Tag Archive for: Faith

Romans 3:25-26 – Faith in Christ’s Blood

We’ve now at Romans 3:25-26 in our study of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Romans 3:21 is where Paul starts to reveal the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ and we see that verses 21 to 26 is one very long sentence and there’s a lot to be digested in it.

In the middle of the sentence, at verse 23, Paul chucks in this grenade about how we’re all sinners and there’s none righteous, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but then he starts to reveal the incredible upside of the passage, the Gospel of Christ.

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Romans 3:25-26 – Transcript

The message of Romans 3 is that up till this point in time the righteousness of God condemned mankind because God is holy and mankind are sinners who couldn’t possibly keep His commandments.

Those commandments, the law, revealed our true state, that we’re all sinners. Paul begins this passage in verse 21 by using an important phrase that he often uses, “but now”.

“Before” God dealt with people through the nation of Israel and through the law and the commandments “but now”, (as of the revelation of the mystery given by Christ to Paul), God can save us without the the law and without compromising His righteousness and perfect justice.

It’s not that God’s suddenly changed and is now just overlooking and ignoring our sin. No! He can now save guilty mankind and it’s totally right and just and Romans three explains how that’s possible.

Paul’s use of this But now phrase is showing what’s now made manifest, that we can be now be justified by God’s grace through faith and not by our works, wasn’t known before this It was kept secret by God as Paul will show us later in Romans 16:25-26,

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, 

But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: 

 

So we see in this sentence, as we covered last episode, some of the grammar, the semicolons and the colons.

There’s four statements in this sentence separated by those three semicolons and each one of these statements shows us that now a good thing has happened, a gospel truth, witnessed by but not openly revealed by the law and the prophets.

 

In verse twenty four (Romans 3:24), which we covered last episode Paul says,

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

 

Now he talks about the redemption that’s in Christ Jesus in Romans 3:25,

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; 

 

In this verse Paul explains what that verse 24 redemption is, what that payment is, which is something that the scriptures testify to; how God saves Israel, but he’s using it as a witness and a testimony that He can justify us freely, because if He can justify Israel through Christ’s blood, then He can justify me and you through Christ’s blood, because all are sinners.

 

He’s using the law to witness what he just said and nowhere else in the Scripture does it say that.

Remember in verse twenty one (Romans 3:21). But now the righteousness of God without the law.

We focused on those three words “without the law”.

What does that mean, without the law?

God’s righteousness is expressed in the law, and God wants people to do good and to keep the law. But now Paul’s saying, without the law, and this is part of that great mystery that’s the hallmark of Paul’s epistles.

But we noticed that in the second half of that verse it says this is witnessed by the law and the prophets.

So we say, “Hold on. Is this new information or old information?” Well, it’s both.

It’s new information that Paul’s linking to the scriptures like in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 where Paul says, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

Paul never separates what he’s saying from the scriptures, all scriptures.

But what he’s saying is a revelation. It’s manifest. It’s something that’s now being declared.

So in Romans 3:21-22 he says, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. See, he’s revealing this thing, the righteous, which is not by our works, not by the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe.

It’s not just Israel. It’s not just one nation it’s to all, and upon all them that believe. There’s no difference.

This verse is him witnessing from the law and the prophets the necessity for the shed blood of Jesus Christ for salvation.

That is not unique to you and me in this dispensation of grace.

That’s necessary for everyone to be saved.

 

How were people saved in time past, before this “but now” period that Paul discloses.

Before, this “but now” moment it was a great mystery. Nobody knew how God could actually save so the thought was, just do the best you can and do good things and try to satisfy God.

What Paul reveals here was not what the law and the prophets taught.

 

Paul says we’re justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Redemption is the payment, the price of being made free. Redemption is the explanation.

Notice how at the end of verse twenty four, there’s a colon?

That colon means what’s about to follow is going to define or elaborate what was just said.

Verse 24 says, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus and verse 25 is the answer. This is that redemption that’s 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.

 

There’s a lot there.

First of all, the whom here is Jesus Christ and it’s Him Who’s been set forth to be a propitiation.

God set Him forth.

It wasn’t an accident that Christ died. It wasn’t something that God didn’t foresee or plan for, He purposed it.

We see in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that it was a purpose that Jesus’s own disciples didn’t understand.

