Once someone said to me: “James, I just don’t understand God.” I responded “in what way?” Because there are some aspects of God which we will never understand while still under the confines of our human brain. However there are some aspects of God which we are not only made to understand, but it is vital that we do so,. This man replied, “I don’t understand how God can still love me when I sin.”
At this point I realized that this man was struggling with something that all of us at one point have wrestled with, and many believers are still battling with this very same thought. Many still do not understand that marvelous work which Jesus Christ has done for them. Even in the church, there are a great number of people who profess Christ with their mouth, and claim to have received the gift, but they have not even started to unwrap it. So in this study today, we will be examining the gift of justification which Jesus Christ has freely given to each and every one of us, and how seeing this truth, can bring peace to any lingering doubt about where you stand in Christ today.
Let’s begin today by jumping right in to Romans 3:19-28:
“Now we know that what things soever the law said, it said to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all and on all them that believe: for there is no difference:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? No: but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”
So here we go… Verse 19 begins with a statement: Now we know… What are we supposed to know? That whatever things that the law said, it said to them who are under the law. Now this is a huge statement with wide-reaching implications, and you might be surprised to learn how many believers do not yet really know this truth. You see, the people who fight for and cling to the law as a requirement for sanctification, righteousness, or justification before God, they do not actually realize that the law is actually speaking to them and condemning them along with the rest of the world. The entire world is guilty before God, because the perfect Law of God also demands perfect obedience, and no-one can keep it perfectly.
Notice also that the scripture says that the things which the law said, it said to them who are under the law. Today, if you are a believer in Jesus, and your faith is in Him, you are no longer under the law (Romans 6:14, Galatians 3:25). And there are many legalistic people who recoil at this and say “But we need the law!” and they grip even tighter to it… and this comes from a misunderstanding of what Christ has done. This is why verse 20 says plainly that By the works of the law is no flesh justified in His sight. This detail is here because many people are justified by the law in their own sight. But really, their own sight doesn’t matter. And many more are justified by the law in the sight of others. However that too is meaningless. The only sight that it actually matters to be justified in, is God’s sight! So if God says very clearly that by the law is no flesh justified in His sight, then why are you still holding onto it?
Look at the second-half of verse 20: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
My friend, the law was never given to justify you. It was never given to make you holy, or to make you righteous. To try and use the law for that purpose is to misuse it. The law was given for one purpose. Because prideful man boasted in his own self-ability to obey God in Exodus 19:8, and so God gave them 10 simple rules, which they broke before Moses even finished descending Mount Sinai (Exodus 32:1-2). The LORD of-course, knew that this was inevitable, which is why He immediately told Moses to build an altar after giving them the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:24)
Notice that through the law does not come the knowledge of righteousness, nor the knowledge of holiness, nor the knowledge of justification – but the knowledge of sin. Whenever the law is preached or taught, it makes you aware of sin. It brings sin to the center-stage and sin becomes the focus. And I know that you are probably wondering “why is that wrong?” – Well, friend, it is wrong because Jesus died to free you from your sin and remove from you all consciousness of sin. We have previously studied that in depth, but a main scriptural reference for it, is Hebrews 10:1-2. The scripture also says in Romans 2:4 that it is the goodness [mercy / grace] of God that leads people to repentance. Not beating them down with laws and condemnation – not reminding them of how bad they are or how repulsive their sin is.
There is an entire population of people, both in the church and outside of it, who are dying every day, wondering as Paul did in Romans 7, who will deliver them from their body of death. They don’t need to be told that sin is bad or how wretched they are… they already know! And they are seeking something or someone to deliver them, but they have also been told by misguided leaders that “God hates sin!” and so these poor people are looking somewhere else because if God hates sin then He must hate them also.
Now, I’ll absolutely agree that God does indeed hate sin… but that is an incomplete message: Yes God does hate sin, but He loves you! Just like you can hate the cancer that is destroying your loved one, but still love the person. Pastors need to stop preaching against sin, and start preaching towards Jesus! God has moved mountains from Sinai to Zion, and it is in our best interest to move along with Him! Our only job is to introduce people to Jesus… His job is to do the cleaning and lifting out of the dirt and sanctifying. I think many of us have forgotten that.
