A (0:00)

Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea, God's Word alone, our authority, every word, every step in the name of Christ. Back to the Bible for the way of life. Welcome to this period of Bible study. We are delighted to have this opportunity to share with you in a consideration of God's Word. And we hope that you find the time that you spend with us to be profitable, that you find it to be informative, but most of all that you find it to be glorifying to God. As we make our efforts to go back to the Bible today, we're going to jump into our study of the Book of Romans at about verse 21 of chapter three. I really think that this section of the Book of Romans will help us to shape our understanding of certainly the first part of the book, but perhaps the letter as a whole. And I hope that you see the case that we are making and that it makes sense as we work through the letter. If you have questions or comments or disagreements about our understanding of these verses or anything that we say or produce, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out to us at our website, backtothebiblepodcast.com that would be the easiest way to contact us. And we can try to address the questions, whether it's by answering them or responding to them, or clarifying our response, or perhaps making adjustments to what we have said and taught here on the program. So if you want to reach out to us, that's backtothebiblepodcast.com we come to Romans chapter three and verse 21. And Paul has just made the case that all are under sin. In verse 20 of chapter three, he said, because by works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight. He has made the case in chapter one that the Gentile world is in utter ruin because of their rejection of God. And then he comes through chapter two, and if we understand it, he is saying that there are those who perhaps have taken on the identity of Judaism, but they are living hypocritical lives. In fact, they have gone through the process, perhaps of circumcision and observing the law in some ways, but they have not let it change them from the inside out. And fundamentally they have missed that the promise about the blessing that would come through Abraham was for all nations, not just those who were Jewish and not just those who had been converted to Judaism. Out of the nations and then we come to chapter three, where Paul goes through and shows that even under the law, the Jewish nation found itself under condemnation, not because it was inaccessible, not because it wasn't for their good, not because it was never intended to strike them to the heart, but because Israel, having heard it, failed to maintain their faithfulness. And as a result, the law became a spotlight on their sin. And perhaps that's even the primary purpose that it served as a result of their rejection of it. And then we come to verse 21. If you'll read with me. There he says, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith for a demonstration of his righteousness. Because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith and in Jesus. First, I want to note what he says about the timing here, the chronology, but now, apart from the law, also in verse 26, where he says, at the present time, but now here marks a significant transition in the letter. What he's saying here is under the law no flesh could be justified. There would be no one who could be right by works of the law. However, now apart from the law, God's righteousness has been revealed or manifested. What do you mean, we might ask Paul, that no flesh was justified under the law? What do you mean? That no one is righteous under the law? Didn't the law already recognize people as in need of forgiveness? Didn't it provide ways for providing that forgiveness? Didn't it grant that? And don't we see people like Zacharias and Elizabeth who were in some sense righteous under the law? Yes, we do. But now, in view of Christ, to go back under the law would mean no justification, and certainly not for this Gentile figure to whom Paul is writing. The Gospel, Paul says, reveals God's righteousness, reveals God's faithfulness to his promise, which the Old Testament pointed to, because in the Old Testament, God makes promises. God consistently fulfills those promises and even makes and fulfills promises that are leading to and are previews of his greatest fulfillment of his promise, which is his righteousness being displayed. In the Gospel about Jesus the King, the Gospel shows us the faithful Jesus, which reveals to us the righteous God and seeing his faithfulness to his promise, whether they are Jew or Gentile, God has justified them. Now, I think that this should be set as a parallel to chapter one, verses 16 and 17. I think that we could say 116 and 17, or 3 21, 26 is the theme of certainly the first half of the letter to Romans and perhaps the whole book. But in chapter one, in verse 16, he says, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith. Now we come to Romans 3:21, and he says that the righteousness of God has been manifested. It's been made known, it has been revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Now, how has it been that God's righteousness is now manifested or revealed? It's revealed in the faith of Jesus Christ. Now, lots of translations will render that faith in Jesus Christ. I take it to be that the King James gets it right here where they say, for the faith of Jesus Christ, or through the faith of Jesus Christ. The phrase there