They’re running away. They’re questioning. Peter even tries to stop it because they just don’t get it. It hadn’t been revealed yet you see.

But Jesus knew what had to happen.

We might say well, if He’s the God of the universe, why didn’t He prevent it?

Well, when we understand why, that God set Him forth for a purpose, then we realise why He’s not preventing it and we understand that more and more as we read Paul’s epistles.

They’re the revelation, the marching orders if you like, for the church, the Body of Christ today.

If we only had Matthew, Mark, Luke and John we wouldn’t understand what God was doing either.

 

So, God set forth Christ to be a propitiation. What in the world is that? Propitiation?

Propitiation is what makes propitious, which doesn’t help at all. What’s propitious?

We don’t use that word much today. But propitiation is the noun or the thing that makes something propitious. Propitious means to gain favour or mercy from someone who’s offended.

Say we offended someone, maybe a friend or neighbor, how do we reconcile that situation?

Somethings going to need to happen to get us to that reconciliation.

Propitiation is that deed or action that gets back the favor of the offended party causing them to give mercy to us.

If we’ve offended them, we transgressed them. There’s justice that needs to be done. We did wrong. We deserve punishment, which is one way out. We pay the fine. Say we broke someone’s lawnmower. We fork over the money to them and we apologise.

Then they’re able to say, “We’re good.  It’s settled.” So we’ve settled that debt.

This’s the idea between God and sinful humanity even though it’s communicated by me in a silly way.

Our sins are transgression, an offense to God and His character.

 

Now, God’s character is love and mercy, which is why He’s provided this means of reconciliation and salvation.

It’s propitiation, that thing which makes God’s favour, His mercy and His forgiveness possible.

Without propitiation, without this thing, forgiveness and reconciliation’s not possible.

 

We tend to confuse forgiveness. Forgiveness always requires a sacrifice, that’s what religious forgiveness looks like, but in the Christian ideal, forgiveness is just freely given. And there’s some truth to that in the Scripture as well.

Ephesians 4:32,

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. 

 

Paul’s talking to believers who know the gospel about how to live by that gospel.

He says to forgive others for Christ’s sake, Who has already forgiven you. So, we forgive the other person because that’s what Christ would have us do.

Propitiation though, is a justified basis, a reason for it even being possible for a sinner or a transgressor to gain forgiveness.

 

If a criminal comes before a judge saying, please forgive me, and the judge lets him loose without any sort of propitiation, any sort of payment, atonement then this is an unjust judge.

Now, depending on whether the criminal’s repentant or not, the judge might say, well, I’m not going to throw the book at you, but you still need punishment.

But forgiveness is saying no punishment. That’s what forgiveness is. No punishment. So now there’s the age old question of how is it ever justified if someone does a wrong and is not punished?

Here in Romans 3, God’s saying that Christ is the propitiation, the payment, the punishment or the thing that we owed for our transgression to God.

Because He’s the payment price He redeems us from sin.

God purposed that He‘d be the propitiation, in our place, the thing that would make forgiveness possible while still preserving perfect justice.

Justice is served because Jesus is God, but He’s also man.

He represents both God and you and me in the transaction.

Before Jesus put on humanity, He couldn’t represent us.

It’s God and man that’s being represented by Jesus because none of us can pay the penalty of death for sin and still live because we’re all sinners and our death is just.

So God puts on us, humanity, to represent us while also representing God. Do you see it?

Another way to think about it is that Jesus Christ Himself as man, when He died an innocent, sinless death, He didn’t die of His own sins. He didn’t die as His own punishment.

His innocence made Him able to offer his death as payment for someone else, us.

He was the Son of God before he was incarnate. One with God.

The Father and the son are one together. There’s no enmity in the Godhead. God’s not at enmity with himself. So when Jesus was incarnate and He was baptised, the Father says from heaven, “This is my son, in whom I’m well pleased.”

He’s well pleased before Jesus even started his ministry. He’s well pleased because it’s His son, part of the Godhead.

There’s no enmity there. And so, this man who is God’s son also represents humanity.

God can show mercy because Jesus represents all men who trust Him, who believe in Him.

 

So, so it’s very important to see that Jesus is the man born in the flesh, and also the Christ, that prophesied one, the Son of God who God made to be a propitiation.

