But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it ...  Romans 3:21 

Romans 3:21–26 – Romans: The Righteousness of God
Third Sunday in Lent    – March 12, 2023 (am)

There are some passages of Scripture that are intimidating to preach due to the sheer magnitude of their implications and the grandeur of their themes.

Joh.3:16 probably tops the list—God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…—or really vv.1-21, Jesus’ whole dialogue with Nicodemus. There are several in this letter—Rom.8:28, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, or really all of vv.18-39 that finish with [nothing] in all creation will be able to separate us from [God’ love] in Christ Jesus our Lord. Then there’s 12:1 … present your bodies as a living sacrifice… to God…. These are such foundational passages expressing the gospel, such formative teachings directing the course of the Christian life, that the preacher can rarely come away from them feeling confident that he was enabled to unleash their meaning in all its fullness and power.

That said, if Joh.3:16 is not the top of the list, today’s text is the one most likely to replace it! This passage expresses the heart of the gospel—what it involves, how it works—I would say, as would many others, beyond any other text in the NT, which then would mean beyond any other text in the Bible. And if that’s true, that means this passage delivers the clearest brief statement on the gospel—what it is, how it works—that God has given to humankind!

So, we stand in awe of this text even as we roll up our sleeves, so to speak, and begin digging into it. And it’s my intention, as you can see, just to walk through it with you as the passage that communicates the gospel by which each of us has been saved, the gospel each of us longs to live and proclaim with authenticity and passion, the gospel we treasure and revere as the culmination of God’s eternal plan to reconcile rebel sinners to Himself! This is the heart of the good news! Let’s just walk through this passage together.

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—

Clearly Paul is turning a corner here with But. This is like those occurrences of but God (cf. Eph.2:4). But it’s not certain what he meant by now, But now. It could be that he’s just turning a logical corner: he’s been addressing the surety of our lostness, now he’s turning to address our salvation.

Or he could be making a temporal turn: a salvation historical statement. Up until now it’s been the old age of the first Adam, the law, death. But now we’ve entered into the new age of the last Adam, Christ Jesus, the Spirit, and life (cf. Nygren 16-26).

I actually think Paul is referring to both (cf. Barrett 72-73). He’s turning a big corner here, and doing it in more than one way! And we see evidence of that as this passage closes (26): both God’s righteousness and ours are in the crosshairs here—just and righteous come from the same root, and God is interested in confirming His righteousness even as He makes us righteous.

That’s because the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. Again, there are two parts to God’s righteousness here, much like with But now. This is the inherent righteousness of God’s very nature that’s now being extended to humankind, but not by the law, even though the Law and the Prophets [foretold] it.

22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

This righteousness is not through works (20) but through faith. We don’t do anything to earn it. We simply believe that Jesus has provided it for us. This is the righteousness of God made available to both Jews and [Gentiles] (9), for there is no distinction.

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

For all have sinned, Jews and [Gentiles] alike (9). They all fall short of God’s glory, that shining manifestation of His holiness and righteousness and justice that increasingly becomes ours through faith in Jesus Christ. 2Co.3:18 And we all…, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. … But Paul addresses it right here, too: 5:1 … since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God—transformation into it a bit at a time in this life, then receiving it in all His intended fulness in the next.

24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Even so, we’re still talking about those who’ve received the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ (22) despite the fact that they’ve sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (23). All of these folk are justified by his grace—made righteous before God, meeting His standard, restored to the hope of [His] glory. And they are justified by his grace as a gift! Justified means to be declared not guilty before God. Think about that: words, actions, thoughts, imagination—not guilty at all, before God’s perfect standard! The righteousness of Jesus Christ is a gift! We receive it by faith. His death on the cross purchases our freedom—redemption! 

25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

This is what it means when we read that God put Jesus forward as a propitiation by his blood. The wrath of God [that’s been] revealed against [our sin] (1:18) fell on Jesus for all who will receive this gift by faith. His blood shed for them appeases God’s wrath against their sins. And their sins are removed from [them] as far as the east is from the west (Psa.103:12). All of this is wrapped up in this word propitiation—the same Greek word used to translate the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant (Moo 2018 252)—and it’s all received through faith in Jesus Christ (22). Plus, it’s important to note that it was God who did all this! He put Christ forward in this way!

