Romans 3:21-24 – God is Righteous to Save

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

 

Notice the first word, “therefore”. When we see the word, therefore, it’s always there for a reason. It’s a transition word which, in this case, is a summing up of the previous information. The word “therefore” means, “Here’s the final analysis of what I’ve just said. The doing of the law can’t justify you in God’s sight. All it can do is give you the knowledge of sin, or make you aware of your sin.”

That should make us all see how much we need God’s grace and mercy.

 

And so, up to this point, we’ve seen that whether Jew or Gentile all are guilty and without excuse and no matter how much they, or we, try to keep the law, justification for sin is impossible through the law. It’s purpose is to enlighten us with the knowledge of just what sin is from God’s perspective and that should make us see the impossibility of trying to keep that law.

 

Now we’re going to see the solution to this dark and depressing reality. We’re going to learn of the righteousness of God that’s been revealed apart from the law.

This means that God’s revealed a plan and a program by which He can righteously save unrighteous sinners, other than by requiring the impossible keeping of the law.

 

God is holy and perfectly righteous, so He can’t condone sin or overlook it. He must punish it. And the punishment for sin is death. Yet God loves the sinner and wants to save him; so there’s a dilemma.

God’s righteousness demands the sinner’s death, but His love desires the sinner’s perfected, eternal life.

We’re going to see in the rest of Romans how God can save sinners without compromising His righteousness.

 

To get the full punch of this we go back to the book of Job.

In Job 25:4 Bildad the Shuhite, one of Job’s friends, asks this question in relation to God’s majesty and man’s impurity,

How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

 

All down through the ages this question has been part of theological discussion. The impossibility of human righteousness before a holy God.

We’re going to see the incredible wisdom of God and His answer to this age old question. We’re going to see the question the disciples asked Jesus in Mark 10:26,

And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? 

 

And we’re going to see the outworking of Jesus’s answer to them in Mark 10:27,

And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. 

 

Now, Romans 3:21 to Romans 26 is one whole sentence. As we’ve seen before in our study and in our introduction to Romans, Paul does this a lot. He crams massive amounts of information into sentences and we really need to understand the subject, the conclusion as well as the content in between of these long sentences.

By the way this style’s not exclusive to Paul, nor even to the bible. It was a style often seen in ancient writings and was used even up until the 20th century. The longest sentence in literature (in English) is widely credited to Jonathan Coe in his novel The Rotter’s Club (written in 2001). It spans a staggering 13,955 words across 33 pages.

 

So from Romans 3:21 to Romans 3:26 there’re no full stops but there’re three semicolons and a semicolon means something in grammar, in this case to separate these statements that could stand on their own, but they’re connected.

Semicolons are not in the Greek or the Hebrew.

 

This passage isn’t just a long string of new information. Paul’s repeating things over and over again so as to give us understanding.

There’re some colons in this passage as well and what colons are going to do here is almost like parentheses or brackets. They’re going to give you some further insight into what’s said in the sentence.

The final statement in the sentence, Romans 3:26, is the conclusion of God’s righteous to save through Christ.

We’ll cover verses twenty five and twenty six next episode.

 

Let’s read the whole passage to get the flavour of this one paragraph then we’ll go back and break it down.

 

Romans 3:21-26,

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 

To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 

 

So, Paul from Romans 1:20 to Romans 3:20 proves that everybody’s without hope, all guilty before God and just so Israel knows that they’re included in the “all guilty” along with everyone else, Paul says in verse 20 (Romans 3:20),

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

 

Now here in Romans 3:21 we read,

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 

 

The 1st 2 words in verse 21 are two of the most important words in all your Bible, “but now”.

“But now” screams out to us that things have changed.

Paul will often use, “but now” in his epistles. You’ve heard it said, this is what happened “but now” this is happening.

 

But now, somethings being manifested that wasn’t manifested before.

Manifested means that something’s being made clear or apparent and that something is the righteousness of God “without the law”. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.

 

It’s the “without the law” part that makes what Paul’s saying here a mystery.

Why? Because God’s righteousness up until Paul’s salvation and His apostleship by Jesus Himself was known by the knowledge of and the keeping of the law.

Paul’s effectively ending thousands of years, of Israel operating under the law.

 

That’s important information because that wasn’t always the case.

In Deuteronomy 6:25 we read,

And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us. 

 

Here we see that Israel’s righteous is in doing the commandments, the law, and not just hearing them.

