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About Jesus - Steve Sweetman Previous Section - Chapter 3:9 - 20
Righteousness
Through Faith (ch. 3:21 – 31)
Paul
has just told his readers that the Law of Moses can never make anyone
righteous. In fact, it
points out how sinful we really are.
That was one reason for the existence law in the first place
according to Paul. Before
we go any farther, we need to understand what righteousness means.
Righteousness is being perfectly right in all things pertaining
to God. It is more than a
matter of the things we do. It's
a matter of who we are. A
righteous person does righteous things.
So, when Paul speaks of righteousness in his letter to the
Romans, we should understand he is thinking of being like God, not
simply doing good things. A
secondary meaning, or maybe just as primary as the above meaning, of
righteousness is that being in right standing with someone.
As it pertains to God, righteousness, then, means to be in right
standing with God. Paul
previously stated that we are all worthless, all unrighteous.
He has also stated that the only way one can be righteous is to
obey God’s Law in every small detail.
The problem is, as Paul also stated, obeying God's Laws in every
last fine detail is impossible. That
puts us in a bad situation, in a wrong placement before God. We,
thus, have a problem. God
demands righteousness from us because that is His nature.
He is perfect and right in every aspect of who He is, not just
what He does. He expects the
same from His creation. The
problem that faced God was how He can get man to be righteous, both, in
the sense of being right in who we are and in the sense of being in
right standing with Him. God
gave the Law of Moses to Here
in chapter 3, verse 21, we begin to see God’s answer to this problem.
Paul says, "But now a righteousness apart from law has been
made known." This would
be a shocking statement to the Jews since they knew that righteousness
came by obeying the Law of Moses. This
was one reason why the Jews attempted to kill Paul.
Paul is now telling the Jews, and everyone else, that there is a
way to become righteous, and it has nothing to do with law, and
especially the Law of Moses.
Note here that in the Greek text there is no corresponding word
for our word "the." "The"
does not appear in the Greek text. This
means that no law, not God's Law or man's law can make one righteous in
the sight of God. A
matter of fact, as Paul states, both
the Law of Moses and Prophets have testified to this righteousness.
Paul is saying that the Law and the Prophets foretold this new
way of making man righteous. The
Jewish leaders just did not see or understand what Paul was talking
about when he said this. God
caused a blindness to come over the Jews so they could not see this
truth in what we call the Old Testament. In
verse 21 Paul uses the word "law" in two senses.
According to the NIV, he uses the word "law," and the
word "Law." One
thing we should understand is that the Greek language that we have
translated into English does not use capital letters.
So, when the NIV or any other translation inserts a capital
letter, as we see here, it's purely a matter of the translators thinking
and understanding. With this
in mind, Paul says that there is a righteousness apart from
"law" (no capital "L").
The probable reason for the NIV to not capitalize "law"
in this phrase is because the direct article "the" isn't in
the Greek text. That
suggests that Paul did not have any specific law in mind, like the Law
of Moses. I believe he was
thinking of law in general, whether God's law of any of man's laws.
Than
is the second part of the verse Paul does use the term "the
Law," suggests a specific law.
The NIV capitalize "Law" because the Greek has the
direct article "the" before the word "Law."
This tells me that the Law Paul had in mind here was indeed the
Law of Moses. Also,
associating the Law with the Prophets makes it clear that he is thinking
of the Law of Moses. In
short, what Paul is saying here is that there is now a way for man to be
seen righteous in the eyes of God and it has nothing to do with law,
that is man's law, or, even the Law of Moses.
Again, this would have irritated the Jews exceedingly.
Note
that the verbs "has been made known,"
and, " testifies," are perfect , indicative, passive,
Greek verbs. Perfect means
that this righteousness has been made known in past time, which would
refer to the cross of Christ. Indicative
means that this making known is a certainty.
Passive means that we have not done anything in the process of
this righteousness being made known.
It is all from God.
