Romans 3:21-26: Behold, The Righteousness Of God!

Scripture Reading

The New King James Version Chapter 3

21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The word of the Lord (Thanks be to God)

You may be seated.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

The Justification of God

One commentator called this paragraph from Romans possibly the single most important paragraph ever written. Other’s have rightly identified this as the center and heart of Paul's entire letter. In the structure of the letter itself, this is the conclusion of Paul’s argument that his Gospel is more honorable because it brings salvation into the world right here and right now.

As I told you at the end of our last lesson on Romans, where we ended in Romans 3:20 was about to turn on the hinge of the next two words found in verse 21 - “BUT NOW”

Everything up until verse 21, going all the way back to Romans 1:18, has been a complete demonstration of how everyone - all of mankind - the whole world - stands guilty before God because of the Law of God that they have broken - whether it was written on their hearts or it was read to them in the synagogues - both Jews and Greeks are under its just condemnation.

And because the Law’s function was never to save, but to bring us to the realization of our sinfulness - ‘for by the law comes the knowledge of sin’ - then the only way for God to bring salvation was for that salvation to come separately from the Law. Hear it again:

“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed!” It is made manifest!

And how is it visible in the world? In a peculiar way… by faith!

As I noted in our first week of this series, Paul spent very little time, up front, explaining his first proof that the Gospel he preached was more honorable. Recall Romans 1:16-17:

The New King James Version Chapter 1

for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed [beginning and ending in faith].

This is the full impact of Romans 3:22, the righteousness of God is revealed how? Not through the Law, but through Faith.

But how does that work? How does one see Faith? You could see the Law, it was written down first on tablets and then copied much later on parchment and paper. It was visibly demonstrated through the tabernacle and the temple system of worship and sacrifices. You could see people obeying or disobeying the Law, getting circumcised, restricting their food diet to what the Law permitted. Generally speaking, works of the Law were very easy to see, especially if you were a Jew in Gentile territory living differently.

Yet Paul’s big reveal is that the righteousness of God is revealed apart from the Law, through Faith.

Now, I have the unfortunate duty stranding here before you to be a little critical of most of our modern Bible translations. Even here in the New King James Version that we read and preach from weekly.

Romans 1:22 in most of your Bible’s say,

The New King James Version Chapter 3

21 ...the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed… through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe.

Note the saying “faith in Jesus Christ”. This is what we call an objective genitive, where one takes the possessive form of the noun in Greek and concludes it to be directed at an object. Thus you get faith IN Jesus Christ, implying that Paul is saying he’s talking about you placing your faith in Jesus Christ.

Whereas the original King James stated, “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ.” Somewhat awkward, but still, they effectively translated it without interpreting the genitive/possessive form of the nouns, simply saying ‘faith of Jesus Christ’. That is how everyone is generally taught to translate the genitive form of the nouns without interpretation, just as ‘of’ in front of the noun and move on.

You can see the difference in how those two decisions in translation play out in their meaning. The objective translation concludes that Paul is speaking of our faith being placed in the person and work of Jesus Christ, whereas the generic translation evokes the conception that this faith by simply be possessive or subjective. Which is to say, maybe Paul is saying by Jesus Christ’s own faith or as many scholars have argued, that God’s righteousness is revealed through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Either way, it is Christ’s faith or faithfulness that is in view here.

This is why I asked the question about how one could see faith? Or in the words of St. James, show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works.

But even that does not conclude the debate here.

Do you remember how we started off in the letter, talking about the eschatological significance of the apocalypse? Paul actually doesn’t use the same word (apocalypse) here in Romans 3:21, rather the word he uses refers to making something visible, something we are all able to tangibly see.

And this is why I am going to argue today, that we should see the phrase “faith of Jesus Christ”, not as an objective or subjective genitive - faith in Jesus Christ or Jesus Christ’s own faith or faithfulness - but rather as a genitive of apposition. Also called the epexegetical genitive or the genitive of definition.

In grammar, apposition refers to “a relationship between two or more words or phrases in which the two units are grammatically parallel and have the same referent.” It is normally translated into English with the key words, “which is, that is, namely, or if personal, who is. For example, Romans 4:11 - the sign of circumcision, which we would translate as “the sign, which is circumcision”. Or Colossians 1:18, the body of the church, which we would translate as, “the body, that is the church.”

