The Transforming Power of the Righteousness of God

("The One and Only Way," Romans 3:21-26)

By Keith Krell

A great chasm lies between Romans 3:20 and 3:21. It is a deep canyon, a wide gap separating man’s condition and God’s character. Man is a sinner and God is Holy. How can we bridge the gap? How can we go from one side to the other? We cannot. But when God justifies us we find ourselves on the other side.

This is a critical section. Not only is it the heart of Romans, it is the greatest paragraph in the entire Bible. Therefore, if we fail to understand this passage accurately, we will be unable to grasp the central message of the Scriptures. For it is here that we see what we are, what God is, and what God had done for us.

 

3:21-22a: "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe." In Romans 3:21-22a Paul expounds a gospel thesis. His thesis contains four principles: (1) Jesus inaugurates a new epoch in the history of the world. (2) Salvation is a matter of being clothed or covered by God’s righteousness apart from the Law. (3) The OT witnesses and prophesies what God would do through Jesus. (4) Salvation can only be received through faith in Jesus Christ. We will now attempt to break down these principles.

Paul has just constructed a case in 1:18-3:20 (64 verses) that every creature who has ever lived or will ever live is "under sin" (3:9). The inescapable conclusion is that we are not only guilty; we are helpless and hopeless. "But now" (nuni de): two mere words made up of three letters each serve as the hinge pin for the fate of humanity. These two words signify that a "righteousness of God" has inaugurated a new epoch in world history. Unlike the first revelation of "the righteousness of God," (1:18ff) this revelation frees us! This "righteousness of God" comes through faith in Jesus Christ (3:22). Therefore, these words mark the significance of Jesus Christ exiting eternity and entering time. This enables Paul to transition from the bad news to the good news in 3:21-5:21. We have moved past the dark prelude of man’s sin. We now enter into the righteousness of God.

Paul writes, "apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested" (cf. 3:20). Whatever this new age has inaugurated is "apart from the law." In the plan and purposes of God, salvation has always been "apart from the Law." Yet, man has not always understood this. However as a result of the God-Man exiting eternity and entering time, there can no longer be any question. Truly, "the righteousness of God has been manifested."

 

This righteousness has been "manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets." The phrase "the Law and the Prophets" is a summary term for the entire OT. The primary purpose of the entire OT was to point to the "righteousness of God" that would one day be fully manifested in Christ (Gen. 15:5; Ps. 32:1-2; Hab. 2:4). Paul’s point is that the revelation of "the righteousness of God" is not some new phenomenon (Jer. 23:6; Isa. 53:11). Only in the physical event of the death of Christ is there is anything new or unique.

Paul’s final principle in this introductory section is salvation can only be received through faith in Jesus Christ. What is faith? In this context, faith is the conviction that Jesus Christ is God’s answer to our sin problem. The French expositor Godet called faith, "the hand of the heart, taking what God has to offer and adding nothing to His free gift." This is what it means to believe in Jesus.

Here we have the great distinction between religion and grace. Religion wants to earn, to achieve, to do, to accomplish and then receive its blessings due. Grace says we cannot do it. God must do it for us and then we must rest in what He has done though faith. This is the only possible means that God’s righteousness can be "manifested." This passage demands that we trust in the work of Christ and not attempt to earn our salvation by the works of the Law.

 

3:22b: "for there is no distinction." What Paul does from this point is develop and expand on what he has said in 3:21-22a. The above principles culminate in his exclamation that "there is no distinction." There is no difference with regard to wealth, education, nationality, and temperament. God’s salvation is for everyone, because everyone needs it. . . (see below)

 

3:23: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The word "for" (gar) gives the reason for Paul’s insistence that there is no distinction. The Bible continually asserts that "all have sinned" (1 Kings 8:46; Ps. 103:3; 143:2). The biblical concept of sin is any failure to glorify God. It is missing what God wants in our lives (i.e. "to miss the mark"). These acts of sin have resulted in man falling "short of the glory of God." The linking of man’s sin with God’s glory is intriguing. It would seem that God intended people to share in His glory. The phrase "glory of God" seems to be a reference to what God intended man to be. The glory that man had before the fall (Gen. 1:26-28; Ps. 8:5-6; Eph. 4:24).

