Text: Romans 3:21-26
Title: Salvation- The Reality of God’s Righteousness
Romans 3:21-31 21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. 31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.
How are we Saved? Vs. 21-26
1. Not by keeping the law- v21
2. Righteousness- v21-22
3. Faith- v22
4. Justification- v23-24
5. Redemption- v24
6. Propitiation- v25
Please Open your Bibles to Romans 3:21-31…
At the beginning of this sermon series on Romans I talked about how many theologians and pastors consider Romans to be the crown jewel of the New Testament. Because of how deep and detailed this book is in dealing with how salvation works, many consider it to be the most important book in the whole Bible.
Well in the same way, many would consider the passage we will be studying today to be one of the most important passages in the whole Bible. It is so full of important terminology and descriptions of how salvation works. It is a section of scripture that is just very dense. It is jam packed with a lot of good stuff.
The big question that we will deal with today is How are we saved? In order to better understand the details of the salvation process we will define and describe some of the key theological terms that are found in this passage. There is a lot of good stuff here.
But before we dig in, I want to start by reviewing some of the doctrinal truths that we have discovered in Romans up to this point. Like we talked about a few weeks back, Paul is constructing a theological house for us. I want to make sure that we have a clear picture in our minds of each of these concepts, because they are all interconnected and will build off of each other.
The foundation of our theological house is what? That’s right, the doctrine of revelation. We believe that God has revealed Himself to His creation. Through the created order, through the Bible, and through the incarnate Word-Jesus Christ, God has revealed something about Himself to us.
This is the foundation of our theological house because without God revealing Himself to us we would be lost. Without Him communicating to us through the prophets and through the written word, we would not have access to Him.
So the doctrine of revelation is our foundation. The doctrine of sin was the first wall of our house. We have been studying the doctrine of sin for the past month or so. Paul spends a lot of time there because it is such an important truth. It is something that many people ignore or deny, but without a proper diagnosis there can’t be a proper cure.
The doctrine of sin teaches us a couple of truths about us and our relationship with God.
First, humanity is completely sinful and corrupted. We are totally, completely, pervasively depraved. There is nothing good about us. We are slaves to sin and enemies of God.
Second, God is a holy and just God and will punish sin. God will not ever let sin go unpunished. If we ignored sin or didn’t punish it that would compromise His holiness.
Third, because God is perfect and holy and we are not we have become enemies of God.
Fourth, we don’t have the ability to keep the law, obey God, or pull ourselves out of the pit of sin that we are in.
So because all of these things are true we are left in a tough spot. We are helpless. We are stuck. Without some kind of divine intervention we would ultimately be separated from God forever. Without God stepping in and providing some way to fix our problem we would be stuck spinning our wheels. Trying to obey, but destined to fail under our own power.
Today we are going to begin construction of our next supporting wall; the doctrine of salvation. Here is where we begin to understand a little bit better the solution to our problem of sin. This is where Paul gives us that promised cure to the heart disease that he has diagnosed us with.
Follow along as I read Romans 3:21-31…
(I promise that this passage will make a lot more sense in just a few minutes.)
The big question that we will answer today is, How are we saved? My real goal here is to unpack some of these big theological words. These words teach us so much about what God has done for us through Christ. They help to illustrate the process of salvation. They give us a glimpse into just why Jesus Christ is so important.
Those who believe that we can be saved apart from faith in Christ are so completely wrong. As we see in these verses, only Christ was able to fix our sin problem, nothing else will do the trick.
First, before we talk about how we are saved, Paul reminds us of what does not save us. We see right off the bat that salvation is not by keeping the law. He says, “but, now, apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested.”
In the last section Paul went into detail about how the law doesn’t save us. I wanted to clarify exactly what Paul means by the Law. He’s not telling us that we don’t need to follow the civil laws, like the speed limit, he is referring to the Old Covenant.
When Paul refers to the Law he is talking about the whole system that God put into place with the Mosaic Covenant. Things like the dietary rules, the rules about what you could wear, the whole sacrificial system of atonement. That old covenant has been replaced with a new covenant. As we will see today the new covenant isn’t really replacing the old covenant, but finishing it off, completing it, fulfilling it.
So salvation is not found in the law. There is a righteousness from God that has now appeared that was promised in the Old Testament. At the end of verse 21 it says that this new righteousness was spoken of in the law and the prophets. Jesus was prophesied, foreshadowed, anticipated, and eagerly expected by the OT prophets.
This is important because Paul is explaining that this new righteousness in Christ is not something new. It was a part of God’s plan of redemption from the beginning.
The next thing we see is that salvation is all about righteousness. We’ve already heard this word used over and over again. For the past few weeks it has been all about our unrighteousness. In verses 21-22 Paul uses this phrase, “the righteousness of God” two times.
The righteousness that is available to us is not our own. It doesn’t come from us, it isn’t based on what we do. It is a righteousness that is from God. It is His perfect righteousness that takes the place of our complete unrighteousness.