We see this right throughout the Old testament, including through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and the Jewish epistles from Hebrews to Revelation.

James 1:22 is just one example,

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Jesus Himself in His earthly ministry taught this.

Matthew 19:16

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? 

Then in the next verse, Matthew 19:17, Jesus challenges the man by saying if he’s calling Jesus good, he’s calling Him God. But then He says,

but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. 

 

Through the entire Bible it’s that they must perform by keeping the commandments. That’s the entire bible except of course in Paul’s epistles where it’s just the opposite!

 

So the righteousness of God expressed in the law is something that’s condemning to all of us. But now, here’s the righteousness of God without the law.

How can that be?

If you don’t have Israel and God’s law, then how can you get God’s righteousness?

 

But now there’s this change from sinners being condemned by the law to sinners being justified by God’s grace. Salvation through faith alone without the law and without Israel.

This’s something Jesus never spoke about in His earthly ministry.

Jesus never made that sort of alternative to the law teaching.

In Matthew chapters five six and seven, in the sermon on the Mount, Jesus amplifies the law. He talks about, “You’ve heard it said this, but I say unto you.”

He’s not changing the law. He’s making it clearer and much harder.

So, why is Paul teaching this?  Why is he saying that God’s operation has changed?

Because of Israel’s rejection.

They rejected the long promised kingdom of Heaven that was at hand with the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. They rejected Jesus as the Messiah and they rejected the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost.

These rejections were in spite of proof positive that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and the Kingdom was at hand and the Holy Spirit did come, all as promised by God and prophesied through the ages.

 

How did Paul know all this, especially as he was a vicious persecutor of the early church and those who did believe Jesus was the Christ?

Because Jesus reappeared to Paul after His resurrection and after Israel’s final rejection at the stoning of Stephen.

Paul was miraculously saved, appointed as the apostle to the gentiles and, during three and a half years in the wilderness being taught directly by Jesus, given this great mystery.

The mystery of salvation by grace through faith to both Jew and Gentile, without Israel and without the law and the new creature, the Body of Christ. Christ in us and us in Him.

A mystery that had remained a mystery since before the world began but was then, at that time, revealed to Paul.

Romans 16:25 Paul speaking,

Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 

 

This’s the theme for this entire 6 verse sentence, how God, even though it’s right for him to judge sinners, but now, because of the revelation of this mystery and the preaching of it through the gospel, it’s right for him to save sinners as well.

This’s why it’s great news.

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.

 

God’s righteousness is no longer expressed by the law or doing the deeds of the law.

God’s operation is no longer through those who are under the law. Remember Romans 3:19,

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 

 

Thats Israel. Gentiles weren’t under the law.

They lived at a time when God gave it, but it was given to Israel. Israel was under the law.

And so Romans 3:19 is a condemnation of Israel. But in Romans 3:21, “without the law” means that we don’t need those who’re under the law, those who were ministers of the law, who God gave the law to, to minister to us Gentiles.

This’s a massive change and it’s a huge slap in the face to Israel and their God given, promised history.

When he says the righteousness of God without the law, he might as well’ve said, we don’t need you chaps anymore. We don’t need Israel.

God’s operation’s no longer through the law or the nation of Israel.

No wonder the Jews persecuted Paul so hard and so often.

 

In Galatians 6:15 Paul writes,

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

 

It’s neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, Jew or non-Jew anymore, but a new creature.

We’re either in Christ or we’re not. And that’s what Galatians 6:15 says.

Paul’s removing the necessity of Israel for salvation and yet not Paul but Christ through Paul’s revelation.

All that may sound normal in churches today, but within the Scripture, we don’t find that anywhere else.

Ever since Genesis, God made a promise to the fathers of Israel, then there was the Exodus, Deuteronomy, and the law. It was all Israel. And all through their history with David and Solomon, it was Israel and all the prophets.

Jesus came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel with revelations about the return of Israel to its glory and position that God intended and promised.

And now, here’s this apostle going around preaching how we don’t need Israel any longer.

 

It’s normal for Christian churches not to make a big deal about Israel, but in the Bible it’s not normal.

Of course, today most don’t read or know the Bible. Today, we take the parts we want and chuck out the parts that don’t seem to make sense or try to fit them into our current circumstances or into the teaching of the day.

But if we read the Bible in its context, Israel’s what it’s about, Jesus being the King of Israel.