Why does Paul spend so much time on the subject of sin? Because it is a subject we avoid. Yet salvation is salvation from sin, before it is anything else. We have to see the seriousness of sin if we are to see the greatness of salvation. If we fail to focus on mankind’s sin we will never truly appreciate God’s salvation. Paul now moves on to the good news. Here lies Paul’s greatest contribution to the Bible and the pinnacle of the Scriptures.

 

3:24: "being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." How to be just in God's sight has been the age-old problem of man (see Job 9:2; 10:14). Yet ultimately, the solution to this problem is man’s greatest need. Why? Because a proper understanding of what it means to be justified before God seals one’s eternal destiny.

Justification takes us to the courtroom. It is a legal term which means "to declare righteous." In our context, God declares the believing sinner righteous on the single condition of faith in His Son. Notice Paul says that we are "justified" (dikaioumenoi). Justification takes place instantaneously in the courts of heaven. The moment we believe in Jesus Christ, we are on the other side of judgment day! God has declared us "not guilty." The Judge of the entire universe tells me that I am acquitted. I can go free.

Now, if God were to judge us according to our own righteousness, He would have to declare us as unrighteous and wicked. But when we acknowledge Jesus Christ as our substitute-the One Who died in our place and Who offers His righteousness in place of our wretchedness-then God declares us to be righteous on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ. We are innocent, pure, clean, and righteous in God’s eyes as if we had been as obedient as Jesus.

It may help if we further expose what justification is not. (1) Justification is not forgiveness. It is more than forgiveness. While forgiveness is a part of it, it is not all of it. A child may throw a rock through a window and admitting wrong be forgiven, but he is still guilty. Justification removes the guilt. (2) Justification is not a pardon. It is more than a pardon. A pardon covers sins of the past. No judge has ever issued a pardon for future crimes. Justification deals with the sins of the past, present, and the future. (3) Justification is not a change in character. It is a change in position. Men and woman who have been justified by faith remain sinners. Sanctification is the process of dealing with changing the believer into an imitator of Christ. Justification provides a new position and not a new person. (4) Justification is not a return to innocence. It is not "just as if I’d never sinned." It is a state of righteousness not innocence. The fact that we have sinned and fallen so short is the basis for greatness of what God had done in justification.

Paul goes on to write that we are justified "as a gift by His grace." This is one of the most astonishing truths in the entire Bible. Justification is a free gift! The word "gift" (dorean) indicates that which is without payment and totally undeserved. In John 15:25 this word is used where it is said that Jesus was hated "without a cause." There was nothing in Jesus that deserved hatred and there is nothing in us that deserves salvation. This word is used again in Acts 8:20 where Peter protests, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!" Something similar could be said about justification. "May your righteousness go to perdition, if you think you can get the gift of righteousness through any goodness of your own."

Paul continues his thought by further explaining that this gift came "through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus." Redemption takes us to the salve market. The word "redemption" (apolutrosis) means "the release of a slave by the paying of a price." Redemption refers to the price that was paid and the debt that was canceled, due to our Lord Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross of Calvary. The word "redemption" in this verse means something like "redemption-away." We are justified through the payment that takes us away altogether from condemnation. It means that we are taken out of condemnation, and also that we are brought into sonship and freedom.

When a man went to the slave-market and paid the price of the slave he redeemed the slave. The death of Christ on the cross and the shedding of His blood were the payment of our redemption price. We, just as Israel was redeemed from the slavery of Egypt, have been redeemed from the bondage of sin. He gave His life as a "ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28). He "gave Himself to us to redeem us from every lawless deed" (Titus 2:14). The price He paid was "the precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ "(1 Peter 1:19). We have "redemption through His blood" (Eph. 1:7).

