Justification through faith
Romans 3:21-31
Key verse: 3:24
Good morning. Thank God for the Easter spring conference last week. Thank Jesus who died for our sins and rose from the dead to give us a victory. Today, we are going to back Romans 3. Two weeks ago, we learned that no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law. In fact, the more people try to obey the law, the more they realize how much they fail in observing the law. The law convicts us of our sins. It seems there is no hope for human beings. All are under the power of sin. All are under the wrath of God. It sounds no one is able to be saved. However, God does not take any pleasure in the death of anyone (Ezekiel 18:32). He does not want anyone to perish. God might have a headache to solve this dilemma. So while he maintains his justice and holiness, he has to find something to save sinners. That is his righteousness through Jesus Christ. Through the blood of Jesus, he opened a new way for all men to be righteous and justified before God. Through this passage, let us learn about what God did for us through his son Jesus.
- God’s righteousness
Read verse 21. “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify”, here, “but now” refers conclusion of Romans ch 1, 2, 3. The conclusion of those three chapters is that no one is righteous not even one. Jews and Gentile are under the power of sin. All of them are under the wrath of God. But that is not the end. There is a turning point in human history: apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the prophets testify. This means God’s righteousness was not born just overnight. But, in the OT, it has been mentioned over thousands of years. Jesus says “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,” (John 5:39). Where do the Law and the prophets testify about the righteousness of God? Here the Law, when you see, it is uppercase L. This means not just the law of Moses but also Moses’ 5 books (from Genesis to Deuteronomy). In Genesis 3, when Adam sinned against God, God punished Adam. But at that time, he promised to send the Messiah. It says And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring[a] and hers; he will crush[b] your head, and you will strike his heel.” From this moment, God already planned to reveal his righteousness. Genesis 15, Abraham was afraid of his uncertain future. Then, God spoke to him about his offspring and land. Even though the situations was the same as before, Abraham believed God’s words. Then, it was credited to him as righteousness. Also in the law of Moses, Moses said “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him”. (Due 18:15). Also Romans 1:17 says the righteous will live by faith. This came from the Prophet Habakkuk. He testified about the righteousness through faith not through the law.
Then, to whom is the righteousness of God given? Let us read verse 22. “ This righteousness is given through faith inJesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,” The law was given only to the Jews. But God’s righteousness is given to all who believe Jesus Christ. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile. There is no difference between straight A’s student and C,D,C,D student. There is no difference between graduate student and undergraduate student. If any person believes Jesus by faith, they will receive God’s righteousness as a gift of God. In the NT, when Jesus was on the cross, one of robbers asked him, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”(Luke 23:42). The, Jesus said to him, “today, you will be with me in paradise”. He was a robber. He was a dangerous guy in society. Yet, when he believed Jesus by faith, even he was forgiven and welcomed to enter the kingdom of God.
Look at verse 23. In the past, the law was given only to Jews. But this time, the righteousness of God is given to all people. Why? Can we read verse 23? “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” From God’s eyes, either Jews or Gentiles, all people have sinned against God. Especially all people fall short of the glory of God. God created man in his glory. He blessed man to rule over and subdue all creations. He planned to receive his glory through man. However, since Adam sinned, man lost their own glory and they lost a chance to reveal the glory of God through their lives. So everyone needs the righteousness of God. when they become righteous in God’s sight, people can live a life of glorying God once again.
Then, how can people be justified (righteous) in God’s sight? Can we read verse 24? “and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Here justified is a legal term that at court, a judge says “you are not guilty. You are innocent”. Based on this verse 24, by God’s grace, we are justified freely through the redemption of Christ Jesus. What is redemption? The redemption is a word used in slave market originally. Let’s say you owe some money to someone. You do not have money to pay for it. Then, you are sold as a slave. How can you get out of your slavery life? Only when someone comes and pays for the price, then you can be free. Verse 24 says Jesus became our redemption. Bible also says we are under the power of sin, it means we are a slave to sin. But Jesus had mercy upon us. He had compassionate heart upon our sin slavery life. Bible says the wages of sin is death, so he paid for not just some money but he gave his own life as payment for us. Because of his sacrifice, our justification comes freely by the grace of God. Now, if anyone believes Jesus who paid for our sins on the cross, they are justified freely. God says “Joshua, you are not guilty. You are free”. In the NT, Pilate tried to save Jesus between Jesus and Barabbas. Barabbas was waiting for his execution day as a murderer. But as Jesus was crucified, he was freely released from the death penalty. What did he do for his salvation? He did not do anything. Yet because Jesus died in place of him, he was released freely. It was by God’s grace. Praise God for Jesus who redeemed us from the power of sin.
