Romans 3:1-8
“Feelin alright; not feeling too good myself”
Vs. 1-2 God’s Librarians
Vs. 3-4 Special People, Special Life
Vs. 5-8 Evangelizing the Evangelists
Intro
In the movie “Fiddler on the Roof” Tevye asks God, “I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can’t you choose someone else?” Looking at the tragic history of the Jewish people it is hard to see how anyone would see an advantage of being Jewish. Their history has been one of slavery, hardship, warfare, persecution, captivity, humiliation and mass murder. In 70 A.D. over a million Jews of all ages were butchered and over 100,000 that survived were sold into slavery. In A.D. 115 600,000 men were killed when they rebelled against Rome. And of course in the 1940’s 6 million were murdered! Yet the reality is that in spite of this they are chosen by God to be the people to whom God would bring forth the Messiah, the savior for all humanity.
Chapter 3 is divided with the first eight verses being an imaginary dialogue with an objecting religious Jew. The second part of this chapter Paul deals with mankind’s condition before God, (all have sinned). I can picture Paul debating some distinguished old Jewish Rabbi, where he tells him that the only thing that makes him right before God is faith in the Messiah Jesus. In the first 8 verses of chapter three Paul offers up what he anticipated would be three arguments to his position that all three groups were under the wrath of God because of unrighteousness. What advantage is it to be a Jew? Will Jewish unbelief cancel God’s faithfulness? If our sin commends God’s righteousness, how can He judge us?
Vs. 1-2 God’s Librarians
Paul has put the religious Jew on the same level of the sinning and moral gentile and realizes that the Jew would naturally object to being in the same class. What advantage is there in being God’s “Chosen People” (a classification that God made Himself)? Paul was anticipating that the Jews could charge God with breaking His deal with them. “Without respect of persons, you say Paul????? Hold on there a minute! You’re telling me that my position and privilege don’t matter?”
Vs. 1 Objection: “Well, then Paul, if what matters is being a Jew inwardly the circumcision of the heart then what advantage is there in being a Jew outwardly?” This is a twofold question of religious superiority, the first part of this question will be addressed in verses 2-8 the 2nd part of it Paul won’t take up until chapter 4. Their argument was that in Paul’s teaching there seemed to be no use for the Old Covenant and that being the case it would call into question God’s faithfulness as He is the One that initiated the Covenant to start with.
Vs. 2 Answer: Paul answers this make believe Rabbi, “Advantages! Well of greatest importance is the Word of God!” They were God’s librarians, as this heavenly treasure was entrusted to them. The Word of God cannot make a sinner a saint by their mere possession, and they are no substitute for the righteousness of God in Christ but they do point clearly to salvation. The word of God not only held the law but the promises of God to His people and God has not and will not forfeit those promises. He will yet be faithful to His people! When the bubonic plague swept across Europe killing 1 out of every 3 people the Jewish population was left virtually untouched. The reason for this was their keeping the strict dietary and personal hygiene of the Law. The same can be said of their applying the biblical financial principals.
Though everyone has been given the light of a conscience and the truth about God made visible in His creation the Jews were given the advanced degree as they had the written Word of God. More than all other people they had been given the greatest advantage to obey the word of God. But like a power tool in the hands of an infant they hadn’t used it at all. Jesus said in Matthew 23:24 they were “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” Saints, we don’t have to answer every person’s question with regards to the Bible. All we need to do is apply its principles in our lives and folks will see the truth and not just hear about it.
Vs. 3-4 Special People, Special Life
Vs. 3 Objection: “What if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?” What about the fact that some of the Jews lacked faith? Does their lack of faith destroy the validity of the Word of God making the faithfulness of God of no effect? The make believe Rabbi goes right at Paul saying that under Paul’s teaching Jewish unbelief made the Word of God powerless.
Vs. 4 Answer: “Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.” The very idea of this horrifies Paul! Just because some religious Jews didn’t believe the Word of God doesn’t mean that the Word is any less powerful and God any less faithful. In the Greek Paul uses the strongest possible word which can be translated, “God forbid” or “May it never be so!” To suggest such a thing would be tantamount to saying that somehow God failed, and Paul says let “God be true and every man a liar”.
