BUT NOW...

Romans 3:21 NKJV

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

BUT NOW...

Romans 3:21-31

For two and a half chapters of Romans (and thirty-nine of these studies), we have been looking at the sad story of the ruin of the race because of sin.

Now we reach a new and glorious point in Paul’s letter.

Instead of reviewing the grim story of sin and God’s wrath, we turn with relief to the wonderful news of God’s great grace to sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Understanding the Bible depends in no small measure on understanding the Bible’s main words—words like justification, redemption, faith, substitution, obedience, grace, and many others.

But it is also the case that understanding the Bible sometimes depends on what we might be inclined to think of as less important words.

I think of the “so” in John 3:16, for instance: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.…” What does “so” mean?

To ask that question and answer it, we must go deeper into the meaning of this most popular verse than we might at first have thought possible.

We come to two such words at the beginning of Romans 3:21: “But now”!

What tremendous words they are! One expositor calls them “the great turning point” in God’s dealings with the human race, and a turning point in the letter.

Another calls them “God’s great ‘nevertheless’ in the face of man’s failure.”2

If we had not studied the first two and a half chapters of Romans carefully, we would not be in a position to appreciate these words, because the change they speak of would not seem to be a change at all.

With no understanding of the past, we can never appreciate the present.

But now we can! We have studied the past. Therefore these two words become for us a cry of great joy and a paean of victory.1

1 James Montgomery Boice, Romans: Justification by Faith, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991–), 339–340.

Paul’s theme in the second section of his letter was Salvation—Righteousness Declared. He had proved that all men are sinners; next he was to explain how sinners can be saved.

The theological term for this salvation is justification by faith. Justification is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous in Christ on the basis of the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Each part of this definition is important, so we must consider it carefully.

To begin with, justification is an act, not a process. There are no degrees of justification; each believer has the same right standing before God. Also, justification is something God does, not man.

No sinner can justify himself before God. Most important, justification does not mean that God makes us righteous, but that He declares us righteous.

Justification is a legal matter. God puts the righteousness of Christ on our record in the place of our own sinfulness. And nobody can change this record.

Do not confuse justification and sanctification. Sanctification is the process whereby God makes the believer more and more like Christ. Sanctification may change from day to day.

Justification never changes. When the sinner trusts Christ, God declares him righteous, and that declaration will never be repealed. God looks on us and deals with us as though we had never sinned at all!

But, how can the holy God declare sinners righteous? Is justification merely a “fictional idea” that has no real foundation?

In this section of Romans, Paul answered these questions in two ways. First, he explained justification by faith (Rom. 3:21–31); then he illustrated justification by faith from the life of Abraham (Rom. 4:1–25).1

1 Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 522.

Justification Explained (Rom. 3:21–31)

“But now the righteousness of God … has been manifested” (Rom. 3:21, literal translation).

God had revealed His righteousness in many ways before the full revelation of the Gospel: His Law, His judgments against sin, His appeals through the prophets, His blessing on the obedient.

But in the Gospel, a new kind of righteousness has been revealed (Rom. 1:16–17); and the characteristics of this righteousness are spelled out in this section.

Apart from the Law (v. 21). Under the Old Testament Law, righteousness came by man behaving; but under the Gospel, righteousness comes by believing.

Beginning at Genesis 3:15, and continuing through the entire Old Testament, witness is given to salvation by faith in Christ.

The Old Testament sacrifices, the prophecies, the types, and the great “Gospel Scriptures” (such as Isa. 53) all bore witness to this truth.

The Law could witness to God’s righteousness, but it could not provide it for sinful man. Only Jesus Christ could do that (see Gal. 2:21).

Through faith in Christ (v. 22a). Faith is only as good as its object. All men trust something, if only themselves; but the Christian trusts Christ.

Law righteousness is a reward for works. Gospel righteousness is a gift through faith.

Many people say, “I trust in God!” But this is not what saves us.

It is personal, individual faith in Jesus Christ that saves and justifies the lost sinner. Even the demons from hell believe in God and tremble, yet this does not save them (James 2:19).

For all men (vv. 22b–23). God gave His Law to the Jews, not to the Gentiles; but the Good News of salvation through Christ is offered to all men. All men need to be saved.

