Romans 3: 21 – 31
Heavy Thoughts
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.
How can thoughts be heavy? Thoughts have no weight, right? Well, if you have been concentrating on what we just read, then I think that you would agree with me as to what Paul just wrote is very heavy. I mean look at what was just said and then you tell me that it is not ‘heavy’
1. Now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.
2. Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe
3. For there is no difference.
4. Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith,
5. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith
6. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
7. Who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith
8. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.
Now I am sure that this is all clear to you. For me, though, Paul’s thoughts are ‘heavy’. I am a mental midget. So, if you will be patient with me, let us take our time to make sure we understand exactly what Paul just said.
Paul has spent a considerable time from chapter 1 verse 18 onwards, in demonstrating that all are under sin (weighed down under it and condemned by it). He has demonstrated that all as they are in they come under the condemnation of God. None can claim to be in the right on the basis of their own lives. Now Paul seeks to demonstrate the difference that has been made by the coming of Christ, for in Christ God has provided a righteousness which is sufficient to ‘put in the right with God’ all who truly believe in Him.
In chapter 1 verse 17 Paul had told us about it, but in order for us to appreciate it fully it was necessary for us to recognize man’s condition. Now that he has achieved that he will expand on verse 17, ‘therein is the righteousness of God (which makes men accounted as righteous) revealed from faith unto faith’.
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
This righteousness of God that God has provided is apart from the Law. It is not obtained as a result of observing the Law. It has no connection with the Law. It is supplied by God, Who comes to us with a righteousness which will make us fully acceptable to Him. It is that righteousness, which completely fulfils all God’s holy demands, the demands which God gives to us.
It has been made clear [ Being witnessed] by both the Law and the prophets (the Old Testament Scriptures).
22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
We get this righteousness of God through faith in His Holy Son, The Lord Jesus Christ - to all who believe. The reason for adding ‘to all who believe’ is in order to include the Gentiles. ‘Faith in Jesus the Messiah’ may well otherwise have been seen as exclusive to the Jews. But here it is made clear that it is for all. And this is so, whether they be Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For all have the same need, and there is no distinction between any human being.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
The reason why this righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ is necessary is now given. It is because, as had been demonstrated so far in what Paul has written from chapter 1 verse 18 through chapter 3 verse 20, that all have sinned and are continually revealing it by falling short of the glory of God. All of us are in a continual state of sin, and are now continually falling short of His glory. The equating of sin with falling short of the glory of God brings out the root nature of sin. It is to come short of what God intended, and still intends, that we should be. It is to come short of absolute perfection, to come short of divine purity. It is to come short of God’s moral glory. It is to fail to be God-like.
Anyone who claims that he or she has not sinned must recognize that they are .talking about achieving complete God-likeness. If people just thought about this point it would cause them to realize how far away they are from having the Awesome and Magnificent Characteristics of our Holy Creator.
As a reminder as to how distinct, separate, and Holy our Great God Is, look what the prophet Isaiah said when he came close to our Holy Supreme Ruler. We read in chapter 6 verses 1-7 where he cried out, ‘woe is me, for I am totally undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I come from a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts’.
Job also had a similar experience. Look at what he said in chapter 42 verses 5-6 where the sight of the glory of the LORD made Job aware of his utter sinfulness. He cried out, ‘I abhor myself, and repent in sackcloth and ashes’.
24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
Now here is a truth that you need to memorize. On receiving the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe (verse 22), any one of the ‘all’ who have been demonstrated as sinful (verse 23), is immediately ‘reckoned as righteous’ before the Judge of all men. And this is through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, something which is available freely, at no cost, as a result of God’s undeserved favor and compassion revealed in action towards him (that is, it is of God’s grace).
The verb dikaio-o means ‘to reckon as righteous those on whom judgment is to be passed’; regardless of what the person might be in him. It refers to a legal verdict. It never means ‘to be made righteous’.