really can be translated both ways. It's pistis Christu is the Greek translation there. That's about all I know as far as the Greek goes. But good, good Bible students say it can be translated both ways. I lean towards the idea that it is the faithfulness of Jesus for a couple of reasons. The first one is that's the way this phrase faith of is used in the book of Romans. Dropping back to chapter three and verse three, it says, what then? If some did not believe, that does their unbelief abolish the faithfulness of God? It's almost exactly the same phrase, except instead of saying Christ, it says God. And when we talk about the faithfulness of God, we're not talking about God's belief in himself or even our belief in Him. We're talking about his commitment to his will, commitment to his promises. When we talk about the faith of Jesus or the faith of Christ in verse 22 of chapter 3, I don't think we're talking about Jesus, the people who believe in him there. I think we're talking about his commitment, his devotion to the will of God. I think we see the same thing over in chapter 4, particularly in verse 12 in reference to Abraham, where he says that the faith of our Father Abraham, which he had while uncircumcised the faith of our Father Abraham is not a reference to our belief in him or even our faithfulness to him, but the idea of his faithfulness that's been demonstrated. The same is true down in verse 16, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. I think the idea in both of those passages is that Abraham's faithfulness is under consideration, not our belief in or even allegiance to Abraham. The second thing is not. Notice what Paul says here in verse 22. Even the righteousness of God through faith, I'm going to say of Jesus Christ for all those who believe. If he's saying faith in Jesus, that is the idea that we believe in Jesus. He's saying that it's faith in Jesus for those who have faith in Jesus. You see how that would be redundant. And I think he's going further here. He's talking about the faithfulness of Jesus for all those who are faithful. I think that makes more sense and limits the redundancy here that what happens is that Jesus demonstrates God's righteousness, his commitment to his promises, his covenant fidelity. He demonstrates that by his faithfulness to God. And we can be faithful to him. We can come and share in that faithfulness. We come to participate in it. And we have access to God who has demonstrated his righteousness by faith of Jesus, by Jesus faith. Now, every person was guilty of sin, verse 23. But we can be declared innocent. We can be brought into covenant relationship with God. We can be reconciled to God. We can be free, freed from our sin. I think that's the idea of being justified. We are brought into relationship, covenant relationship with God by His grace. This is a gift that is given to us. We can be freed from our sin. That's the idea of redemption. That redemption is available in Jesus Christ. And that is possible because God displayed him publicly as a propitiation. That word there is sometimes thought to mean like the atoning sacrifice. And it's used even in the Old Testament Greek translation to render the idea of the mercy seat. This is the place where we can meet God's mercy through the blood covering of Jesus death. Jesus death was offered in obedient faithfulness to God. Propitiation is the word used for the mercy seat. You can see that throughout the Greek Old Testament. But you can also see it in the book of Hebrews, over in chapter nine and verse five. The Hebrew writer says there that above it, that is above the ark of the covenant of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. That's the same idea there of These things we cannot speak in detail. So think about what the mercy seat was, the place where the blood was sprinkled during the day of atonement, and that blood here. And that place, that mercy seat, this place of meeting is being used as the term to describe Jesus sacrifice. Of course, this exceeds that in so many ways, but perhaps that's a helpful image or picture for us to have in our mind. Now let me say this, that God demonstrates his righteousness in what Jesus does, in his faithfulness. So let me say a couple of things about that. First of all, it is not as if God's righteousness now being displayed means that God's righteousness had never been displayed before. In fact, God's law and the prophets and continually testified to God's righteousness and faithfulness. I don't think Paul's point here is that God has not ever been shown righteous, but now he has. That's not the case at all. The law and the prophets continually pointed to God's righteousness. They testified, they witnessed to it and I think pointed to the way in which his righteousness would be fully displayed in Jesus. And another thing here is that what we have in Jesus is this great demonstration of faithfulness even to the cross. You see that there in verse 25, that he is being publicly displayed as a propitiation in his blood through faith or through faithfulness. I think a great parallel passage for us to think about what Jesus is doing here is over in the book of Philippians and chapter two, where Paul calls the Philippians there to share in this idea of caring for others more than we care for ourselves, looking out for their interests. And he says that Jesus, existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or held onto, but emptied himself. He poured out himself