The Best News Rom 3:21-31

Good Morning FE! We are glad you are here with us today. It is either great planning by our teaching pastors or the providence of God, or both that we are preaching from this passage on this weekend, because on October 31, 1517 a man named Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on Castle Church door in Wittenberg Germany protesting the pope’s attempt to sell salvation. This action incited a debate which culminated in what we now refer to as the Protestant Reformation, where the proclamation of sola scritura, The Bible alone decides faith and practice and supersedes all traditions and is one of the reason we have a Bible before us to read today is because the Protestant reformers believed the Scripture should be translated for everyone to read. Another major theme coming out of the Protestant Reformation answers the question how are sinners made righteous in the sight of God?

Which brings us to our passage today, Romans 3:21-31, Martin Luther calls this passage “the chief point, the central place of the Epistle and of the whole Bible.” John Piper says this passage contains “the most important paragraph in the Bible” As we think about these quotes from Luther and Piper, as we think about what Martin Luther did over 507 years ago, lets understand and pray the Holy Spirit open our hearts and mind to understand our passage this morning.

In Rom 1:17 we read that in the Gospel

Romans 1:17 (ESV)

the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Porque en el evangelio[k] la justicia de Dios se revela por fe y para fe; como está escrito: Mas el justo por la fe vivirá

When we talked about Romans 1:17, we mentioned that God’s rightousness, God’s justice is being reveled through the Gospel, and the Gospel is the power of God for Salvation, but what are we being saved from? If you think back to all that we have learned from Rom 1:18 until last week Rom 3:1-20, what Paul through the inspiration and illumination of the Holy Spirit has been teaching us, is that all humanity is under God’s wrath, “none is righteous, no, not one”. Paul took us on this journey of all different sort of people, in Rom 1:18 - 32, we learned of the person who rejects God, the person who wants nothing to do with God, this person is like the prodigal son, the younger son, who tells his father, I wish you were dead, give me my inheritance and get out of my life. In Romans 2:1-11, we learn of another type of person, the good person, he reads the previous chapter and tells Paul, I am a good person, I am not like those people you are talking about. This person thinks his good deeds are enough to get him into heaven, he think his resume will grant him eternal life, we seen this person in the rich young ruler, when Jesus invited him to sell all he had and follow him, the young man walks away sad because he had may possessions. Jesus revealed his idolatry and invited him to give it up and follow him, but he refused to. Then in Romans 2:12-29, Paul turns his eye to the religious person, who is trying to earn God’s favor by being religious, he is trusting in his religious heritage and his religious rituals as the basis of his salvation. Like the good person, the religious person is trying to get to heaven by his religious resume. This is like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal sons, what does the older son tell the father when he finds out the father is throwing a party for the younger son who is restored to the home?

Luke 15:29–30 (ESV)

but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

29 Pero respondiendo él, le dijo al padre: «Mira, por tantos años te he servido y nunca he desobedecido ninguna orden tuya, y sin embargo, nunca me has dado un cabrito para regocijarme con mis amigos; 30 pero cuando vino este hijo tuyo, que ha consumido tus bienes con rameras, mataste para él el becerro engordado».

What did the older son say? Look at all I have done for you, now what are you going to do for me? Paul paints a picture of three types of people and then drops the mic on everyone in last weeks passage, look there is not one person who is righteous, we are all sinners and under God’s wrath and we will not be justified by trying to obey the law, because we cant obey the law, and gives us one of the purposes of why the law was given, so that through the law, we may become aware of our sin.

Paul then says But now, Paul is turning the page, after giving us the worst news he can give and is turning to the best news,

Romans 3:21–23 (ESV)

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—

Pero ahora, aparte de la ley, la justicia de Dios ha sido manifestada, atestiguada por la ley y los profetas;

Paul says agin what he said in Romans 1, but he says it in a different way, in Romans 1 God’s righteousness is being revealed, continuous action, meaning through the proclamation of the Gospel, God’s righteousness is being revealed, but in our passage Paul says the rightousness of God has been manifested, which is a past action, the verb tense Paul uses he saying there is an event which happened in the past where the rightousness of God was revealed, but this event has continuing results in the future.

This righteousness of God was manifested apart from the law, but the law and the prophets bore witness to this event. Do you remember Jesus after the resurrection had the greatest Bible study ever with the mean on the road to Emmaus, he was teaching them how the law and the prophets bore witness about him and his purpose, which is

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,

22 es decir, la justicia de Dios por medio de la fe en Jesucristo, para todos los que creen; porque no hay distinción;23 por cuanto todos pecaron y no alcanzan la gloria de Dios,

We have all failed to live up to God’s standard, we have all failed to live out what we were created for, to bring God glory. Like Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of soup, we have all traded in the glory of God for a cheap imitation. It doesn’t matter if your poor or rich, man or woman, Jew or Gentile, we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and we are deserving of God’s wrath because we have broken the law of God, BUT NOW, BUT NOW, BUT NOW

The Rightousness of God is manifested to all because we are all in need of God’s justification.

