The scene (remember) is a courtroom. The judge has just delivered His ver­dict. The accused is found ‘GUILTY’. The charge is that he has broken every law in the book! When the judge turns to the defendant and asks how he pleads, the man is speechless; he’s mute. He is not able to say a word in his defence... That man of course — is you and me! God’s verdict on us is, ‘There is no one righteous, not even one,’ ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ (Rom. 3:10 and 23)... All — whether Jew or Gentile — whether religious or irreligious — moral or immoral — believer or atheist — are under the condemnation of the law of God ( v.19) — and are unable through or by the law to earn a righteousness that satisfies God (v.20).

It’s a sombre scene. It’s a helpless and hopeless situation. There is despair in the chamber. The silence is broken only by the sound of sniffling and sobbing as the implications of the sentence sinks in. There’s hardly a dry eye in the court­room. Everyone knows the conse­quences of this decision. ‘The wages of sin is DEATH!’ Separation from God!

The Judge then Calls for ‘Silence’⤒🔗

He proceeds to make an unprece­dented announcement. He states, ‘But now, a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known...’ (v.21). There’s a gasp in the chamber. Everyone is stunned. Gobsmacked! Flabbergasted! Can a guilty man now be set free? Can a guilty man be right with God? It’s as though a sudden ray of sunshine has flooded the room... It’s like the turning of a key in the prison door. Suddenly there is hope! This is great news. It’s breathtaking! We who deserve the full weight of the law thrown at us are now feely offered by God the gift of righteousness and free­dom. God who is righteous and who requires righteousness — now actually provides it!

This is a crucially important passage. It takes us to the heart of the gospel. Lu­ther said it was ‘the central place of the epistle and of the whole Bible.’ Martyn Lloyd-Jones has said,

It is no exaggeration to say of this section that it is one of the greatest and most important sections in the whole of Scripture.

Leon Morris has said that these words are ‘possibly the most important single paragraph ever written.’ It’s state­ments like these that make me come to this passage nervously. I don’t want to mess it up. It is just too important! I don’t want to make it more complicated than it is. I want us all to understand it. Someone has said that ‘exposing sin is easier than applying grace.’ So it is!

We know sin so much better than grace! We need to know grace — because we are justified by His grace (v.24a). We have diagnosed our (sinful) condition; now we need to un­derstand the treatment. In this para­graph we have God’s total answer for our total failure.

What God has Done (v. 21-22)←⤒🔗

We are told that God has made known an altogether new sort of righteous­ness. It’s a righteousness from (or, of) God — i.e. it comes from God Himself and is entirely motivated by His own sheer mercy and grace and love.

It’s a righteousness apart from the law. It’s a righteousness which has nothing to do with us keeping the law. (We’ll see this illustrated in chapter 4 in the life of Abraham and David). This statement is like a torpedo de­signed to sink the ship of Jewish con­fidence in law keeping as a means to salvation. Indeed, it’s aimed not only at the Jews — but at us too. It sinks any confidence we might have in get­ting right with God by doing good works! It means that this righteous­ness that God requires has nothing to do with our good works — no matter what they are. Good works are ruled out at a stroke. There’s nothing we can do which can make us right with God. Morality or religion can’t save us. This is what makes Christianity unique. All other religions are ‘Do’ religions. Christianity is a ‘Done’ relig­ion.

It’s a righteousness which the Law and Prophets testify to. It’s not a brand new idea of Paul’s. It’s not a new invention or novel idea. It’s al­ways been there in the OT — antici­pated in the Law. It’s not a case of an angry God in the OT replaced by a loving God in the NT! No! There is a unity in the Bible — running through the OT and NT. Although the gospel message of the gift of righteousness is most fully revealed in the NT, it is the Bible’s one message of salvation. We see this righteousness testified first in Genesis 3:15 when Adam and Eve sinned. God gave them the promise of a Saviour. He also pro­vided garments of skin for them and clothed them, which foreshadowed substitutionary atonement (Gen. 3:21). He promised Abraham that through His seed all the nations would be blessed, a promise fulfilled ultimately in Christ. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, and many other passages could be cited as testimony. Paul can therefore say that ‘my gospel’ is backed by 2,000 years of history! It’s hardly a novelty!

It’s a righteousness not conveyed by the law, but by a person — ‘through faith in Jesus Christ’ (v. 22). He was the only One who was perfectly obedient to God’s law and did God’s will perfectly. In Him was no sin — only perfect righteous­ness.

How God has Done It (23, 24, 25a)←⤒🔗

How has God secured this righteous­ness? He has done it ‘through the re­demption that came by Christ Je­sus’ (v.24).

We are introduced to the concept of redemption. Buckle your belts! Hang in. Don’t switch off! We can’t duck talk­ing about ‘redemption’ and ‘propitiation’. They will require you to ‘think!’ First, ‘redemption’ needs a word of explanation. It’s hardly a word we use today — unless you have a Fly-Buys card, or a Commonwealth Bank Awards scheme (or such like). You can ‘redeem’ your accumulated points for either cash or a prize.

