Apart from the Law, a Righteousness of God Has Been Revealed
19Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. 20Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 21But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; 22even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, 23for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; 24being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; 25whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; 26to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. 27Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith. 31Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.
The apostle Paul declared that all the people of the world are sinners. He proclaimed that there is not a single righteous person in this world, that there is no one who understands and no one who seeks God. Those born on this earth do not know the light of Christ, and therefore they do not know the truth; so, he charged sharply, they live taking the prince of the power of the air for their father. Everyone is born a slave of Satan and can become a child of God only by receiving Jesus Christ during their lifetime; but the Jews would not listen to the gospel, because they relied on the law.
Listening to Paul’s preaching, we feel the full weight of it: human beings, unable to deal with their own sin, cannot escape falling into hell. Because they do not believe in Christ, the way of truth that leads to heaven, they cannot be delivered from death.
Romans 3:19
19Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.
The law speaks to those who are under the law. In other words, no one who lives in this world is exempt; all are under the law, which makes all of them sinners. This is why there must be a Messiah to rescue us from God’s judgment. Picture a ship that has broken apart, its passengers thrown into the open sea. They look in every direction, see no ship coming to save them, and cannot help but despair. If no rescue ship arrives before the ship goes down, they will die with no way out, and they must be terrified. Among those in the water are people with worldly power, the very rich, good people who have done many kind deeds, and even a criminal on the run after killing someone. Not knowing when death will come, one may boast of their power to the person beside them, or shout, “Do you know how good a life I have lived?” But the pounding waves close every mouth.
The endless sea before them is the law, and the ship that will rescue them is the Messiah. However well each of those flailing in the water may have lived in the world, if the ship of salvation does not come, they are as good as dead. Watching the waves crash over them and thinking of death, they will feel how empty was the life they once prided themselves on having lived to the full. In that last moment some will regret the way they have lived, while others will cry out that it is unfair. Yet whether they regret or cry out, their one hope is that the ship will arrive before they die; and if it does not come, what awaits them after death will be settled by the faith they have held until then.
Romans 3:21
21But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets;
Struggling in the water, they did not know it, but ships that had seen the disaster had already radioed the rescue ship, and its captain, hearing the news, had set out for the scene. The people were in despair, thinking only of death, but the vessel that would save them was racing toward them.
God gave the law to make people realize that, like those adrift on the open sea, they are unable to keep the whole law. Just as those in the sea of death wait for the ship that will rescue them, the condition of salvation for those who lived in Old Testament times was faith that waited for the Messiah. So in Psalm 143:1-2 David asked Yahweh to hear his prayer, to listen to his petitions, and to answer him in his faithfulness and righteousness; he begged God not to enter into judgment with his servant, confessing that in his sight no one living is righteous. Only when we admit how small we are, unable to shed our sin even by keeping the law and unworthy even of God’s grace, will we wait for the Messiah more earnestly. Paul keeps stressing that human beings are sinners who cannot be forgiven, because only those who know they are sinners can grasp how precious is the holy grace that comes through God’s special plan.
Paul said that apart from the law a righteousness of God has been revealed. Sinners found that the harder they strove to keep the law, the more their sin multiplied; and to them, when the time had come, a righteousness of God appeared, just as God had planned. From God’s point of view, this righteousness of God is the fulfillment of his covenant; from ours, it is the very righteousness proclaimed by the law and the prophets, now seen with our own eyes. The rescue ship reached the scene just as it had set out to do, but to the people in the water it was a miracle: the ship of salvation they had longed for had appeared. This rescue ship is Christ, the righteousness of God apart from the law.
Romans 3:22
22even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction,
The law holds within it God’s holiness, righteousness, and character, and it lays down that creatures must obey absolutely. To keep this law perfectly would take a righteous person, but there is not one righteous person in the world; so however hard we obey, the burden of sin only piles higher.
Unlike the law, the righteousness of God makes righteous the sinner who could not come to God because of sin, and brings them to him. Just as the rescue ship saved everyone who had fallen into the sea, Jesus Christ has saved, without distinction, all who have lived by faith from Old Testament times until now. You may wonder how those who lived in the Old Testament could be saved without knowing Christ, but they too were saved by faith, in exactly the same way. Those who trusted God, believed that the Messiah would come, and believed in God’s mercy are the ones who were saved. The people of the Old Testament, too, were counted righteous by God through faith, regardless of works.