The word “righteousness” simply means to be right with God. It comes from the same root word as justice. It carries the idea of keeping the law or doing the right thing.
Righteousness is also one of God’s attributes. God is perfectly righteous, holy, and just. He is the standard of righteousness.
Mankind was created in a state of original righteousness. When God created us we were in right relationship with Him. In Ecclesiastes it says that God has made men upright, but they have sought out many devices, or ways of sinning. At the fall we lost that state of original righteousness and entered into a state of sin. We are no longer righteous, or in right relationship with God because of that sin.
Since the fall the only person who has been able to keep God’s moral law and live a perfectly righteous life is Jesus Christ. The importance of Christ’s righteousness is infinite. He is able to break the curse of sin through his perfect life.
The righteousness of Jesus Christ is said to be imputed to us, or transfer over to our account. We don’t have a righteousness of our own that saves us, but an alien righteousness, a righteousness that comes from the outside. We will talk a little more about this when we look at justification.
This perfect righteousness from God is something that grows and develops. Sanctification is the process of renewed righteousness. Christ is in the process of conforming us to His perfect image.
Righteousness is a very important concept. Paul wants everyone to understand that we are not right. Our sin has made us enemies of God. We will never be able to do the right things, or live a good enough life to measure up to God’s standard of righteousness.
Moving on… The next big theological term that we find in this passage is the word “faith”. The word faith is used a number of times in this passage. In 22 it says that the righteousness of God is through faith. In 26 in talks about God as the justifier of the one who has faith. In 28 it says that we are justified by faith. So clearly faith is essential to the entire salvation process.
But what exactly is faith, where does it come from, and where should it be directed? Faith means a strong belief, a deep conviction, and a confidence. Faith involves placing your trust in something or someone.
There are three main aspects of faith that we need to understand.
1. There must be an object to our faith. In this case the object of our faith is clearly stated in the passage; it is Jesus Christ. Faith needs to be in something or someone. The problem with some modern liberal theologians is that they want to about faith, but don’t really want to talk about what that faith is grounded in.
I did this religious discussion panel for the SN&R a few months ago. And the other lady who was on the panel kept talking about the importance of faith in our spirituality. But she never said what that faith should be in. Finally I had to just come right out and ask her, “faith in what?” Faith has to have an object, and if our faith is in the wrong thing, we are in trouble.
2. Faith in God involves knowing God. We can’t really have a very high degree of confidence in someone or something we don’t even know. How do we know that Jesus Christ is trustworthy? How do we know that we can place our faith in Him? How do we need to put our faith in Him?
Fortunately God has revealed Himself to us, given us His word, and provided the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Without at least a basic understanding of scripture any faith we might have will be confused and weak. It will more than likely be misdirected. That’s why reading and understanding the Bible is so vitally important. We need to know who we are placing our faith in.
At that same panel discussion for SN&R the same lady made the comment later on that she is a Jesus believing Christian, not a Bible believing Christian. That statement was just so absurd that I’m still having a hard time wrapping my mind around it. I asked here how she knew Jesus, obviously she started talking about the gospels and the stories…I said, so you’ve read about Him in the Bible. If you don’t believe in the Bible then you have no idea who Jesus Christ is.
Faith in Jesus Christ means we need to know something about Him. We don’t have to know everything about Him to be able to put our faith in Him, but we do need to at least know the basics.
3. Faith is a gracious gift of God. Because humanity is so completely dead in their sin, we have no ability to turn to God on our own power. Last week we read those verses that talked about how there is no one who does good, no one who seeks for God, no one who understands. We don’t have the ability to take a step of faith unless God enables us to.
Ephesians 2:8 is the simplest explanation of this truth..
Ephesians 2:8 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
This is an area where things can get a little confusing. Clearly we have the responsibility to respond to the gospel by repenting from our sins and making the free will decision to place our faith in Jesus Christ. But it is also clear from scripture that we don’t have the ability to make that choice without some sort of prior work of grace that enables us to see and understand. This is a place where the sovereignty of God and the free will of man bump up against each other.
We had a good discussion last week in SS about what that prior work of grace looks like that enables sinful man to make the right choice to follow God. We will spend a little more time today talking about a few of the different theories that are out there.
But this is just one of those areas where we can only go as far as the scripture allows. I think there is room for difference of opinions in this area based on your view of the sovereignty of God and the nature of our sin. No matter where you fall in that spectrum of believe we can all affirm that God is completely sovereign and in control, and man does indeed have a free will and will be held accountable for his actions.
Next, in verses 23-24 we see the term justification used. Look at those two verses with me again…
First of all it is important to note that Paul reiterates the fact that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Without placing our faith in Jesus Christ we are all lost. There is no not a difference in the way we are saved, we are all “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus”
As I mentioned earlier, righteousness and justification come from the same root word. They are really very similar in meaning. Justification is being declared righteous.
This is very much a legal term that is similar to a court transaction. As sinners we are guilty of death. God told Adam and Eve that death would be the punishment for disobedience. We are all guilty of the same sin and facing the same sentence.