This is the point of verses 21 through 23 of our text:
“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all and on all them that believe: for there is no difference:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
And 21 starts off by saying But now – and I am so glad that it is not “later” or “sometime down the road after I clean myself up and perfect my obedience”, but now. The time for salvation in Christ Jesus is now. The time to come to Him for redemption is now. The time to let Him make you whole and set you free is now. Now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. Yes, without the law. You see, righteousness does not come through the law… we just read that the law makes you conscious of sin. The law condemns and makes you guilty before God, not righteous. But now, this righteousness, which is even testified of in the books of the law and the prophets has come. So where does righteousness come from? Well, move on to verse 22:
Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all and on all them that believe: for there is no difference:
This is the very righteousness of God! Not the righteousness of a bull or a goat, not the righteousness of a man, or even of an angel, but the very righteousness of God Himself! How does it come? By faith of Jesus Christ to all and on all that believe. Now there are some details here for us to see, the first of which being that this is not specifically “faith in Jesus”, but “faith of Jesus” – this may seem confusing, until we understand that the word “faith” in the Bible is a noun. Faith is actually the information that we receive from God. Likewise, in the Bible, the word “believe” is a verb. Belief is the action we take based on our faith. This is why the verse of scripture is constructed the way that it is. It is saying that the righteousness of God comes from the information we have of Jesus and the action we take based on that information.
Both faith and belief are required. For example, it is entirely possible to receive information of Jesus, and then disregard that information and continue on trying to keep the law. In this case, the information would be of no profit.
However, it is also possible to receive information of Jesus, and then choose to believe it by accepting it as your new reality, and you will profit greatly from it.
Then, the end of verse 22 along with verse 23: There is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
In God’s sight, there is no difference at all between those who try to keep the Law and those who don’t. They all come short of His perfect standard. And by the perfect standard of the Law, even 99% obedience is 100% failure. (Galatians 5:3, James 2:10) Now the good news about this is that if there is no difference in the sight of God, and everyone is an equal-opportunity offender, then there is also no difference when it comes to His mercy and Grace. This is made even more clear in verses 24 through 26:
“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.”
Everyone is justified freely by the Grace of God through the redemption in Christ Jesus. And more detail is given in verse 25: Jesus, whom God has set forth (which means shown) to be a propitiation (or atoning sacrifice) through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness (not our own) for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.
Now don’t get all tripped up by that “sins that are past” part, because that is referring to the Old Covenant, and its animal sacrifices – the shadow which could never take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). In this way God the Father is giving further glory to Jesus by demonstrating Him as the only true sacrifice which has fully remitted sins; even those which the animal sacrifices could not remove.
So why did the Father give Jesus this glory? Look at the next verse, 26: To declare, I say at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.
When God forgives, He does so justly. Some people act as if Grace means that God just hides sin under the Heavenly carpet. Some people despise the Grace of God because they feel that people should “get what they deserve.” However God’s forgiveness is completely just, because Jesus was a full payment for the sin of the entire world – and not only a complete payment, but an overpayment. As such, He is able to justify all who believe on Him. He is the ultimate justifier. So today if you believe in Jesus and His sacrifice for you, then you are completely justified… not in yourself, but in Him; and because you did nothing to earn it, you also can do nothing to lose it either! This is expanded in verses 27 and 28:
“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? No: but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”
Because the work was Christ’s, quite simply we can not boast. I have met some people who claim Grace, but still try to boast in their keeping of the Law, as if it adds some merit. What they are really doing is trying to put new wine into old wineskins creating mixture. And with one foot on Mt. Sinai and the other on Mt. Zion, a person is never stable and always subject to shaking. Verse 28 makes it clear that we are justified by faith without the deeds of the law, and we are married to Jesus Christ alone, without the law (Romans 7:4).
Now, it would be incomplete for us to end this study without addressing the question of verse 31. Those who have read all the way to the end of the chapter have undoubtedly come across verse 31 which states:
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yes, we establish the law.”
Which on the surface seems to be contradictory to what was just mentioned about not trying to mix Law and Grace. So because God is not the author of confusion, and because we should never be afraid to look at a verse of scripture, nor allow an obscure passage to undermine our faith, let’s look at it now.
In order to understand what Paul is saying here, we must receive it in the context of the rest of his discourse which we have been reading. Remember that Paul has been been teaching on how faith and belief in Christ Jesus is all that is required to be fully justified before God, and now here comes one of his critics. Paul’s critic says: So you are nullifying the law, huh? And Paul, does a mental 180 degree turn on his critic and says “Not at all! In-fact, we establish the law.” Now, here’s how that makes sense.
We as believers in Christ are often put into positions by legalistic people of having to defend Grace, but in reality, it is unnecessary, as Paul demonstrates here. Because even if we were to be judged by the righteous requirements of the law today, in Christ Jesus, we would still be found righteously innocent. So in-essence we as believers, justified fully by Jesus Christ, we are the ones who actually establish the law – while the ones who try to keep it in their own strength, are condemned by it.
So this verse is not telling you that you have to work to keep the law. It is actually a lovely reminder that the law is completely fulfilled in you by Jesus Christ. That Christ in you has established the law for all time, and you can be totally secure in that fact!
So, this is the gift of free justification that is yours in Christ Jesus – and you can enjoy it for all eternity. He paid for you to have it, say thank you to Him by believing and resting in it.