In
verse 22, this new righteousness comes by having faith in Jesus Christ,
or, trusting Jesus Christ, and I would say, not just for your salvation,
but for your life. Having
this faith in Jesus means we trust Jesus.
Many of us just don't understand the meaning of faith, even
though it is fundamental to being a Christian.
I suggest that if you substitute the word "trust" for
the word "faith" as you read the New Testament, you will
understand faith much better.
It
is my thinking that the Evangelical world has watered down the word
"faith" in many ways. Faith
is more than a matter of believing in your mind that Jesus existed and
even died for your sins. Faith
is in fact, as the Greek word "pistis" that is translated as
"faith" in the New Testament implies, means trusting your life
with Jesus. I believe
salvation is more than trusting Jesus for your eternal destiny.
It is trusting Jesus with your very life.
In
verse 22 Paul says that this righteousness is for all.
Why is it for all? It
is for all because all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of
God, as we will see in verse 23. If
all have sinned, and all, meaning both Jews and Gentiles, then all are
eligible to believe and become righteous in the eyes of God. Note
that this way of becoming righteous apart from law comes from God.
Paul must say this because the Jewish leadership does not believe
it is from God, and, the Gentiles, with their polytheistic paganism
background, also must know that this righteousness is from God, not from
the gods. In
verse 22, the verb "who believes" is a present Greek
participle. This places the
emphasis on one actually being a believer, not just on one who believes.
That is to say, the righteous one is one, who has become by his
very new nature in Christ, a believer.
He is not one who simply gives mental acknowledgement to who
Jesus is. He is not
one who just trusts Jesus
from time to time, but is, if I can say it this way, a full-time truser.
In
verse 23, the verb, "have sinned" is an aorist indicative,
active verb. This simply
means that we all fall short because, at least one time in our lives, we
have sinned, and that is a certainty.
Also
in verse 23, the verb have fallen short" is a present Indicative
verb. This suggests that we
are constantly falling short of what God would want us to be.
In
verse 24 Paul says that all are justified freely through the redemption
that is found in Christ Jesus. This
is a great verse. Our
salvation is free because of God’s grace that was demonstrated towards
us. It is free because we do
not have to pay for it, because we do not have the ability to pay for
it. As a matter of fact,
nothing we have done or could do, comes close to the price that this
righteousness actually costs. We
do not have to earn it by obeying laws and doing good.
No good work that we might be able to perform even comes close to
obtaining the righteousness that Paul is talking about here.
We who are worthless and depraved can find salvation free of
charge. That being said,
salvation might be free, but it's not cheap.
Jesus paid a very great price for this salvation.
It is so expensive that only Jesus has the ability to pay for it.
The
Greek word "dorean" is translated as "freely" in the
NIV in verse 24. The basic
meaning of "dorean" means "a gift."
It is used as an adverb in this verse, thus the English
translation as "freely." Another
way you might put this verse is this way.
"God gifted your justification by faith in
Jesus." When thinking
of justification being a gift due to God's grace, it always reminds me
of Ephesians 1:8 where Paul says that God has lavished His grace on us.
If you understand how depraved we are, something I've mentioned
previously, the idea of God lavishing His grace on us is utterly
amazing. Note
the word "justify" in verse 24.
It is another theological word that many do not seem to be able
to explain these days. There
is the old saying that explains it pretty well.
Justification means, "Just as if I had never sinned." Justification,
or to justify, is translated from the Greek word "dikoisis."
You might notice both righteousness and justify are from the same
Greek root word. To justify
a person is to pronounce him to be just, or, to be living according to
the just standards of God. Justification
implies that God, the just Judge, has removed the designation of guilty
sinner that condemns us to eternal death.
Justification is a legal pronouncement by God.
I say legal, because God had contracted, or agreed, or covenanted
with, Himself to do this for us. A
covenant is a legal contract. Note
also the word "redemption" in verse 24.
