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We’ve been sailing through dark, stormy seas since Romans 1:18 all the way to 3:18. The lightning of divine wrath has been flashing all around us, the thunderclaps of judgment have been crashing, and terrifying waves loom high against us. We seem to be on the edge of eternal hell, to have lost all hope of surviving this rightly deserved wrath of God against all our ungodliness and unrighteousness. Suddenly, as we come to Romans 3:21 everything changes with two words: “But now!” Now the sun of divine mercy and grace bursts forth through the darkness and the best news we’ll ever hear is about to unfold before us.
“But now!” The message of justification by faith rocked the first century as Paul and Peter preached that God receives sinners, Jew or Gentile, by faith alone, not by works. The Judaizers came along and tried to destroy this good news of God’s grace by demanding, “They must be circumcised.” During the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic church developed a sacramental system that destroyed and hid this liberating doctrine from the people and claimed salvation was only through submission to the church. Through the centuries there were genuine believers, but in the early 1500s that German monk Luther, in deep anguish and despair over his sin and guilt before a holy God, finally saw this glorious doctrine of justification by faith alone and the Reformation was launched. We still fight for this great doctrine today.
“But now!” We want to bring all the bad news against us given in chapters 1-3 to bear on this transition in verse 21, “But now.” They introduce what Leon Morris says is possibly “the most important single paragraph ever written.” Martyn Lloyd-Jones adds: “If I were asked which in my opinion is the most important and crucial passage in the whole of Scripture, I would have to include Romans 3:21-31.”
The big issue every sinner faces is this: How can a sinful man or woman be right with God? Job asked it in Job 9:2, “How can a man be in the right with God?” Both his friends Bildad and Eliphaz asked the same thing in Job 4:17 and 25:4. How can a guilty sinner stand before a righteous God? You’ll remember Paul announced in Romans 1:16-17, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes…. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The righteousness man shall live by faith.’” Now Paul finally begins to unpack exactly what that means and gives us God’s amazing solution to man’s biggest problem. We’ll look at these verses in three king-sized bites.
#1, THE GOSPEL REVEALS GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Romans 3:21, But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
The big issue is the righteousness of God. That’s what you desperately need when you stand before God, and the one thing you don’t have on your own. Remember verse10 – “There is none righteous.” But how do you gain this righteousness? First, it is apart from anything you can do in yourself. “Apart from the Law.” This righteousness isn’t your righteousness. It isn’t your record of righteousness you earned by trying to keep the law. If you try to take your record of good deeds with you into heaven, it will condemn you. That’s why the natural man is offended by the gospel message. The gospel says you contribute nothing, and all your righteousness’s are as filthy rags before the perfectly righteous God (Isaiah 64:6). “Apart from the Law.”
But Paul is quick to add, that the gospel is not contrary to the Law and the Prophets. They witnessed to this divine righteousness. Here’s one example:
Isaiah 61:10, I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Isn’t that just a beautiful picture of the gospel and what God does when He imputes the righteousness of His Son to your account? “He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness.” The good news is that God has a righteousness that He has manifested in the gospel. It’s God’s righteousness, not ours. It has nothing to do with you keeping God’s law. But it is in perfect harmony with God’s law.
God’s righteousness “has been manifested,” made visible for us to see. Where? In Jesus Christ. He came as God’s righteousness for us. At a God-ordained point in history, in the fullness of time, God invaded man’s history and through the incarnation He brought His righteousness into public view. We’re going to look at this more closely as Christmas comes, but that son of David born through the virgin Mary is called “The Lord our Righteousness” in Jeremiah 23:6. Not only does the gospel reveal God’s righteousness but…
#2 GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS COMES TO US IN CHRIST ALONE AND THROUGH FAITH ALONE.
Romans 3:22-23, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
God has provided this perfect righteousness for sinners completely and totally outside of themselves. Luther called it a righteousness (extra nos in Latin) outside of us. He also called it an alien righteousness, not from us but brought to us from heaven in Jesus Christ.
IN CHRIST ALONE. Jesus Christ kept the Law perfectly, without a flaw, without one sin in his entire earth walk from His conception to His ascension. This is called the active righteousness of Christ. His passive righteousness is all His work on the cross, perfectly suffering all the penalty for sin we deserved. He fulfilled all those Old Testament pictures of salvation: those skins for Adam, that sacrificial ram for Abraham, the Passover lamb for Moses and Israel, all those Levitical sacrifices, all fulfilled by Christ perfectly at the cross. He fulfilled the Day of Atonement when the goat and bull were killed and their blood sprinkled on that golden mercy seat on the ark of the covenant under which were the broken law of God. He fulfilled the picture of the carrying away our sins in the scapegoat.