To prove his point Paul quotes the 51st psalm which David wrote when he repented of his double sins of adultery and murder. He had tried to hide his sins and went on acting as if he was the righteous king of Israel, then along came Nathan the prophet who said to him “David, you are the man, you’re guilty!” And when David confessed his sins he sat down and wrote this psalm saying, “It’s not God’s fault that I did these things, it’s my fault, I did it! I’m a lying, murdering, adulterer”. It is their unfaithfulness not God that’s the problem. Suppose, every single person was issued a winning lottery ticket number but no one cashed it in, would it prove that the number was not a winning number because no one came forward? No, it would just show how foolish people are not to cash it in!
God will still fulfill His promises to the religious Jews even though some fail but He will do so not upon the rituals they keep but upon faith in Jesus. Jesus spoke to the religious leaders who felt that the Word of God and the rituals were why they would inherit all of God’s promises saying in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.”
In a similar way today, people might ask, “What’s the point of being a good Christian, going to Church, being baptized, reading my Bible, praying and doing the right things, if I don’t have a special privilege?” Paul believed that with a special position came a special responsibility not a special privilege. “You’re a special people therefore you must live a special life!” Man’s faithlessness never alters God’s faithfulness or frustrates His purposes. Man’s unfaithfulness simply sets God’s truth in relief: His righteousness is always vindicated over man’s unrighteousness. In the end not one person in Christ will ever be able to say that one promise of God has failed them. What they will see when our hearts are examined is that what failed us was not God’s promises but rather our faithfulness to enter into His promises by faith!
Vs. 5-8 Evangelizing the Evangelists
Vs. 5-8 The 3rd objection raised by the hypothetical Rabbi is, “Paul you say that God is going to be glorified even though we make mistakes, why would He judge us, in fact why not sin all the more so that he can look even better?” Paul’s argument to that logic is, “If that was the case then no one could be judged by God for sin. And if God isn’t Judge then the world is locked into sin and the world would be in a helpless and hopeless state.”
Vs. 5 Objection: “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)” Salvation by grace not works was said to give an excuse for continual immoral behavior. Evidently some were using Paul’s teaching to justify their habitually practicing sin, the sloppy agape deal. What Paul wrote of was that the righteousness of God was gifted to people based upon trust in Jesus alone, which caused some to say that we should continue in sin that grace might abound.
Vs. 6 Answer: “Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?” Paul answers this upon the principle of logic which is that such an approach would prevent God from Judging righteously. God is the sole Judge of His creation and He does so consistently to His character not separate from it. The gospel of justification by faith, apart from works, was misrepresented by many who insisted on being saved by works. Paul’s argument is that we are not saved by works but by grace because we have placed our trust in Jesus and this will be seen in our works! Today people argue that, “God is unjust if He inflicts wrath because He is in control of everything, and He is unjust if He inflicts His wrath on me.”
Judas could make his case: “Lord, I know that I betrayed You, but You used it for good. In fact, if I hadn’t done what I did, You wouldn’t have gone to the cross for everybody. What I did even fulfilled the Scriptures. How can you judge me at all?” The answer to Judas is: “Yes, I used your wickedness but it was still your wickedness. There was no good or pure motive in your heart at all. It is no credit to you that I brought good out of your evil. You stand guilty before Me.” Friends it is never right to do wrong and it is never wrong to do right!
Vs. 7-8 Paul further strengthens his argument by including himself as a sinner in using the personal pronoun “I”. To use the ridiculous “Let’s do evil that good may come” argument would eliminate the difference between “good and evil”. All this would do is bring anarchy and chaos as society would plunge into a moral abyss. God’s rejection of Israel was not final! The door was opened to the Gentiles to do what the Jews didn’t, evangelize the lost. God had called the Jews to bring salvation to the Gentiles but because of their hard hearts God sent the gentiles to evangelize the Jews.
The Jews believed they had a special position before God and Paul agreed but The more opportunity a person has to do right the greater the condemnation if they do wrong! With privilege always comes responsibility! Once man has sinned, he displays an amazing ingenuity in justifying his sin. The need is not for ingenuity to justify sin, but for humility to confess it and the power of God to turn us from it!