But now, here’s the truly mind-blowing part! God did this to show [His] righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. In other words, God could’ve been seen as unrighteous up until Jesus was put forward as a propitiation because it could’ve seemed like He’d overlooked the sins that hadn’t been handled according to the law. God “postponed” the full penalty due sins in the Old Covenant, allowing sinners to stand before him without their having provided an adequate “satisfaction” of the demands of his holy justice (Moo 2018 258-61). David is a prime example here; the law required death for adultery and murder!

26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Thus, favoring temporal logic in Paul’s But now (21), [all this] was to show [God’s] righteousness at the present time, when Jesus’ death finally provides a propitiation, once for all (Heb.7:27), for the sins of all who believe, past, present, and future. Until this time it just didn’t make sense how the law worked. It pronounced judgments, but the application of them seemed indiscernibly random. And that could reflect very poorly on the righteousness of God for anyone who called it into question!

But, not any longer! Because now a propitiation has been put forward absorbing God’s wrath and removing the sins of all who believe, first in the promise of the coming Christ, and now in its fulfillment in Jesus, Who met the full demand of the law through His personal obedience, and now for all who believe through the redemption He provided in His death.

So, in this single act of propitious redemption, where wrath and mercy meet—two manifestations of God’s righteousness that join to form a unit as stark in its contrasts as the two beams of the cross—God is proven to be perfectly just even while He justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

Conclusion

We hear the thrilling conclusion to this manifestation of the righteousness of God, but it’s better than we think! What He accomplishes here, through Jesus, is impossible! There’s no way to unscramble eggs. There’s no way to get toothpaste back in the tube. And there’s no way that a rebel sinner can be made perfectly righteous in order to be reconciled to a perfectly holy God! It just can’t be done!

But Jesus didn’t it! God accomplished the redemption He’d purposed from eternity past (cf. Eph.3:4) in a way that was not only inconceivable to the human mind before seeing Jesus actually do it, but in a way that still seems impossible even after we’ve seen Jesus do it! How does One whose essence requires existence, whose very nature defines life—how does such a One die? It’s impossible! But it happened!

This is the gospel—the truly good news!

 ______________

Resources

Arnold, Clinton E., gen. ed. 2002. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary. Vol. 3, Romans-Philemon. Romans, by Douglas J. Moo, 2-95. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Barnhouse, Donald Gray. 1952. Romans, four volumes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans

Beale, G. K., & D. A. Carson, eds. 2007. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Romans, by Mark A. Seifrid, 607-694. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Carson, D. A., R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. Romans, by Douglas J. Moo, 1115-1160. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.

Chadwick, Henry, gen. ed. 1957. Harper’s New Testament Commentaries. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, by C. K. Barrett. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.

Comfort, Philip W., gen. ed.  2007. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary. Romans, by Roger Mohrlang. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale.

Cranfield, C. E. B. 1990. Romans: A Shorter Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Dever, Mark. 2005. The Message of the New Testament. Ch. 6, The Message of Romans: Justification, 146-166. Wheaton: Crossway.

Dockery, David S, ed. 1995. New American Commentary. Vol. 27, Romans, by Robert H. Mounce. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.

Green, Joel B., ed. 2018. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. The Letter to the Romans, by Douglas J. Moo. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Hodge, Charles. 1989. The Geneva Series of Commentaries. Romans. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth.

Hubbard, David A., and Glenn W. Barker. 1988. Word Biblical Commentary. Vol. 38ab, Romans, by James D. G. Dunn. Dallas: Word.

Longman III, Tremper, & David E. Garland, eds. 2008. Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 11, Romans-Galatians. Romans, by Everett F. Harrison and Donald A. Hagner, 19-237. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Luther, Martin. 1976. Commentary on Romans. Translated by J. Theodore Mueller. Grand Rapids: Kregel.

Moo. Douglas J. 2000. The NIV Application Commentary. Romans. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Morris, Leon, ed. 1985. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Vol. 6, Romans, by F. F. Bruce. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.

Moule, H. C. G. 1977. Studies in Romans. Grand Rapids: Kregel.

Nygren, Anders. 1949. Commentary on Romans. Philadelphia: Fortress.

Owen, John, ed. Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, by John Calvin. Translated by John Owen.

Sproul, R. C. 2005. The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans. Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus.

Stott, John, NT ed. 1994. The Bible Speaks Today. The Message of Romans, by John Stott. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.

Yarbrough, Robert W., and Joshua W. Jipp, eds. 2018. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Romans, by Thomas R. Schreiner. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

NEXT SUNDAY: Apart from Works of the Law, Romans 3:27–4:12