Romans 3:5-8

“But if our unrighteousness commends God’s righteousness, what shall we say: is God unrighteous who brings wrath? I speak after the manner of a man.

It cannot be, since how shall God judge the world?

For if the truth of God has abounded through my lie to His glory, why am I yet also judged a sinner, and not, as we are slanderously reported, and according as certain ones affirm that we say – whose condemnation is just – “Let us commit evil that good may come.”

We have all heard the phrase, “The end justifies the means.” The essence of Paul’s statement here is that some have argued that their sinfulness had somehow shown God to be more righteous, so why should He be angry with them for it. In fact, some apparently accused him and possibly others of the apostles, of affirming this perverse idea by encouraging or at least excusing the commission of wickedness in order to bring about a good outcome. Paul is emphatic that this thinking is wrong, and wicked in itself. In order for God to judge with righteousness and justice, He cannot excuse wickedness committed because of some perceived positive outcome. God’s grace is not greater because of man’s sin; rather His grace is absolute, and in the face of man’s rebellion and sin, it is revealed for what it is, not to man’s credit but to God’s.

Anyone who thinks that God somehow owes him because some wayward action on that man’s part has supposedly highlighted God’s grace is a fool who does not understand the how desperately lost they are.

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