Justified By Faith Series

Romans 3:18-25a. 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”. 19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins). (ESV)

Whether by design or by default, The Forbes Book of Business Quotations lists no “human” entries under “Righteousness” save eight passages of Scripture (Pss. 15:1–2; 92:12–13; Prov. 16:8–9; 29:2; Isa. 3:10–11; Jer. 22:13; Hos. 10:12; 2 Tim. 4:7–8). The starkness of this category’s supporting materials is striking. While other Scripture verses are sprinkled throughout the volume under various topics, “Righteousness” is the only topic totally illustrated by Scripture verses. It is as if the editor agreed with the apostle Paul’s assessment of the human condition in Romans 3:11—“There is no one righteous, not even one.” And if there is no one righteous, how could anyone say anything worthwhile about “righteousness”? Men and women can comment intelligently, helpfully, and humorously about “Anger,” “Humility,” “Obligations,” “Purpose,” “Tolerance,” and “Work”—and a whole host of other interesting human topics. But “Righteousness”?

According to the apostle Paul, for a human being to speak authoritatively about righteousness would be like an irate person commenting on anger, a destitute person commenting on wealth, or an arrogant person commenting on humility. In those cases, one would simply find a calm person, a rich person, or a humble person to speak to those subjects. Unfortunately, one cannot find a righteous person to comment authoritatively on righteousness. The very condition of humankind—total, complete, pervasive, unrighteousness—disqualifies us at the outset.

What if one only had The Forbes Book of Business Quotations by which to live one’s life? The verses it quotes on righteousness do well in suggesting how to act righteous, which is good for our life on earth. But how does one attain a righteous standing before God, which is what we need to know for our life beyond this earth? For answers to that question, Romans 3:18–25 (and Paul’s ensuing illustrations and discussion) is our only source of hope. These verses are the core of the answer to the most important question any person could ever ask: “But how can a mortal be righteous before God?” (Job 9:2). Job asked, but could not answer, that question. The world’s wisest people, even in our modern day, cannot answer that question. The only person who can answer that question is God. Thankfully, he inspired the apostle Paul to record the fundamental truths about man’s movement from unrighteousness to righteousness here in Romans 3.

Humanity has expertise in many areas of life and business, but righteousness is not one of them. Righteousness is the business of God. F. F. Bruce cites the Roman poet Horace, who criticized writers of tragedies in his day for introducing a god into the plot to solve some knotty problem. Martin Luther, Bruce notes, “took up [Horace’s] words and applied them to the forgiveness of sins: here, [Luther] said, is a problem that needs God to solve it. True, for sinful humanity cannot solve it, though everyone desperately needs a solution to it” (Bruce, p. 96). It is God’s solution to a knotty theological and practical problem which Paul presents in Romans 3: How can God remain just while at the same time justifying the unjust? (Boa, K., & Kruidenier, W. (2000). Romans (Vol. 6, pp. 99–100). Broadman & Holman Publishers.)

In Romans 3:18-25, we see that God reconciles people unto Himself through faith which shows three things: 1) The Need for Justification (Romans 3:18-20), 2) Justification apart from the Law (Romans 3:21-23), and finally 3) The Means of Justification (Romans 3:24-25a)

God reconciles people unto Himself through faith which shows:

1) The Need for Justification (Romans 3:18-20)

Romans 3:18-20. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”. 19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (ESV)