My wife and I both attended Union University and we both used financial aid to pay for it. Early on in our marriage, we made the decision to consolidate our various loans into one grand loan. The advantage of this maneuver is that it lessens the overall payment amount every month – which at the time was what we needed. One of the disadvantages is that the weight of the amount that is owed becomes quite a bit more pressing once all the loans are lumped in together. It was as if, for the first time, we really understood exactly how much money we owed. So you can imagine our incredible shock when we received a letter in the mail from the company that held our loan saying that the amount due had been paid in full. Suddenly, the world seemed a better place: the sun shone brighter, the people were nicer, angels sang all around. It was an amazing feeling to know that such a debt had been paid and that we were free. You can probably also imagine our reaction when we realized that the loan had been paid off by the company through whom we consolidated. As a result, we still owed the money – we just owed it to a different company. Suddenly the world was back to normal, and the weight of the debt returned.
I tell this story because, even if just for a few moments, my wife and I had the incredible feeling of having an incredible weight lifted and a rather large debt paid. The reality of our situation as human beings is that all of us stand in a similar position under sin. As Paul has made clear in Romans 1:18-3:20, all people are sinners. That weight rests equally upon us all. Though we may not all sin on the same level, the reality – to use an image used by John Stott – is that though one individual may sit on the bottom of the sea while another sits atop Mt. Everest, they are both equally incapable of reaching the stars. By nature, we all have done the very things we know we should not do, and it is impossible for us to do the very things that we know we should do. We are all sinful and we are all under the wrath of God. The goal of what we have seen over the last three weeks is to drive us as human beings to the point of utter hopelessness in ourselves. There is no way for us to fix the problem. We are God’s enemies because we have rejected him.
But the glory of our text this morning is that something has happened to alter this hopeless picture. If you are familiar with Romans at all, you know that there is an incredible shift at this point in the book. Paul has already said, in 1:32 that “those who practice such things [sins listed in 1:24-32] deserve to die.” And in 3:20 he wrote, “by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.” But, as we will see in a couple of weeks, Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God.” So this begs the question, what happened between 1:32 and 5:1?1
How is it that those who rightly deserved to die stand before God justified? How is it that the very thing which was impossible through the law has happened? How is it that those who were under the wrath of God (2:5) can now be at peace with him? The answer is in our text this morning. What has happened, you ask? The righteousness of God has been revealed by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Our text this morning lays out that reality, and so we will examine each facet of this righteousness that is revealed (3:21-26) before examining the way in which this truth is to be applied (3:27-31).
As we begin to look at these verses, we immediately notice two things: 1) there is continuity with what has come before – particularly 1:17 and 2) there is a discontinuity with what has just been said. We see the continuity in the fact that Romans 3:21-31 is really just a further explanation of what was said in 1:17. There Paul said, “For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.” When we looked at that verse, we looked briefly at the many facets of the “righteousness of God” that was mentioned. And the passage this morning picks that theme up again, and so we will learn more about this righteousness of God – in fact, it is that theme that dominates this text. We will see the righteousness of God in declaring sinners to be righteous, and we will see the righteousness of God as he maintains his perfect holiness throughout the whole process. So it is that theme will serve as the center of everything we look at today.
But we also see discontinuity with what has just been said. Paul begins 3:21 by saying, “But now….” It is possible that there is not a more wonderful conjunction in the Bible than the one that begins Romans 3:21. In Rom. 1:18, Paul wrote, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” And from 1:18 to 3:20, Paul talked about the revelation of God’s wrath. Beginning with 3:21, Paul talks about the revelation of God’s righteousness. He has talked about the horrible reality of our human situation as we sit under God’s wrath – we are unable to do the very things we need to do to secure redemption and favor. But now Paul will talk about the glorious reality of the gospel – the fact that God has done for us those very things that we could not do.