Our being accounted as ‘in the right’ before God’s judgment throne at this present time, and therefore as being fully acceptable to God, is granted to us. Look at these key statements;
• ‘Freely.’ It is at no cost to the recipient, and we could translate ‘as a gift’. No payment or exaction of any kind is required. No standard of works has to be achieved. Nothing has to be contributed by the sinner.
• ‘By His grace.’ It is given as a direct result of the direct action of God acting in undeserved love and favor. Man has no part in it except to respond. Grace is not a something that God gives (except in a secondary sense), it is God Himself acting in undeserved favor and love towards us.
• ‘Through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.’ It is through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Redemption involves the activity of someone who sets out to deliver, and accomplishes it, usually by the payment of a price. ‘Christ Jesus was made unto us -- redemption’. The price for our redemption is paid by another Who has ‘given His life as a ransom. We ‘are bought with a price, the price of blood and because of this we can be ‘declared righteous’.
We may ask to whom was the price paid. And the answer is that it was paid to God Himself as the Judge of all men. Justice required that a price be paid for sin. The paying of the price satisfied the demands of justice. And it was accomplished through God the Savior of all men setting forth Jesus Christ on our behalf, to take on Himself the penalty that should have been ours.
• ‘Which is in Christ Jesus.’ All this comes to us through the activity of the Messiah Jesus on our behalf. It is He who pays the price of deliverance, and then brings it about in men. And it comes when we put our trust in Him as our Savior and receive forgiveness and are made one with Him.
• ‘Whom God set forth to be a propitiation.’ But it was the whole of the Godhead Who were one in sending Him forth in public display, and this was in order that He should be propitiation, or a propitiatory sacrifice made on our behalf, a sacrifice that fulfilled the demands of justice and therefore averted God’s antipathy to sin. And as a result, when we become Christ’s the antipathy of God against sin, His wrath, is removed from us because our sins are atoned for. We are seen by Him as holy. And this is because He (our Lord Jesus Christ) bore our sins in His own body on the tree [The Cross] as revealed in the letter of 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 24. Paul later teaches us in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21that He was made sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
• ‘Through faith.’ And this benefit is obtained freely (as a gift) through responsive faith.
• ‘In His blood.’ And that faith must be in His offering of Himself as a sacrificial offering on our behalf. It must be in Him as the crucified One Who has died for us and is risen again.
This work of God can be, and is, presented in a number of ways. One way is to see our Lord Jesus Christ dying as our substitute. Because our Lord Jesus has died in our place as ‘a ransom in the place of many’ and has borne our sin, we can be accounted as righteous and go free, as a result of the fact that He paid the price instead of us.
Another great point is to see Him as our representative Who has incorporated us into Himself. We see ourselves as ‘in Christ’, which is a regular New Testament idea. And as a result, being one with Him we are seen as having gone to the cross with Him. We have been crucified with Christ, because He was crucified as our ‘representative’. When He died, we died there with Him. Thus with the punishment for all our sin being borne by Him as the One Who has absorbed us into Himself, we have paid the price of sin in Him and can go free, to commence our new lives for Him.
We see this same reasoning with ‘baptism’. Our Lord Jesus Christ died and was buried. He arose again from the dead. When we are baptized we are buried in the water as our Master and Lord Jesus was. In coming out of the water we are resurrected to a new way of life.
I love this example of how we have been set free.
Imagine a scene in a court room. A young man stands in the dock. He is accused of the most abominable of crimes, and he knows that he is guilty. He is aware that a death sentence hangs over him. The previous day the prosecutor, unable to keep the scorn and anger from his eyes, had laid out the charges against him. He has been aware of the anger even in the judge’s eyes. All are against him. And now all the evidence is to be introduced against him. He is without hope, and he awaits the proceedings with dread. The prosecutor comes forward. But now he is no longer angry, he is smiling. He declares to the court that all charges have been dropped. The young man’s elder brother has taken the full blame for the crime. He has pleaded guilty and has been justly sentenced and executed. The young man can leave the court room with no charge lying against him. As far as the prosecution is concerned he is free to go. The judge also is now smiling. He declares the young man to be ‘justified’ in the eyes of the court. He can leave without a stain on his character. All he has to do is believe it and go free. Everyone gathers round to pat him on the back. The judge comes and shakes his hand. He is aware in his heart that he is guilty. But the whole court has declared him to be ‘accounted as righteous’, because his elder brother has borne the shame and ignominy of the crime. That is ‘justification’. It is to him who works not, but believes in Him Who ‘reckons as righteous the ungodly’. His faith is counted as righteousness.