The Greek word translated as redeem or redemption in the New
Testament is "exagorozo," which simply means "to buy or
purchase." There
is another Greek word translated as redeem in the New Testament and it
is the word "lutroo." This
is the word that is used here in Romans 3:24.
Lutroo is more specific. It
means a release once a ransom is paid.
There
is a slight difference between exagorazo and lutroo.
Exagorazo puts the emphasis on the price that has been paid,
while lutroo stresses the actual releasing once the price has been paid.
Redemption,
therefore, is the purchasing of someone’s freedom being purchased by
another. The word is often
used when someone buys out a slave’s freedom.
This is exactly what Jesus did for us while on the cross.
He purchased, or bought out, our freedom from the penalty for our
sin. The price that Jesus
paid was His own blood, His very human life.
The Scripture says that He "purchased our freedom with His
blood". We need to
understand that Jesus purchased this freedom from God, not the devil as
many think. As Paul
says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him (Jesus) who had no sin to be
sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
In
verse 25 we see the words "sacrifice of atonement".
The Greek word "hilaskomai" is the word that is
translated as "sacrifice of atonement" here.
Not all translations translate hilaskomai as sacrifice of
atonement here, but the NIV does. There's
another Greek word, that being, "katallasso" is the word that
is translated as "atonement" in the most of the New Testament.
This word means "to change."
"Katallasso" was the word often used in the exchange of
money in Paul’s day. Today
we might say: "Can you change (katalasso) a ten dollar bill into
two five dollar bills?" Katallasso
in the Biblical sense means that God has changed us from being His enemy
to being His friend. Katalasso
is often translated reconcile in the New Testament.
So, when we hear the word "atonement", we need to
understand it to mean becoming friends with God.
Jesus’ shed blood on the cross has taken away our enemy status.
Note
in verse 25 that the King James Bible, along with other translations do
not use the words "atoning sacrifice."
Instead, they use the word "propitiation," which in my
opinion is a better word. Because,
from the Greek text, the point to be made here is that God removed His
wrath from the life of the believer once he received the forgiveness of
sins that Jesus purchased from him on the cross.
Once
again, verse 25 says, "God presented Him (Jesus) as an atoning
sacrifice." As I
mentioned above, the Greek word translated as "atoning" here
is not the one usually translated as atonement in the New Testament.
The specific thought here is that God made Jesus to be a
sacrifice that turned away God’s wrath from us.
Why was His wrath turned away from us?
It was turned away because God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus
on the cross. Jesus
experienced God's wrath for us. Therefore God no longer has to pour out
His wrath on us who have received His provision for us on the cross.
Paul
says in verse 25 and 26 that God did all of this for us to demonstrate
His justice.
What does this mean?
Paul continues to say that sins committed in the past, in Old
Testament times, were not punished.
Because God is just, He cannot go on forever avoiding punishing
people for their sins.
So, to satisfy His sense of justice, God punished Jesus for all
of our sinfulness.
This satisfied God’s justice and showed His mercy towards us at
the same time.
God could now feel good because someone was punished for sin,
even though it was Jesus, His Son, who was punished.
In one moment of time God both loved us and satisfied His sense
of justness. What
great love He has for us. This
is why I say that both love and justice met together at the cross. Note
the word "forbearance" in verse 25.
This suggests to me that God really didn't want to punish anyone
for their sins.
He waited as long as He could before He dealt with our sin
problem, and, when He did, He punished Jesus instead of us. Note
again the element of faith in verse 26.
We are justified before God only when we have faith, only when we
trust His provision of justification.
If one has no faith, he is not justified.
He remains guilty.
In
verse 27 Paul asks, "Where is boasting, on what principle, and, on
that of observing the Law?
Paul is now wrapping up this part of his argument.
He's getting back to where he began earlier in this chapter and
also in chapter 2.
He gets back to the boasting in the Law.
In Paul's mind, he has just proved that boasting in one being
righteous on grounds of the Law of Moses, or, any other human law, is
worthless. He
concludes, if one is to boast at all, it must be based on faith, not
observance of any law.
