Introduction
I said last week that Paul’s letter to the Romans can be divided into three parts. The first part is all about our sin and guilt and misery. The second part is all about what God has done to save us from our sin and guilt and misery by his Son. And the third part is all about how we demonstrate our gratitude to God for what he has done to save us by his Son. And we demonstrate our gratitude by living lives of grateful obedience to God. So, it’s guilt and grace and gratitude. And the first part of Romans ends at verse 20 of chapter 3. And that means that the verses we read a moment ago are the opening verses of the second part of Romans.
And these five verses which we read a moment ago really are wonderful. They are some of the most wonderful verses in the whole Bible. And they begin with the words ‘But now’. And those words ‘But now’ are the turning point between what we were reading previously about human sin and guilt and misery and what we’re about to read about the good news of the gospel. So, in chapters 1 and 2 Paul makes clear that we’re all guilty in God’s sight and we deserve to be condemned by him. People who know God’s law are guilty, because though they have God’s law, they don’t keep it. And people who don’t know God’s law are also guilty, because although they don’t know God’s law, they know God. They know God because God is continually revealing himself to them. But instead of worshipping God, they worship false gods. So, people who know the law don’t keep it. And people who know God without the law don’t worship him. And that means that there is no-one who is righteous. There is no-one who is right in God’s sight. All of us are guilty before God and we deserve to be condemned for ever for our failure to worship him and for our failure to obey him.
That’s the bad news. But now…. But now, here’s the good news…. But now, here’s the good news about what God has done to save us from condemnation by his Son Jesus Christ. And in the five verses before us this morning, Paul summarises the good news of the gospel. And it really is good news.
Verses 21+22a
And so, here’s the good news. Paul says in verse 21 that a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
We’ve come across the idea of God’s righteousness before. Paul referred to it back in verse 17 of chapter 1. And when we were studying that verse I mentioned Martin Luther, the man who started the reformation in Europe in the 1500s. When he was a young monk, he hated the righteousness of God, because he thought the righteousness of God was all about God’s justice. It was about how God had to punish the wicked. It was right for God to punish the wicked. And Luther hated the righteousness of God because he knew that he was wicked. He knew that he had done wrong. He knew that he hadn’t done what God required. And no matter what he did, he couldn’t ever make up for his past failings. And so, he couldn’t expect anything from God apart from condemnation and punishment.
But eventually Luther realised that God’s righteousness refers, not to God’s justice, but to something else entirely. God’s righteousness is not the righteousness by which God condemns sinners, but it’s the righteousness by which God saves sinners. And therefore the righteousness of God is good news for sinners like Luther and for sinners like you and me.
The righteousness of God refers, firstly, to God’s saving action, because it’s right for God to save his people. It’s right for God to save his people because he has bound himself with a promise to save his people from their sin and misery. And since he has promised to save his people, then it’s right for God to save them.
And God’s righteousness refers, not only to God’s saving action, but it also refers to the righteousness which comes from God and which he shares with his people. Instead of treating us as our sins and shortcomings deserve — in other words, instead of condemning and punishing us — he’s prepared to treat us as if we’ve done everything right.
So, some of the children and young people are sitting exams at this time of the year. And the grade they get when the exam is marked is based on their performance. If they do well in the exam, they get a good grade. If they do badly, they get a bad grade. Now imagine that one student does really, really badly. Imagine a student who gets everything wrong. He doesn’t even spell his own name right. That’s how bad he is. But when his paper is marked and his result is published, he ends up with an A star. How can that happen?
Or imagine someone who is applying for a job and the job description has a list of essential criteria and desirable criteria. So, you have to have this qualification and you have to have experience in this and that and so on. And this particular applicant isn’t able to meet any of the criteria. And yet she ends up getting the job. How can that happen?
It can only happen to the student if his paper is replaced with another student’s perfect paper. But who would do that for such a poor student? And it can only happen to the job applicant if her application is replaced with another applicant’s perfect application. But who would do that for such a poor applicant?
But that’s what God does for his people. He takes the record of our disobedience and our wrongs and our shortcomings and our moral failures and destroys it. And in its place he gives us a record of perfect obedience.
And where does this record of perfect obedience come from? It comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s Son and he came to earth as one of us and he lived the life we should have lived, but haven’t, which is a life of perfect obedience. And so, he always obeyed his Heavenly Father. He never did anything wrong. All of his actions were perfect. All of his words were perfect. And all his thoughts were perfect. Every thought, every desire every attitude was perfect. He did everything right. And God takes Christ’s record of perfect righteousness, or his record of perfect obedience, and he gives it to his people. And so, all these moral failures living on the earth suddenly receive from God a perfect moral record.