Leviticus 16:21-22, Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. 22 The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
This was that righteousness manifested in the gospel! Christ’s active righteousness and His passive righteousness, perfectly fulfilling the law and will of God for sinners. You will not find God’s perfect righteousness in any other human being in all history.
THROUGH FAITH ALONE. To whom does this righteousness come? Not to those who work and earn and merit, but to those who believe. By faith alone to all who call on His name. Verse 23 simply reminds us there are no distinctions between Jews and Greeks and there are no exceptions to this need. Paul already told us we are all under sin. Here he adds that without distinction between sinners, every single human being has sinned, first in Adam and then in our own personal life. Sinned means we’ve all missed the mark of God’s righteousness, and we keep on falling short of God’s glory, God’s standard of righteousness.
So God has provided His righteousness in His Son to anyone, anywhere, regardless of the degree of our sins. You may have been a monster sinner or a refined sinner, but everyone ever born is a sinner. Every sinner needs God’s righteousness and that can be accessed only through Christ by faith alone, by believing. What is believing? What is faith? First, it isn’t a work. It isn’t something you do that merits God’s righteousness. Even faith doesn’t save you. Christ saves you. Jerry Bridges simplified faith to these two words: renunciation and reliance. Faith means you renounce your self-righteousness, you turn from trusting your own self and you rely on Christ alone. J. Gresham Machen said, “Faith is a very simple thing; it simply means the receiving of a gift.” Faith is the empty hand receiving God’s gift of righteousness in His Son. John 1:12-13, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” When the Philippian jailor asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul didn’t say, “Well, first you need to be circumcised, and then begin to keep the ten commandments.” No, Paul said very simply, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” Through faith alone in Christ alone.
#3 GOD RECEIVES SINNERS BY DECLARING THEM RIGHTEOUS IN CHRIST.
Romans 3:24-25a, 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.
How does God do all this? Here we come to the heart of the gospel. Here we come to a clear statement of justification by faith alone. This is the great truth that made Luther’s heart leap for joy. He wrote: “Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justified us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.” He later declared, “This is the chief article from which all other doctrines have flowed.” John Calvin called justification by faith alone “the main hinge on which religion turns.”
Now Paul explains with five great truths how God justifies sinners.
DECLARED RIGHTEOUS. First, justified is a forensic, legal, declarative word. It doesn’t mean God imparts or infuses righteousness into your soul, which is what the Roman Catholic church teaches. It doesn’t change you at all, although it forever changes your status with God. It means God declares you righteous. And it happens instantly. The moment you put your faith in Christ you are instantly and forever declared righteous. It’s as if you were in court and God brings the gavel down with the verdict, “Not guilty.” But it’s more than not being guilty. It’s being declared perfectly righteous, and that verdict will hold good as long as Jesus is in heaven at the Father’s right hand, which is forever.
We will always be accepted by Christ alone all the way to glory. B. B. Warfield wrote: “There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development because of which we are acceptable to God.” Since God declares you righteous with Christ’s righteousness, no matter what spiritual attainments we make, no matter the degree of our sanctification, we will always be accepted by God in Christ by simple faith alone. Sometimes a person may say, “I just don’t think I’m good enough to be a Christian or go to heaven.” You’re not! Or they may ask, “Am I really good enough?” No, you’re not! No one qualifies or is good enough to get into heaven, except One! Believers get in through Him. If you don’t have Him by simple faith, you don’t get in.
That’s what Paul meant in Romans 1:17 when he said, “from faith to faith.” While sanctification will inevitably follow justification, your sanctification will not in any way add merit to your salvation. This was Rome’s great error. It was at the Council of Trent that Rome condemned justification by faith alone. Rome says you are justified progressively by your adhering to the teaching of the church, and when you die, you must go to purgatory to have all the remains of sin burned from your soul. It may take thousands or millions of years. That’s not the gospel; that’s a false non-gospel.
Let’s add, you don’t grow in justification, although you should grow in understanding the doctrine. Justification by faith alone in Christ alone means you are as ready for heaven the moment you believe as you ever will be. God declares the sinner perfectly righteous in his standing before God because Christ’s righteousness is imputed or credited to his account.