Look at verse 25. Can we read verses 25? “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.” God presented Jesus as sacrifice of atonement. In verse 24, redemption is related to payments of our sins, here atonement is related to reconciliation with God. When people sin against God, they become a slave to sin and they become unclean before God. They are separate from God. In the OT, when people sinned against God, how were they able to come to God? They presented their lamb as a sacrifice of atonement for their sins. They brought the lamb before God, laid their hands upon the head of the lamb, and confessed their sins. They believed at that moment, their sins were transmitted from them to the animal. When they killed the animal and sprinkled the blood, God considered the death of the animal as the death of the man. He accepted the blood of the animal as the blood of the man. Then, they became clean and were able to stand before God once again. In the same way, now God presented his son Jesus as the sacrifice of atonement. He transmitted sins of people on Jesus. Bearing all sins of people, Jesus suffered and died on the cross. He shed his blood. Now when we believe Jesus who died for my sins, God considers Jesus’ death as our own death, his blood as our own blood. So by faith, in God’s sight, we are justified.
Verse 26 repeats how God justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Can we read verse 26? “he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” Once again,when can we be righteous in God’s sight? When we have faith in Jesus, God proclaims “Joshua, you are justified”.
There is a hymn song “Alias, and Did my Savior bleed?” by Isaac Watts. He was a PK (pastor’s kid). When he was in 10s, his life was like a rollercoaster. His father was imprisoned twice. He suffered the burdens of his sin in heart. Especially, as a pastor’s kid, he had heard about the Bible story thousands of times and tried to live a nice Christian. Furthermore, he was not sure about his salvation. But while he was reading the Bible, he found how Jesus, a Savior, shed his blood on the cross for his sins. Also he experienced when he believed Jesus by faith, he was justified in God’s sight. In his song, he said “at the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day”.
- No boasting
So far, we learned that God’s righteous has nothing to do with the law. We are justified only by faith in Jesus Christ. So Paul said there is no boasting about God’s justification. Let us read verse 27. “Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith..” The law does not bring God’s salvation. It brings only God’s wrath. So the law shows how much man needs faith in Jesus to be justified.
Look at verse 28. Can we read it? “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law“. Paul emphasizes once again a person is only justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Some people might question, “is it really true we can be justified in God’s sight when we believe Jesus? Do not we need to do something extra to be forgiven? That was Jewish circumcision Christian group who insisted Gentile believes to demand circumcision to be God’s people. The same thing is happening today too. Catholics teach we need to do good deeds to be saved. Muslims teach people to pray five times to go to heaven. Other religion teach similar things. But as we see verse 28, God requires only one thing: believe Jesus by faith, then we will be justified before him. This sounds too simple. Yes, it is simple because God knows that no matter how we try to obey the law, we cannot meet his standard. That is why Jesus paid the price of our sins on the cross and shed his blood to reconcile our relationship with God once again. Because of him, when we simply put our faith in him, the justification is given to all people: Jews and Gentiles.
Then, another question comes up. It seems that the law is not necessary any more. Can we read verse 31? “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” Paul says we uphold the law. Bible does not say that the law is not necessary any more. Jesus also said he did not come to abolish the law but fulfilled the law. The law itself is good. It is still necessary. We are going to learn about it later in ch 6 and 7.
In conclusion, through Jesus, God opened a new way of salvation. If anyone believes Jesus by faith, they are justified by the grace of God. This righteousness is given to everyone. But if we are arrogant spiritually, if we think we can still do something other than Jesus, we reject God’s gift. So let us be humble and believe Jesus who shed his blood for our sin that we may be justified before God.