In the text we looked at last week, Paul made clear that the law speaks judgment to those who are under it. He made clear that no one will be justified in the sight of God by keeping the law because no one is able to keep the law. To put it a bit differently, you cannot find righteousness under the law. The core problem of all human beings, as we have seen, is that they are inherently unrighteous. And we need to be made righteous. So, Paul wants his readers – at the end of Romans 3:20 – to be overwhelmed by their inability to be righteous and justified. The law is supposed to tell us how to live. Is a law not given with the assumption that it will be obeyed? Paul answers this question in the first part of our text this morning. He writes, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it” (3:21). So here we see the answer – the law was never meant to give human beings a means of becoming righteous. Paul hinted at this reality last week by saying “through the law comes knowledge of sin” (3:20). So the reality of all of history is that the righteousness of God that would be given to human beings was waiting to be revealed “until the fullness of time had come.” But along the way, there were things that bore witness about this righteousness that was to come. In what Paul writes, we see that two of these witnesses were the Law and the Prophets – this is a shorthand way of making reference to the whole Old Testament. The Old Testament, as a whole, bore witness to the righteousness of God that was going to be revealed. They themselves were not the revelation of that righteousness, but they bore witness to it.
The importance of this reality is that it allows us to keep the Old Testament in its proper perspective. When Paul says, “But now…” he is not merely referring to this point in his argument, he is pointing to a shift in redemptive history as a whole. Something incredible has happened that had not happened before. In the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets existed, but they always seemed to be pointing to something else. The Law is not seen to be an end in itself because it can never be obeyed. Moreover, it has glaring weaknesses that seem to require something greater (sacrifices had to be repeated; priests died; etc.). Likewise the Prophets were not to be seen as an end in themselves because they consistently pointed the people forward to something else – particularly to a future righteousness. Jeremiah 23:5-6 says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”2 This reality is even seen in Psalm 51 – David is beseeching the Lord for forgiveness even though he has committed adultery. According to the law, adultery was punishable by death. So David appeals beyond the law to something else. So it is clear that the Old Testament points to some other (and ultimate) revelation of righteousness. That is why Paul makes clear that the righteousness of God is revealed apart from the law.
But if the Old Testament points to some other, ultimate revelation of God’s righteousness, and that righteousness does not come through the law, how does that righteousness come? How are human beings going to be made righteous if not through the law? This is a logical question that Paul answers in the next verse. Paul makes clear that the righteousness of God that has been manifested is “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (3:22). So here is the crux of Paul’s argument: righteousness – rather than being achieved or accomplished – comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Thomas Schreiner puts it is this way, “Those who place their faith in Christ are in the right before him, not on the basis of their own work but simply by virtue of their faith in Christ Jesus.”3 There are a number of facets to this argument that we will look at in turn.
First, notice that the means by which this righteousness comes is faith. Paul says the righteousness of God is “through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe (3:22). Rather than being earned or gained, righteousness comes through an act of trust. The issue is not whether the law was obeyed; the issue is whether faith is present. This obliterates the very foundations of legalism because the way to be made righteous – the way to be put in right relationship to God – is merely to trust and not to do things. Sinful human beings are made righteous by faith. This also makes clear that the righteousness of God does not come by default – it comes to those who have faith. As sinful human beings, we do not live in faith. We do not live trusting in another for our salvation. We either do not care about salvation or we attempt to achieve it ourselves. The reality that righteousness comes through faith renders both of these avenues fruitless. They both lead to death.
Second, notice that this faith has a distinct object. It is not merely an ethereal, groundless belief in anything. Paul writes that this righteousness comes “through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (3:22). The righteous God of the universe is able to declare guilty sinners righteous because of their faith in his Son, Jesus Christ who came to earth and lived a perfect life, died, was buried and rose again on the third day. We will examine more in depth in just a moment what happened in Jesus’ death to make this reality possible, but Paul’s goal at this point is merely to hold up the fact that Jesus Christ is the only right, effective object of faith. The righteous God of the universe will not declare people righteous just because they believe they have been good enough or they believe that God loves them too much to send them to hell or even because they believe that some higher being created the world. He will grant righteousness to those who believe in Jesus Christ. This faith, as elaborated upon throughout the Scriptures is a faith that truly believes that Jesus bodily died for sins and rose again. And it is a faith that results in a submission to Jesus Christ as Lord. It is a faithful trusting that what Jesus did on the cross is enough to satisfy God, and a faithful life that serves the King who died in order to make it possible for us to be declared righteous.