Verse
28 is another one of those key verses.
It says, "We
maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the law."
Again,
for reasons stated earlier, I believe "the law" is in
reference to the Law of Moses.
Let me say, if God says that His own law justifies no one, then
any law that we make up certainly is meaningless when it comes to our
salvation. To
think any differently would be telling Jesus what He did on the cross
was not good enough, and we need to add a couple more things to improve
on Jesus' sacrifice.
What a horrible thought.
Sad to say, we have done this many times throughout church
history. Verse
28 is a very forceful and dramatic statement.
I do not know how many Jews there were in the Roman church that
Paul was writing to.
We do know from the last chapter of Acts that Paul did address
the non-Christian Jewish leaders in In
verse 29 Paul asks, "Is God not the God of the Gentiles as
well?"
Again, this would have irritated the Jewish leadership, but, if
the Law of Moses has nothing to do with God's salvation, then, God is
indeed the God of the Gentiles too.
It's only a logical conclusion.
Besides, it was God who made all peoples anyway.
We
need to note something very important here. Your understanding of what I
am about to say will determine how you view end time prophecy.
Paul says that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile
here. We
need to understand that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile
when it comes to faith and salvation.
That is the context of Paul's words here.
We've all sinned, and we all can be saved.
Paul is only talking about salvation by faith.
There remains a difference between Jew and Gentile when it comes
to what I call prophetic history. Without going into great detail,
through the Abrahamic Covenant found in Genesis 12:1 to 3 and elsewhere,
God promised the nation of Israel
certain things that would last forever.
He promised that they'd be a great nation and that they'd have a
particular portion of land, among other things.
Some of these promises have not yet been fulfilled.
God will fulfill them.
Israel
will always be a distinct and special nation in God's sight forever.
There are so many passages that point this out.
Paul also speaks to this later on, in chapter 9 through 11.
He has to clarify the Jewish place in prophetic history in this
book of Romans because of what he has just said about there being no
difference between Jew and Gentile in this passage. In
verse 30 Paul goes back before the Law of Moses was given to Israel. He
brings up the issue of circumcision.
He says yet another thing that would totally irritate the Jewish
leaders, and that is that circumcision is meaningless when it comes to
salvation. Salvation
is by faith alone, whether one is circumcised or not.
It makes no difference. In
verse 31 Paul makes it clear that he is not nullifying the Law of Moses
by what he just said.
He says that he still upholds the Law. That
is to say, Paul still believes there is a place for the Law of Moses,
but its place has nothing to do with salvation of the individual.
We should remember that there is a lot of prophecy in the books
of the Law.
The Law actually predicts Israel's future, which by the way, has yet to be fulfilled.
For this reason, the Law of Moses is still significant.
Paul's words "we uphold the law" can easily misunderstood. Some would suggest then that Paul obeyed the Law. Paul's belief of how the Law of Moses should be understood in this New Testament era was a point of contention in the first generation church, especially among the Jewish Christians. We can't use this verse to support the idea that Paul upheld the Law as a means to salvation. That is clear, but, did he still obey the Law, but not as a means of salvation?
The
Greek word "hisemi" is translated as "uphold" in the
NIV in verse 31.
This word simply means to stand.
So, I believe Paul did not have obedience to the Law in mind.
What I believe he had in mind was that the Law of Moses still had
use. It wasn't to be discarded.
It still has a purpose until all aspects of the Law are fulfilled
at the return of Jesus.
It's
my understanding that while with the Jewish Christians, Paul obeyed the
Law in order to not offend them.
When with the Gentiles, obedience to the Law was not as important
to him because the Law was never given to them.
This is what the Acts 15 conference was all about.
The conclusion of that gathering was that the Gentiles were not
obligated to obey the Law of Moses, which, Paul agreed to, thus would be
fundamental to Paul's view of the Law to obey.
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