Paul says in verse 21 that this righteousness from God is apart from the law. He means it has nothing to do with the law. It has nothing to do with keeping the law. The normal way for a student to get a good grade is to work hard. The normal way for a job applicant to get the job is to work hard at fulfilling the criteria. But no-one will be declared right with God by working hard to keep the law. As Paul said in verse 20, all the law does is make us conscious of our sin. The law shows us our shortcomings. When we compare what we do with what the law says, we realise we haven’t kept the law. And so, no-one will be declared right with God by keeping the law.
However, although this righteousness from God has nothing to do with the law, the Law and the Prophets testify to it. The phrase ‘the Law and the Prophets’ is a way of referring to the Old Testament. And so, Paul is saying that if you read the Old Testament, you’ll see that God talks about this. He talks about his willingness to forgive sinners and to accept them as righteous in his sight. I’ll give you two examples The first is from Psalm 32 where David writes:
Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord does not count against him
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
Instead of counting our sins against, instead of holding our sins against us, God is willing to forgive us. What we tend to do with one another is we tend to keep a record of the wrong things people do to us. We remember all the things they did against us and all their faults and we go over those things in our mind and it builds resentment. But instead of treating us like that, the Lord forgives and forgets.
And then the second example is from Habakkuk 2:4. And Paul has already quoted this verse in Romans 1. Habakkuk 2:4 says: ‘the righteous will live by his faith’. That is to say, those who are righteous by faith will live. We are declared right with God by faith and not by keeping the law.
And Paul goes on to say in the first part of verse 22 that this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. So, this record of perfect righteousness, or this record of perfect obedience, comes to us from God through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s why we’re always talking in church about faith and it’s why we tell people they need to put their faith in Christ. It’s why we say you need to trust in him. We say to people: You need to believe in the Lord Jesus. We’re always talking about faith and about trust and about believing because the way we receive Christ’s record of perfect obedience is by putting our faith in him.
And we’re to put our faith in him, because he’s the only one who has a perfect record of obedience. No-one else has it. No-one else has obeyed God perfectly. No-one else has done all things right. I’ve mentioned before a book I read in which the author wrote about how, when he was young, he got to know his hero. In fact, they got to know one another well by spending a lot of time together. And the author wrote that the more he got to know his hero, the smaller his hero became in his estimation. He started to see his hero’s faults and failings and weaknesses. On the other hand, the author has spent his life getting to know the Lord Jesus. And the more he got to know the Lord Jesus, the bigger the Lord Jesus became in his estimation, because he started to see more and more of the Lord’s perfection and glory and majesty. We’re to trust in Christ, because he’s the only one who possesses a record of perfect obedience. And he’s willing to share it with all who believe in him.
Verses 22b to 24a
Paul says at the end of verse 22 that there is no difference. And he means there’s no difference between Jews and Gentiles. That’s what he’s been writing about in chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 1 was about unbelieving Gentiles who know God, but who don’t worship him. Chapter 2 about was unbelieving Jews, who have the law, but who don’t keep it. And there’s no difference between them in the sense that all have sinned.
What is sin? Our church’s Shorter Catechism is helpful here, because it explains that sin is any failure to measure up to whatever God requires; or it’s any disobedience to any of God’s commands. So, unbelieving Gentiles have sinned, because they haven’t worshipped God, which is what he requires of them. And unbelieving Jews have sinned, because they’ve disobeyed God’s commands. And so, all have sinned.
And all have come short of the glory of God. And Paul means that all have come short of the glory of being like God. God made us in his image, which means he made us to be little likenesses of himself on the earth. But it’s not that we look like him. We can’t ever look like God, because God is invisible. And so, being in his image means that we’re to be like God. We’re to be upright and holy and good and kind and generous and self-controlled like him. But instead of being like him, we fall short of being like him. And we fall short of being like him, because all of us are sinners who sin against him continually. Instead of walking in his ways, we go astray. Instead of doing his will, we do evil. Instead of being kind and generous and patient, we’re mean and selfish and impatient.
So, that’s the bad news. But here again is the good news: all have sinned and fallen short, but all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. The word ‘justified’ is related to the word righteousness, which we’re already been thinking about this morning. To be justified means that God forgives us for what we have done wrong and he declares us righteous in his sight. So, though we may have done everything wrong, God treats us as if we’ve done everything right. And he treats us that way because Christ’s record of perfect obedience becomes ours through faith.
