I preached this sermon around February 2001.
Proposition: The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel of Christ and received by grace through faith in the merits of Christ apart from the works of the law.
Introduction: Paul opens this epistle to the Romans by talking about Christ and His gospel in 1:1–17. And he ends with these words about the gospel in verses 16–17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” He then establishes the fact that all Gentiles are guilty before God and are under His wrath in verses 18–32. In Chapter 2:1 through 3:8 Paul moves to show the guilt of the Jews, declaring that God will judged both Jew as well as the Gentile. And then in Chapter 3:9–20 Paul gives his concluding remarks that all have sinned, both Jews and Gentiles alike. Let us read quickly these verses.
What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
And then in verses 21–31, Paul resumes the topic of discussion which he began back in chapter 1 on the righteousness of God as revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Back in 1:16–17 Paul makes a few brief statements that will be developed more fully in our passage. First, he says that the gospel is power to everyone that believeth, either Jew of Gentile. Second, he says that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God.
Ø I would like for us to consider today God’s act of justification, and as we do, there are at least four major themes in this passage that I want to call our attention to:
(1) Righteousness is a major theme in the book of Romans occurring some 34 times. Four times in this passage Paul refers to the righteousness of God (vv. 21, 22, 25, 26). What does Paul mean by using this phrase? Righteousness means conformity to a standard. And the standard which is referred to here is that perfect law of God based upon His righteous character.
(2) Four times as well Paul makes reference to God’s work of justification. Justification is the act of God whereby He declares a guilty sinner to be righteous and acquitted of his guilt.
(3) Faith is another major theme of the book of Romans occurring over 60 times. Nine times in this passage Paul make reference to faith.
(4) The person of Christ is another emphasis in this passage mentioned 4 times.
Before we start, I would like to read a definition of justification to help us all understand what it is that we are talking about when we refer to God justifying a sinner: “Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepeth us a righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.”
Let us consider together five things about justification from Romans 3:21–31.
I. The Need for Justification
A. Man’s failure necessitates justification.
Man’s failure is twofold.
1. Man has failed to obey the law. (Chapters 1–3; 3:23)
God has given us a law that we are to obey, but man has failed to obey God. The penalty of the broken law is death. And no man is able to keep it because of his sinful heart. Verse 23 tells us, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” And as Paul tells us later in 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.”
2. Man has failed to attain to the righteousness of God. (vv. 10, 23)
God requires a perfect righteousness in order to gain eternal life. Man, in spite of his best attempts will not and cannot meet it. If man is to reach the perfect standard of God’s righteousness, someone else must do it for him. Verse 10 says, “There is none righteous, no not one.” Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:20, “That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall certainly not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” In other words, you must be a righteous as Christ.
B. God’s righteousness coupled with His mercy necessitates justification. (v. 26)
Justification in the person of Jesus Christ is the only way in which God can be both just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. Because,
1. God is a God of justice, requiring punishment.
Exodus 37:4 “And that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”
2. God is a God of mercy, desiring pardon.
Psalm 103:8 “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.”
Micah 7:18 “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.”
II. The Cause of Justification
God justifies sinners because of His free grace. (v. 24)
This work of justification is completely a free and undeserved gift of God. Ephesians 2:8–9 tells us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” 2 Timothy 1:9 “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” Grace is the sole cause which leads God to justify a guilty sinner. The sinner has no merit to earn this justification. It is free and undeserved.
III. The Basis of Justification
God justifies sinners on the basis of the work of Christ. (vv. 22, 24, 25, 26)
Both of man’s problems are dealt with in the person of Christ: (1) his sin is forgiven and (2) righteousness is imputed. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
A. Forgiveness by his death (passive obedience). (v. 25)
Since our disobedience to God earned for us death, on the cross, Christ dealt with the problem of that broken law, taking away the penalty of our sin. This is what our text means when it calls Christ a propitiation. He is the means whereby God’s wrath is removed and our sins are taken away. Ephesians 1:7 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”
B. Righteousness by his life (active obedience).
By His life, Christ fulfilled perfected the law of God and the will of God, earning for us the necessary righteousness that we need to be acceptable before God. Romans 8:3 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Romans 5:19 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
IV. The Means of Justification
If God justifies sinners by grace on the basis of the work of Christ, how is it that one comes to part of such grace and be justified?
A. God justifies sinners through faith. (vv. 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30)
1. In Christ (vv. 22, 26)
2. As our redemption (v. 24)
3. As a propitiation (v. 25)
4. In his blood (v. 25)
5. Both Jew and Gentile alike (vv. 29–30)
B. God justifies sinners apart from the law. (vv. 20, 21, 28)
God makes is quite evident that no man can attain a righteous standing before God by keeping the law, because man is sinful, and a single offense against it is total failure. And neither does man’s obedience to the law help with his justification. It is not the work of Christ plus man’s work. Man’s work and obedience have no part in justification whatsoever. Notice what Paul says in verse 20, “Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight,” and in verse 21, “The righteousness of God is manifested apart from the law,” and in verse 28, “Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
V. The Results of Justification
A. God declared to be just. (vv. 25–26)
God is able to maintain the perfect balance between His just wrath against sin and his desire to show mercy and forgive sinners in the cross of Christ. In Christ God has devised the perfect way to show He is just while forgiving sinners. Both are displayed supremely in Christ. In the OT, when God looked over sins, it appeared as if he were letting the standard slip. His justice was being called into question.
B. Man declared to be innocent and righteous before God.
The man-ward aspect of justification is twofold: (1) man’s sins are forgiven and removed, having been imputed to Christ, and (2) Christ’s righteousness is imputed to the sinner, giving him perfect standing before God. And as a result of this free justification, there can be no boasting. Verse 27 says, “Where is boasting then? It is excluded.” As 1 Corinthians 1:31 says, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
Conclusion: The beauty of the gospel is that of the perfect union of the mercy and justice of God. These two perfections of God meet together perfectly in the person of Christ, so that God in no way compromises his divine justice, His wrath being fully poured out upon His Son, and He shows mercy to undeserving sinners, acquitting them and declaring them righteous on the basis of Christ’s perfect work of obedience to the law and death on the cross. Oh, the beauty of the gospel! What man could not do for himself, God has done in for him in Christ. God deals with us in terms of His Son, because He dealt with His Son in terms of us. Today, (1) if you are a believer, let yourself be humbled before the gracious God who justifies the ungodly and glory in His free grace shown to you in Christ, but (2) if you are outside of Christ, there is acceptance with God found in the person of His only Son. There is forgiveness of sins and a righteous standing before God for all who will turn and embrace the Christ in all His perfect person and work. Cling to Christ today and be saved!