Now one of you might ask, why are you doing this to us Pastor? And the reason, as the men in our Greek class can tell you, is because most of our literal or word for word English translations do not interpret the genitive form for you, as you can see in the original King James, which simply and awkwardly says ‘by faith of Jesus Christ’. And then, secondly, I must do this because this is one of the most contested interpretive translations in our English Bibles among scholars today.

When the New King James, the ESV, and so many others chose to render it “by faith in Jesus Christ”, they made a judgment that this was the objective genitive. And now because of that, an unending list of books and commentary debates have been written about this phrase in this one verse of the Bible.

So, here is my position, which has no popular support that I could find - so I offer it to you with an open hand, knowing that I am in a minority of interpreters who find the binary debate of objective/subjective to be unhelpful in resolving the dispute. So whether or not you all like third ways, you can tell me later.

But my evidence for this is found in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, which some of you may remember I preached on before in the past. This is the very same saying that Paul wrote to the Galatians after explaining to them why the law was added into the history of God’s people who had already had the Gospel preached to them in the time of Abraham, Paul writes in Galatians 3:21-22,

The New King James Version Chapter 3

21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not!... 22 [For] the Scripture [consigned] all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ [I’m giving you the generic genitive] might be given to those who believe.

do you see and hear the parallel of the passages? Romans 3:9:

The New King James Version Chapter 3

For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.

The New King James Version Chapter 3

21 But now the righteousness of God… is revealed… by faith of Jesus Christ, to all who believe.

To a certain degree, Paul chose not to speak to the Roman Christians in the same manner as he did to the Galatians, but he comes very close in Romans with the language of apocalypse and manifestation.

And this is the key to my argument. Immediately after this verse, Paul says in Galatians 3:23-24, (tease out the elements of these verses as you read them)

The New King James Version Chapter 3

23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

And to further strengthen my argument here, I’m happy to tell you that we all know that Paul can say ‘through faith in Jesus Christ’ in the actual Greek usage, because he does so in the very next verse,

The New King James Version Chapter 3

26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition Chapter 3

26 πάντες γὰρ υἱοὶ θεοῦ ἐστε διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.

He literally uses the Greek word for ‘in’ and grammatically place the words ‘Jesus Christ’ as the object of faith.

So, if you are tracking with me. Commentators have general agreement that faith is being personified by Paul here in Galatians, yet because of the raging debate over the disputed interpretation of the genitive in Romans 3:22, there has simply not been found a resolution point.

Again, as I said, I offer this to you with an open hand, not a closed fist. There is room for disagreement here. But given the personification of faith in Galatians 3:23-25... I find it extremely helpful to think of this saying from Paul in the following light. This is how I believe we should render the Greek into English:

“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law has been made visible. It was anticipated by the Law and the Prophets, but now the righteousness of God through Faith, that is through Jesus Christ, is received by all who believe. For there is no distinction...”

Effectively, Paul is saying that this is the hinge upon which history turns, just as he did in his letter to the Galatians. God sent forth his Son in the fullness of Time, born under the Law to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4).

And when Paul says that the righteousness of God has appeared by the coming of Faith (apart from the Law), he’s telling you in both Galatians 3 and Romans 3 that the person of Jesus Christ is personification of faith! That is why I believe that Paul can tell us that God’s righteousness has been made visible to the eye through faith. Because Jesus Christ is true faith in the flesh.

Now you might ask me why Paul does this personification? Well, it is because of God’s own design for his image bearing creatures. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that,

The New King James Version Chapter 11

without faith it is impossible to please [God].

This is not an optional faculty of your being. Because you are a human being, made in God’s image, you are chiefly to put your faith and allegiance in God over all.

I often think we fail to consider how important it is that Jesus Christ was the only man in history to demonstrate perfect faith towards God. That’s probably because we are mostly told about how he was sinless and fulfilled the Law perfectly (all of which is true). But it is exactly because of his own faith in God that he was able to fulfill all things in the first place, never sinning and being perfectly obedient. Because, as we said in Romans 1, the obedience of faith means that obedience comes out of faith, not the other way around.