 

The term “Righteousness of God” is widely misunderstood. Many think it’s the righteousness of Christ that’s attributed to the believing sinner but it’s a term that’s not used in Scripture.

The teaching today is that Christ fulfilled the law, lived a perfect life on earth and that this righteousness is given to the sinner, but that’s unscriptural.

It’s God’s righteousness which the believing sinner receives.

The same righteousness which condemns the sinner, covers all who believe and this righteousness is revealed in the Gospel. God’s righteousness has been fully met and maintained in the atoning work of Christ on the Cross.

By that wonderful work God can now save sinners and save them righteously.

 

The remainder of Romans 3:21 reads,

being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 

 

Now we’ve been talking about this mystery that’s God’s kept secret from the foundation of the world, but now it’s revealed through the apostle Paul.

But how can it be a mystery if it was witnessed by the law and the prophets?

Well witnessed by doesn’t mean taught by or revealed by.

All through the bible we can see shadows and types of this coming righteousness.

The law required different sacrifices to be made for sin and while they were insufficient in themselves to take away sins, they pointed to the great sacrifice, in which God would be fully glorified as well as His righteousness satisfied.

There were many types and shadows in the sacrifices and in the words of the ancient prophets, “but now”, since the righteousness of God is made fully known in the Gospel, we can trace God’s wonderful thoughts and purposes in the types and histories of the Old Testament. The law testified to the coming redemption by the blood of Jesus Christ.

The Prophets also witnessed to it in Isaiah 41:10 ; Isaiah 46:13 ; Isaiah 51:5-6 ; Isaiah 51:8 ; Isaiah 56:8.

 

To understand how the law and the prophets witnessed these things that were hidden, we can to the scriptures for an example.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and God told him to build the ark to save him and his family against the judgment that would come and through that whole story we can learn that Noah was a man of faith.

He believed that God would send the water, and he believed enough to do what God said and over one hundred years build this huge ark.

See, he believed. It was a message of faith. But did you that nowhere in the story in Genesis 6 does it say that Noah was a man of faith. It’s not teaching, that.

He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now we can look at the story and know that it took a lot of faith for Noah to do that, so yes, it definitely testifies to that. It definitely recognises the truth of Noah’s faith, but it’s not teaching it. And it wasn’t revealed back there.

That wasn’t the point of what was said. This’s what it means to witness. And so, of course, the law and the prophets witness what we understand today about what God’s doing.

 

The old, old question, never fully answered until Paul of “how can man be just before God?” is now solved and the Oracles of God and the law witness the righteousness of God without the law, but although we can look back from our position today, where we’ve got the full word of God, and see that this righteousness was there all the time in those types and shadows, even though revelation of them wasn’t revealed back then.

 

We move to Romans 3:22-23 and we read them together because verse 23 is a part of verse 22,

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

 

The same phrase, the righteousness of God, is in both verse twenty one and verse twenty two except in verse twenty one it says, without the law whereas in verse twenty two it’s Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith.

 

He’s defining this righteousness now. He just mentioned the righteousness of God was without the law, which means without anything we can do. So, what’s left then? What we believe. Faith. It’s the righteousness of God by faith that Paul’s now communicating to us.

Now, there’s two aspects to that.

The mystery that righteousness is now without the law, without Israel and without covenants, and faith without works and grace and the new creature. That’s the doctrine that Paul’s going to teach, Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe:

 

 

So we’re learning that this righteousness of God is now by faith and Paul’s defining what that means.

When he says by faith of Jesus Christ, the faith here is in contrast to the deeds of the law.

To press the point, we saw that back in verse twenty that no flesh can be declared righteous, or be justified by the deeds of the law. But now it’s the righteousness of God without the law, but instead, now, the righteousness of God is by faith.

 

Look at Galatians 2:16

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 

 

Paul’s explaining the same thing here to Peter.

Romans three and Galatians go hand in hand. They’re complementary.

So, again we see that justification’s not by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.

Now, here’s where we need to point something out.

There’s a difference between what you and I personally believe in, and the faith of Jesus Christ, which Paul’s explaining.

He says, by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. See that? Faith of and faith in.

Paul’s comparing the faith of Jesus Christ to works of the law but there’s two phrases there and this comes up many times in Paul’s ministry.

 

So we need to take a little sidebar here to highlight this often misunderstood phrase.