There is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile when it comes to condemnation. “All have sinned, and are coming short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23, literal translation).

God declared all men guilty so that He might offer to all men His free gift of salvation.

By grace (v. 24). God has two kinds of attributes: absolute (what He is in Himself), and relative (how He relates to the world and men).

One of His absolute attributes is love: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). When God relates that love to you and me, it becomes grace and mercy.

God in His mercy does not give us what we do deserve, and God in grace gives us what we do not deserve.

The Greek word translated “freely” is translated in John 15:25 as “without a cause.” We are justified without a cause! There is no cause in us that would merit the salvation of God! It is all of grace!

At great cost to God (vv. 24b–25). Salvation is free, but it is not cheap. Three words express the price God paid for our salvation: propitiation, redemption, and blood.

In human terms, “propitiation” means appeasing someone who is angry, usually by a gift. But this is not what it means in the Bible.

“Propitiation” means the satisfying of God’s holy Law, the meeting of its just demands, so that God can freely forgive those who come to Christ.

The word “blood” tells us what the price was. Jesus had to die on the cross in order to satisfy the Law and justify lost sinners.

The best illustration of this truth is the Jewish Day of Atonement described in Leviticus 16. Two goats were presented at the altar, and one of them was chosen for a sacrifice.

The goat was slain and its blood taken into the holy of holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat, that golden cover on the ark of the covenant.

This sprinkled blood covered the two tablets of the Law inside the ark. The shed blood met (temporarily) the righteous demands of the holy God.

The priest then put his hands on the head of the other goat and confessed the sins of the people.

Then the goat was taken out into the wilderness and set free to symbolize the carrying away of sins.

“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12).

In the Old Testament period, the blood of animals could never take away sin; it could only cover it until the time when Jesus would come and purchase a finished salvation.

God had “passed over” the sins that were past (Rom. 3:25, literal translation), knowing that His Son would come and finish the work.

Because of His death and resurrection, there would be “redemption”—a purchasing of the sinner and setting him free.

In perfect justice (vv. 25a–26). God must be perfectly consistent with Himself. He cannot break His own Law or violate His own nature. “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and “God is light” (1 John 1:5).

A God of love wants to forgive sinners, but a God of holiness must punish sin and uphold His righteous Law. How can God be both “just and the justifier”?

The answer is in Jesus Christ. When Jesus suffered the wrath of God on the cross for the sins of the world, He fully met the demands of God’s Law, and also fully expressed the love of God’s heart.

The animal sacrifices in the Old Testament never took away sin; but when Jesus died, He reached all the way back to Adam and took care of those sins.

No one (including Satan) could accuse God of being unjust or unfair because of His seeming passing over of sins in the Old Testament time.

To establish the Law (vv. 27–31). Because of his Jewish readers, Paul wanted to say more about the relationship of the Gospel to the Law.

The doctrine of justification by faith is not against the Law, because it establishes the Law. God obeyed His own Law in working out the plan of salvation.

Jesus in His life and death completely fulfilled the demands of the Law. God does not have two ways of salvation, one for the Jews and one for the Gentiles; for He is one God.

He is consistent with His own nature and His own Law. If salvation is through the Law, then men can boast; but the principle of faith makes it impossible for men to boast.

The swimmer, when he is saved from drowning, does not brag because he trusted the lifeguard. What else could he do?

When a believing sinner is justified by faith, he cannot boast of his faith, but he can boast in a wonderful Saviour.

When the devil attacks you and suggests to you that you are not a Christian and that you have never been a Christian because of what is still in your heart or because of what you are still doing or because of something you once did—when he comes and thus accuses you, what do you say to him?

Do you agree with him? Or do you say to him: “Yes, that was true, but now …”? Do you hold up these words against him? Or when, perhaps, you feel condemned as you read the Scripture, as you read the Law in the Old Testament, as you read the Sermon on the Mount, and as you feel that you are undone, do you remain lying on the ground in hopelessness, or do you lift up your head and say, “But now”?

This is the essence of the Christian position; this is how faith answers the accusations of the Law, the accusations of conscience and everything else that would condemn and depress us.

These are indeed very wonderful words, and it is most important that we should lay hold of them and realize their tremendous importance and their real significance.1

1 James Montgomery Boice, Romans: Justification by Faith, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991–), 346.