Romans 3.26-The Communication of the Gospel During the Church Age Demonstrates the Righteousness of God
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday November 29, 2007
Romans: Romans 3:26-The Communication of the Gospel During the Church Age Demonstrates the Righteousness of God
Lesson # 105
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 3:19.
We are currently engaged in a study of the third major section in the book of Romans, which appears in Romans 3:21-5:21.
This section is divided into four parts: (1) Divine righteousness is imputed through faith in Christ (Romans 3:21-26). (2) Divine righteousness is available to both Jew and Gentile (Romans 3:27-31). (3) Justification by Faith: The Example of Abraham (Romans 4:1-23). (4) The Results of Faith (Romans 5:1-21).
This evening we will note Romans 3:26 in which Paul teaches the communication of the gospel during the church age demonstrates the righteousness of God.
Romans 3:19, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.”
Romans 3:20, “Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
Romans 3:21, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”
Romans 3:22, “Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe for there is no distinction.”
Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:24, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:25, “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.”
Romans 3:26, “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
“For” is the preposition pros (pro$), which emphasizes the “corresponding relation” between the Father’s purpose in demonstrating His righteousness through His Son’s spiritual death on the Cross with that of His purpose in manifesting His righteousness through the communication of the gospel during the church age.
“The demonstration” is the noun endeixis (e&ndeici$) (en-dike-sis), which is correctly translated.
In Romans 3:26, as was the case in Romans 3:25, the noun endeixis means, “the means by which one knows that something is a fact,” thus, it can be translated “evidence, proof, demonstration.”
The word indicates that the corresponding purpose of the Father offering His Son Jesus Christ publicly at the Cross of Calvary as a propitiatory gift to sinful mankind was to “demonstrate” His righteousness through the communication of the gospel during the church age.
“His righteousness” is composed of the genitive 3rd person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (au)tov$), “His” and the articular genitive feminine singular form of the noun dikaiosune (dikaiosuvnh), “righteousness.”
The intensive personal pronoun autos refers to God the Father since He offered the Son publicly as a propitiatory gift to sinful mankind by means of His Son’s spiritual death on the Cross.
John 3:16-17 teaches that the Father and not the Holy Spirit sent the Son into the world to become a human being and to die a spiritual death as the propitiation for the sins of the entire world.
As we have noted in detail in our studies of the book of Romans, the noun dikaiosune refers to the “integrity” and “virtue” of God.
Romans 3:26, “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
“At the present time” is composed of the preposition en (e)n), “at,” which is followed by adverb of time nun (nun) (noon), “present” and the dative masculine singular form of the noun kairos (kairov$) (ki-ros), “time.”
This prepositional phrase en to nun kairo, “at the present time” points back to Paul’s statement in Romans 3:21-22.
Romans 3:21-22, “But now, independently of seeking to be justified by obedience to the Law, the righteousness originating from God is being manifested at the present time while simultaneously being attested to by the Law and the Prophets. Namely, the righteousness originating from God through faith in Jesus who is the Christ for the benefit of each and every person who does believe for there is, as an eternal spiritual truth, absolutely no distinction.”
The preposition en is employed with the dative of time kairo and indicates that the demonstration of God’s righteousness takes place “during” a particular period of human history, namely, the church age.
In Romans 3:26, the adverb of time nun is used adjectivally modifying the noun kairos, which refers a particular or distinct period of human history.
The adverb of nun functioning as an adjective modifying kairos indicates that this particular period of human history was still taking place when Paul wrote this epistle.
Therefore, the word denotes “the present” period of human history called by many theologians, “the church age,” or “dispensation of the church” or “age of grace.”
The church age began at Pentecost (Acts 2) and will end with the rapture of the church (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57) and was a mystery meaning that it was not known to the Old Testament prophets (Ephesians 3:9; Romans 16:25-26).
The prepositional phrases “for the demonstration” and “at the present time” along with a comparison of John 16:7-11, Romans 1:1-5 and 1:16-17 indicate that the righteousness of God is demonstrated during the church age through the communication of the gospel.
Romans 1:16-17, “For I am never ashamed of the gospel for it is as an eternal spiritual truth God’s power resulting in deliverance for the benefit of everyone who as an eternal spiritual truth believe, to the Jew first and then to the Greek. For by means of it, the righteousness originating from God is as an eternal spiritual truth revealed from faith to faith. Just as it stands written for all of eternity, ‘But the righteous shall choose for himself to live by means of faith.’”
Romans 3:26, “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
“So that” is the preposition eis (ei)$) (ice), which indicates that another purpose for the Father offering of His Son publicly at the Cross as a propitiatory gift to sinful mankind by means of His Son’s spiritual death on the Cross was that He might be demonstrated as righteous and the justifier of those who exercise faith in His Son.