Before we do we should be aware that many, if not most of the newer translations change the “of” here to “in” and it’s true that salvation is by faith in Christ, but what’s that faith based on? Is it just faith that Jesus Christ existed or even that He truly is the sinless Son of God? Not really. Remember James 2:19,

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 

The devils believe and are not saved.

So what is the basis of our faith, our believing to salvation?

How can we be justified by the faith of Jesus Christ?

There’s controversy among different groups about what this faith of Jesus Christ is and whether it means that Jesus himself needed to have faith like you and me and that’s a dangerous idea.

Some may say, well, he was a man like us. Yes, like us, except without sin and also God.

The way in which he wasn’t like us is that He’s God.

There’s a big difference. He’s the Way, the Truth and the light and

He doesn’t need to have faith like you and me.

You and I can’t be justified by the deeds of the law. But guess what? Jesus can.

Many teachers even say that Jesus believes for us. He believes so that we don’t have to believe.

That’s falling into error by thinking that faith itself is a work and faith is not a work.

Jesus did all the work necessary to save us. But faith is not a work. He doesn’t believe for us.

It’s up to us to hear the words of God and believe them.

So what does this mean, the faith of Jesus Christ?

 

 

Well, we can use that word faith different ways and the Bible does that.

The word faith means trust or belief, but it can mean also mean our personal belief. It can be a belief system. It can be like trustworthiness or faithfulness.

All these are encompassed in the word faith. So which way are you using it?

Now again, in many Bible versions change this verse from “of” to “in”. Faith in Jesus Christ.

Sometimes the purpose of these newer versions is to try to explain the Bible to people which doesn’t always make for a correct reading.

 

This is not talking about our personal faith in Jesus Christ. It’s talking about the object of faith, the content of faith, the description of belief.

Remember, Paul’s contrasting the works of the law. The law describes the definition and description of what the works are. When we read the law those are the works being described.

The faith of Jesus Christ is what we believe about Jesus Christ?

It’s the statement of our beliefs. It’s the doctrines of Jesus Christ, which Paul will explain in the sentence.

This sentence has four statements that that build on each other or that explain one another. If we’re in verse twenty two and we don’t know what the faith of Jesus Christ is all we need do is read verse twenty three and twenty four and twenty five and we’ll find out.

 

So this faith of Jesus Christ phrase is that Jesus himself is the object of our faith. We’re not believing in His faith.

He’s the object of our faith.

What do we believe about him? What’s being preached? What’s been revealed to Paul about Jesus Christ for men to believe.

What is the description and the doctrines of our faith? So this phrase is not referring to our personal belief in Jesus. Neither is it Christ’s faith in God which borderlines heresy.

It’s the faith of the gospel.

Here’s some verses that talk about what to believe. Not that you believe.

Romans 1:5,

By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: 

 

Paul says, by whom? By Christ we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations. What is that? The faith. That’s the form of doctrine. That’s the doctrines, the message, the communication. Obedience to the message is what he’s preaching.

It’s nothing to do with anyone’s personal believing, even though the message is absolutely that we should believe.

But the message is more than just that we should believe. It’s what we should believe.

Rom 3:3,

For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 

 

We answered this question a few episodes back.

If the faith of Jesus Christ means that Christ, needed to have faith, then this verse means that God needed to have faith and this is ridiculous.

So the word faith can mean the doctrine of God, His promises, what He said He would do.

God said He would make Israel a nation above the nations. That was the information that men of faith in the Old Testament, like Abraham, believed.

So the faith of God refers to what God had said to be believed. It’s that message or the revelation, the dispensation, the gospel, the communication of truth.

Making this Jesus’s personal faith not only is questionable as far as his nature being God, but also it doesn’t fit the context because Paul’s not explaining about Jesus’s humanity needing to have faith. He’s talking about contrasting to the works of the law.

Here it is again in Romans 14:1 and it’s a normal way of using that word faith in the Scripture,

Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 

 

This doesn’t say him that has little faith, or him that doesn’t know if he believes or that he’s a doubter or something.

It’s weak in the faith, the doctrines that make up our belief system. They are believers. But they’re having trouble with things like what to eat or what to wear or the regarding of special days.

That’s the context of Romans fourteen.

So what’s the faith here? It’s the doctrines that we believe, the grace, doctrines and truths that we now know not being under the law and yes, these are believers in Jesus Christ, but they’re weakened because they don’t know it all or they’re not convicted of it all yet. They’re still clinging to parts of the law while Paul’s saying the law can’t justify you at all. He separates them.