So, it is good an right for us to see Jesus as the man of faith, as Hebrews 12:2 tells us,

The New King James Version Chapter 12

let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith

But no matter where you fall on the exact interpretation of Paul’s saying here, I believe everyone can agree that Paul is saying that the history of the world changed, at the fullness of time, when Jesus Christ came into the world and fulfilled faithfully what no one else before him had done. The righteousness of God was made manifest to the world in a way that saved the world from sin and led to the justification of sinners by faith. And that faith is fully personified in the man, Christ Jesus.

And since this is the only way that anyone can be saved, there is no distinction among men to give them special treatment before God. Look now in verses 23 and following:

The New King James Version Chapter 3

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be [both] just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

I now return to the courtroom metaphor. After all Paul did to demonstrate the depravity and the just condemnation of all mankind, both Jews and Greeks, and that all they could do was cover their mouths and hang their heads in shame...

God, the Judge, stands up to announce the verdict (remember this is in the middle of history now) and all of a sudden we start to hear rulings of “not guilty”, “not guilty”, “not guilty”.

But why?! How can the Judge pardon sinners who broke his Law? Isn’t that unjust? Doesn’t that make God an unjust Judge?

But God points to a man, named Jesus Christ, saying that this man paid for their blood debt. He satisfied both the justice and the punishment that was required of them at his own cost, in order that God could show mercy and grace freely to all those who placed their faith in him, believing that God would put everything in the world to rights and save it, rather than condemn it.

And how does Paul explain this salvation? It is threefold: Redemption, Propitiation, and Justification

Redemption - We are...

The New King James Version Chapter 3

justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus

Just as Paul told us at the beginning of chapter 3, everyone was in bondage ‘under sin’. That means that we were are like slaves needing to be purchased from our slave master in order to be freed from the misery he caused us. Redemption means that we have been freed from slavery to our sins. Much more to come in chapter 6 of Romans on that topic.

Second is Propitiation - Paul speaks of...

The New King James Version Chapter 3

the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood

This relates to Paul’s refutation of his Jewish opponents in chapter 2, who didn’t understand the purpose of the law was to lead them to Christ. You can imagine that these hypocrites thought themselves to be righteous simply by being circumcised and knowing about God’s Law.

But it was God’s Law that demanded the High Priest to yearly offer sacrifice and sprinkle the blood of the bulls and goats on the mercy seat in the holy of holies atop the ark of the covenant. It was that animal sacrificed and also the scapegoat released into the wilderness, that were shadows of the one to come who would satisfy the punishment for sin (which was death) and substitute himself as the one to carry away the sins of the people so that they would not face the wrath of God on account of their offenses.

This one word, ‘propitiation’, does all that work for us in this passage. Effectively summarized as a wrath-absorbing substitute.

And thirdly, Justification - This is the verdict in the courtroom setting that constitutes the bulk of Paul explanation. Here Paul uses this word in two senses. He refers to our being declared righteous by God’s judgments (being justified by his grace, vs 24) and he also tells us that God did this to demonstrate his own righteousness and justice. Thus Paul is also speaking of the justification of God himself.

Paul says it was:

The New King James Version Chapter 3

25 to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

You see, when God had not yet sent Jesus into the world, every generation that rolled by was a sinful generation that he passed over and did not destroy. And that meant that God’s own justice was at stake, because we all know that true justice demands satisfaction for all wrongdoing. So for God not to punish law breakers (which happens to be everyone in the world) was to bring upon himself the charges of being an unjust judge.

And that is why it is not merely our justification alone that matters, but it is God’s own justification as judge. Therefore Paul writes,

The New King James Version Chapter 3

that He might be [both] just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

And that is the conclusion of Paul’s Gospel presentation. Aren’t you thankful that God can be both just and the justifier of the ungodly on account of Jesus?

Application

The application for today is simple:

Brothers and sisters, you who have put your faith in Jesus Christ, the man of faith, have been justified freely by God’s grace and on the Last Day you will have confidence to stand before God, not because of your righteousness, but because of God’s righteousness that has been given to you in Christ Jesus.

And you can be confident also that God himself will not be unjust when he does this. The Gospel of God really is more honorable and more glorious than any other system in all the world, because in it God is both just and the justifier of every sinner who have faith in Jesus Christ.

You and I can truly proclaim the hymn we just sang with the full assurance of hope on the Last Day:

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness…

and when he shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in him be found; dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand!

—————

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pray with me.