We’ll see when we get to Romans 11:32,

For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. 

 

This is a summary of what we’re learning here in Romans 2 and 3, that all are sinners. He counts them all unrighteous so that He might have mercy upon all.

Why? Because the mercy comes from the propitiation, the thing, the shed blood of Jesus Christ, His death.

His life and His death and His resurrection from the dead allows mercy to be given to humanity.

Without Christ as the propitiation, there is no mercy.

 

In the Old Testament. Before Jesus died, God showed mercy many times. We may ask, “How could He do that if He needed Christ’s death on the cross? Because God knew that Christ would die. He knew that mercy was unjustified without Christ but God also knew Christ would die.

He’d always purposed it. That was always the plan.

And so now God can be merciful to all people.

Israel is in sin and fallen today but God can be merciful to them just as He is to the gentiles through the death of Jesus Christ. God sent Him forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. Through faith is how this sacrifice, this propitiation gains favour with God and makes forgiveness possible.

 

Propitiation is for the whole world.

We see this from verses like John 3:16,

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

 

And 1 John 2:2,

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 

 

John was an apostle of Israel.

Was he given the revelation of the mystery? No, and not knowing what the mystery is is where people tend to stumble.

They assume it’s Jesus shed blood on the cross, but the mystery of what that accomplishes is not found in 1 John.

Before 1 John 2:2 we have of course 1 John 2:1 which reads,

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 

 

This is Jesus Christ, the man, the righteous, the propitiation for our sins.

John’s writing to the little flock of Israel and its Israel’s sins he’s talking about, but then he goes on to say, and not for ours only, those who are given the promises and the covenants and to whom Jesus came, Israel, but also for the sins of the whole world, Jews and Gentiles.

How is that?

Because John understands what the prophets taught and what Jesus Himself would explain, that there’s no propitiation outside of Him.

If the world’s going to be blessed, even through Israel in the future kingdom, it has to be through the propitiation, the sacrifice, of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, dying on the cross to satisfy justice and enable mercy from God.

It has to be through that and John knows this.

 

Now, as we’ve said, through Romans 3 we see Paul introducing some things that were not known before hand, like freely justified without the law.

For the next two chapters, Paul’s quoting Scripture to prove what he’s saying about salvation, that it’s by grace through faith, freely given without the law.

 

Look at 1 John 4:10,

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

 

By the way, we don’t find that “without the law” Paul talks about anywhere in first John. John mentions the law over and over again.

This is a Hebrew apostle talking about Jesus Christ. He’s the salvation of Israel and the world. That’s what the prophets and the law witness.

But now, here’s Paul revealing things that nobody knew anything about beforehand, things that Paul reveals in the sense that he’s making them clear, even though the scriptures talked about them in shadows and types.

He’s making it clear that it’s through faith. The benefits of that propitiation are received through faith in Christ’s blood.

 

Now, faith isn’t something new with Paul. The prophets witness faith as well. It’s always there, but faith in what?

This’s where Paul’s explaining something that they didn’t know to believe in even though faith’s always been a necessity.

 

Acts 2:38, and this is a response to the Jews asking the question, what shall we do, after they were pricked in their hearts at killing their Messiah, which Peter just proved to them that Jesus was and that He fulfilled the prophecies. Let’s read that,

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

 

Notice Peter doesn’t mention the cross anywhere.

He did mention it before then, and he blamed Israel for it but he’s not explaining it here as good news to them. He’s talking about Jesus Christ being their Savior, and he remits their sins, but they have to repent and be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost.

This is the same message John the Baptist preached and the same message the Old Testament prophets preached.

The difference is they’re naming who the Messiah is and this water baptism is in His name.

Peter’s saying you can’t deny Jesus and continue on with this Jewish program.

Then he goes on to reiterate all the promises the prophets spoke about as given to them that believe.

Peter’s declaring that, yes, God set up Israel, established the covenants and promises and if you reject Jesus, you don’t get any of them.

He said this to the Jews, to their face, to Israel and that’s a big thing. But it’s not the revelation of the mystery.

In Acts 2:23 Peter tells this Jewish audience,

Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 

 

Peter blames Israel for killing the Messiah. But look what he says. You delivered him. He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.