We have to talk about this word Justification, what does it mean? When you read Romans 1-3, it really feels like a court room and Paul is presenting the case against humanity, giving us the reason why we are all guilty of breaking the law and deserving of God’s wrath, God’s condemnation, which as Alfredo pointed out, is the worst news. But then Paul turns the page and says but now… and he introduces to us another legal term, Justification which is used in the courts, it is a pronouncement, a declaration. This term doesn’t mean that God makes us righteous, this term means that God declares us righteous before his sight. When we place our faith in Christ, there is an exchange that happens, my sins are placed on Christ, and his rightousness is given to me. Let’s read the first part of Rom 3:24,

Romans 3:24 (ESV)

and are justified by his grace as a gift,

siendo justificados gratuitamente por su gracia

What Paul is about to outline for us in the next few verses is the Origin, the foundation and the means of our Justification and what Romans 3:24 tells us is

Our Justification Originates with God and His Grace

Our justification never happens if God doesn’t will it to happen. But here in this courtroom drama that is being played out before us, we are guilty, condemned and deserving of God’s wrath… but then enters the Love and Grace of God and says but now, justification has been manifested apart from the law from the heart of God the Father and the willing obedience of God the Son, there is Grace available to all sinners, for the prodigal who is running from God, to the good person trying to earn his way to heaven, to the older brother who is trying to earn God’s favor through religion, God says come experience the justification of God by his grace alone. Grace is God loving, God initiating, God planning, God rescuing, God giving us himself freely. Paul continues

Romans 3:24–26 (ESV)

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.

siendo justificados gratuitamente por su gracia por medio de la redención que es en Cristo Jesús, 25 a quien Dios exhibió públicamente como propiciación por su sangre a través de la fe, como demostración de su justicia, porque en su tolerancia, Dios pasó por alto los pecados cometidos anteriormente,26 para demostrar en este tiempo su justicia, a fin de que Él sea justo y sea el que justifica al que tiene fe en Jesús

If our justification originates with God and his Grace, what Paul explains to us is

The Foundation of our Justification is Christ and his work on the cross.

There are three important, theological words Paul uses in this section of scripture that are vital to understanding the work of Christ on the cross and how it relates to our justification. Paul says we are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Redemption is a term borrowed from the marketplace, in the OT it was used to describe people who became enslaved because they accrued to much debt and they could not pay it off, by their enslavement they were paying off their debt, their was provision written into the law where a kinsman redeemer could come along purchase them from the marketplace in order to be set free. We are enslaved to sin, death and judgement, we also have a debt we cannot pay Paul is saying that through Jesus, redemption from our debt of sin, death and judgement and payment was the Life of Jesus he was the ransom to redeem us.

Paul goes on to say that “God put forward Jesus as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” Propitiation there is our second theological word and it is an important word, propitiation is that act of appeasing God to turn away his wrath. Many people think of the greek god’s and how the Greeks would bring gifts, sacrifices and many other thing to appease the anger of the zeus, hades or the many other Greek God’s. So what’s the difference between the Greek God’s and the God of the Bible? There are many differences, but here is the crucial difference between Christianity and every other religion in the world, The Judge takes on our judgement. In Christianity, the only person who could appease the wrath of God is God himself, so Jesus becomes the sacrificial offering who appeases or takes the wrath of God in our place. The sacrifice of Christ, turns away the wrath of God from those who believe in the Jesus, the Son of God. At he cross the Judge of the world takes on the judgement, the wrath, the condemnation that we deserved.

The final theological word or topic is demonstration, where Paul says this was to show, or demonstrate, God’s rightousness or God’s Justice. God’s justice is revealed at the cross and Paul points out the past, the OT believers, God passed over prior sins, sins of OT saints, left them unpunished, until the cross. As we learned in our Hebrews series the blood of animals couldn’t forgive sins the OT sacrificial system was designed to point us to Christ. God was accepting of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and all the other OT believers, when they repented of their sin and trusted in God’s grace, but he didn’t accept them on their merits or because of the OT sacrificial system, he accepted them based on the future work of Christ. At the cross, God displayed his just punishment of sin for all sinners BC before the Cross and AD after the death of Christ, who trust in him for salvation. This was done so that God can be both Just and the Justifier of all who believe in Christ

Many people pit the attributes of God’s Justice and God’s Love against each other, but that shouldn’t be the case. In God’s justice he designed an orderly world with a moral law, he set up a world that is upheld by moral standards and he holds everyone to the same standard. But in God’s love, he is the justifier, he know we could not live up to the standards because of our sin corrupted hearts, so God in his love makes a way, in love he does everything needed to justify us, to declare us righteous, and restore us to a right relationship with him.

