What is the most important question a person could ask? I believe the most important question any person could ask is posed for us in Job 9:2. In this verse Job asks the simple, yet profound question: “How can a man be righteous before God?” This is the question of the ages. How to be right in God’s sight has been the age-old problem of man. Yet, ultimately, the solution to this problem is man’s greatest need.

Fortunately, our need is dealt with in Romans 3:21-26. But more importantly, in this passage God’s righteousness is powerfully revealed. This is the most critical section in Romans. Not only is it the heart of Romans, it’s the greatest paragraph in the entire Bible. Therefore, if we fail to understand this passage accurately, we’ll be unable to grasp the central message of the Scriptures. For it’s here that we see what we are, what God is, and what God has done for us.

We’ve spent five Sundays working through a section titled “Sin” or “Condemnation” that spanned 1:18-3:20. In this 64-verse section, Paul constructed a case that every creature that has ever lived, or will ever live, is leveled under the weight of sin. The inescapable conclusion is that we’re not only guilty; we’re helpless and hopeless. This is the bad news. A great chasm lies between Romans 3:20 and 3:21. It’s a deep canyon, a wide gap separating man’s condition and God’s character. Man is a sinner and God is holy. How can we bridge the gap? How can we go from one side to the other? We can’t. But this is where the good news begins. In these six verses, we’ll learn three ways in which God’s righteousness bridges the gap.

1. God’s Righteousness is Revealed in His Word (3:21). In 3:21, Paul writes, “But now.” These two words, made up of three letters each, serve as the hinge pin for the fate of humanity. These two words signify that a “righteousness of God” has inaugurated a new age in world history. Unlike the first revelation of “the righteousness of God” that condemns us, this revelation frees us! Paul writes, “apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested.” Whatever this new age has inaugurated is “apart from the Law.” In the plan and purposes of God, salvation has always been “apart from the Law.” Yet man hasn’t always understood this. However, as a result of Jesus Christ exiting eternity and entering time, there can no longer be any question. Truly, “the righteousness of God has been manifested.”

This righteousness has been “manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.” This phrase declares that God’s righteousness has been “manifested” through His Word. The root word “manifested” is used back in 1:19-20 where Paul writes that God has made Himself “evident” to man through His creation. Now Paul states that God has revealed Himself through His Word. The phrase “the Law and the Prophets” is a summary term for the entire Old Testament. “The Law” referred to the first five books of Moses and “the Prophets” to everything else.

The primary purpose of the entire Old Testament was to point to “the righteousness of God” that would one day be fully manifested in Christ. Paul’s point is that the revelation of “the righteousness of God” isn’t some new phenomenon. Only in the death of Christ is there anything new or unique. God’s righteousness has always been revealed in His Word. Therefore, if you want to know who God is and what He’s like, you must know His Word. I cannot emphasize this enough. Many people have developed erroneous views of God based upon faulty thoughts or emotions. Often, I will hear: “Well, I think God is” or “God would never.” Whenever I hear someone say anything like this, I cringe. Why? Because God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (and vice versa). So when it comes to the knowledge of God and how we can be right with Him, the Bible refers us to the witness of the Old Testament Scriptures. This is a wonderful time to ask you about your Bible study habits.

Do you call yourself a “New Testament Christian” and avoid the Old Testament at any expense? If so, you’re missing out on God’s full revelation. Why not balance your diet of Bible reading with healthy portions of the Old Testament? My personal commitment is to alternate between the New Testament and Old Testament. This ensures that I’m always keeping the whole counsel of God’s Word before me. This also helps me to be an accurate Bible interpreter. After all, the only way to truly understand the New Testament is by knowing the Old Testament.

[Not only is God's righteousness revealed in His Word, in 3:22-24, we'll also see that. . .]

2. God’s Righteousness is Revealed in His Salvation (3:22-24). In 3:22, Paul writes that “the righteousness of God” is revealed “through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.” Verse 22 literally reads “through the faith of Jesus Christ” and should be translated “through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.” This indicates Jesus’ faithfulness in His life and death is in view, and God’s righteousness has been made known through Christ’s obedience and is available to all who believe.

The condition to experience God’s righteousness is to “believe.” There are almost 200 verses that use the word “believe” or its synonym “faith” as the sole condition of salvation. The condition is faith and the object is Christ. Robert Chesebrough believed in his product. He’s the man who invented Vaseline. He so believed in his own product that he became his own guinea pig. He burned himself with acid and flame; he cut himself and scratched himself so often and so deeply that he bore the scars from his tests for the rest of his life. But he proved his product worked. People only had to look at his wounds, now healed, to see the value of his work and the extent of his belief. The Gospel is looking at God’s Son and the price He paid for our sins and believing His work alone can take us to heaven.