Peter knows in Acts 2 that Jesus died on purpose and he’s saying you, Israel, did not foil God’s plans.

So when Paul says God set Him forth to be a propitiation he’s saying a similar thing to Peter, that God knew what he was doing when Christ died.

 

In 1 Peter 1:18-19 Peter describes redemption,

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 

But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

 

Paul just talked about redemption and redemption’s not a mystery. Redemption is something the Old Testament spoke about, too. There were ways to redeem in the Old Testament, through the commandments, but not Christ. He hadn’t come yet.

But the great mystery in Romans 3:24 is that we’re justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that’s in Christ Jesus.

The redemption in Christ Jesus is something that was prophesied and has now happened. But the free access to that by all sinners, Jew and Gentile, is what Paul’s preaching.

 

All over the Old Testament sacrifices were offered. The blood of animals was shed.

But those animals were innocent, they didn’t do anything wrong.

And that’s the point. It’s to bring people the understanding that our actions, our sins, lead to death and will ultimately lead to our own death. It’s the consequence of sin.

And so when God mandates the law to Israel it’s a picture that death, the shedding of blood is required for sins.

Hebrews 10:1-4 says,

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 

For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 

But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 

 

Sacrifices were continually being made in the temple. It wasn’t a once only deal. You had to do this constantly to justify yourself.

 

But Hebrews makes it clear that those animal sacrifices could never make those people perfect.

What’s the proof of that?

Because they had to keep offering them as we’ve just seen in Hebrews 10:2. If those sacrifices could have removed sin and redeemed man they wouldn’t need to be repeated.

We think sacrificing animals is terrible, and it is, but our sin and it’s penalty is much more terrible.

So we should stop sinning! But wait a minute, we can’t! We need mercy and forgiveness.

 

Hebrews 10:3 , as we just read tells us that there’s a remembrance again made of sins every year.

That’s what the sacrifices were for, to remind people of their sin. As we learn in Romans 3 by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Sacrifices were part of that law. If the actual law itself didn’t bring you a consciousness of sin, the killing of this animal should have.

The fact that people killed animals without conscience showed their own hard heartedness. People should’ve been weeping, bringing these animals to die but it just became a religious ritual.

God hates the killing of animals but their death and shed blood was to get people to wake up to the gravity of sin.

 

As we’ve just seen in Hebrews, it wasn’t possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.

Hebrews 10:5,

Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 

 

So God’s will, His purpose, and His intent was for Christ to be the propitiation.

Those animals were sacrificed as a shadow pointing to Christ. Hebrews explains the details of how that temple was a shadow of the heavenly place, and the animals were a shadow of Christ. And Christ put an end to that.

It wasn’t just Israel offering sacrifices. Israel was offering animal sacrifices but the Canaanites were offering human sacrifices. The God of the Canaanites demanded babies to be killed.

God says one of your lambs and even then it was used for food.

In the book of Leviticus, which is a book explaining the sacrifices, not all sacrifices required blood. For example, there’s the burnt offering, where there’s no blood taken. Everything’s burnt up. There’s the the meal offering or peace offerings, where there was no blood either. These were meal or flour offerings.

 

Blood sacrifices were trespass offerings.

Leviticus 17:11,

For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. 

 

So blood was associated with payment for sin.

Leviticus 17 explains that because blood is set apart, it has a certain purpose and a function. Verse eleven, the life of the flesh is in the blood.

So God’s explaining how He made blood to have life in it, which again, we know to be scientifically true.

When a man’s blood is shed he’s being killed. The life is leaving the body.

Leviticus is talking about atoning for people’s sins by shed blood, and the blood is shed by animals.

Eventually, this will point to Christ and His own shed blood and that’s the only blood that God’s ever required for the eternal salvation of anyone’s soul. It’s the blood of His own son, who purposefully and willingly died as propitiation in a gracious giving of Himself.

 

In Acts 20:28 Paul says to the Ephesian leaders,

Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 

 

This is interesting. Life’s in the blood.

The son and the father are one. God has no blood. He’s a spirit. Before Christ, He had no blood. He had to put on humanity to have blood.

Jesus had blood. That’s the human manifestation of God. He had to put on humanity, be fully, one hundred percent man, so that he could die, that he could shed His blood, but He had to be God as well so that His innocent shed blood could count as a propitiation for our sins.