 

In Galatians 1:23

But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. 

 

Paul’s talking about those saints in Jerusalem and Judea who had heard about him when that he was converted by Christ, but only heard that it was this person who persecuted them. That’s Paul in time past, but now he preaches the faith. He preaches the faith which once he destroyed.

It’s not his personal belief that he’s preaching. It’s the message that he believes. He’s preaching the faith, right? That’s what that means.

This is not an unusual way for Paul to talk about faith, because this entire dispensation is described as the dispensation of God’s grace given and received through faith.

What works are attached to that? None! It’s through faith.

So see, faith is in contrast to the works of the law.

We see it again in Colossians 2:7,

Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 

 

The faith is not talking about you and me personally believing something. It’s the form of doctrine that comes from Christ that was outlined in verse six that not only should you be rooted in, but you should walk in.

So it’s not simply talking about do we believe the gospel, there’s also the faith.

We need to come to an understanding of what God’s communicated about this thing for you and I to believe.

 

Philippians 1:27,

Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; 

 

Paul’s talking to the whole group here not to any one person. This is what “ye” means.

We can’t control someone else’s belief. All we can do is preach the gospel. And he’s saying that we should all preach the same one and have the same message, the faith of the gospel.

This’s the thing that unites us, the faith and so this’s what Paul’s explaining and there are many other verses that continue to bear this out.

Paul wants it to be known, that we’re found, our foundation is in Jesus Christ not having our own righteousness, which is of the law. We now know that no flesh is justified by the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.

In verse twenty five and twenty six, he’ll mention our belief, but not yet.

Here it’s just that by belief you can be justified, that by belief God’s righteousness can be made manifest by faith of Jesus Christ.

In fact, without Jesus Christ, it’s impossible for faith to justify anybody. Only Jesus Christ can make faith a vehicle for the righteousness of God.

If it was just righteous by faith, there’s still a big question mark.

How is that possible? How can God look at sinners and say, well, just believe and I’ll give you all the goodies? It doesn’t make sense. We do bad things and then just say, well, I believe you, and I trust that you’ll save me.

If asked how do you know you’re saved many people will say well, I trust God. He’s going to save me.

But How? How is He going to save you?

I just trust Him that He’s going to save me.

That’s very trusting but it doesn’t explain how God can maintain his righteous judgment against sin and sinners, and then just let you or me in, even though we’re a sinner. And this’s what Paul’s trying to reveal, that we now know how God can be righteous to judge sinners, and righteous to save those very sinners that are worthy of judgment and that’s this whole mystery part the revelation of how this is possible.

 

Most people in the Bible didn’t know that. David didn’t know how. Job didn’t know how. Job’s friends didn’t know how, James and John didn’t know how they didn’t even know Jesus had to die.

And now, here’s Paul explaining in Romans, this essential book on salvation today, how it’s possible.

It’s that God sent forth Christ be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past. And we’ll go in detail what that means.

Now, there’s a system where it’s not simply God inventing the rules, it’s God being just and then doing that which is necessary to maintain His holy justice and His love and grace to save, to benefit us.

 

People ask, why does God need us? Well, He doesn’t. It’s to his glory, for sure but he doesn’t need glory either. He’s already glorious. Salvation benefits us entirely, which is why we should have nothing but gratitude because he didn’t have to save us. And yet he does.

 

So what’s the contrast? Our own righteousness by the law, or God’s righteousness by faith of Jesus Christ? That’s exactly what Paul says here in Romans 3:22. So, at the end of verse twenty two here it says

The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ and that righteousness of God is upon all them that believe:

 

And then there’s another colon before we read the remainder of the verse,

for there is no difference: 

 

Then Romans 3:23,

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 

It says here upon all them that believe. There’s no difference, all have sinned.

Paul’s referring back to verse nineteen where he says, every mouth may be stopped. Remember? Under the law that every mouth may be stopped.

We talked about Israel because those guilty Gentiles were already stopped. They had no excuse.

But now Israel’s mouths are stopped too. So every mouth now is stopped.

All the world may become guilty before God. Well, Gentiles were already guilty before God, but now Israel’s guilty too. Everybody’s guilty.

God has counted all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all. Remember in verse twenty where it says, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified?

Well, what about the chosen people’s flesh? What about Jewish flesh? No flesh. So he’s already made that statement of condemnation, and he’s repeating it here again, referring to the righteous of God.