It is essential we believe in Christ because Paul states in 3:22b that “there is no distinction.” This verse clearly condemns mankind—”there is no distinction.” If you were high above the earth and saw one man standing on a mountaintop and another standing in a valley, they’d look to you as if they were standing side-by-side. You would be so high that the small matter of a mountain would be irrelevant. God is so high that all men stand on level ground. In 3:23, the word “for” gives the reason for Paul’s insistence that there’s no distinction: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The tenses in the two verbs are important. The first “all have sinned” is a picture of mankind’s sinful characteristics that have tainted his past. To “fall short” speaks of continually lacking the glory of God. The biblical concept of sin is any failure to glorify God. It’s missing what God wants in our lives. The linking of man’s sin with God’s glory is intriguing. It would seem that God intended people to share in His glory. The phrase “glory of God” seems to be a reference to what God intended man to be: the glory that man had before the fall.

We must ask once again, why does Paul spend so much time on the subject of sin? The answer: because it’s a subject we avoid. Yet salvation is salvation from sin, before it is anything else. We have to see the seriousness of sin if we are to see the greatness of salvation. If we fail to focus on mankind’s sin we will never truly appreciate God’s salvation. Paul now returns to more good news. Here lies Paul’s greatest contribution to the Bible and the pinnacle of the Scriptures.

Paul writes in 3:24 that those who have believed (3:22) are “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” This is such an important verse that we must tear it apart word by word. First, let’s consider the word “justified.” Justification is the doctrine for which Romans is most famous—and rightly so. Paul uses some form of the verb “justify” 15 times in Romans. Justification takes us to the courtroom. It’s a legal term that means, “to declare righteous.” It means to be made right, clear, or acquitted in God’s court.

In our context, God declares the believing sinner righteous on the single condition of faith in His Son. Notice the verb “justified” is passive. It says, “being justified,” not “justifying.” God is the actor; we’re the ones being acted upon. Notice also, Paul uses the past tense “justified.” Justification takes place instantaneously in the courts of heaven. The moment we believe in Jesus Christ, we are on the other side of judgment day! God has declared us “not guilty.” The Judge of the entire universe tells me that I am acquitted. I can go free. Now, if God were to judge us according to our own righteousness, He would have to declare us unrighteous and wicked. But when we believe in Jesus Christ, then God declares us to be righteous on the basis of the work of Christ.

It may help if we further expose what justification is not. First, justification is not forgiveness. It’s more than forgiveness. While forgiveness is a part of it, it’s not all of it. A child may throw a rock through a window and admitting wrong be forgiven, but he’s still guilty. Justification removes the guilt. Second, justification is not a pardon. It’s more than a pardon. A pardon covers sins of the past. No judge has ever issued a pardon for future crimes. Justification deals with the sins of the past, present, and the future. Third, justification is not a return to innocence. It’s not “just as if I’d never sinned.” It’s a state of righteousness, not innocence. The fact that we have sinned and continue to fall short is the basis for greatness of what God has done in justification.

Paul goes on to write that we’re justified “as a gift.” This is one of the most astonishing truths in the entire Bible. Justification is a free gift! The word translated “gift” can also be translated “freely” or “for nothing.” In John 15:25, this same word is used where it’s said that Jesus was hated “without a cause.” There was nothing in Jesus that deserved hatred and there’s nothing in us that deserves salvation. The idea of “freely,” reaches back to Paul’s comment in 3:21 about the righteousness of God being revealed, apart from the Law. We cannot do, nor are we required to do—in fact, we are forbidden to do—good works in the hope of earning salvation.

Paul also states that our salvation is solely “by His grace.” Paul uses the word “grace” in his epistles 95 times (24 times in Romans). “Grace” is the free and unmerited favor of God. God’s grace, though free to the sinner, cannot be made “cheap grace” because it cost God the tremendous price of the death of His own Son.

Paul continues his thought by further explaining that this gift came “through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Redemption takes us to the slave market. The word “redemption” pictures “the release of a slave by the paying of a price.” Redemption refers to the price that was paid and the debt that was canceled, due to Christ’s sacrificial death.

