But there can be no knowledge of God, no understanding of grace or appreciation and gratitude for his mercy until we first come to grips with our moral and spiritual depravity and our guilt in the presence of God. They would have preferred that he skip over Romans 1:18-3:20 and go directly to the good news of the gospel of salvation in 3:21-26. Many would prefer that Paul not have adopted this approach. Praise be to God that Paul does not end his message with human sin and depravity and guilt but here begins his glorious declaration that there is forgiveness and redemption and justification by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ! Although we stand under the sentence of death, guilty as charged, another steps forward to appease and satisfy the demands of justice against us. ” But now the righteousness of God that alone will avail to secure for us a declaration of innocence has been manifested and made available to those who will believe in Jesus Christ!Īlthough we stand condemned, another suddenly appears to be executed in our place. But what indescribable joy erupts in our hearts when we read in v. All that awaits the defendants in this case is their execution. What a tragedy it would be, what utter despair would flood our souls, were the story to end there.
There is no possibility that any shall ever gain the approval of the court through works of righteousness. The scene that Paul asks us to envision is one in which the whole world, Jew and Gentile, stands accused before God, their mouths sealed and shut in deafening silence, incapable of uttering so much as a whisper in their own defense. The evidence against the accused in this case is so overwhelming, so utterly irreproachable, that even Hamilton Burger could have secured the verdict of guilty as charged. They are not only guilty as sin, they are guilty of sin! And thus we read in Romans 3:9 that “we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.” And again, in Romans 3:19, an airtight case has been made such that “every mouth” is “stopped” and “the whole world” is found “accountable to God.” This time, when the Judge turns and says, “The defense may now call its first witness,” there is absolute and utter silence! For unlike the clients whom Perry Mason defended, these whom Paul prosecutes are all guilty. Like Burger, Paul, as it were, declares: “Your Honor, the state rests.” Much in the style of Burger, Paul has himself amassed the evidence against the defendants who have been accused and indicted of sin against their Creator. In my efforts to explain the development of the argument in Romans 1-3, I have portrayed the Apostle Paul as if he, like Hamilton Burger, was a prosecuting attorney.
The fact of the matter is that Mason won every case because all his clients were innocent! And Mason demonstrated for the court to see that someone else had committed the crime for which his client was currently on trial. However, Mason’s success wasn’t altogether owing to his skills as a defense attorney. Burger would amass before the court what he believed was irrefutable and convincing evidence against Mason’s client, the accused.Īt the end of his argument, with a confident smile on his face, Burger would say, “Your Honor, the state rests its case.” It was then that the Judge would turn to Perry Mason and say, “The defense may now call its first witness.” And as was invariably the case, Perry Mason would proceed to discredit and dismantle everything Hamilton Burger thought he had proven. It certainly wasn’t for lack of effort or skill. He suffered one crushing defeat after another. I refer to Burger as frustrated and somewhat pathetic because he never won a single case against Mason, the defense attorney.
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Many of you are too young to know anything of Hamilton Burger, as he appeared regularly as the District Attorney on the TV show, Perry Mason, which ran from 1957 to 1966. If you were to ask me who, in my opinion, was the most frustrated and pathetic man ever to appear on TV, I would immediately point the finger at Hamilton Burger.
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