To be saved, we must believe that the Son of God was born on this earth in the flesh. We must believe that by his precious blood on the cross he tore down the wall of sin that had blocked the way to God. To believe in Christ, then, is like climbing aboard the rescue ship without a doubt. The world today is trying to break the rescue ship apart and drag those aboard back into the sea. This shows how powerfully the spirit of Satan is at work. So we must meditate on the word ever more deeply and pray.
Romans 3:24
24being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;
Like a wall too high to scale, sin keeps us from coming to the holy God. For sinners like us, Jesus took up the cross in our place and atoned for our sin. Forgiven through his precious blood, we are now declared righteous and can come to God directly. Those who come to God without Jesus are thrown into death. God looks only at Jesus Christ; he does not forgive those who died without faith, and he casts them into hell. Think of it this way. My son’s friend can come into my house because of my son. I do not open my door to someone who has no tie to my son. In the same way, we must never forget that it is because of Jesus that we can go to heaven.
Leviticus 17:11
11For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.
In the Old Testament, each time someone sinned, they brought an animal to the priest, transferred their sin to it, and made atonement by sprinkling its blood on the altar. But now the Son of God has caused our sins to be forgiven once for all by the blood he shed on the cross, and we no longer need to be forgiven day after day through the blood of animals. Through the precious blood shed on the cross he forgave the sins of all humanity, fulfilled the law, and tore the veil that had stood between God and sinners. Only by this faith can we be saved and enter the Kingdom of God.
Romans 3:25-26
25whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; 26to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.
God must have known that the people he formed from dust would sin. He knew that Satan held the power of the air, and still he made human beings from the stuff of this world; from this it seems that God planned from the beginning to save those who would overcome Satan’s opposition and hold to faith. Translations render the appearing of the righteousness of God as “has been made manifest,” “has been made known,” or “has been revealed.” From this we can see that the coming of God’s righteousness, Jesus Christ, was already God’s plan. That righteousness was there from the beginning.
Christ, ordained before the ages, came into the world, and his coming showed how righteous God is, a God who could not excuse sin. People lived without knowing they were sinners, so God gave them the law and made them realize that the more they practiced it, the higher their sin piled up; and through the law and the prophets he kept telling them that the Messiah would come to deal with that sin. The people of the Old Testament, then, were saved when they heard the prophets’ unceasing message that the Messiah was coming and lived by faith. This is how God, in his forbearance, demonstrated his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins. We must never forget that we are saved by faith, for no one can be saved by sincere effort or by works.
In his wisdom Paul stresses that only those who believe that Christ paid his own blood as the price to set us free, when we were living as slaves of sin, will be saved. The wages of sin is death, so we deserve to die forever; yet Jesus paid the price of that sin with his own blood and gave us new life. Christ, the Son of God, fulfilled God’s plan by offering himself as the atoning sacrifice, and by his own blood he revealed the holiness and righteousness of the God who forgives sinners. If a son wants to show that his parents are righteous, he need only live righteously as they taught him, and people will naturally come to know that his parents are righteous. But who would presume to reveal that God is righteous? Only the Son, Jesus Christ, can do that, just as only Jesus Christ can lead sinners imprisoned in death to God. That is why God filled the righteous Jesus Christ with glory.
If we do not believe in Jesus Christ, who laid the ground on which we are declared righteous, it is only right that we fall into death. Now, when we come to God together with Christ, we are received as the righteous. God looks only at Christ, who completed the work of atonement and established the Kingdom of God on this earth; for Christ’s sake he will acknowledge Christians as his children. Paul, who grasped all this, cried out in Romans 11:33 at the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, whose judgments are unsearchable and whose ways are past tracing out.
Had the Son of God not set aside his throne and come to this earth, those under Satan’s dominion would never have escaped death. Christ made the darkness give way to light. We must always ask ourselves how we can repay that love, and live lives of thanksgiving.
Titus 3:4-5
4But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, 5not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
The kindness of God was revealed in the sacrifice of the cross that Jesus Christ bore. This act of redemption is the fulfillment of God’s kindness and love toward humanity. Christ offered himself as the atoning sacrifice and completed our salvation, and those saved through his sacrifice cannot boast before God of any deed. God, in his kindness, holiness, and righteousness, had pity on human beings, forgave them, and granted them salvation through Christ; salvation therefore rests not on human works but on the favor of God. To receive such love and still not be born again is like committing the sin of nailing Jesus to the cross again. If we have truly understood this love, we must have the faith that puts off the old self and is born anew, and we must live as saints who are being sanctified.