He says, it’s unto all,  this righteous of God by faith of Jesus Christ, without the works of the law. It’s unto everyone.

 

Jesus came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The law was given to Israel. The prophets were sent to Israel. The oracles of God were committed to them. But now the gospel is manifest to all. It’s offered to and it’s preached to all. Which means every Jew and Greek.

Perhaps the biggest barrier to salvation today lies in this verse of Romans 3:23,

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 

 

This is because no person can really understand salvation and the need for God to come into humanity as a man and die, be buried and rise again from death, unless they believe this verse.

If a person believes they’re no so bad, that they scrub up pretty well by comparison with other evil people in the world, they’ll never see themselves as they truly are, as God sees them.

 

Remember in Romans chapter two, where there’s three or four times that it says to the Jew first, and also the Greek?

Paul’s had this in his mind all along and he’s explaining how men are without excuse.

He’s always saying if you do good, you get righteous, Jew and Gentile. And if you fail, you get condemned, Jew and Gentile. He knows that God judges without respect to persons.

 

Some object and say, wait a minute, we don’t deserve that. If we’re all condemned equally, then we’re all offered the righteousness of God by faith equally.

This is why Paul leaves no doubt. The righteousness of God is upon all that believe.

Who the gospel goes to, and who the benefits of the gospel affects are different things.

We could preach to a whole crowd and only a few people respond in faith, and it’s exclusively upon all them that believe.

 

Paul started this whole book by saying, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, which now he’s finally explaining. He’s not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Now we see the importance of verse 23, because everyone’s condemned and that tears down religious barriers.

 

Every religion, even God’s only given religion, given to the nation of Israel, sets up barriers, and doors that you have to go through by performing rituals and works to can gain access to God’s favour. Even God’s religion, Israel, had an actual building with different rooms and doors that you had to go through a certain way. You had to carry certain things through those doors to get access to God and His mercy and grace.

But now we hear that salvation is to everyone that believes, not the one that goes through this gate or walks through that door, or offers that sacrifice.

This’s tearing down religious walls. That’s why it wasn’t the Gentiles that were persecuting Paul in the first century, it was the Jews because what he was preaching was this message of Christ that would destroy Israel’s religion, the religion God Himself established. It was seen as blasphemy.

 

When you start preaching God’s grace, as revealed to the Apostle Paul, it starts tearing down cultural and religious walls.

and many people don’t like it at all and they’ll even say that what you’re saying is against God, even when you show them what scripture clearly says. It’s like you’re not actually talking Bible anymore and yet the message Jesus gave to us today via Paul in this dispensation is beyond amazing.

No more is salvation by the doing of the law, along with the despair of our inevitable failure. It’s by the faith of Jesus Christ. It’s by simply believing in what He did.

Our curse is removed by Christ’s death on the cross. He became a curse for us. Why wouldn’t the religious church goer at least explore that to see if it’s true?

 

In Acts 16:31  Paul and Silas were in prison and they were asked by the Philippian jailer, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and Paul responds with,

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 

 

Believe on him. So this was his personal belief. Believe on him.

No doubt Paul said more there than just that but that’s what we have in the Scripture.

By believing on him, what are we believing?

We’re believing that his death and resurrection is sufficient without our works, which means we’re believing it’s by faith we’re justified, not by our works.

That’s the faith of Jesus Christ. Without Christ, the faith part doesn’t work.

God’s not looking at us believing anything and counting that for righteousness. It’s believing what Christ did.

Without Him, faith’s meaningless.

But because Christ came, we can believe on Who He is. Because Christ died, we can believe on what He did. Because Christ rose from the dead we can believe in the power of Christ. So that’s the faith of Christ, the doctrines of Him. And that’s what Paul’s saying is offered for salvation to you and me.

 

Romans 3:24 ,

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 

 

This the next statement is the continuation of the semicolon in verse twenty three and it’s the heart of the gospel.

Who’s justified freely? The ones he’s still talking about before the semicolon in verse 22 (Romans 3:22), who’ve all sinned as he’s still talking about in the colon in verse 23 (Romans 3:23).

See how it all comes together when we’re aware of the punctuation?

So, it’s those sinners (of which every one of us are,) who’ve believed by the faith of Jesus Christ?

How can God justify sinners? Well, this is what he’s going to talk about now.

Justification, means to show, or accept or judge something to be right.