In this reality, we begin to see the way that the tone of the letter has changed, and Paul highlights it himself. He writes, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23). This short verse is nothing more than a summation of Romans 1:18-3:20. Paul is restating the things he has already said. But this time he follows that statement of universal human sinfulness by saying, “…and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (3:24a). Just as all are sinners are guilty before God, all of those same sinners can be declared righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. Again, the ratio is not exact. Paul is not saying that all people – without exception – are declared righteous; he is saying that all people – without distinction – who place faith in Christ are declared righteous. This is the glorious part of Paul’s statement. Paul went out of his way to declare that every individual on earth is a sinner under God’s wrath – there was not a single exception to that. Likewise, Paul wants to make clear that everyone who places faith in Christ is declared righteous – there is not a single exception to that. No one is too bad or has sinned too much. Just as all are sinners; all who place their faith in Christ are declared righteous. There is hope in the person of Christ. And that hope is a gracious gift of God through the work of Christ Jesus.
But this reality that sinners are declared righteous because of their faith in Jesus Christ raises this question: what happened in Jesus’ death on the cross that makes this possible? It is not an overstatement to say that the answer to this question serves as the crux of Paul’s message in this text. Paul’s desire is that his readers understand that they are made right with God through faith. But that desire is entirely founded upon the things that Paul declares in 3:24-25. Without the truths that Paul mentions here, the exhortation to faith in Christ would be pointless and fruitless. So, what happened in Jesus’ death? Paul uses three different terms to describe it and we will look at each one in turn.
The first word that Paul uses is “justified.” He writes, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (3:24). So, what does it mean to be justified? Justification is a legal concept that centers on a person being declared righteous or not guilty. So, Paul is declaring that when people believe, by grace, in Jesus Christ, they are justified. We must understand the reality of that declaration: when a person places their faith in Jesus Christ, they are declared not guilty. We have just spent three weeks looking at texts that made clear that all people are most certainly guilty before God, so this declaration that there is a way for guilt to be removed is monumental. In Christ, guilt is removed and we are pardoned of all of our offenses.
But how can such a pardon be given? If we are indeed guilty, how is it that we are declared not guilty? The answer comes in the second word Paul uses: “redemption.” As we saw, he writes, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (3:24). There are numerous analogies that have been associated with the word “redemption,” but – in the context of the New Testament – the term is always connected with the forgiveness of sin (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:15). Our sin, in and of itself, is not the only problem. That sin carries with it a particular penalty – death (Rom. 1:32; 6:23). In order for sin to be forgiven, or done away with, this penalty must be satisfied. God did not merely declare us not guilty by sweeping our sin under the rug or overlooking it; he declares us not guilty because Jesus Christ endured the penalty for our sin in our place. The penalty has been paid, and therefore, we are redeemed. Our sins are forgiven – if we place our faith in Christ – because Jesus has paid that penalty.
But, if we have been paying attention from 1:18-3:20, we know that the problem is not just that sin deserves death. We know that the reason it deserves death is because our sin has caused God’s holy, righteous wrath to burn against us. We do not merely need our sins to be forgiven; we need this terrible wrath that hangs over us to be removed. And the glorious message of the gospel is that this has also occurred in the death of Christ, and Paul uses the word “propitiation” to denote this whole concept. He writes, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (3:23-25). So, when Jesus died on the cross, he not only justified us (allowing us to be declared not guilty) and redeemed us (paying the penalty for our sins) but he also bore the horrible wrath of God that burned against our sin. God’s wrath had to be poured out on sin, and God made a way for that wrath to be poured out on Christ so that it did not have to be poured out on us. This concept of God’s wrath being appeased permeates not only Romans but all of Scripture. The entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament was put in place because it was necessary for God’s wrath to be poured out on sin. And God provided a way to pour out his wrath on sacrificial animals in such a way that the Israelites themselves were not obliterated. This picture of sacrifice in the Old Testament pointed to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who bore the wrath of God in all of its fury so that those who place their faith in Christ are saved. So, putting this entire picture together, we get an idea of what happened at the cross. This is the reason that it is only through the cross that salvation is possible. Christianity is not exclusive “just because;” it is exclusive because the righteousness of God can only come in a particular way. Human beings stand before God guilty and there is nothing they can do about that. They must be justified, and that happens at the cross. Human beings stand under the penalty of death, and there is nothing they can do about that. They must be redeemed, and that happens at the cross. Human beings stand under the wrath of God, and there is nothing they can do about that. God’s wrath must be appeased, and that happens at the cross. This is why the cross stands central in Christianity: at the cross, every obstacle that stands between a holy God and sinful people is dealt with, and by faith the two are brought into a right relationship in Christ.
