But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26)
This paragraph is really an exposition of the theme of Romans, stated in 1.16-17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”In the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed. So what is the Gospel really about? The righteousness of God! This righteousness has two interrelated aspects: (1) God’s own righteous character, and (2) the righteousness that is imputed to believers in Christ. God Himself is the absolute. There is no higher standard or THAT would be God. We measure everything against that absolute standard: to be righteous is to be like God, and to be unrighteous is to be unlike God. God’s nature is always consistent. He cannot deny Himself. All of God’s actions are righteous because HE IS righteous.
The modern, secular mindset begins with man at the center of all things. This is what Paul called the mind of the Flesh or the way natural man thinks apart from Divine grace and the influence of the Holy Spirit. This passage in Romans is going to solve a dilemma that would not even be a problem for the modern mind. This is because the starting points or the presuppositions are completely different between the modern mind and the Scriptures.
The Church today has been heavily influenced by the secular mindset of our culture. And so this text would also seem irrelevant for most of the Church today. The main reason for this is because the aspect of God’s nature that is considered central is God’s love, not His righteousness. (However, we also have reason to question if the love of God is even properly understood in the Church today.) If the starting point or the presupposition is wrong then the conclusions and the reasoning will be flawed. Even the Church today virtually no one considers justification to be a threat to the righteousness of God. The secular mind dismisses righteousness in favor of love. In other words, if God ignores righteousness to forgive sinners then that’s fine with them because “love conquers all”.
The first section of the epistle to the Romans is Paul establishing the unrighteousness of the human race (1.18-3.20). Jew and Gentile are all unrighteous. The Gentiles had conscience and natural revelation, but they sinned and became unrighteous. The Jews had special revelation and the Law, but they also sinned. The Jew is a special test case because they had certain advantages. The Jews actually had something from God that told them what God is like. They were told how to be righteous. But they fell short just like the Gentiles. So the whole Race is in the same state. All have fallen short of the standard of righteousness. No one is righteous, not even one. To understand this all we have to do is consider the Law. The Law was given to show man his unrighteousness. The Law defines sin and points out how we fail to be like God. The law is itself an expression of God’s righteous character. If you want to see much like God you are, just try to keep the law. If you try you will fail and you will know you are unrighteous. (People who think they are righteous have not really tried to keep the Law.) It should be noted that the law does not make us sinners it simply shows us that we are.
So, one of the key thoughts here in Romans is that no one can be made righteous by the law. The law was not given for that purpose. If we are going to be righteous, it is going to have to come from some source other than the Law. That is the background of the text.
The dilemma in the text is that God somehow seemed to be unrighteous and He needs to vindicate Himself. Why the Dilemma? The problem was that for centuries God had been passing over sins, not giving man what he really deserved. So it might seem God was tolerant of unrighteousness, that it didn’t really matter. The issue is: what must be done with sin? What’s at stake if sin is left unpunished? What is the nature of sin? What’s at stake is the glory of God. Sin is despising, demeaning, and dishonoring the glory of God. (The modern mindset does not get this either!) But how much is God’s glory worth? If God’s glory can be despised without any repercussions that would have to mean that God’s glory is not worth very much. The passing over of sins begins to communicate that God’s glory is worthless and can be despised by men without any Divine response.
To solve this problem God would have to slay His people. If He sent everyone to Hell God’s righteousness would in fact be vindicated. Or God could ignore the fact that He had been despised and save people anyway, choose mercy OVER righteousness. Many people think God did in fact choose mercy over righteousness in order to save us. But that would mean that God was not being true to Himself. God will not compromise His character in order to save sinners. He wants to be kind and merciful to sinners AND also be righteous in dealing with their sin. How can He do both? In other words, if God forgives sinners He must have a righteous basis for doing so. It should also be stated that if God is going to receive people then those people must actually BE righteous. God will not say that they are when, in fact, they are not; this would make God a liar. And this righteousness must be flawless; it must be equal with God’s own righteousness or it is worthless.
So the dilemma is: in order for God to forgive and receive sinners, He must find a way to make them truly righteous without compromising His own righteousness. How can this be done?
God will solve part of this dilemma by imputing righteousness. (To impute is to give credit.) This righteousness that He imputes will be His own perfect righteousness, not the righteousness that comes from keeping the Law. It will be imputed through faith; faith being the means by which it is received. The Good News is that God imputes righteousness, apart from keeping the Law, to the person who believes Him! The implication is that this righteousness is imputed as a GIFT, not as something we have to earn. It is GRACE! (This whole concept of imputed righteousness blows apart all man-made religion which is always based on self-righteous, or man earning his own righteousness through religious works!)
What is the result of righteousness being imputed? The result is JUSTIFICATION. This is a legal term. It means God has no more reason to condemn us or punish us for our sins. We are declared innocent in His sight. God Himself views us as righteous because we actually have HIS righteousness, not some facade of self-righteousness. Not only is guilt removed, but a certain status and privilege is also bestowed. We become the Sons of God with all the rights and privileges! So justification is more than just forgiveness.
But this imputation of righteousness does not solve the whole dilemma. How can God just give His righteousness to sinners who are, in fact, unrighteous? Remember, God HAS to remain righteous when He does this. On what basis can He bestow His righteousness on believers and maintain His integrity?
The final answer to the dilemma is the Cross of Christ. It is Christ and His Cross that makes the imputation of righteousness possible. Christ’s death was a demonstration of God’s righteousness. Remember he had passed over the sins previously committed. He did not give men what they deserve. Instead, He satisfied His righteous in the Cross. So in the Cross we see what God thinks about sin. So the Cross makes it possible for God to be both just in dealing with sin and the Justifier of believers. In other words, He can be righteous while imputing His righteousness to us.
Paul uses two words to describe what Jesus accomplished on the Cross: (1) Redemption. Sin is a debt and someone has to pay! If we paid for our own sins it would require all that we have, that is, we would spend eternity in Hell. We could not recover. So Jesus paid our debt for us, and He could recover! (2) Propitiation: this means to turn aside wrath and is sometimes translated “sacrifice of atonement.” Behind this word is the Mercy Seat where the High Priest made atonement, turning the wrath away from the people. God expended His wrath on Jesus instead of us! Jesus became a lightning-rod for wrath. Some people have trouble with God being angry. But here we also see God propitiating Himself so that He could then be free to show us mercy. So in the Cross mercy and justice meet so that God can be God! The result of all this is that God can be both just and the Justifier of the person who has faith in Christ! The Cross made this all possible for God. A couple of implications of this truth are: (1) Jesus actually died for God, and (2) God needs Jesus just as much as we do.
Faith in Christ is trust, or leaning upon His blood as the atonement that paid for our sin. God imputes righteousness to the one trusting or leaning upon Christ’s blood. The sacrifice of Christ is the object of faith. Rather than trusting in the righteousness of our own works, we trust in the blood of Christ. His sacrifice is the basis for our justification and faith is how the blood is applied to us personally. So we are justified by the blood of Christ through faith.
Because of the death of Christ, our justification is grounded on the bedrock of God’s righteousness. This is why no one can bring any charge against God’s Elect (Rom 8.33)! God’s justification of sinners in Christ IS righteous!!
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