“1 So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2 Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the spoken words of God. 3 What then? If some did not believe, will their unbelief cancel God’s faithfulness? 4 Absolutely not! God must be true, even if everyone is a liar, as it is written:

‘That You may be justified in Your words

and triumph when You judge.’

5 But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I use a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? 6 Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world? 7 But if by my lie God’s truth is amplified to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, ‘Let us do what is evil so that good may come? Their condemnation is deserved!'”

Romans 3:1-8

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Does my sin simply amplify God’s glory? Does my malfeasance increase His grace? Does my misbehavior prove His love?

No. My sin is still sin, even if it stands as the proving ground for His love & righteousness. The fact that He is glorified when He saves me does nothing to justify my actions when they are based in unrighteousness. God’s wrath and justice are not so backwards, nor is His righteousness so fragile as to have to fit to my actions and misunderstandings. He stands righteous above all, unchanging and unchangable. He is Righteousness. He is Justice. And without Him, I am nothing but a sinful, lost soul standing in rebellion against Him and everything He examples & desires. God is right when He judges us. He is right when He does anything. He is perfection. 

So, as Paul explores the relationship between man & God, this conversation about righteousness and how we view ourselves (inside & out) is something that must come up. We cannot examine life with God and not examine our lives as lived with Him, how we are changed and undone by Him, being remade into the likeness of Christ. 

But while we are being changed, we must confront our sin. And when we confront our sin, we cannot put blame or pressure on anyone but ourselves. We cannot suppose that in our sin, God places any kind of approval on our choices. We only walk in His favor when we walk in His righteousness. And we only walk in His righteousness when we walk clothed in Christ. Everything done outside of His will is inherently an act of rebellion. His grace covers us when we slip into these times, but it does not excuse what we have chosen to do. 

As we GoLove others in the Name of Christ, we must be mindful of our own actions as we preach the Gospel. Later in chapter 14, Paul will impress upon us not to condemn ourselves by what we approve. If we claim Christ, and walk in the righteousness of God, then we must walk as Christ, prusuing a humble life in Him, denying the impulses of the flesh. This comes as a gift, a result of His righteousness at work in us. Without Him, we are unable to fight against sin and we stand bare before the judgment of God. But when we do walk with Him, we come to understand that path that He blazed before us more and more. That path of righteousness that points toward Him & glorifies Him. That is where God is glorified in us, not in our sin, but in righteousness, His righteousness at work in us.