Paul began by explaining the concept of justification.92
"We now come to the unfolding of that word which Paul in Chapter One declares to be the very heart of the gospel . . ."93
3:21 The "righteousness of God"here refers to God's method of bringing people into right relationship with Himself. His method is apart from Law (cf. v. 20). The definite article before "Law"is absent in the Greek text, though it probably refers to the Mosaic Law. Moreover it "has been manifested"(perfect tense in Greek, "stands manifested"), namely through the coming of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament revealed that this would be God's method even before He appeared. The reference to the Old Testament as the law and the prophets, two major sections of the Hebrew Bible, prepares the way for chapter 4. There Paul discussed Abraham and David, two representatives of these sections of Scripture.
3:22 God's righteousness becomes man's possession and begins to operate in his life through faith in Jesus Christ (v. 28; cf. Gal. 2:16; Mark 11:22).94Here Paul introduced the object of faith for the first time (cf. 1:16-17). He never said that people obtain salvation because of their faith in Christ, by the way. This would encourage the idea that our faith makes a contribution to our salvation and has some merit. Faith simply takes what God gives. It adds nothing to the gift.
"Faith . . . plays a double part in justification. It is the disposition which God accepts, and which He imputes as righteousness; and it is at the same time the instrument whereby every one may appropriate for his own personal advantage this righteousness of faith."95
Many writers have described faith as the hand of the heart. It does no work to earn salvation but only accepts a gift that someone else provides.
"The righteousness of God is not put upon' any one. That is a Romish idea,--still held, alas, among Protestants who cannot escape the conception of righteousness as a something bestowed upon us, rather than a Divine reckoning about us."96
There is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles concerning their being "under sin"(v. 9). Likewise there is no distinction regarding the manner by which Jews and Gentiles obtain salvation. All receive salvation by faith.
3:23 All must come to God by faith in Jesus Christ because all have sinned and fallen short of (i.e., lack) God's glory (cf. Mark 10:21). The glory of God probably refers to the majesty of His person.97Sin separates people from fellowship with a holy God. We lack both the character of God and the fellowship of God because of sin.
3:24 "We now come to the greatest single verse in the entire Bible on the manner of justification by faith: We entreat you, study this verse. We have seen many a soul, upon understanding it, come into peace."98
It is all who believe (v. 22), not all who have sinned (v. 23), who receive justification (v. 24).99Justification is an act, not a process. And it is something God does, not man.
As mentioned previously, justification is a forensic (legal) term. On the one hand it means to acquit (Exod. 23:7; Deut. 25:1; Acts 13:39). On the other positive side it means to declarerighteous. It does not mean to makerighteous.
"The word never means to make one righteous, or holy; but to account one righteous. Justification is not a change wrought by God in us, but a change of our relation to God."100
Justification describes a person's status in the sight of the law, not the condition of his or her character. The condition of one's character and conduct is that with which sanctification deals.
"Do not confuse justification and sanctification. Sanctification is the process whereby God makes the believer more and more like Christ. Sanctification may change from day to day. Justification never changes. When the sinner trusts Christ, God declares him righteous, and that declaration will never be repealed. God looks on us and deals with us as though we had never sinned at all!"101
God, the judge, sees the justified sinner in Christ (i.e., in terms of his relation to His Son) with whom the Father is well pleased (8:1; cf. Phil. 3:8-9; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21). Justification includes forgiveness but is larger than forgiveness.
"God declares that He reckons righteous the ungodly man who ceases from all works, and believes on Him (God), as the God who, on the ground of Christ's shed blood, justifies the ungodly' (4.5). He declares such an one righteous: reckoning to him all the absolute value of Christ's work,--of His expiating death, and of His resurrection, and placing him in Christ:where he is the righteousness of God: for Christ is that! . . .
"We do not need therefore a personal standing' before God at all. This is the perpetual struggle of legalistic theology,--to state how we can have a standing' before God. But to maintain this is still to think of us as separate from Christ (instead of dead and risen with Him), and needing such a standing.' But if we are in Christ in such an absolute way that Christ Himself has been made unto us righteousness, we are immediately relieved from the need of having any standing.' Christ is our standing, Christ Himself! And Christ being the righteousness of God, we, being thus utterly and vitally in Christ before God, have no other place but in Him. We are the righteousness of God in Christ.'"102
God bestows justification freely as a gift. The basis for His giving it is His own grace, not anything in the sinner.
"Grace
means pure unrecompensed kindness and favor."103
Grace (Gr. charis) is the basis for joy (chara), and it leads to thanksgiving (eucharistia).
