Justified Freely by His Grace (Romans 3:21-31

Introduction: “But now”

Jonathan spent years trying to cope with his blindness, learning ways of looking after himself so that he wasn’t so much a burden upon his family, although they still continued to visit on the odd occasion. He also learned how to read Braille.

Then one day he was informed that there was a new cure for certain types of blindness, and he resolved to get some more information.

The information was found, much to Jonathan’s joy, that it could possibly work on him, although there was no guarantee that is would work. But Jonathan felt that it was well worth the try, for what would he not do to get his sight back? So he booked an appointment with the surgeon.

There was much time spent in waiting and much anxiety, but the day finally came for the dreaded operation. And to cut a long story short, the operation was a success; Jonathan could see again.

Jonathan was a new man; he saw the world in a completely different light. He woke up looking at the young nurse that was looking after him; he thought she must be the most beautiful girl in the whole world. Then another nurse walks in asking how he feels, and he thinks that she too looks so beautiful, surpassing the beauty of all other women.

Soon Jonathan is taken outside, and he sees the flowers, the blue sky, the green grass, and the tall pines. Overwhelmed by all the beauty that now filled his eyes, he broke into a familiar hymn. How many times had he sung those lyrics, but now he understood them in a more profound way:

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I am found; was blind but now I see.”

To this point in the Book of Romans, Paul has presented the human race as is in a terrible predicament. The previous passages in Romans 1:18–3:20 make it very clear that every single person, from every ethnic group, every creed, every culture, religious or not, without exception are sinful, guilty, inexcusable and speechless before God.

“But now” in verse 21 changes the conversation in dramatic and fantastic ways. I believe we’ve talked about the many profound “but nows” in the Bible. For example, in Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul puts the human condition this way:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

Then here it comes … listen for it:

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! (Ephesians 2:4–5)

That’s the same thing happening in Romans 3:21. A bleak and gloomy picture has been painted by Paul. In fact, the human condition is so dark, with absolutely no light at all, that the entire human race is doomed. Suddenly, however, a brilliant light shines: But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed.

The following verses will shine a fresh and new light on the subject: Jesus Christ and God’s grace. Those walking in darkness have seen a great light, Isaiah wrote (Isaiah 9:1). When all appears lost without hope, God sends a Rescuer. Don’t you just love God. For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Although the cross is not directly referred in these verses, it is obvious in the conversation. The words mercy seat and by his blood make it obvious that Paul is referring to the miraculous work of Jesus on the cross. By God’s grace, through Christ’s blood and death, the ultimate, final and perfect sacrifice has fulfilled the law of righteousness. Humankind was utterly sinful and beyond hope. But now, our redemption has come through faith in Jesus Christ.

As we read Paul’s words, it’s as though the Holy Spirit has pulled back a dark curtain so that we can view the glorious light of the gospel. Once we were blind, but now we can see. Let’s take a good look.

God’s Righteousness Revealed

Verses 21–26 are six tightly packed verses, which scholar Paul Cranfield rightly calls “the centre and heart’ of the whole main section” of Romans. Baptist scholar, Leon Morris, suggests these verses may be “possibly the most important single paragraph ever written.”

In verse 21, we read that

God’s righteousness has been revealed in Christ Jesus.

And he makes it clear that His righteous revelation is apart from the law. Before the death of Christ, God’s righteousness was revealed according to law; it was law which revealed the righteous standards of God. But now it is revealed apart from the law. Both in the Old Testament and in Christ’s new covenant, righteousness is always credited to faith, not by obeying the law. Don’t forget Paul’s warning in Galatians 3:10–11: For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith.

Paul added that though God’s righteousness is apart from the law, it is “attested by the Law and the Prophets.” The term law and the prophets was used in Paul’s day to refer to the entire Old Testament. Attested has the same root word as the word witness. It means “to bear witness, or testify. The word refers to giving accurate information and usually refers to speaking or acting to confirm information about oneself or others. What Paul is saying is that the Law and the Prophets (the Old Testament) bear witness to the gospel: a righteousness that is revealed in Christ. Paul is telling the Gentile and Jewish believers in Rome that his gospel is the gospel that brings to fruition that righteousness from God first proved by the law, then revealed by the prophets—the righteousness that can only come by faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, the righteousness revealed at the present time is the same righteousness revealed in former times. God is consistent.

In verses 22-24, we read that

God’s righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

In these verses, Paul introduced a thought so contrary to Jewish and Gentile sensibilities as to be scandalous. The idea that the wicked could be justified freely was unheard of, not only in Rome but also in Israel. The iron-booted authority of Rome not only condemned the guilty but probably a lot who were innocent as well. As well, the eye-for-an-eye heritage of Paul’s Jewish readers were likely as troubled as the Gentiles by Paul’s words. But we need to make sure that we understand that justification is received through a narrow condition.