by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men, by being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, so that God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So God's righteousness is demonstrated in the faithful obedience of of Jesus. But let me take that also a step further and say that the idea that we would come to faith in Jesus is not just the idea that we would believe in him, but that we would be faithful to him in the same way that he was faithful to God. Now we're not perfect like Jesus was. We have not been fully faithful. But we are called to participate in in his death and in his resurrection. We're certainly going to see that in Romans chapter 6, that as many of us have been baptized into Christ, have been baptized into his death so that we would be raised up to walk in newness of life. Jesus doesn't die instead of us, he dies ahead of us. That is, we can't die in the same way Jesus did. Only he could be the satisfactory sacrifice. But he calls us to share in that, to participate in that. In Romans 6, in our baptism we die and we are raised. I think in Philippians chapter two he calls us to not have our own interest, but to set our interest on others concerns. And we are to have that mind in us as was also in Christ Jesus. Now Jesus being faithful and God using that as the means by which we can be justified. The word justified is the idea of being made righteous, that we can be redeemed, we can receive the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Those ideas demonstrate God's righteousness, God's faithfulness. That is, I think the great question is how can a God who is righteous look at me knowing I'm not righteous and call me righteous and remain right himself? I just want you to think about an illustration and perhaps it's not a perfect correlation, but I want you to think about a judge in your town or county. And let's say this criminal stands before him and is obviously guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt. And the judge, seeing that the criminal is guilty, says, you're forgiven, go on about your business. What would you think about the judge? Would you celebrate him as kind and merciful? I don't know. I think the concern would be that he is unjust, that he is unwilling to do what is right. So then here I stand before God's throne and I'm not right. And yet God looks at me and in Christ calls me right even though I'm not right. How does he remain right in doing that? It is in the propitiation in Jesus blood through faith that God demonstrates his righteousness. The text there in verse 25 says, because he, in the forbearance of God passed over the sins previously committed. I think that that could be pointing to the overlooking period of the Gentiles. I think it could be to the idea of the forgiveness of sins under the law with regards to animal sacrifices. But God shows that he was righteous, that he was faithful, that he was Right in doing that, so that at the present time he could demonstrate that in the blood of Jesus. So that God, the end of verse 26 says could be just and the justifier, he could be righteous. And the righteous Maker of the one who has given his faithfulness to Jesus, of the one who has faith in Jesus. I want to flip over to a couple of Old Testament passages that I do think are pointing precisely to what we're talking about now. Over in the Book of Psalms, Psalm 143:1 he says, David expresses this. O Yahweh, O Lord, hear my prayer. Give ear to my supplications. Answer me in your faithfulness, in your righteousness. Okay, Notice what he says in verse 2. And do not enter into judgment with your slave. For no one living is righteous in your sight. For the enemy has pursued my soul. He has crushed my life to the ground. He has made me inhabit dark places like those who have long been dead. And so he says, Verse 7. Don't hide your face from me. Verse 9. Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord. I have concealed myself in you. Verse 10. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on level ground. For the sake of your name, O Lord, revive me in your righteousness, bring my soul out of distress and in your loving kindness cut off my enemies and cause all those who assail my soul to perish, for I am your slave. Here David is crying out that God would demonstrate his faithfulness, that he would demonstrate his work, righteousness by delivering him from evil. I think perhaps even a clearer picture pointing forward to what we read here in Romans. Chapter three is from the book of Isaiah, chapter 53. And I know that this is a familiar prophecy to us. Isaiah 53 talks about the lamb that is being led to the slaughter bearing the sins of the people. And in Isaiah 53, looking at verse 10. But the Lord but Yahweh was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If you would place his soul as a guilt offering, he will see his seed. He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied by his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear the iniquities, their iniquities. Therefore I will divide for him a portion with the many, and he will divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. I think that Isaiah is giving us a preview of the gospel in that he is saying that that my servant Jesus is going to make them righteous. He is going to justify them. He is going to bear their iniquities in his faithfulness, because he will, even seeing the anguish of his soul, he will be satisfied. He will pour out his soul to death. He will be numbered with the