Otherwise, if it were some man born of Adam who’s blood was shed, it couldn’t possibly have been our propitiation because that man would have been as guilty as you and me and deserving of death.

That’s what makes Christ’s blood different.

His blood was shed not shed as a consequence of sin. It would’ve been perfectly just for God to shed our blood because we’re sinners but for Jesus Christ, that human blood that was in Him didn’t deserve to be shed.

He deserved life as a man. He’s God, but He deserved life. And it was shed without necessity of his own sin, for to pay for his own sin, to atone for his own sin.

Hebrews 9:22  reads,

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 

 

Without shedding of blood is no remission. Remission of sins.

There’s no remission of the filth, the dirt, the sin problem without shedding of blood.

Hebrews 9:23,

It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 

 

So he’s talking about a better sacrifice being required than animal blood.

See perfect justice demanded a sacrifice for the payment for the sins of all mankind that was so unimaginably greater than anything in this universe was capable of making. It was so great that only the death of God Himself, perfect in every sense, was sufficient.

This should make us acutely aware of how impossible it is for man to earn salvation or to keep salvation by his own works. If it were up to mankind to work good deeds in order to gain or to keep salvation no man who ever lived on planet earth would be redeemed and they’d be relegated to a Godless eternity.

How terrible is sin and how unbelievably magnificent is our God Who willingly gave Himself for it. How great thou art indeed!

 

Hebrews 9:24-25,

For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 

 

So Christ is not suffering a multitude of times, because there’s a ton of people or a ton of sins.

Hebrews 9:26,

For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 

 

Christ’s own sacrifice of His blood, His life was necessary for atonement, propitiation, for remission of sins.

 

Colossians 1:14

In whom (in Christ) we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 

 

His blood is necessary for forgiveness. We have redemption, forgiveness of sins through His blood.

Did Christs death on the cross save us?

If that were true every person that ever existed would be saved and we know that’s not true.

The key to all things with God is belief, faith. Without faith it’s impossible to please God.

It’s our belief in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ that saves us. That’s the gospel. The gospel as we find defined in 1 Corinthians 15:3,

For I (that’s Paul) delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 

And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 

 

Ephesians 2:13 says,

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 

 

So here we are, separate from Israel, separated from God, without hope, without God in the world, and yet by His blood we’re made close to God.

We’re made near to Him, brought together. We’re gathered together to Him by His blood. That’s peace between us and God. That’s reconciliation.

We’re justified by his blood.

Romans 5:9,

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

 

We’re justified and declared righteous because of His bloodshed.

His blood is necessary for sanctification because we can’t be set apart for God’s purpose unless we’re first cleansed from sins.

1 Corinthians 1:30

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 

 

The shed blood of Christ is what makes salvation possible in any dispensation.

Without Christ shed blood, nobody can ever claim to be saved, whether it be in this dispensation, Israels dispensation or any other dispensation.

 

Let’s move now to Romans 3:26 and we need to read it in context, remembering that we’re still in one long sentence that began at Romans 1:21.  So verse 26 runs on directly from verse 25 and we read,

Romans 3:25,

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; 

Verse 26,

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

 

This word declare here is Paul declaring the things in Romans 3:25.

He’s declaring things about what happened before even he was saved, about how people in the Old Testament were saved.

 

Throughout the Old Testament, including during Jesus’s earthly ministry we see people having their sins forgiven.

These’re people back before Christ died so how or by what means can these people have forgiveness from God?

Was God righteous to forgive when the propitiation, the payment for sin hasn’t been made. The blood of Christ hadn’t been shed yet.

 

So here Paul’s showing God’s righteousness in His forgiveness of sin before the blood of Jesus Christ, the propitiation, the sacrifice, had been shed.

Notice the verse is not saying, “to declare the righteousness of Christ”. He’s talking about the righteous of God. Paul’s justifying God, saying God is righteous to have forgiven people before. Even though there was no actual propitiation for their sins because Christ hadn’t died yet.

In the Old Testament they offered the blood sacrifices and they would be an atonement, forgiveness of their sins, but they would be forgiven again and again and again.  By repeated sacrifices, they received repeated forgiveness.

How was God righteous to do that if there’s no atonement seeing that you can’t forgive someone without atonement and we’ve seen that already.

