Or, Righteousness: Always by Faith and by Faith Alone
Scripture: Romans 3:21-26
Date: February 27, 2022
Speaker: Sean Higgins
It would be challenging to find a more important paragraph in the New Testament. The truth in it depends on the realities about Jesus’ life and death and resurrection recorded for us in the Gospels. But if 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 is the summary of gospel history, then Romans 3:21-26 is the cream that rises to the top of gospel theology.
A couple brief comments: I love paragraphs, and what they lack in terms of navigation helps—which chapters and verses provide—they make up for in interpretation parameters. I love copies of Scripture that make the paragraphs clear, and I usually preach paragraph by paragraph.
This paragraph is about the power and grace of God’s righteousness. Having spent a couple chapters proving that righteousness is needed, now Paul will spend a couple chapters showing how righteousness has been procured (by the sacrifice of Christ) and is being provided (by the gracious yet just Father).
I’m going to take a couple whacks at this paragraph, and for a couple reasons. First, there is that much relief to rejoice over; there’s no benefit to skim too quickly over the depths of our comfort. Second, there will be a lot to hear today, including the seminar. Besides, when it comes to the preaching part of my job I have been wanting to do better getting you the food but not making you sit so long. There are practical concerns and trade-offs when it comes to preaching paragraphs, and you are mostly and consistently gracious however much I cover, but it is my desire to honor the Lord and His Word while serving you well.
Verses 21-26 are grammatically one sentence (punctuated differently by various translations, the NASB acknowledges one sentence), though verses 25-26 drill in on Christ Jesus in a way that will let us exalt Him as our propitiation next week.
The subject is the righteousness of God and it is spelled out twice. The action is one of revelation, of disclosure, and though the verb manifested is explicit only once it is implied another time. There is a contrast between how righteousness is, and is not, made manifest.
Verse 21 introduces the second major heading of the letter. Paul greeted the Romans and shared his theme that in the gospel “the righteousness of God is revealed” (Romans 1:17), but since Romans 1:18 he has been showing that God’s righteousness is being revealed through God’s judgment on those who are not righteous. Whether or not men care, this is their condition. Whether or not men wish they could do something about it, they can’t. This paragraph beginning in 3:21 is the hinge into God’s righteousness being revealed through justification.
”But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it, (but) the righteousness of God (is being manifested) through faith in Jesus Christ for all the ones believing.”
A new page has been turned but the book is still the same. Now we know more than even the Jews knew before the Messiah came. They had God’s standards, but no one kept them, “not even one” (Romans 3:12). According to 3:20, a man’s works were never meant to merit or earn a right standing with God, though the law meant that he could rightly assess his works. Not just “now” as a new section of the letter, but “now” as a new season of manifestation.
The gospel does not reveal a new or second way to salvation. Paul will illustrate this with Abraham and David in chapter 4, but here he is careful to show the continuity of God’s righteousness as being witnessed to by the Law and the Prophets , a thing that is still true. Justification by faith is not a Pauline invention, it is prophetic. This kind of righteousness from God has always not been by good works.
It has always been through faith , and now that faith clearly looks to Jesus Christ , known by name, and by His obedience and fulfillment of the Law and His fulfillment of the prophecies that anticipated His sacrifice.
God’s righteousness in men is received through faith and God’s righteousness is for all the ones believing (a plural substantival participle).
How do those who do not understand (verse 11), who do not seek for God (verse 11), who have turned aside (verse 12), who know no peace (verse 17), who do not fear God (verse 18), come to believe? This is a crucial question that Paul will answer later in the letter. Here the “all” part here gets explained in the last part of verse 22 and into verse 23, but the emphasis is on the “believing” ones. Believe!
The contrast of how righteousness is and is not manifested in verses 21 and 22 is the reason for sola fide. It is by believing alone that this righteousness is shown.
“I know very well that here, Romans 3, the word (Sola) is not in the Latin and Greek text, and it was not necessary for the Papists to teach me that. It is true, these four letters, S O L A. are not in it, which letters the jack-asses look at as a cow looks at a new gate; but they do not see that nevertheless, it expresses the meaning of the text; and if our German translation is to be clear and powerful, it ought to be put in….” —Martin Luther
(Calvin has a similar, but less fun comment in his commentary to the same end about sola). Man does not cooperate or coordinate or contribute to his justification through any works, but he receives it through faith. The law can’t produce justification but it does point us to the one who justifies.