In the middle of verse 25, there is a subtle shift in focus – with incredible consequences for our understanding of the gospel. In 3:25b-26, Paul points out that everything he has been talking about (the justification, redemption and propitiation accomplished by Christ on the cross) happened in order to demonstrate the righteousness of God to the world. And he discusses this demonstration of God’s righteousness both from the perspective of the past and the perspective of the present.
First, Paul writes, “This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins” (3:25). Here Paul addresses an argument that could have been raised against God. In the Old Testament, it seemed that God overlooked sins. First of all, there were certain sins that simply were not covered under the Mosaic Law. There were some sins that no sacrifice could cover – adultery and murder among others. And yet, there are some adulterers and murders in the Old Testament who do not die (i.e. David). So did God simply overlook their sin? On top of that, the author of Hebrews says, “…it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb. 10:4). So even the sins that were covered by the sacrificial system were not really taken away by that system? So did God simply overlook the sin of his people? The answer according to Paul in our text today is a resounding “NO!” Rather than simply overlooking their sin, God – in his divine forbearance (or patience) looked forward to the death of Christ that was going to occur in the future and stayed his hand against those who trusted in Him. Schreiner says it this way, “OT sacrifices cannot bring forgiveness; indeed, Paul implies that all along they simply foreshadowed the forgiveness effected through Jesus, since God patiently bore with sins committed during the Mosaic era. God looked ahead to the death of Jesus as the true sacrifice for sins.” 4 In Jesus Christ, the sins of all people (Jew and Gentile alike) who would believe for all time (past, present and future) are dealt with completely. And in this, God’s righteous character is demonstrated because there is not a single individual who will have eternal life whose sins were not dealt with fully.
Paul goes on to highlight the incredible righteousness of God in not only remaining totally just by punishing sin but also in the being the one to deal with that sin in a way that allowed the sinners themselves to be saved. It is very easy to look at the cross as we have been describing it this morning and see God as this incredibly cranky and cantankerous old man who just sits around and looks for a way to punish people. But the reality of the situation is that we, as sinful human beings, were utterly helpless in our sin – dead in our trespasses. God, because of his perfectly holy character, has to punish that sin. But God, because of his love for the world, sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for sin so that all who believe in Christ might be saved. Far from being an angry old man, this is a God who graciously provided salvation for people who did not deserve it because he loved them. And he did it in such a way that his holy character was never violated. God is both just (because there is not a single sin that goes unpunished) and the justifier (the one who made a way for us to be made right with him when we had no hope of such a reality on our own). This is the glory of the gospel.
Having laid out the glorious realities of the gospel, Paul spends the rest of chapter 3 making some brief applications of these truths. No doubt, this reality of God’s righteousness being revealed and vindicated in the cross of Christ raised numerous objections and questions. In 3:27-31, Paul answers some of those things, so we will look at each one in turn.