Paul’s declaring God’s righteousness because Christ is now dead and His blood has been shed, by the time Paul writes Romans.

Jesus died for a purpose that God had ordained and purposed sin before the world was formed.

He’d purposed His righteousness and that He’d be righteous for the remission of sins that are past.

Past means before Christ’s death.

You and I are in the future from this time. We’re beyond Paul and beyond the books of the Bible and beyond the cross.

 

How can God be righteous to justify sinners? Answer Christ’s death on the cross. That’s what Paul’s saying.

Now Paul tells us that God set Christ forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith. We’re not told to put our faith in His blood; Christ Himself is the object of our faith.

It’s only a resurrected and living Christ Jesus who can save. He’s the propitiation.

Faith in Him is how we partake in that propitiation. His blood is the price that was paid for sin in order to satisfy perfect justice.

The finished work of Christ declares God’s righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, sins committed before the death of Christ. From Adam to Christ, God saved those who put their faith in Him on the basis of whatever revelation He gave them at the time. For example Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6). But how could God do this righteously seeing that a sinless Substitute hadn’t been slain yet? The blood of a perfect Sacrifice had not been shed. Christ had not died. The debt had not been paid yet. God’s righteous claims had not been met. How then could God save believing sinners in the OT period?

The answer is that although Christ had not yet died, God knew that He would die, and He saved men on the basis of the still-future work of Christ.

Even though Old Testament saints didn’t know about Calvary, God knew about it, and He put all the value of Christ’s work to their account when they believed God.

We might say that Old Testament believers were saved on credit. They were saved on the basis of a price still to be paid in the future. They looked forward to the cross; but we look back to it.

So all those people can rightly claim forgiveness because God offered it to them and He was right to do so because Christ would die on the cross for their sins. They didn’t know that. But Paul’s declaring that now.

 

That is what Paul means when he says that the propitiation of Christ declares God’s righteousness because He had passed over the sins that were previously committed.

Some people very wrongly think that Paul’s talking of sins which an individual person has committed before his salvation, before the moment he believed the gospel.

This suggests that the work of Christ took care of sins before salvation, but that a man’s on his own after that. This is usually where the idea comes from that we must work good works to keep our salvation.

The ramifications of that are horrible because that would mean  no body is ever saved because every one of us fail miserably in always doing good works.

No, Paul’s dealing with the fact that God seems to be lenient and even unrighteous in that He apparently overlooked the sins of those who were saved before the cross.

It might seem that God excused those sins or pretended not to see them.

But Paul clearly says her No! This is not so!

The Lord knew that Christ would make full restitution and atonement for sin, and so He saved men on that basis.

So the Old Testament period was a time of the forbearance of God. For at least 4000 years He held back His judgment on sin.

Then in the fullness of time He sent His Son to be the Sin-bearer. When the Lord Jesus took our sins upon Himself, His death declared God’s righteousness. God is just because He has required the full payment of the penalty of sin. And He can justify the ungodly without condoning their sin or compromising His own righteousness because a perfect Substitute has died and risen again.

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

We’ve now come to the heart of the Letter to the Romans.

The Book of Romans is made up of 16 chapters and the first two and a bit chapters, up to the point we’re at now in Romans 3:21, is a sort of introduction, or perhaps better described as setting the scene, by laying out and proving from scripture that all men, Jew and Gentile, are guilty of sin.
It’s a pretty dismal scene but there’s a glorious solution and Paul’s now going to launch into that solution.

“Speed Slider”

Romans 3:21-24 – Transcript

From Romans 1:20 up until the last episode in Romans 3:18, Paul’s been setting the scene for the entire book of Romans by making all men, Jew and Gentile, aware of their fallen state, that we’re all, without exception, sinners.

Romans 3:1-20 ‘s been speaking specifically to the Jew, those under the law, and he’s shown that even the Jews, who thought they were the religious ones, the ones God chose, the ones that would be protected by their standing with God fall short of God’s glory.

Paul leaves them without excuse and without any hope because he points out that no one is justified by the law because the purpose of the law was to bring the knowledge of sin and to show man the standard and the righteousness of God, a standard and righteousness that no man could keep.

Romans 3:20 is a sort of summing up of all that Paul’s written before this verse and it reads,

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.