Observe the two “for”s, one finishing verse 22 and the other beginning verse 23. The first modifies the “all” part of the believing and the second modifies the modification.
”for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
The statement that there is no distinction has numerous applications, but in context it means that neither Jews or Gentiles can be righteous by their works, and both Jews and Gentiles can be righteous by faith. Imagine one line between the guilty and not-guilty, by that criterion there is no difference at all between those standing on the guilty side.
Verse 23 clarifies what they share: unrighteousness.
Romans 3:23 is the go-to passage for a quick quote on why men need salvation: all sinned and are falling short of the glory of God . Sinned is a summary (aorist tense), an assertion of what’s happened, and we can refer back to verses 9-18 for examples. Paul will explain our corporate guilt in Adam, but this is not that. The word hamartano (ἁμαρτάνω) means “I sin,” I do wrong, and the nuance seems to be transgression, as in being told what line not to cross and crossing it; it departs from the standard.
The second description is current, a present (tense) lack, are falling short . The nuance here seems to be failing as being told what line to match and not getting there; a different sort of not reaching the standard.
It is an instructive statement. It assumes that the kind of glory God has is the kind of glory we’re to be living up to. Verse 23 isn’t about our liturgical failure, not giving glory to God (Murray), or a confessional failure, not defining the glory of God, but a lifestyle and conduct failure. Both sins of commission and omission are in verse 23.
The best news is that righteousness doesn’t come from our works anyway.
”being justified freely by His grace through the redemption, that which is in Christ Jesus.”
“Righteous” and “just” and “justified” all belong to the same Greek word-group (from δικαιόω), but in English we usually use one word for the attribute and another for the activity. To justify is to “render a favorable verdict, treat as just” (BAGD), to consider as righteous. The doctrine of justification is the doctrine of having righteousness credited to us. It is the doctrine of Romans.
It’s been called forensic righteousness, with a legal, courtroom emphasis. We stand guilty as charged before God as Judge, and He justifies us with a forgiven and free status. This is God’s work, and it is His free work, we’re justified freely , connected to the Greek word for “gift,” and it is His kind work, justified by His grace . He initiates, He makes the declaration, it is not earned by men.
Luther called it “alien righteousness” (iustitia aliena), that is a righteousness outside us. In his commentary on Galatians Luther says we are simul justus et peccator, simultaneously just and sinful. God, however, is just and Justifier (see 3:26).
Our justification comes from God the Father through His Son’s work. Redemption is another word belonging to our salvation. I guess there are people who don’t like the courtroom ideas, I guess there are other people who don’t appreciate the purchasing or ransoming work. But this is good news, as if we were prisoners and He buys our freedom. In gospel terms, all are yours, forgiveness and righteousness and freedom and adoption. Christ redeems, He propitiates, He atones.
There is, perhaps, no passage in the whole Scripture which illustrates in a more striking manner the efficacy of his righteousness; for it shows that God’s mercy is the efficient cause, that Christ with his blood is the meritorious cause, that the formal or instrumental cause is faith in the word, and that, moreover, the final cause is the glory of the divine justice and goodness. —John Calvin
Verses 25-26 drill down on Christ Jesus , He whom God put forward, enabling Him to be just and the justifier, and next Sunday.
Salvation by faith alone can be, and has been, abused a myriad of ways. Paul himself will deal with wrongheaded responses at least in chapter 6. And yet, as you may have heard other people say, if we don’t preach the gospel in such a way that it could be criticized as too easy, just by faith, then we are not preaching it freely enough.
Yes, justification and sanctification must go together, and also they must be distinguished. We are to learn to obey everything that Christ commanded but we are not saved because of any work we do. It has been always by faith and by faith alone.
Don’t boast in your wisdom, your might, your riches (Jeremiah 9:23). Don’t boast in your works (Romans 3:27). Boast in the name of the Lord (Psalm 44:8). Boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14). Boast in the righteousness of God through faith. And because of His grace, do good in such a way that your works boast on His behalf.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17, ESV)