First, it’s necessary that this faith has the proper object. “The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ.” Faith cannot be in any other. I’m reminded of Peter’s words in Acts 4:12.

“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

The most scandalous words in these verses just might be at the end of verse 22: “to all who believe, since there is no distinction.” We earlier saw in Paul’s arguments against objections to the gospel, that the Jews were looking for special favor from God. But Paul advised them, that in their sin, they were no better off than any other Gentile sinner.

Second, Paul went on to say in verse 23 that all have sinned, which demonstrates why people need to have faith in Jesus. For some, those words, “all have sinned,” are scandalous. Me, a sinner? I think not, some say. I’ve never killed anyone. I’m not a drug addict or a prostitute.

The “all” in verse 23 levels the playing field of the gospel. All men and women are made equal by three things: first, our equality in need (all are guilty). Second, our equality in what we receive (redemption is one gift; the same for all). Third, our equality in how we receive redemption (by faith; everyone receives it the same way). Equality in Christ represents a radical message from one who formerly prided himself on his rung on the ladder of racial respectability.

All have sinned. All have fallen short. Try as we may to reach God and righteousness on our own, we fall short at every effort. Our own effort at righteousness is like standing on the top of Mt. Everest and trying to touch a star. Though that mountain is the highest on earth, relatively speaking, it is no closer to the stars than if I were standing in California’s Death Valley. And that is just where I am, death valley, if I continue in my attempts at righteousness apart from faith in Christ. It is only by faith in Christ that I receive righteousness; not earn it or achieve it, but receive it as a gift.

Paul tells us in verse 24 that through faith in Jesus, we are “justified freely”. What does that mean?

I can tell you what it does not mean. Perhaps you’ve heard someone say that the word justified means that God looks at me “just-as-if-I’d” never sinned. Well, I’m sorry to inform you that is very bad theology. That’s not what the word means. Charles Swindoll explains it this way: after a day of dirty yard work, a hot shower and a bar of soap renders one clean. It is tempting to say, “ ‘Ah, it’s just as if I’d never been dirty.’ But that would not have adequately conveyed the power and the value of the water and soap. Better to look in the mirror and say, ‘I was filthy and now I’m clean’ ” (Swindoll, p. 327). All one need do is look back in the first two chapters of Romans to realize exactly how much sin was cancelled and how much grace is required to declare sinners righteous. John Newton had it right in “Amazing Grace,” when he marveled at the grace that “saved a wretch like me.”

To say that, once justified, God looks at sinners as if they never sinned, discounts the worth of Christ’s sacrifice offered to forgive our sins. Yes, we are justified freely, but it wasn’t free for God. To be declared righteous and justified by God costs me nothing, but it cost Jesus His life.

The word freely in verse 24 comes from a Greek word that means gift. But more powerful than that, the implication in that word is that it is a gift given without reason. When Paul says that we are justified freely, he is saying that we were given the gift of justification without reason. Because we are hardened criminals, God could have found no reason, no basis, for declaring us righteous. So He found the cause, the reason, in Himself. The word expresses the radical action of God apart from human merit. It was grace that motivated God to justify guilty sinners.

Justification comes through redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Fortunately, “redemption” was a term not lost on either Jews or Gentiles, for it was a term of the slave market. Historians believe that the population of first-century Rome was probably more than half slaves, so everyone in the church at Rome understood redemption—the process whereby a slave’s freedom is purchased for a ransom price. For the Jews, in addition to having statutes governing the redemption of slaves , their entire salvation history was bound up in their redemption out of slavery in Egypt . What was new for both classes of humanity was that there is a slavery that all people are subject to for which there is only one ransom price; which brings us to verses 25-26.

In these verses we understand that

God’s righteousness was provided by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Paul makes it clear in these verses that the righteousness of God is not given arbitrarily by a lenient capricious God, but by the One True God who is the one who justifies and also just in doing so.

First, Paul explains that God presented Jesus as the “mercy seat.” Here is the heart of the matter: when Paul calls Christ a mercy seat, he referring to the covering of the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies in the tabernacle and temple. As outlined in Leviticus 16, the high priest was to take the blood of the sacrificial bull and goat and sprinkle it on the cover of the ark of the covenant (the mercy seat) in order to make atonement for himself, his household, and the people. The ark of the covenant contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments representing God’s moral and righteous standards which had been broken. But when the sacrificial animals were killed and their blood sprinkled over the cover of the ark, the broken laws of God were atoned for by the death of the animals instead of the death of the Israelites. Leviticus 17 goes on to point out two critical factors: first, life is in the blood, and second, God initiated the sacrifice. Therefore, God took it upon himself to initiate the exchange of life by the shedding of blood: the life of a “sinless” animal for the life of a sinful human.