The redemption that is in (i.e., came by) Christ Jesus is the means God used to bring the gift of justification to human beings. The Greek word for redemption used here (apolutroseos) denotes a deliverance obtained by purchase (cf. Matt. 20:28; 1 Tim. 2:6; 1 Pet. 1:18; 1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; Gal. 3:13). Everywhere in the New Testament this Greek word, when used metaphorically, refers to "deliverance effected through the death of Christ for the retributive wrath of a holy God and the merited penalty of sin . . ."104
Paul's use of "Christ Jesus"rather than the normal "Jesus Christ"stresses the fact that God provided redemption by supplying the payment. That payment was the Messiah (Christ) promised in the Old Testament who was Jesus of Nazareth.
Though the question of who received the ransom price has divided scholars, Scripture is quite clear that Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice to God (Luke 23:46).
"Before you leave verse 24, apply it to yourself, if you are a believer. Say of yourself: God has declared me righteous without any cause in me, by His grace, through the redemption from sin's penalty that is in Christ Jesus.' It is the bold, believing use for ourselvesof the Scripture we learn, that God desires; and not merely the knowledge of Scripture."105
3:25 Paul stressed faith in this verse. Therefore we should probably understand his reference to the public display of Christ as being an allusion to His presentation in the gospel rather than to His crucifixion.
There are two possible meanings of "propitiation"(NASB) or "sacrifice of propitiation"(NIV). The Greek word (hilasterion) is an adjective that can substitute for a noun. It means having placating or expiating force.106It could refer to Jesus Christ as the place where God satisfied His wrath and removed our sins. This is the substantival usage translated "propitiation."In favor of this interpretation is the use of this Greek word to translate the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant (Exod. 25:17, LXX; Heb. 9:5). However, it seems more natural to take hilasterionas referring to Jesus Christ as the sacrifice that satisfied God's wrath and removed our sins. This is the normal adjectival use translated "sacrifice of atonement"(cf. 1 John 2:2; 4:10). Jesus Christ was the sacrifice, but the place where God made atonement was the Cross.
The translation "through faith in His blood"(NIV) correctly represents the word order in the Greek text. Paul elsewhere urged faith in the person of Jesus Christ (vv. 22, 26). Probably Paul mentioned His blood as representing His life poured out as a sacrifice of atonement instead of the person of Christ here to draw attention to what made His sacrifice atoning (cf. 5:9; Eph. 1:7; 2:13; Col. 1:20).107
The full idea of the first part of the verse would then be this. God has publicly displayed Jesus Christ in the gospel as a sacrifice of atonement that satisfied God's wrath and removed our sins. His sacrifice becomes efficacious for those who trust in Him.
The antecedent of "this"(NASB) is the redemption (v. 24) God provided in Christ, as is clear in the NIV translation. Another reason God provided a sacrifice of atonement was to justify (declare righteous) God's own character (i.e., to vindicate Him). This was necessary because God had not finally dealt with sins committed before Jesus died. God had shown forbearance, not out of weakness or sentimentality but because He planned to provide a final sacrifice in the future, namely at the Cross.
"Passed over"(NASB) or "left . . . unfinished"(NIV) is not the same as "forgave."Two different though related Greek words describe these two ideas, paresisand aphesisrespectively. God did not forgive the sins of Old Testament saints finally until Jesus died on the cross. The blood of the animal sacrifices of Judaism only covered them temporarily. God did not exact a full penalty for sin until Jesus died. It is as though the Old Testament believers who offered the sacrifices for the expiation of sin that the Mosaic Law required paid for those sins with a credit card. God accepted those sacrifices as a temporary payment. However the bill came due later, and Jesus Christ paid that off entirely.
3:26 This verse explains the significance of Jesus Christ's death since the Cross. It demonstrates God's righteousness, the subject of Romans, by showing that God is both just in His dealings with sin and the Justifier who provides righteous standing for the sinner. Note that it is only those who have faith in Jesus who stand justified.
Verses 21-26 constitute an excellent explanation of God's imputation of righteousness to believing sinners by describing justification. These verses contain "God's great statement of justification by faith."108To summarize, God can declare sinners righteous because Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for their sins by dying in their place. His death satisfied God's demands against sinners completely. Now God declares those who trust in Jesus Christ as their substitute righteous.
"Justification is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous in Christ on the basis of the finished work of Christ on the cross."109
". . . the direct exposition of the righteousness by faith ends with the twenty-sixth verse. If the epistle had ended there it would not have been incomplete. All the rest is a consideration of objections [and, I might add, implications], in which the further unfolding of the righteousness is only incidental."110
The characteristics of justification are that it is apart from the Law (v. 21), through faith in Christ (v. 22a), for all people (vv. 22b-23), by grace (v. 24), at great cost to God (vv. 24b-25), and in perfect justice (v. 26).111
