Prophets-A Testimony of God’s Requirements and Righteousness

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One of the first ways I ever learned to “compartmentalize” the Bible was to divide it in half and say, “The Old Testament is Law, the New Testament is Gospel.” That made simple sense, but I was wrong, way wrong!

Here in Romans 3, “The Law and the Prophets” (3:21) was a way for Paul to describe the Old Testament-the collected Bible up to that time (sometimes it may be referred to as “Moses and the Prophets” because Moses was the Jewish leader who formally received the Law from God on Mt. Sinai). Paul uses the Law and the Prophets very specifically in addressing his audience, especially to the Jewish Romans who would have a knowledge of and familiarity with the Old Testament. He concludes from the Law and the Prophets that, “Jews and Gentiles [all people] alike are under sin” (v9), and cites nine different Old Testament references to make his point crystal clear.* Paul was stating “In every way-by thought, word, and deed that there is no one who stands perfect before God on their own.”

Paul also writes, “But now a righteousness from God,…has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (21,22). That righteousness from God is certainly seen throughout the pages of the Old Testament. I go all the way back to Genesis 3: 15 and remember God’s promise as he spoke to Satan who was in the form of a serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” I think of the book of Psalms, specifically Psalm 103 and Psalm 118. Remember that the prophets of God spoke clearly of God’s righteousness (Isaiah 1:18; Isaiah 53). Those are some of my favorites (I couldn’t even try listing them all!)-just a short list of how the Old Testament begins to testify about Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin and how “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood” (v25). May we always appreciate and thank our Lord for how he gives us the news of his righteousness throughout the pages of the Bible in his Son, Christ Jesus!

"Summer in Rome" Reading for next week: Romans 4-5

Reveling in Romans, Pastor Andy 　

Compare verses 10-12 with Psalm 14:1-3; Psalm 53:1-3; and Ecclesiastes 7:20. Compare verses 13a with Psalm 5:9; verse 13b with Psalm 140:3; verse 14 with Psalm 10:7; verses 15-17 with Isaiah 59:7,8; and Proverbs 1:16; verse 18 with Psalm 36:1.