The term redemption refers to that which is paid as a ransom. If someone is redeemed, a ransom price is paid. For example, shipping companies pay Somalian pirates a ransom to free their crew and cargo.

In Paul’s day (when there were many slaves in the empire) redemption was a very vivid and common word. A slave could be set free by the payment of a redemption price. By analogy, we are born slaves to sin; but Jesus has entered the market place to buy us back. He bid his own blood. There is no higher bid than that. And we be­came His, so that we now belong to a new master. We are secured by Jesus Christ.

What was the redemption price that Jesus paid? Look at verse 25. The redemption price was achieved by setting forth Jesus as ‘a sacrifice of atonement,’ or more precisely as ‘a propitiation’ (v. 25). (The word is hilas­mos — it appears twice in AV — 1 John 2: 2 and Rom. 3:25). To propitiate means to appease. To propitiate is to turn away God’s wrath. Propitiation is the answer we need to God’s wrath. Remember Rom. 1:18: ‘the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wick­edness of men.’ Because we are god­less and wicked we deserve God’s wrath. Christ has borne that wrath in His own body on the Cross, and thus became a propitiation for our sins.

Why God has Done It (vs. 25b, 26)←⤒🔗

‘He did it to demonstrate his jus­tice’ (v. 25b). Many think all that God had to do was snap His fingers and say, ‘You are forgiven.’ But if God did so He would cease to be God. He is holy; He has said that the soul that sins shall die. How then can God jus­tify the wicked and maintain His jus­tice? We get upset with liberal judges who let criminals go free. How much worse would it be for God to let guilty sinners go free? God in His wisdom justifies sinners in a way that vindi­cates His justice. Jesus paid the pen­alty for our sins on the cross and thus satisfied the justice of God.

He did it to justify (declare right­eous) those who have faith in Jesus — both those living BC and AD (vs. 25­ 26). Not only has God removed our punishment but He also justifies us. Imagine a ledger sheet. We have racked up a massive debt. We were in the red. Jesus, however, has not only wiped out the debt — so that now we have a clean sheet — but He also puts us in credit – and deposits into our account the righteous obedience of Christ. This is often called ‘The Great Exchange.’ God exchanges our sin for Christ’s righteousness. As a result, all who have trusted in Christ as Saviour stand before God not merely with a clean sheet and empty ledger, but one filled with the very righteous­ness of Christ. That’s what we call ‘justification.’ It means to be counted righteous by God. Even though in our­selves we are completely unrighteous, God counts us as righteous because He has appointed Christ as our repre­sentative and substitute. It’s the decla­ration the Judge delivers.

There’s an old play on the word justi­fied: ‘just-as-if-I’d never sinned.’ But there’s another way of saying it: ‘just­-as-if-I’d always obeyed.’ Both are true. The first refers to the cleaning up of the ledger. The second has to do with filling the ledger with the perfect right­eousness of Christ... That’s why we can come with confidence into the presence of God even though we are still sinners. I am a sinner and justified at the same time. Or to say it differ­ently, we’re clothed with His righteous­ness (Isa. 61: 10) so that as God looks at us in union with Christ, He always sees us to be as righteous as Christ Himself!

It’s for ALL who BELIEVE (v. 22); it’s for those who have FAITH in Jesus (v. 26). For ALL — no matter who you are; what you are; or where you are from. This righteousness of God is received by faith. Faith is not some kind of leap in the dark. Faith believes in the facts of the gospel as revealed in the Bible. But faith must not be confused with just knowing the facts. (Even the devil believes). You might know and believe a great deal of biblical doctrine. You may be able to recite scripture and the catechism. But such faith does not save. ‘God justifies those who have faith in Je­sus.’ Notice the preposition: faith is faith ‘in’ Jesus. Saving faith is an act of trust, of resting in Christ. You throw yourself with abandon on Christ the way a tired man throws himself into his bed. This trust is the acting of faith that receives God’s righteousness.

Someone reading this now may not yet believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? You are in a precarious position. God could have discarded you before now. But He hasn’t. He has borne with you for a long time. Why? Because we are in the day of grace and opportunity. It will not, however, last forever. See to it that you heed this instruction and flee from your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ – and you will not only receive forgiveness and peace, but also righteousness.

How then Should We Live? (vs. 27-31)←⤒🔗

First of all, no boasting (v. 27). Our salvation is a gift of grace. In this act of grace we see the beauty and glory of our God. We should marvel like the angels in Rev. 5:12, as they considered the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, ‘Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing.’ Secondly, God is the God of both Jews and Gentiles (v. 29-30) — sal­vation is exactly the same for every­one. There’s only one gospel. It’s a magnificent message. No man could have invented such a message. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.

In addition, we don’t ignore the law or set it aside as redundant (v. 31). It points us to the Saviour whom we need and it shows us the kind of life that pleases God.