Romans 3:9-20
“We’re Bad; Good!”
Vs. 9-18 Three reasons why no one is right
Vs. 19-20 Three things the Law does for us
Intro
You go in for a routine checkup and you think to yourself, “I’m in good shape, upright and mobile, I know a lot of folks who can’t say that. Don’t drink, smoke, I exercise and watch my weight.” The Dr. listens to your heart, draws some blood, and checks your blood pressure and says come back in a week and we will go over these tests. And when you come in he says, “Man you’ve got some real health issues that if left un-dealt with will take your life.” “What, are you talking about, Doc!” You protest. “I’m in great shape compared to lots of folks I know!” “Well”, he says, “Friend, the tests I ran aren’t in comparison to others they are diagnoses of your health when compared with the ideal health, you’re dying if you don’t make some changes today!” The first three chapters of Romans are that visit to your Great Physician where most go into His office and say, “This is no big deal, and I’m a good person!” But the divine diagnosis is that you may not be as bad as you could be but you are as bad off as you can be and without a heart transplant you’re going to die!
Vs. 9-18 Three reasons why no one is right
Vs. 9 Paul has scanned the horizon of humanity with only one question: “Is there any way any person can be good enough to make it to heaven on their own apart from faith in Christ?” His answer to that question is found in verses 10-18 as Paul compiles a 14 fold divine verdict on the entire human race which is not based upon his opinion but upon what the scriptures say. These quotations are from Psa. 14:1-3; 5:9, 140:3, 10:7 and 36:1 and from Isa. 59:7-8. All support the opening statement that, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” Paul looks at the human condition as one would an X-ray study of the lost sinner, from head to foot. As depressing as this X-ray is, Paul wants us to understand our complete inability to save ourselves. The fall (of man in the garden of Eden) touched every part of our being, and the inventory of body parts in verses 13-18 that are corrupted, (throat, tongues, lips, mouth, feet and eyes) demonstrate this.
Paul divides them into three reasons why no man can make it on his own:
Vs. 10, 11 Character: “There is none righteous, no, not one” “There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God”: This is how God sees man’s character apart from Jesus. Mankind is totally depraved, throughout all humanity and time and God says, “I can’t find one good person who on his or her own merits is right all the time!” Even further astounding is the declaration that there isn’t even one person throughout history who has sought to be right all the time. I think of all those folks who go to schools, take up causes that seem to be good and are searching to be right. But God says, “Nope they sought to be right more than some but not one person has sought to be right all the time.” Ok, but there are those that at least try to seek God don’t they? Well according to God, NO! Amongst all the “seekers” in religion who dedicate themselves to various worship practices and rituals it certainly looks like from our perspective that they are seeking God but what they are seeking is “a god”, on their terms and conditions not “THE GOD” on His terms and conditions all the time.
Vs. 12-17 Conduct: Having established man’s true character Paul moves on to speak of mankind’s conduct in both speech and action apart from Christ. And He couldn’t be any clearer than what he says in verse 12 “There is none who does good, no, not one.” Imagine a video camera constantly scanning your every move throughout your life, nothing at any time escaping its watchful eye. Now imagine me saying “Today to prove that there is no one that does good all the time, I’ve selected ___!” I’m sure that next week we wouldn’t have a single person in Church. Paul starts out with our speech, our throats, tongues and lips and says that they are a grave of deceit, full of poison. People love toilet talk, they love gossip, and they set out to deceive all the time. Caustic words, sarcasm and slander cutting up our fellow humans with no thought of how it harms others, in fact we laugh at it as long as we aren’t at the end of the punch line.
According to a new study by the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts the average person curses once every 175 words and when angry the average goes up to two out of every three words. Paul says that such action doesn’t stop with the mouth, it moves to the feet as it is swift to shed blood causing misery and destruction everywhere it trods.
Vs. 18 Cause: Finally, Paul tells us the root cause for all of this, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” That is the sole reason why people talk and act the way they do. It isn’t as if there were some and God couldn’t see them.
There has never been a truly righteous man apart from Jesus Christ. “Even Adam was not righteous: he was innocent – not knowing good and evil but he was not righteous!