The first thing Paul says, by way of application, is, “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (3:27-28). So the first thing Paul says after laying out this glorious picture of the gospel is that it leaves no room for boasting – particularly in works. If there is one characteristic that should characterize every person who has been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, it is humility. This should be the foundational response of those who are Christians. How can they boast? They were no better than anyone else – Paul has already said that everyone is equally guilty before God and deserving of his wrath. Why is it they have been saved? It is because of Christ. Why is it that they are declared not guilty? It is because Christ justified them on the cross. Why are they able to avoid the penalty of sin? It is because Christ redeemed them on the cross. Why is it that God’s wrath does not rest on them? It is because Christ bore God’s wrath for them on the cross. Everything that a Christian is they are because of grace. Everything they have is a gift. And the proper and right response is an attitude of humility in all of life, in all circumstances toward all people. That said, pride is the foundational human sin. It seems to be ever-present. Every person in the world could probably confess right now that they are proud. So, how do we fight that? How do you fight the sin of pride? It seems that the greatest weapon we have against the scourge of pride is meditation on the cross. If you are struggling with thinking too highly of yourself, think about the cross. If you are struggling with thinking too little of others, think about the cross. It is the very essence of humility. Christ humbled himself to the point of death on a cross. Those who have been saved by faith in Christ are saved because of the work of Christ. They are entirely dependent upon another for their salvation. Think on this reality and put to death the pride and boasting in your own heart.
The second thing Paul says is that this salvation by grace through faith knows no boundaries in regards to people. He writes, “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith” (2:29-30). In Paul’s context, the division between Jews and Gentiles was deep and wide. Paul wanted to make clear that the issue in salvation is not whether a person is circumcised or uncircumcised but whether faith is present. If faith is present, circumcision or uncircumcision is meaningless because it is faith that brings salvation.
Paul grounds this exhortation in the very character of God. He makes clear that God is one – which is the fundamental declaration of the Jewish faith: the Shema. If God is one, then the means of salvation is one. The same God is not approached in two different ways because God is the same for all time to all people. Sinful people are made right with God by one thing: faith in Jesus Christ. The Jews were and are saved by their faith. And the Gentiles were and are saved through their faith. So, as we go out into the world, the gospel should be on our lips as we speak to all people. There should be no barrier that causes us to distinguish one person from another when it comes to speaking the gospel. Just as all alike are sinful, salvation by grace through faith is available to all people.
Before we move on from this point, I want us to truly understand what this means. For the universal church today, the centrality of the gospel (and its function as a unifying reality among the Church of God) has been lost. Though we may not struggle with circumcision, do we question the hearts of those who disagree with us on secondary issues (the sovereignty of God, baptism, church government, style of preaching, conscience issues)? If so, then we are guilty of the very thing of which the Jews were guilty. God is one and salvation comes by faith in Jesus Christ. If a person professes that faith, then we fellowship with them as a brother or sister in Christ. The very core and essence of Paul’s exhortation to unity in Ephesians 4 is the gospel: “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:4-6).
Paul’s final exhortation returns back to the law that has so permeated Paul’s language in this letter to the Romans. He writes, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law” (3:31). Here, in this brief verse, Paul is making a profound statement. On one hand, Paul is holding up the glorious person of Christ once again. The reason that the law is upheld by this gospel of justification by faith is because Christ perfectly obeyed the law. As Christians, we are not saying that the law was irrelevant. Rather, we are saying that Christ fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law. We are saved not because the law was ignored but because the law was kept by Christ. Through faith in Christ, we are joined together with him and his perfect obedience to the law – his perfect righteousness – is credited to our account. In the eyes of God, it is as if we obeyed the law because we are joined together with the One who perfectly obeyed that law. But Paul is also making a greater statement about the transformative power of the gospel in the lives of those who have faith in Christ. Even in the example of Abraham (which we will look at next week), Paul points out that Abraham’s faith resulted in his obedience to the commands of God. In much the same way, when a person places their faith in Christ, they are enabled to obey the commands of God. Suddenly, at the moment when a person believes, their heart is changed. The heart that Paul described in Rom. 2:5 as hard and impenitent suddenly becomes a heart out of which flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). The evil heart that produced nothing but evil fruit is suddenly transformed into a good heart that produces good fruit (Luke 6:43-45). Paul’s point is that once a person becomes a Christian, rather than sweeping the law under the rug, they are now equipped with a heart that is free from the power of sin and is actually able to obey the commands of God. And the heart of the believer in Jesus Christ does obey those commands – not as a means of salvation but as a way of honoring and following the One who has saved them.