It’s like I’m standing before a judge in a courtroom being accused of something and being held liable for it. But just as sentence is about to be pronounced something comes before the judge which proves me to be right and not wrong.

I’m now accepted to be right.

How can that possibly be? I’m a sinner. I’m guilty. I need to pay the price for that guilt.

 

Well, that thing that thing that came before the judge redeemed me from the guilt and punishment I was about to receive.

I’m now justified through the redemption of that thing that came up before the judge. That thing redeemed me. Redemption means buying back by the payment of a ransom price.

In this case what redeemed me was my belief in Christ Jesus and that redemption is by His grace which is freely given.

The Lord Jesus bought me back from the slavery of, and the condemnation of sin.

His precious blood was the ransom price which was paid to satisfy the claims of a holy and righteous God.

God can now legally and righteously take that shed blood and accredit it to my account so that now it’s case closed on my sin. The penalty’s been paid.

 

Paul’s going to explain how that’s possible as we continue on in Romans 3:25 next episode.

 

That word freely is interesting.

He’s giving three different ways for us to understand what he’s talking about. He really wants all people to understand this.

It’s free because it’s not with the law. It’s free because it’s by faith of Jesus Christ. It’s free justification freely.

Today, many who teach the Bible leave off the freely.

Why?

Because it’s so hard to imagine that there’s nothing we can do that’s acceptable to God for payment of sin.

We instinctively feel that we’ve got to contribute, to do something.

We’ve got to love God with all our heart, mind and soul for example.. But that’s not what saves us. We can’t be saved by loving God.

He committed His love to save us through the death of Jesus Christ. But our love is not a requirement for our salvation.

His love is required and He gave it.

You might say, well, how can I have faith in him and not love him? Good question. But our love is not the requirement you see.

It’s our belief in him. It’s our trust and it’s our faith in what he did. It’s His work.

At no time did our human works ever justify anybody.

Before now, God required works but as a testimony of their faith because they weren’t trusting in the work of Christ back then. The cross was a shadow of things to come back then.

God said they must trust in that lamb that they had to kill.

That lamb doesn’t do anything in itself. It’s always been by grace through faith. God’s always been as gracious as He is now.

But now, we’re justified freely by His grace which is a gift.

It’s a kindness. It’s a goodwill. It’s unmerited favour of God.

This is the good news of God’s grace.

 

But you know, grace, even though it’s freely received by us, requires work to give it.

Grace is the work God does to save us, and Christ is what God did. It’s by His grace through redemption that’s in Christ Jesus. We’ve already seen that redemption means a repurchase. It means to deliver us from something. To break the chains that secure us to something we can’t get out of ourselves.

It’s to make us free to liberate us.

 

This again describes the faith of Jesus Christ.

So if we want to know what the faith of Jesus Christ is, it’s answered here in verse twenty four and twenty five.

It’s the redemption that’s in Christ Jesus which has to be believed.

 

Sin has to be settled for things to be at peace and to be reconciled. Everyone wants to live in peace in the world, reconciled with one another in perfect unity and love with one another.

To get that, all sin has to be settled. We can’t live eternally as one human race unless all sin is settled.

 

God is a righteous judge and part of the way he settles the sin question is by Jesus Christ. The other part is judgment against those who reject Jesus Christ.

God’s letting all of us today live in this dispensation of grace, but every one of us will die and face God in judgment.

To face God without that redemption paid for by Christ is to be bound to a hopeless eternity.

 

But today He offers deliverance from that. He offers life. He offers a way to live at peace with yourself and with God. That’s deliverance. That’s personal freedom. That’s spiritual freedom. That’s life now and life forever.

Christ is the Redeemer.

He’s the one that did the work that satisfies the debt so that we can be made free. That’s salvation. It’s in Christ Jesus.

 

What’s he liberated us from? Sin! That’s what we’ve been talking about.

All have sinned and the consequence of sin is death.

It’s eternal, forever death.

The consequence of sin and death is the righteous wrath of God, Who’s righteous to judge.

But now, God is righteous to save as well.

Every single human that ever lived will face God’s righteousness one way or the other, either by his wrath in judgement or by his salvation.

There’s a choice set before all of us. The choice is God’s righteous wrath or God’s righteous salvation.

Romans 3:24 is where we’ll end this episode, and Pauls going to continue to explain what this redemption and blood payment is in Romans 3:25 next episode.