There is none who seeks after God: We deceive ourselves into thinking that man, on his own, really does seek after God. Man initiates the search but he doesn’t seek the true God, instead he seeks an idol that he makes himself.
They have together become unprofitable: The word unprofitable has the idea of rotten fruit. It speaks of something that was permanently bad and therefore useless.
There is no fear of God before their eyes: This summarizes the entire thought. Wherever there is sin, there is no fear of God.
Vs. 19-20 Three things the Law does for us:
Vs. 19-20 Paul points out that this horrific description of man’s utter sinfulness came to us in the law; and it is intended for those under the law, to silence every critic and to demonstrate the universal guilt of mankind – the entire world may become guilty before God. Many Jewish people of Paul’s day took every passage of the Old Testament describing evil and applied it only to the Gentiles – not to themselves. The law cannot save us, it cannot declare us right by our mere possession. It’s useful in giving us the knowledge of sin, but it cannot save us. It is because of the above three truths with regard to all of humanity that even a “Holy and Good Law” is powerless to make a person right. All it can do is reveal just how wrong they are and need to be made right!
The law is there to point out what should be obvious in all of us that we aren’t “Basically Good”. In the final sentence in the book of Judges as Samuel compiled 350 years of history of Israel he summed up the reason for their sin saying, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Paul says here that the Law does three things for us:
Vs. 19a It stops our mouths: When we see what God’s standard truly is we can no longer compare ourselves against someone else, it shuts our mouths of self-righteousness! All the excuses and self justification will be stopped. In Matthew gospel in chapters 5-7 he recorded for us Jesus’ words revered to as the “Sermon on the Mount” where Jesus makes it clear that the keeping of the law was not just an external thing, it was an internal thing as it dealt not just with what people do on the outside but what they think and their attitudes on the inside.
Vs. 19b It puts everybody in the same category, sinner: There isn’t a single person that on their merit will be good enough. Hebrews 9:27 puts it this way, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment”. There isn’t any reincarnation to go back and do it again and again until you reach perfection. The reason for this each time you would still have the same outcome, guilty of being a sinner.
Vs. 20 It reveals what sin is: In Matthew 22:36-40 a religious leader asked “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” All the Law does is ask us to Love, first towards God and secondly toward our fellow man. The law points out that our chief sin is a failure to love God and each other all the time.
By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified!
This means that the law, having been broken, can only condemn us – it can never save us. This means that even if we could now begin to perfectly keep the law of God it could not make up for past disobedience, or remove present guilt. This means that keeping the law is NOT God’s way of salvation or of blessing under the New Covenant.
J.B. Phillip’s paraphrase of the phrase, “For by the law is the knowledge of sin” says that “It is the straight-edge of the Law that shows us how crooked we are”. Before you can make something flat you have to have something that is perfectly flat.
Two things we must never forget:
- I’m a great sinner!
- Jesus Christ is a great Savior!
Justification isn’t just pardoning our guilt, neither is it just forgiving our debt. Both of those would make us only rehabilitated sinners. Justification expunges our record, wipes our crimes off the books and says that we have never had any infraction and God looks at you and me as if we have never sinned. Paul taught that people apart from a relationship with Jesus are bad, but he never believed them to be too bad to be saved! The truth is I’ve been purposefully “mistreated by God”! Because I’m a guilty sinner He should have cast me into hell and never looked back. Instead He has “mistreated me” giving me what I don’t deserve and can never earn all because of His Son dying on my behalf He has treated me as His son! Man has the power to sin and Jesus alone has the power to free me from the penalty and power of my choice.
Romans 3:21-31
“But Now”
Vs. 21 God’s answer to man’s failure
Vs. 22-24 How the gift of righteousness is obtained
Vs. 25-26 How and why it works
Vs. 27-31 The results of it working
Intro
After Paul’s assessment of the human condition you can almost hear a sigh of relief. Paul has proved that all humans are sinners; now he explains how all sinners can be saved.