 

3:25: "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." "Propitiation" takes us to the temple. The word "propitiation" (hilasthrion) refers to the satisfaction of God’s righteous anger, so that He can now deal with men graciously and benevolently. The word may carry the sense "place of satisfaction," having reference to the place where God’s wrath toward sin is satisfied. This term is used only one other time in the NT: Heb 9:5, where it is rendered "mercy seat." There it describes the altar in the holy of holies where the blood was sprinkled in the OT ritual on the Day of Atonement. This word is also used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the OT) for the "place of propitiation" or the "mercy seat" which covered the ark in the Holy of Holies. In this sense our sins have been covered or blotted out by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. But propitiation also conveys the idea of appeasing. God’s wrath has been legitimately aroused by man’s sin. This wrath has been appeased by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. God’s holy anger has been satisfied in the work of Christ. Thus Paul could be saying that God displayed Jesus as the "mercy seat," the place where propitiation was accomplished. But in this context the place seems to be used figuratively for the action accomplished there and of the one who embodied that action.

Paul states that the concepts of "redemption" and "propitiation" are used to demonstrate and draw our attention to the justice of God. God has set the sinner free through Christ, but He has not done so by setting aside the rules. He has set the sinner free in Christ by satisfying the demands of God’s justice in Christ. Due to sin, a penalty was to be meted out and a price was to be paid. Christ paid that price and suffered that penalty ("redemption"). God’s divine wrath had to be appeased, due to man’s sin; Christ has appeased that wrath ("propitiation").

It is important that we recognize that the first purpose of the cross in Romans is not God’s love, it is His righteousness. This is the starting point. It provides release from (1) the fear of death. People who are afraid of death are either Christians or they refuse to think about it. The worst that can ever happen will never happen and the best that could ever be is certain! (2) The guilt of sin (e.g., ignore it, rationalizing around it, make up for it-do better). The blood of Jesus Christ is the only thing that will set you free from a guilty conscience.

 

In this verse, Paul also mentions that "in His forbearance, God He passed over the sins previously committed." Although the death of Christ for the sins of mankind was planned in eternity past and prophesied in the OT; it did not become an earthly reality until almost 2,000 years ago. Therefore, OT believers were forgiven on account of what was about to happen but had not happened yet. By the terminology of the courtroom, slave-market, and temple we see the righteousness of God described in terms of its effect on the believing sinner.

 

3:26: "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." As we continue to consider this revelation of God’s righteousness, it is interesting to note what is emphasized and what is not. Now that salvation is in view, one would expect that God the Son would be the most prominent Person of the Godhead. Such is not the case. God the Father is referred to in our text approximately twice as often as God the Son. Paul is emphasizing the demonstration of God’s righteousness, through the Father’s provision of His righteousness for men, in His Son.

The cross of Calvary is indirectly alluded to in our text but never specifically mentioned. Neither is the resurrection of our Lord referred to in this passage. Clearly, Paul’s "demonstration" (lit. "proof," Gk. endeichin) is in reference to the righteousness of God the Father.

The words "just" (dikaion) and "justifier" (dikaiounta) are both renderings of the root term for righteous. And so we could render Paul’s words, "that He might be righteous and the One who makes the one who has faith in Jesus righteous." This what we mean when we refer to "the One and only way."

 

 

 

In Focus Study Questions

Romans 3:21-26

 

What is the significance of "righteousness?" (3:21; see 1:16)

How does Paul use the term "the Law and the Prophets?" (3:21)

What is the sole condition of justification? (3:22)

How would you explain the phrase "fall short" in your own words? (3:23)

What is the "glory of God?" (3:23)

How do we use the word "justification?" How does Paul? (3:24)

Why does Paul include the concept of "gift" in his discussion of salvation? (3:24)

What does the word "redemption" mean? (3:24)

How is the word "propitiation" used in the NT? (3:25; cf. Heb. 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10)

How does Paul explain how God dealt with OT saints? (3:25)

Why does Paul repeat himself? What divine attribute is Paul emphasizing? (3:25-26)

What is the proper response to the gospel? (3:26)