transgressors, but he is going to bear their sin because he is interceding for them. I think that is verses 10 through 12 of Isaiah 53 is pointing forward and almost being recapitulated here in Romans 3:21 and following now to summarize 3:21, Paul is saying now at the present time, God's faithfulness to his promises has been made known. The law and the prophets had always pointed to it. But the thing to which they were pointing, the faithfulness of Jesus has been displayed. The gift has come. Justification by his grace and redemption is available for all who believe, all of those who have faith in Jesus, all who are characterized by faithfulness to Him. This is available despite the fact that all had sinned and were in need of his grace. This is available regardless of ethnic background. This is possible because. Because of God's faithfulness to his promises in sending Jesus as a propitiation in his blood, that is, by providing Jesus as the place where God's mercy could be accessed because of his sacrifice. For generations God had overlooked or passed over sins that had been committed. But God demonstrates Himself as righteous even as he declares the unrighteous righteous because of his righteousness that is displayed in Christ available to those who give their allegiance to Jesus. Now we come to verse 27, and I think that the conversation partner is going to respond with a question there. In Romans chapter three, beginning at verse 27, he says, where then is boasting? It is excluded by what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law? Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles also? Since indeed God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that faith is is one, do we then abolish the law through faith? On the contrary, may it never be. We establish the law. So we come back to this conversation partner where he asks, what's the benefit? What is the Value. What's the beauty? Where is there room for boasting in me observing the Torah? Now I want you to remember that, that this is a conversation partner that is asking a question that Paul is putting into his mouth. That is, he is presenting this question as an opportunity to address something in particular. In this case, it's going to be the way in which there is no room for boasting in order to demonstrate the ways in which we can boast, which we'll look at especially in chapter five when he says, where is the boasting? Where's the glory? Where's the beauty of There isn't any. Paul replies, the conversation partner is a Gentile. He doesn't need to be submitting to the law, the Torah. The conversation partner reacts, well, what kind of understanding of the law is this? One that includes works. How's there no room to boast? Now I want you to remember that this man has been looking for room to boast over in Romans, chapter 2, verse 17. But if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the law and boast in God, he thought he had room to boast. What kind of view of the law is this where you don't have any room to boast? Paul says, no, we come to peace with God by a law, by a Torah of faith, so that we are justified, brought into the people of God and declared in right standing with him by faithfulness, not by works of the law like circumcision and Sabbath keeping. I think he's saying we look to the Torah. You and I would look to the law, not for things to submit to as Gentiles, but as a testimony to God's righteousness that was revealed apart from it in the faithfulness of Jesus. The Torah of faith is the understanding of the Torah as it points to Jesus and is fulfilled as people give their allegiance to Him. I want you to note that Paul is not a anti the Torah. He is not anti law of Moses. Rather he is anti reading it with a view toward a certain particular observances defining the people of God. He wanted people to read it rightly as pointing to God's faithfulness ultimately to Jesus. Of course, rightly reading it Jew or Gentile would leave no room for boasting. And so Paul emphasizes that the same God is God of the Jews and Gentiles, and he will bring into right standing, circumcised and uncircumcised through their faithfulness to Christ. Now, if God was only the God of the Jews, then the Gentiles would need circumcision and such. But God is not the God of the Jews only He is the God of the nations as well. So Paul is pointing to something more. There is something more to the way one would be justified. He will demonstrate in chapter four that circumcision or not, circumcision or law of Moses or not law of Moses are not the concern regarding salvation. Nor is it what connects one to Abraham and certainly not what connects one to the Lord. Rather, what he will show is it is about faithfulness in view of God's promises and in view of his faithfulness. Now the conversation partner asks again, are we making the idea of the Torah nothing by our faithfulness? He's saying no. What we are doing is we are exalting it, we are establishing it. We are helping people see the law the way they were always supposed to see it. And so Paul is not saying he's abolishing the law. He is not interested in denigrating it or minimizing it. Rather he is cherishing it, establishing it to show what it had always been intended to do and what it had always been pointing to. Until next time, we bid you a pleasant good day. Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea. God's word alone, our authority, every word, every step in the name of Christ Back to the Bible for the way of life.