[God's righteousness has been revealed in His Word and in His Salvation, but now we'll see…]

3. God’s Righteousness is Revealed in His Justice (3:25-26). In 3:25, Paul explains, “God displayed [Jesus] publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.” The word “propitiation” takes us to the temple. The word “propitiation” refers to the satisfaction of God’s righteous anger, so that He can now deal with men graciously. The word may carry the sense of “place of satisfaction,” having reference to the place where God’s wrath toward sin is satisfied. This noun is used only one other time in the New Testament: Hebrews 9:5, where it is rendered “mercy seat.” There it describes the altar in the Holy of Holies where the blood was sprinkled in the Old Testament ritual on the Day of Atonement. This word is also used in the Greek Old Testament for “mercy seat” which covered the ark in the Holy of Holies. In this sense our sins have been covered or blotted out by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. But propitiation also conveys the idea of appeasing. God’s wrath has been legitimately aroused by man’s sin.

This wrath has been appeased by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. God’s holy anger has been satisfied in the work of Christ. Thus, Paul could be saying that God displayed Jesus as the “mercy seat,” the place where propitiation was accomplished. But, in this context, the place seems to be used figuratively for the action accomplished there and of the One who embodied that action.

A recent Reader’s Digest article told of a 67-year-old man named Bill who had donated over 100 pints of blood over the years. No doubt many people owe their lives to this man’s kindness. How do you think this man’s good deeds go over in heaven? Here’s what Bill thinks: “When that final whistle blows, and St. Peter asks, ‘What did you do?’ I’ll just say, ‘Well, I gave 100 pints of blood. That ought to get me in.’” Bill was probably joking. But if he was serious, if he truly believes that his good deeds will give him a ticket to heaven, he has perfectly articulated the gospel of works. If Bill is counting on the giving of 100 pints of blood to get him to heaven—he’s trusting in the wrong blood.

It’s important that we recognize the first purpose of the cross in Romans isn’t God’s love; it’s His righteousness. The theme of the book of Romans revolves around God’s righteousness. God’s “righteousness” also stands at the heart of this great text. It’s mentioned four times, while two of its root words, “justify” and “just” are also mentioned three times. The righteousness of God is the starting point of salvation. It provides release from: (1) The fear of death. People who aren’t afraid of death are either Christians or those who refuse to think about it. The worst that can ever happen will never happen and the best that could ever be is certain! (2) The guilt of sin. The blood of Jesus Christ is the only thing that will set you free from a guilty conscience. In 3:25, Paul also mentions “in His forbearance, God passed over the sins previously committed.” Although the death of Christ for the sins of mankind was planned in eternity past and prophesied in the Old Testament, it didn’t become an earthly reality until almost 2,000 years ago. Therefore, Old Testament believers were forgiven on account of what was about to happen but hadn’t happened yet.

Verse 26 tells us that God did this “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” As we continue to consider this revelation of God’s righteousness, it’s interesting to note what’s emphasized and what’s not. Now that salvation is in view, one would expect that God the Son would be the most prominent Person of the Godhead. Such isn’t the case. God the Father is referred to in our text approximately twice as often as God the Son. Paul is emphasizing the demonstration of God’s righteousness, through the Father’s provision of His righteousness for men, in His Son. The cross of Calvary is indirectly alluded to in our text but never specifically mentioned. Neither is the resurrection of our Lord referred to in this passage. Clearly, Paul’s “demonstration” (lit. “proof”) is in reference to the righteousness of God the Father.

The words “just” and “justifier” are both renderings of the root term for righteous. God has revealed His justice through the cross. We deserved death—that would have been justice. But instead of getting what we deserve, we were not given what we deserve. That is mercy. But God has gone one step further as we saw in 3:24. He’s given us grace, which is receiving what we don’t deserve. This is the Gospel! God has acted with justice by slaying His Son but He’s also acted as the Justifier by allowing us to be set free from our sin by trusting in Jesus.

But how can all this heavy-duty theology be fleshed out in our lives? Let’s review this passage and consider three applications. First, when we present the Gospel, we must always remember to emphasize sin (1:18-3:20). Unless we recognize how bad the bad news truly is, we won’t sense a need for a Savior. The good news of the Gospel (3:21ff) isn’t truly good news until we first deal with the bad news. Second, we need to begin to see fellow believers as those who have been “justified” by God.

I rarely think this way about others. It’s easy to see the faults and idiosyncrasies in other people. Yet, this passage teaches that fellow believers have been declared righteous and are now seen by the Father, through the blood of Jesus Christ. Lastly, we must be sure to present an accurate Gospel. This means we must understand the words and the central message of 3:21-26. If we do, we’ll have a proper understanding of God’s righteousness and the free gift of salvation.

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Copyright © 2001 Keith R. Krell. All rights reserved. All Scripture quotations, unless indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, C 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, and 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, and are used by permission.

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Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: by Keith Krell, Timeless Word Ministries®, 2508 State Ave NE Olympia, WA 98506, 360-352-9044, www.timelessword.com

All Scripture quotations, unless indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, and 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, and are used by permission.
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