26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
This offering of Christ as a propitiatory sacrifice is in order to ‘show God’s righteousness’. It was necessary that He be seen as ‘just’. That is why He could not simply forgive without any necessity for the paying of a price. His righteousness and holiness must be displayed in what He did. And the question was, how could He be seen as ‘just’ while reckoning as righteous the ungodly? The answer lay in the shedding of Christ’s blood on our behalf. It is because He took the sentence of death on Himself for us, being made sin for us, bearing our sin, so that we who are ungodly and under sentence of death may go free. The justice of God is fully satisfied with what He has done. He can thus ‘account as righteous’ the ungodly who believe in Him. So now those who are in Him can be ‘reckoned as righteous’ because of their faith in Him, with His death being reckoned to them because they are now in Him.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith
What then of the Jews glorying/boasting in their special status? Or Gentiles glorying in their asceticism or benevolence which they considered made them deserving of God’s favor? Both are excluded. And on what principle are they excluded? Not on the principle of works, for that would give men the opportunity for glorying/boasting. It is wholly on the principle of faith, on the principle of being a receiver of all that God gives by accepting it freely as a free gift by faith. No man can boast at having been given a free gift. That does not mean that God looks on our faith and sees it as replacing our works. Rather it indicates that faith is the means by which we accept His free gift. There is no merit in such faith whatsoever.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
So Paul can now come to his important conclusion. And that is that a man is accepted as righteous before God, not on account of His works, (nor even on account of his faith), but as a result of that man’s response of faith to His free gift of righteousness. Any connection with the works of the Law is totally excluded.
29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,
For if salvation were to be by the works of the Law, which included circumcision, it would mean that God was only the God of the Jews. But Paul immediately raises an objection to this idea. He answers it by a counter-question. Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? And his answer to that question is an emphatic ‘yes’. God is God of both Jew and Gentile.
30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
The grounds for Paul’s confident answer is that God is one. This was indeed what the Jew boasted about constantly, ‘Hear O Israel, The LORD our God Is One’. Well, says Paul, if He is One then He is God over all and will deal with all on the same terms. He will reckon the circumcision to be in the right by faith, and the un-circumcision to be right through faith. All will be dealt with in the same way.
This fact that God is God of both Jew and Gentile will be emphasized in the next passage where Paul calls on the example of Abraham, ‘the father of many nations’. He is thus here preparing the way for that thesis.
It may be asked whether we should distinguish ‘by faith’ from ‘through faith’. If there is a distinction it probably lies in the idea that the Jews were reckoned as right ‘by faith’, and the Gentiles ‘through the same type of faith’
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law
He now deals with a final objection. Is he not making the law of none effect by making salvation obtainable through faith? And his reply is that, far from that being true, on the contrary he is establishing the Law. For on any other way of salvation the breaking of the law would be being treated as of secondary importance, such breaches having to be overlooked. It would have its teeth drawn. It would be unable to condemn. But salvation by faith gives the law its full status as condemning all who fall short of it. The axe then falls, but it falls on Christ. Furthermore the Law is then also given its true status as being a ‘schoolmaster to lead us to Christ’. In ancient days the Law turned men’s thoughts to the necessity of the sacrificial system though which they could obtain atonement for their failures. Now it is intended to turn their thoughts to Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf.
So, have you made a decision relative to these facts? If you want to go it alone, then you must bear the consequences of your sin. The ax will fall on you. Or, do you want to accept the fact that the Holy Son of God took upon Himself your punishment and you are set free. This is not a heavy thought. You would think that this is a no brainer. However, many refuse God’s Grace of Forgiveness. Wow!