- In verse 21 God’s answer to man’s failure
- In verse 22-24 How the gift of righteousness is obtained
- In verse 25-26 How and why this works
- In verses 27-31 The results of it working
“The Law forbids disobedience and requires obedience, but it cannot provide the power needed to prevent the one or guarantee the other!” What God’s justice demanded His love provided and His provision for both was His Son Jesus Christ! Poet Elizabeth Clephane wrote: “Lord, you have here the 90 and 9, are they not enough for you? But the Shepherd answered, “This sheep of mine has wandered away from Me; and though the road be rough and steep, I go to the desert to find My sheep”. But none of the ransomed even knew how deep were the waters crossed; nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through until He found His sheep that was lost.” Sin is not so much breaking God’s Law as it is breaking God’s heart! That is why on his death bed American missionary to the Native Americans David Brainerd said, “I do not go to heaven to be advanced, but to give honor to God!”
Vs. 21 God’s answer to man’s failure
Vs. 21 “But Now” appears on our pages like the sun after a hurricane as the righteousness of God is revealed. Having proved the “unrighteousness of mankind” Paul can reveal the “righteousness of God”. God’s righteousness is not offered to us as a supplement to our own righteousness, it is given completely apart from our own attempted righteousness. People often misinterpret the meaning of words like the word “righteousness”. Many people think that this word means “to behave the right way” but Biblically “righteousness” isn’t about what you do, it is a declaration about what you are! The real idea behind the word is “worth,” which resonates with lots of people as they seem to be always struggling with their sense of “self worth”. Most people think they have to do something to get “self worth,” but the Bible tells us we can’t earn our “self worth”, we can only receive it. The gospel deals not only with what happens to us when we die, it sets us right now as we are given “self worth”! And this worth isn’t based upon some genetic trait or special talent, it is completely based upon the character and nature of the God who values us.
To emphasize this Paul makes two points:
Vs. 21a It is “self worth” apart from the Law: That means that our “self worth” is not predicated upon our obedience, it’s a gift. You do not “earn” it by doing your best to please God as His standard isn’t our best, it’s perfection!
Vs. 21b It is not a “new self worth” it’s foundational “self worth”: The religious Jews knew they didn’t measure up by the law that’s why they had the sacrificial system. Since God has always had in place our “self worth” as a gift then He isn’t going to change His mind or come up with a new improved way that we may obtain our “self worth”. Under the Old Testament Law, righteousness came by man behaving, but under the gospel it comes by believing.
Vs. 22-24 How the gift of righteousness is obtained:
Vs. 22-24 Paul told us how this righteousness does not come; (through the deeds of the law). It is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. The righteousness of God is not ours BY faith; it is ours THROUGH faith. We do not earn righteousness by our faith. We RECEIVE righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.
Along the way Paul developed his teaching about salvation around three themes:
- Justification: “An image from the court of law”! Justification solves the problem of man’s guilt before a righteous Judge.
- Redemption: “An image from the slave market”! Redemption solves the problem of man’s slavery to sin, the world, and the devil.
- Propitiation: “An image from the world of religion, appeasing God through sacrifice”! Propitiation solves the problem of offending God, our creator.
There is one way expressed in four different aspects:
Vs. 22a Through faith in Jesus Christ: Faith is only as good as the object it trusts in! Our justification comes from our being linked not to God generally but to Jesus personally. Paul stresses the truth that you can only receive the gift of “self worth” by trust in a person. The gift of self worth involves a relationship to a living person, a time when you opened up your heart and life to Jesus and asked Him to be what He is, Lord. In all the religions of the earth the emphasis is upon man’s self effort to bring self worth. Only in Christianity do we see man’s self worth a gift by way of a relationship.
Vs. 22b To all who believe: Paul explains that you are saved and gain a sense of self worth when you personally believe. Whether heathen or Hebrew, Buddhist or Baptist – there is only one way to salvation; by faith. It’s not what I’ve done or who I am; it’s who Jesus is and what He’s done! Faith is the hand that receives the gift offered by God and knowing that God is offering a gift does no one any good if they won’t receive it. He has declared all people guilty so that He can offer His salvation equally to all people.