When Paul then says that Christ became a mercy seat, he was saying that Christ became the “mercy seat” or; in other words, he was using the term to represent the atoning sacrifice for our sins since in the tabernacle the sprinkling of sacrificial blood “turned away” the wrath of God. In both cases, it is clear that Christ became the sinless sacrifice prefigured by the Old Testament sacrifices. And the effect on God’s standards of righteousness? His standards were totally satisfied, allowing him to free or redeem those who were slaves in the marketplace of sin.

Second, Paul explains that God presented Jesus to demonstrate his righteousness. In other words, the redemption that is given to those who believe in Jesus demonstrates God’s own righteous character. If he had forgiven sin without a sacrifice, the charge of injustice against God would be valid. But because a sacrifice was made for sin—and because he himself initiated and provided the sacrifice—he is both just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. The righteousness of God that demanded a payment for sin is demonstrated by his own provision of the payment.

Francis Shaefffer put it this way: Our faith has no saving value. Our religious good works, our moral good works, have no saving value because they are not perfect. Our suffering has no saving value. We would have to suffer infinitely, because we have sinned against an infinite God; and we, being finite, cannot suffer infinitely. The only thing in all of God’s moral universe that has the power to save is the finished work of Jesus Christ. Our faith merely accepts the gift. And God justifies all those who believe in Jesus (3:26). If all this is true, then verse 27 is certainly an under-statement. (Schaeffer, p. 81)

Verses 27-31 declares that

God’s righteousness prevents us from boasting about ourselves.

When sinners are justified by God’s grace, there is absolutely no room to boast except in God and his righteousness.

Faith is agreeing with God that his plan of salvation is the one that saves. It is absolutely ridiculous for a person to have faith and then boast about observing the law as an instrument of salvation. It would be the same as receiving a valuable birthday present and then insulting the giver by insisting on paying for it yourself. Once the item was paid for by you, it ceases to be a gift. Only when it is totally paid for by another, and received by you “by ‘Yes’ alone” (by faith alone), is it a gift. Only at that point is boasting excluded.

Boasting is also excluded by the unity of the salvation God offers. That is, his salvation is for every sinner who believes. The same faith that is the instrument for the justification of the Gentiles is the instrument for the justification of the Jews—and vice versa. How inappropriate is it to boast about achieving something that has been given as a gift to the whole human race? The boaster ends up embarrassing himself and revealing his lack of understanding of the gift that has been provided.

Finally, boasting is excluded by the law itself. While this may sound contradictory on the surface, here is the point: it is the law which shows people that they have failed in all points to be righteous, forcing them to the conclusion that they must accept righteousness as a free gift of God. The law says, “You have nothing to boast in and I can prove it!”—and then proceeds to name all the places in which we have failed morally. Therefore, the free “gift of God” is the only way that we can attain salvation, and it took the law to reveal it. Therefore, the law serves the gospel by removing all boasting about how one might be saved.

Conclusion:

Christ paid the penalty so that when we believe in him, God credits our faith as righteousness and justifies us as worthy of his grace.

Cliff Barrows, the long-time song leader at Billy Graham Evangelistic Association crusades, tells a story about how his children learned to appreciate the price that Jesus paid for their sins. When they were small, the children persisted in doing something that they had been forbidden to do. Mr. Barrows told his children that if they violated the standard again, they would be disciplined for their actions. Upon returning home, a saddened father discovered that his children had yet again disobeyed their father. But the thought of spanking them overcame him.

“I just couldn’t spank them,” he said. “Bobby and Bettie Ruth were very small. I called them into my room, took off my belt and then my shirt, and with a bare back I knelt down at the bed. I made them both strap me with the belt ten times each. You should have heard the crying. From them, I mean. The crying was from them. They did not want to do it. But I told them the penalty had to be paid and so through their sobs and tears they did what I told them.… I must admit I was not much of a hero. It hurt. I have not offered to do that again. It was a once-for-all sacrifice, I guess we could say, but I never had to spank those two children again, because they got the point. We kissed each other. And when it was over we prayed together” (Swindoll, pp. 543–544).

In Romans 3:21–31 Paul demonstrates how God can remain righteous while he declares guilty sinners righteous. How can he be just and a justifier of the wicked? It can only be done if the price for their wickedness is paid. Just as no slave can be redeemed out of the bondage of slavery for sin without the payment of a ransom price, so no sinful human being can be released from the guilt of sin without a penalty for that sin being paid. Cliff Barrows declared his own children “righteous” after the penalty for their sin had been paid. He stooped down to their level and received upon himself the penalty that they deserved. And this, Paul says, is what God in Christ has done for us.

What does this mean for us?

Some questions:

Do I ever misplace my personal faith, directing it to any thing or any person other than Christ and his work on the cross?

Am I trying to “touch the stars” from my own little hill of self-effort?

How often to I meditate on the infinite price that Jesus paid by willingly shedding his own blood to secure my salvation?

Do I pretend that since my salvation cost me nothing, that I can follow Jesus without cost?