If you have been paying attention to the our passage, you will know that in this paragraph, Paul mentioned 4 times that

The Means of our Justification is by faith

This work of justification is to be recieved by faith alone, in Christ alone. Our faith is not what saves us, but it is the object of our faith that saves, which is the person and work of Jesus Christ, Biblical Faith is more than just believing the facts of the historic christian faith. I use those words deliberately, because Christianity is can be proven as factual, Christianity is historic, and Christianity is a set of theological beliefs. Biblical faith is more than admitting that Christianity is factual, historical and true, Biblical Faith is taking this factual, historical and true theological beliefs and basing all you do in life on these truths. It is taking up your cross and following Jesus, when you put your faith in Christ, you are saying Jesus I am giving all that I am to you because you gave all for me and then you pattern your life after the life and teaching of Jesus. That is what Biblical Faith is. This is the faith which is the means of our justification.

Paul transitions to talk about boasting, to understand this I encourage you to go home and read Philippians 3, where Paul says he has the most to boast in and he goes through his religious, educational, social, moral heritage and says I have the most to be confidence in, but I count it all as trash at the dump for knowing Christ.

Because justification originates with God and his grace, and Christ and his work is the foundation, and it is through faith in Christ work, then the only thing we can boast in is the cross of Christ. Listen to Paul’s argument,

Romans 3:27–31 (ESV)

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

27 ¿Dónde está, pues, la jactancia? Queda excluida. ¿Por cuál ley? ¿La de las obras? No, sino por la ley de la fe.28 Porque concluimos que el hombre es justificado por la fe aparte de las obras de la ley

There is no boasting that we can do because we are justified by our faith in Christ and his work which he accomplished for us in his life and death. There is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor, God’s favor is freely given to all who believe in his Son, Jesus. This frees us from trying to performing before God because we are already accepted by God, there is nothing you can do to be more accepted by God, when we believe God transfers us being an object of his wrath to being an object of his love and pronounces us not guilty, declared righteous.

Paul continues,

Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

¿O es Dios el Dios de los judíos solamente? ¿No es también el Dios de los gentiles? Sí, también de los gentiles, 30 porque en verdad Dios es uno, el cual justificará en virtud de la fe a los circuncisos y por medio de la fe a los incircuncisos

Your race doesn’t grant you favor with God, your religious rituals do not grant you favor with God. For God is the God of all people because he created all people. This is important because if we boast in our racial identity or our religious identity, then we tend to turn a blind eye to the sin of the people we identify with. But God is the God of all because he created all, therefore you do not earn any special favor because you are a Jew or because you practice certain religious rituals, we are all justified by faith in Christ and his life and death. This doctrine of justification is not a dry doctrine, the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone is the fountain of joy for the Christian, because through the doctrine of Justification we are accepted by God, no matter our flaws and failures, through the work of Christ the Son, by faith. Through the doctrine of Justification by faith alone in Christ alone, we are free and as we get closer to Jesus in our walk of faith and we begin to see more of our failures and faults as we battle our sin, we don’t need to hide and run away from God because of our sin, the freedom we have through the doctrine of justification, our freedom should lead us to run into the arms of the saviour and lean on the arms of grace through repentance and confession, because we are loved and accepted by our Father who has declared us righteous through the work of His Son. Because of the doctrine of justification, we are free from anxiety and worry, we don’t have to fear and worry about life’s problems, we no longer have to fear death, we no longer have to worry about the future because “if God is for me who can be against me?” If God did not even spare his Son, for me how much more will he give me graciously everything I need in this life and the next.

because he lives I can face tomorrow

because he lives, all fear is gone,

because I know

he holds the future,

and life is worth the living just because Jesus lives.

Porque Él vive, triunfaré mañana Porque Él vive, ya no hay temor Porque yo sé que el futuro es suyo La vida vale más y más sólo por Él

Paul asks one more question,

Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

¿Anulamos entonces la ley por medio de la fe? ¡De ningún modo! Al contrario, confirmamos la ley.

Paul anticipates the objection and what the people will think, so do throughout the law because of the law of faith? NO! We don’t get rid of the law because we are justified by faith, through the life and death of Christ the law is upheld because Christ lived a perfect life according to the law and died an unjust death, because he did not deserve death, he becomes our substitute, and through faith in Christ, Jesus righteous law keeping becomes ours and our sinfulness is nailed to the cross, and now when the Father looks down from heaven and sees all those who place their faith in His Son he no longer sees our sinfulness, he sees Christ Righteousness and says, these are declared righteous, not guilty. Which through Christ death and the Spirits work, we are free and empowered to live holy lives in obedience to the law.

Therefore Boast in the Cross of Christ and go and Live holy lives for his glory!