Justification is God acting as the righteous judge, declaring us not guilty. This is the amazing part behind justification. We are guilty. We deserve death. But God transfers Christ’s righteousness to us.
It is important to note that the passage clearly says that justification is a gift by God’s grace. He is the one who does the justifying because he is the only one who is just. Look at verse 26…
The last two key words that we will look at today all shed some light on how God is able to declare us righteous. God doesn’t ignore sin. He is holy and will not tolerate it. He has given the consequence of sin as death, and that penalty has to be paid, one way or another. God is able to declare us justified, or not guilty, because Jesus Christ paid that penalty for us.
According to verse 24 the way in which we are justified is through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ redeemed us. Redemption means the payment of a ransom. The imagery is of humanity held captive by sin and Jesus Christ coming and paying the ransom so that we can be set free.
The price that Jesus paid was His own blood, His own life for ours. There are many passages in scripture that explain this process more fully.
1 Peter 1:18-19 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
Redemption is such an important, meaningful, deeply significant concept. The cost of our rescue was high. The value of our salvation is infinite. The thought that God Himself paid our ransom by offering Himself is completely mind bending. It is too much to understand. It is the ultimate act of love.
The last term that we will look at today is just as meaningful and important. It is the word “propitiation”. Verse 25 says…
25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.
What does propitiation mean? There are three key ideas associated with the concept of propitiation. Two of them are verbs and one is more of a noun.
First, the noun form of this word can refer to the mercy seat on the alter. In the OT when a sacrifice was made, the place where the blood was sprinkled was the mercy seat. This became intricately associated with the salvation process.
Second, it means to appease the wrath of God through a sacrifice. One of the most common aspects of many world religions is the idea that we need to do something to appease God’s wrath. That might take the form of sacrifices, rituals, offering money, or physical punishment.
The OT process for appeasing God’s wrath was through a sacrificial system. If the people sinned they had a responsibility to deal with that sin through one of a number of different kinds of sacrifices. They could sacrifice an animal, sacrifice food or crops, sacrifice incense. But the purpose was to atone for their sins and avert the wrath of God.
The problem with that old sacrificial system was that it was not able to complete the job. It never fully appeased the wrath of God. “Hebrews 10:4 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The OT sacrifices had to be done over and over again, and they never fully paid the penalty.
Third, propitiation means to cleanse people from their sin. In providing a way to appease God’s wrath we are also cleansing our own sin. We are removing the guilt and the stain of sin from our hearts.
The amazing thing about propitiation is that God Himself provided the sacrifice. Because He is holy and just He will not allow sin to go unpunished. It is also important to note that God is patient and loving.
Look at the last part of verse 25 “ 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed”
This is not saying that God ignored our sin, or condoned it in any way. It means that God graciously withheld His complete judgment knowing that the perfect sacrifice was still to come. In chapter 4 we will see some examples of OT people who were saved by faith, but ultimately redeemed by the blood of Christ.
It was Christ’s perfect sacrifice that paid the final price, that appeased God’s wrath fully, and that put us in right relationship with God.
I’m running out of time, but I want to finish off explaining the last few verses of chapter 3 so we can move on to chapter 4 next week. I will take some time in SS to deal with any question you might have about these last few verses. But there is one important thing I want you to catch here…
Have you noticed something interesting about each one of these aspects of salvation? Each of these things is from God, not things we do. The righteousness that we have is not our own, it is from God, faith is described as a gift from God, justification is a work of God, redemption comes from the work of Christ, and propitiation is accomplished through Christ’s sacrifice. Our salvation is accomplished through the work of God.
In verse 27 Paul asks the question, what do we have to brag about? Where then is boasting? We have nothing to brag about. We didn’t save us, God saved us. We can’t brag about keeping the law or doing some good work, because it is faith that saves us.
In verse 28 Paul just restates his big idea; that man is justified by faith, not by the law.
In 29-30, Paul asks, isn’t God the God of the gentiles as well as the Jews? After all, there is only one God. So there must be only one means of salvation.
Finally in 31 he asks, do we negate the law because of our teaching about salvation through faith. He says, no, we confirm it. The law was never meant to save, but to drive people to Christ. The law will always serve that purpose. It will always be important. And it is only through the gift of grace that we can ever meet the requirements of the law.
WOW, too much good stuff. Do you feel like you’ve been drinking from the fire hose today? The amazing thing is that we have barely even scratched the surface of the doctrine of salvation. There is still a lot for us to learn in the weeks ahead.
So to answer our question, How are we saved, the best answer come right from this passage…24 being justified(made right before God) as a gift by His grace through the redemption(bought out of slavery) which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation(appeasement of God’s wrath) in His blood through faith.
What an awesome God we serve. He is so unlike any of the other man-made gods of the world. He reaches out to us and draws us close to His side. He’s done all the hard work for us. All we need to do is turn to Him. We are truly blessed!