Vs. 24a Declared of value freely by grace: It is God who freely and wholly saves us; we cannot contribute a thing to it. Hey, did you notice that this verse says that we are “being justified”? In the Greek that is in the aorist tense which means that our justification is continually happening. The word “freely” means without a cause and that is how it should be translated here.
Vs. 24b Finally we are told that it is Jesus that accomplished the work of redemption which is why we have self worth: We are brought face to face with the cross of Christ. Saints, if our brand of Christianity doesn’t emphasize the cross, then we are listening to the wrong gospel. “It is no gospel that speaks much on Christ but little of the cross. To speak on the beauty of His life without speaking of the sacrifices of His death has no power to free people from their sin.” Salvation is free but it is not cheap! Three words in these two verses tell us that “redemption, propitiation and blood”. Propitiation means to satisfy God’s Holy and just demands so that He can freely forgive our sin.
Vs. 25-26 How and why it works:
Vs. 25-26 Paul now moves to a brief explanation of “HOW” and “WHY” this redemption works. If God loved us so much that He overlooked our sin choosing not to punish us for it He would no longer be holy. Ah but if He punished us for it though He would be Holy He wouldn’t demonstrate His love. The only solution being Jesus Christ’s sacrifice whereby He would both be just and the justifier to those who put their trust in Jesus.
Vs. 25a How: First Paul says that God Presented His only Son a “sacrifice of atonement”. The word “propitiation” is a Greek word used in the Septuagint for the mercy seat, (the lid that covered the ark of the covenant), upon which sacrificial blood was sprinkled as atonement for sin. As a theological term which carries two ideas:
- To satisfy justice
- To release love
What Paul is saying here is that human sin injured God and justice demands that we be punished for that injury but Jesus’ death on the cross paid our penalty thus justice was satisfied. Ah but it was more than justice satisfied. It is love released as God reaches out to those who injured Him by their sin and grants us a sense of self worth, acceptance and value as He showers His love upon us.
Vs. 25b Why: Paul is referring to all the thousands of years where God hadn’t done anything about mankind’s wrong doings. What he is saying is that justice wasn’t compromised, it was settled at the cross. Through the animal sacrifice those who looked in faith to the coming Messiah had their sins “covered” by a sort of an “IOU” or promissory note. Because of Jesus God’s love is free to act towards us consistent with His character and nature to love sinners without breaking His own nature of holiness.
No one can claim that God is unfair when the price paid for our forgiveness was the blood of His Son. It’s easy to see how God could only be just by sending every guilty sinner to hell, as a just Judge. It’s easy to see how God could only be the justifier by telling every guilty sinner, you’re pardoned. But only God could find a way to be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Vs. 27-31 The results of it working: Paul raises three questions with regard to the self worth we have in Jesus Christ.
Vs. 27 Who can brag?: Because we are justified freely by His grace, there is no room for self-congratulation. In heaven no one will say, “Look what I have done, what I accomplished!” Our boasting will be, “Look what the Spirit of God accomplished in spite of me!” Jesus is the Savior, we are the save-ees. You can’t be self-righteous about the gift of righteousness we have in Jesus.
Vs. 28-30 Is any one excluded from grace?: Saving faith has a distinct character. It is not just agreeing with certain facts, but it is directing the mind and will into agreement with God. There are two groups in Christianity today: Those who emphasize behaving and those who emphasize believing, but the truth is the way we believe will affect the way we behave. No one person has “favored person status,” all are alike before God. There is One God and he is equally the God of Jews as well as the gentiles.
Vs. 31 Do we no longer need the Law?: We can see how someone might ask, “If the law doesn’t make us righteous, what good is it?” The law anticipated the coming gospel of justification by faith, apart from the deeds of the law. The gospel is that Jesus Christ came to fulfill the righteousness requirement of the Law. The very righteousness the law demanded is the very righteousness given to us by faith in Jesus. The purpose of the law according to Galatians 3:24 is to be our “teacher to lead us until Christ came. So now, through faith in Christ, we are made right with God.” The manager at a lakeside hotel had a problem even though signs were posted on the balconies “No fishing”, people still continued to do so. After some research it was found that no one ever fished from the balconies until after the signs were posted as they never thought of it. That’s often the case with the Law as it sets a standard that we are unable to keep.