And Paul is saying that God does this for Jews and Gentiles alike. In others words, he does it for everyone. There’s not one way of salvation for one group of people and another way of salvation for another group of people. It’s the same for everyone. So, all have sinned, and all are justified in exactly the same way. And the way we’re justified is freely by his grace. Do you see that in verse 24? God’s grace is his kindness towards sinners. And because of God’s kindness to sinners, he’s willing to give us Christ’s record of perfect obedience for free. So, we don’t have to earn it by our good deeds. We don’t have to climb up to heaven by our good works. We don’t need to make any sacrifices for God in order to receive it.
And that’s sometimes the way we think, isn’t it? We think that our standing before God depends on what we do. We think that whether God approves of us or not depends on what we do or the sacrifices we make. The more I do for God, the more he will be pleased with me. But the truth is that the record of perfect obedience which we all need in order for God to accept us is his free gift to us, which we receive by believing and not by doing.
And so, we come to church and the message is not: ‘Here are all the things you must do before God will accept you.’ No, we come to church and the message is: ‘Sit down and let me tell you what God has done for you. Let me tell you what God has done for you and then believe what you have heard about God.’
Verses 24b+25a
And what has God done for us? Well, Paul tells us at the end of verse 24, where he says that we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Redemption is about being set free from some penalty or bondage through the payment of a price. In ancient times, slaves could buy their freedom by giving money to their master. Or prisoners of war could be set free by paying a ransom to their captors. And in the Old Testament, there were occasions when someone who was condemned to die as punishment for certain crimes could be released from punishment on payment of a ransom price. Instead of being put to death, the offender could pay a penalty and they were then allowed to live. And we’re familiar with something similar today when an offender may be offered the choice between serving a prison sentence or else paying a fine. They’re either locked up or they can pay the price to keep their freedom.
And all of us are sinners who deserve to be condemned and punished by God. And we’re unable to ransom ourselves, because there’s nothing we can offer to God to make up for our sins and shortcomings. There’s nothing we can give to God to pay the debt we owe, which is perfect obedience.
But what we cannot do ourselves, God has done for us by his Son, because when the Lord Jesus died on the cross, he was giving up his perfect life as the ransom to pay for our sins and shortcomings. He took the blame for what we have done wrong. He paid the penalty we owe to God for all that we have done wrong. And God was willing to accept Christ’s life for ours and to set us free.
And in verse 25 Paul says that God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. In Old Testament times, when God’s people wanted forgivness from God, they would go to the tabernacle or temple with an animal which they offered to God as a sacrifice for their sins. And God was willing to accept the death of the animal in place of the person.
So, the person knew he had done wrong. He knew he has broken God’s law. He knew he had fallen short. He knew he had done wrong and deserved to die, because the wages of sin is death. That’s what we deserve for disobeying God who has given us our life. But God was willing to accept the death of the animal in place of the person. The animal was killed and the sinner went free. And God was no longer angry with the person, because the animal had died in his place.
But they had to keep repeating those sacrifices over and over again, because everyone knew that the blood of bulls and goats couldn’t really make up for all of their sins and shortcomings. And everyone was waiting for the day when God would present the perfect sacrifice for sins. They were waiting for God to present a sacrifice which would pay for their sins once and for all and for ever. And that perfect sacrifice was the self-sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, who gave up his life on the cross as the ransom to pay for our sins once-for-all and for ever. He offered himself on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sins and he suffered in his body and soul the punishment we deserve for what we have done wrong.
So, he received our punishment. And in turn we receive salvation through faith in his blood. That is to say, we receive salvation by believing and not by doing. By believing in Christ, who died for sinners, we receive peace with God for ever.
Conclusion
In these five verses today, Paul is really talking about the two parts of our salvation.
On the one hand, we needed someone to take our place and to suffer the punishment we deserve. And that’s what the Lord Jesus did for us when he suffered and died on the cross. He gave up his life to pay for our sins and to make peace for us with God.
And so, took the blame for all that we have done wrong. But as well as taking the blame for all that we have done wrong, he gives us something. He gives us his record of perfect obedience. And so, not only does God forgive us for what we have done wrong, but he also treats us as if we’ve done everything right. He treats believers in the same way that he treats his only begotten and perfect Son.
And he does this for us because he is merciful and gracious and slow to anger and he’s abounding in steadfast love. He does this for us, not because we deserve it, but because of his abounding, overflowing love. And so, we should rejoice in his love towards us and we should trust in his Son. And having trusted in his Son, we should forgive one another just as God has forgiven us. And we should live lives of grateful obedience to demonstrate our love for him.
Sermons and Stuff 