Romans 3:21-31--The Righteousness of God Through Faith

Romans 3:21-31
English Standard Version

The Righteousness of God Through Faith
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. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

​27 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. 28 For we hold that one 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 God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

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Today's passage is going to contain one of the most famous passages from the book of Romans and the beginning of what many call the Roman's Road--a set of short passages entirely from the book of Romans that can lead someone to salvation.  Verses 23 (and sometimes also including verse 24) would usually be the first verse/passage quoted on the Romans Road, the purpose being to let someone know their state that they are in.  There are lots of theological words here this letter and in these next few chapters as this is a letter written by a Christian to other Christians, so there is a common vocabulary already there.  When we share these verses with people who are not saved, we will often need to stop to explain words like, "righteousness," "Law," "the Law and the Prophets," "faith" "believe" "sin/sinner/sinned," "glory of God" "justification/justified," "grace," redemption," "propitiation," "by His blood," "received by faith," and "passed over" just to name a few places that if we were trying to share this whole passage with someone that we might need to stop and explain some of those things.  It is the purpose of this blog to explain some of those things today, but since we have gone through the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Galatians and James already (that was intentional on my part), then the concepts of redemption, Passover, and grace (as well as what "saving faith" is) should not be new topics.  I do not expect you to remember every passage exactly, but I will do my best to explain Scripture by Scripture and with Scripture for, "For God is not a God of confusion but of peace." (I Corinthians 14:33)--while this is specifically in a passage talking about the sign gifts like prophecy and speaking in tongues, the principle is the same for all of God's revelation--God intends for His message to be understood, but it is sin that hinders our ability to see, hear and understand the Scriptures apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.

Since I've already used the word "sin" let's stop and define it precisely.  It is an archery term that means to "fall short."  It doesn't mean to simply "miss the target," but it means anything less than a perfect bullseye.  For anyone who is an archer or sharpshooter, you know how difficult it is to shoot a perfect bullseye, but imagine if your standard was that you had to shoot a perfect bullseye dead-center each and every time that you drew the bow or shot a bullet.  Even something that pierced the 10-ring and wasn't "perfect" would be unacceptable.  Such a standard would be seen as being impossible, but that is the kind of standard we are up against.  While the word "holiness" is not one that is directly brought up in today's passage, it is one we should understand by our study of 1st & 2nd Peter as well as the book of Leviticus where God is holy (separate, unique and "other" from us or any of the false gods of the pagan peoples) and we cannot come to Him, approach Him, or be in His presence in just any way that we want, but only by His prescribed means and methods can we have access to Him.  The blood of something (or someone) innocent must be given in exchange for the one who is guilty.  That sacrifice is called the propitiation (or "satisfaction," that is the price that needed to be paid/satisfied) for our sin, and the sins of the past were covered by the blood of these sacrifices but were only "passed over" for a time until the entirety for this sin debt was visited upon and paid by Jesus, the satisfaction of both God's holiness and wrath by which we were bought with a price--a blood price of the innocent for the guilty--so that we might have His righteousness put on our account and our unrighteousness put on His account.   This is where the ideas of redemption and grace come into play.

So then what's it mean that this is a free gift that we must believe on and accept by faith?  Well, let's quote another verse to see if we can clarify.  


Ephesians 2:4-10
English Standard Version

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.


Hebrews 11:1-3
English Standard Version

By Faith​
11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.



Hebrews 11:6
English Standard Version
​
​6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.


We'll talk more about this idea of that which was dead being made alive as we go on--that ties into something from the book of Ezekiel called "The Valley of Dry Bones" (look it up if you want as we have not studied the book of Ezekiel yet, and may take some time before we do get to study it.  Grace and mercy are astounding principles where it is God's mercy (the place where the blood of the bull and goat were applied on the Day of Atonement was called The Mercy Seat) that doesn't give us what we deserve--instead "Jesus Paid It All."  That is mercy that we didn't get what we deserved.  Each of us was guilty under the Law and deserved the death penalty not just in this lifetime, but for all eternity where "eternal death" or "the second death" is another name for the wrath of God that will be poured out on all unbelievers in a place many refer to as "hell," but we also see it called, "The Lake of Fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

This all sounds like "bad news" so far, even if you look at it as something "bad" that Jesus who was innocent had to die for you to be declared innocent.  Jesus being the Son of God desired to redeem all the people of God and this is something He freely agreed to from "before the foundations of the world."  This was God's plan from eternity past--Father, Son and Spirit working together to accomplish the gospel (the "good news") that in all things Christ should be supreme, preeminent and be glorified in and through the Church and His new creation both now and forevermore

The last idea that I think needs a little explanation is that of "the glory of God."  It is closely connected with the holiness of God and is often talked about as a "weightiness" of God's identity, nature and presence that is heavy enough to crush those who are unholy and still in sin, but is enough to cause those who have been redeemed to celebrate and worship Him for all eternity.  One example that I like to share here is that it is like the light of the Sun (light and glory are also closely-connected topics).  Light doesn't just illuminate, but in its purest form it can also sanitize, burn, and cut (if you think of a laser).  It is something that we desire to harness and control and as C.S. Lewis said of Aslan  in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (who represented Jesus in this allegory) that He is "good, but not safe:

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe\

So it is with anyone or anything that is great and powerful that it must be "feared" and respected and not treated lightly.  This is why writer of Proverbs wanted to give this message to his son,

Proverbs 9:10
English Standard Version
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10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
    and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight

So, I think I have explained most of the background behind the first paragraph of today's passage.  If you still don't understand something, that's okay--ask God because He wants you to understand it and you cannot understand it apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.  The good news of the gospel does not make sense to those who are still in sin before the Holy Spirit does His work in them (again, we'll get back to the Valley of Dry Bones later to show this).  Here's one more verse to go along with that:


1 Corinthians 1:18
English Standard Version

Christ the Wisdom and Power of God​
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

In case we missed it, this passage wraps up by reminding us that it is not by works of the Law that we are justified or receive grace or mercy.  There is nothing for us to boast about other than the goodness and greatness of our God who did everything for us that was impossible for us to do ourselves.  Paul will start talking about "the law of faith" in contras to "the law of works."  I don't love the phrase but to stick with the allegory of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the Law of Works is the Stone Table that contains the "Deep Magic" and is the means by which Satan claims possession over all those who are traitors to God (like Edmund) but there is a "Deeper Magic" that is what Paul is calling "the law of faith" that the innocent can stand in the place of the guilty and that our sin can be imputed onto Christ so that His righteousness can be imputed onto us.  There is one God for both the Jews and Gentiles and only one gospel and only one kind of saving faith for both the Jew and the Gentile.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No man comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).

The last point that Paul makes here is an important one.  The Law is not a bad thing--it is a very good thing (see Psalm 119 if you have questions about that), but it is insufficient to save anyone.  Instead once we are saved by grace through faith in accordance to the requirements of the Law (the life-blood of the innocent paying for the life of the guilty), then we are actually upholding the Law and not subverting or destroying it.  Be careful about how you talk about the Law, because it is the very reflection of the character and nature of God, and what you think about the Law says much about what you think about the God who gave us the Law.  Again, the purpose of the Law is to lead people to understand that God is holy and we are not, that He is perfect and we are not, and that our imperfections separate us from Him both here and now  for all eternity.  This is an issue too big for us to fix and it is the central issue of the book of Romans.  How can those who are unrighteous and are displeasing to God be made holy, blameless, pleasing and acceptable in His site so that they can receive grace upon grace that was due to Christ Jesus our Lord?  We'll see as we continue our study together.