Romans 3:27-28
27Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
Jesus, who atoned for our sins, said that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one can come to God except through him. He made it plain that he is the only way to God. Anyone who still tries to be saved by works will not be forgiven that pride.
Paul’s point is this: Jesus Christ has accomplished God’s plan, and righteousness has been given to all people without distinction. We can be saved only by believing in Jesus, who is the truth; to boast of our own works, then, is the folly of someone who has never met Jesus. Even so, to the very end people cannot lay down their pride.
Satan harbored the proud thought of ascending to the highest place and making himself like the Most High, and he fell under the wrath of God. Adam, too, listened when Satan told him that if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil his eyes would be opened and he would be like God; he disobeyed the word and was cast off. When people grow proud, they exalt themselves above God, and before they know it they are building a tower of Babel. The higher the tower rises, the more they credit their own ability, until they fall into the wicked thought that they can live without God, and in the end they are destroyed. When we watch the Nuri rocket climbing toward space, we see how foolish human effort is, never knowing how high the tower of Babel would have to be built to reach God. The very thought of reaching God is sin, and to approach God, who is spirit, by fleshly means is evil.
Proverbs 16:17-18
17The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He who keeps his way preserves his soul. 18Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
To walk the way of Jesus Christ, we must depart from evil; only those who turn from evil and take the way of truth can preserve their souls. The greatest stumbling block is pride. Those whose hearts Satan has stolen, and who have grown proud, cannot escape destruction, and the haughty, who put their own boasts and abilities first, will fall in the end. We must know how grave a sin pride is in God’s sight. Charles Spurgeon said, “God deals with other sins with his finger, but for pride he rolls up his sleeves.” When people become proud, the road they travel leads to hell, and the words from their mouths slander and attack God, carrying them far from salvation. For this reason the apostle Paul insists that we are saved only by the law of faith. Of course, those who have been saved must also show good works. Once we receive Christ, works of faith must follow. But works are not in themselves holy faith. Good works are what naturally appear when we live by the word. It is like the way God’s love and righteousness, which we could never have known, were revealed through the cross of Jesus. If, saved by Jesus’ sacrifice, we still boast of our own works, we despise the love of God and commit the sin of mocking Christ. Such boasting lays bare the pride that casts aside Christ, who fulfilled the law, and sets out to be saved by keeping the law through its own works.
Ephesians 2:8-10
8for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not of works, that no one would boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
Paul said, “Salvation is not the result of human effort; it is the gift of God, who gave himself to save sinners lost in death.” God gave freely, at no cost, a salvation in which human merit has no part, and he planned it so, that no one would boast of it. Yet even after hearing that we were saved without any merit of our own, we boast of our works every day to win God’s approval. We bring out as trophies the prayers we have offered and the offerings we have given, our attendance at worship and the service we have rendered. But even if we laid down our lives for the Kingdom of God, it would be nothing to boast of before the God who rescued us from death.
No one is as foolish as the person who forgets the wonderful grace that carried them from darkness to light, from hell to heaven, from slavery to Satan into the people of God, and who boasts of their own works. God does not permit human wisdom or ability to defile his grace. So in Matthew 5:17 Jesus said, “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Jesus, who gave the law through his word, fulfilled that law himself; if we believe this and trust fully in Jesus Christ, we can go to heaven. Those who believe in Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the law, will not come under God’s wrath and will be declared righteous. We must realize what a wondrous miracle it is to be declared righteous. It is a miracle because, to make sinners righteous, God used Satan’s greed and caused Jesus to bear the cross. Do you still have anything to boast of before God the Creator, before Christ who rescued you from death, and before the Holy Spirit who works for your salvation? If you give thanks to the Father, who with unchanging love and grace keeps his beloved children from falling into the lake of fire where Satan and the false prophet are, you will not commit the sin of pride.
My prayer is that you will give thanks in all things. May you always rejoice in the salvation God has given, and pray without ceasing so that you do not sin. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward us. When, like the apostle Paul, we confess that whatever was gain to us we have counted loss for Christ, and hold to an obedient faith, God will surround us like a hedge with his power, in still greater mercy and grace.