In Romans 3:25, Paul teaches us that the Father offered His Son publicly as a propitiatory gift to sinful mankind through faith in His Son by means of His Son’s spiritual death on the Cross in order to demonstrate His righteousness.
Then, here in Romans 3:26, he introduces another purpose, which corresponds to this one, namely to demonstrate His righteousness during the church age through the communication of the gospel, which centers upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“He” is the intensive personal pronoun autos (au)tov$), which emphasizes the righteous character of the Father.
“Would be” is the definite article ho (o() and the present active infinitive form of the verb eimi (ei)miv) (i-mee), which denotes that God’s character and nature possesses a certain inherent characteristic that is identified by the adjective dikaios, “just.”
“Just” is the adjective dikaios (divkaio$) (dik-ah-yos), which describes the state or condition of God the Father having perfect “integrity” and “virtue.”
He is perfect integrity in the sense that His character is perfectly sound and adheres perfectly to His own standards and what He has promised to men.
Thus, He is upright, honest, perfectly whole, undiminished and sound, and unimpaired and in perfect condition.
The adjective dikaios describes the Father as having perfect “virtue” in the sense that His character is perfect moral excellence, goodness, and He always conforms to His own perfect standards.
Also, the adjective dikaios describes the state or condition of God the Father always fulfilling His obligations to His moral rational creatures, whether angels or men.
Therefore, in Romans 3:26, Paul teaches that the spiritual death of His Son on the Cross demonstrated the Father as being inherently righteous and the presentation of the gospel does as well since the gospel proclaims the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The gospel of Jesus Christ demonstrates the Father’s perfect virtue and integrity since it proclaims that God perfectly adhered to His own perfect holy standards by judging His Sons for the sins of the entire world.
The gospel demonstrates the Father’s perfect virtue and integrity in that it proclaims that the Father fulfilled His promises of a Savior for the human race in the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.
The gospel demonstrates that God the Father is perfectly righteous since it proclaims that although God is holy and man is a sinner, He has been gracious to man by withholding judgment and providing them salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The gospel demonstrates the Father’s righteous character in that it proclaims that the death of Christ was in keeping with His holy character.
The gospel demonstrates that God is righteous in that it proclaims God’s love for the sinner and His hatred of sin.
The fact that Jesus Christ’s spiritual death satisfied the demands of God’s holiness, which required that human sin be judged, permitted God to extend grace to the human race, enabling Him to offer to the entire human race the gift of salvation through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Once God’s righteous indignation towards human sin had been satisfied by our Lord’s spiritual death on the Cross, God was free to extend grace to the entire human race the offer of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:26, “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
“And” is the “ascensive” use of the conjunction kai (kaiV), which introduces a statement that emphatically expounds upon the previous statement that God is inherently righteous and introduces an accessory idea.
The accessory idea that is introduced by the word is that the Cross of Christ demonstrated the Father as being righteous “even” when He justifies the sinner who exercises faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
The ascensive use of the conjunction kai denotes that what is to follow, as an addition to the previous statement, is out of the ordinary or unexpected and should be translated, “even.”
What is out of the ordinary is that God the Father could declare a sinner justified by means of faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
“The justifier of” is the verb dikaioo (dikaiovw) (dik-ah-yo-o), which refers to God declaring a person as righteous as He is as a result of God imputing or crediting to that person His Son’s righteousness, the moment they exercised faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
“The one who” is the definite article ho (o(), which refers to the sinner, whether Jew or Gentile since Romans 3:23 declares that each and every member of the human race has not measured up to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the glory of God.
“Has faith” is composed of the preposition ek (e)k) and the genitive feminine singular form of the noun pistis (pivsti$) (pis-tis).
The noun pistis, “faith’ refers to the non-meritorious system of perception of placing one’s “trust” or “confidence in” the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ and His spiritual death on the Cross.
The preposition ek functions as a marker of means constituting a source and the noun pistis functions as a “genitive of means” indicating that faith in Jesus of Nazareth is “the means constituting the source by which” God the Father justifies the sinner.
“Jesus” is the proper name Iesous ( )Ihsou$), which is the Greek spelling of the Hebrew word Jehoshua meaning, “Jehovah saves,” and refers to the perfect human nature of our Lord.
The proper name Iesous, “Jesus” functions as an “objective genitive” meaning that it functions semantically as the direct object of the verbal idea implicit in the head noun pistis, “faith.”
This identifies Jesus of Nazareth as the object of faith through which a person receives the righteousness of God as a gift.