AS A GIFT. You don’t earn this righteousness. “As a gift,” not as something deserved. The word gift is dorean and means for no cause in you! I like that because if it was because of something in me, I’d have lost my salvation long ago. Dorean, freely, as a pure gift. You don’t deserve it, you’re not worthy of it, and God doesn’t owe it to you. Freely, for no reason in you. God declares the worst of sinners who put their faith in Christ righteous. When that thief on the cross asked Christ to remember him in paradise, what did Jesus say? He said nothing about baptism or circumcision or keeping the law. Just, “This day you’ll be with Me in paradise!” Freely, as a gift. This demolishes all legalism, all human boasting, all self-righteousness, all pride and religious merit, and all question of whether you’re good enough.
BY GRACE ALONE. What motivates God? This is glorious. He justifies us freely by His grace, His pure, sovereign, undeserved goodness and mercy. Grace, “karis”, is a beautiful word. God not only gives us what we don’t deserve, but He doesn’t give us what we do deserve! Remember our history back in chapter 3:10-19? We were under sin, silenced and guilty before Him. And now He freely, out of grace, in His Son, declares us righteous. This is a huge reason to sing:
“Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin. How can my tongue describe it? Where shall its praise begin?”
Remember Ephesians 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
THROUGH REDEMPTION. But someone must pay for all my sins. Someone had to rescue us from our slavery to sin, to purchase us out of the slave market of sin, and that’s exactly what Christ did – “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Redemption is another glorious word. The word is apo-lutrosis – to set free by paying a price. Another word translated redemption is ex-agoradzo (Galatians 3:13), which has the idea of going into the marketplace or the slave market, paying the price and purchasing the slave. So, Christ came into the slave market of sin with the price to pay, the ransom. And He paid that price through His blood and death on the cross where He redeemed or purchased us, making us his own.
You’ll remember Boaz in the book of Ruth. He was Ruth’s kinsman redeemer. He was related to Naomi, and he was willing and had the means needed to purchase Ruth. Christ became a man, He was willing to purchase us, and paid the price with His death on that cross. We’re redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Don’t you love those hymns about redemption?
- I will sing of my redeemer.
- O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise.
- Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in when Christ, the great Redeemer died, for man the creature’s sin.
- Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.
- There is a Redeemer, Jesus, God’s own Son, precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One.
Author Everett Harrison wrote: “No word in the Christian vocabulary deserves to be held more precious than Redeemer. It reminds the child of God that his salvation has been purchased at a great and personal price.”
BY PROPITIATION. Here we come to the very heart of the heart of justification by faith alone. Let’s get a close look. Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This takes us straight to the cross where God publicly displayed His Son. God didn’t hide from the world how He would save sinners. He made sure Christ would be crucified publicly in full view of the Jews and the Gentiles. Men crucified Him, but God set Him forth in public view.
Propitiation. This is one of those sixteen-cylinder, God-sized words we really need to understand and appreciate. Here’s what it means. Christ’s death on that cross satisfied or appeased all the wrath of a holy God against all the sins of His people. Remember that wrath revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness? Christ endured the pouring out of that wrath against all those He would save. Like a huge funnel from the heavens over the cross, every bit of divine wrath against every single sin of every sinner God would save, all His elect, was poured out from God and funneled right into the very soul of Jesus, who agonized for three hours of darkness and cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” It’s as if God turned out the lights for those three hours. Christ was made a curse for us. He drained every drop of wrath our sins deserved. Those three hours are the most important three hours in all history.
Paul adds, “in His blood through faith.” He died as a substitutionary sacrifice in our place. Let’s never forget. This is what God in His love did for sinners. God doesn’t save us reluctantly. He provides this glorious redemption eagerly. In Christ He pours out His love and mercy and kindness on sinners, drawing them into His eternal embrace. All you can do is renounce your self-righteousness and rest your soul completely on Christ alone, and your eternity will be completely and amazingly changed to being in God’s love forever and ever.
Ian Murray interviewed Martyn Lloyd-Jones on January 19, 1981. He died February 28, a month later. Lloyd-Jones said, “When you come to where I am, there is only one thing that matters, that is your relationship to Him and your knowledge of Him. Nothing else matters All our righteousness are as filthy rags. Our best works are tainted. We are sinners saved by grace. We are debtors to mercy alone.”