Romans 3:21-31 "Justified by Faith"

1:16And that's the word but. You have cancer, but it's treatable. Your son was wounded in combat. But he's going to survive. Your daughter was in a car accident, but she's not hurt. Your house burned to the ground, but your family is safe. In these situations, the word but makes all the difference, doesn't it? And in Scripture, we have many examples of the word but making all of the difference. In Isaiah 53, the prophet tells us that we've all gone astray like sheep, but the coming Messiah would be pierced for our transgressions.

2:10In John 16, Jesus tells us that in this world we will have trouble, but we can take heart because he has overcome the world. In Ephesians 2, Paul tells us that we are dead in our sins and our trespasses, but God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ. Some people refer to these as the biggest buts in the Bible. I wouldn't do that because that's not appropriate in church. It is true, however, that we have come to one of the biggest buts in the Bible here in Romans 3:21.

2:58Before we get to that verse, though, It's important to review what we've learned so far in the book of Romans. God exists, and everyone knows it. It's evident from the things that He has made, this universe, this world, and we ourselves. God wrote His law on every heart, and He gave every person a conscience that tells us that what we are doing is either right or wrong. He's also put His written law into many hands so that all people are without excuse, because we either know God's law in our hearts or from our hands as we hold it and read it, or both. We know what God requires of us. Verses 9, but every person has sinned.

3:40As we saw last week in verses 9 through 20, there is no one righteous, not even one. We are all born in sin. Nobody seeks for God. Nobody fears God. We sin against God and others, both publicly and privately, openly and secretly. And we know it because God's law is placed in our hearts or in our hands or both. Paul ended the last section with verse 20: For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

4:24Now, that word justified means to declare righteous. It is a legal term belonging. Belonging to the courts of law. And Paul said that by works of the law, that is, by attempting to do what God commanded, nobody would be justified, nobody would be declared righteous in his sight. And of course, that makes perfect sense. After all, how could God justify the unrighteous and still be righteous himself? Well, Paul is going to answer that question in our text today. How could God justify the unrighteous and still be righteous himself?

5:07We will see in the scripture this morning, we will be justified through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So I want to give you the outline and show you where we're going today. Take a look on the screen here. The whole Bible teaches justification by faith. It's not a New Testament concept. The whole Bible teaches that. We are justified by faith in Jesus, not just by faith, but by faith in Jesus. God is just to justify believers in Jesus. Paul is going to explain that.

5:44And we must move from a law of works to the law of faith. And so let's jump in here at verse 21, and we'll see that the whole Bible teaches justification by faith. Look at verse 21. But now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. What a relief to read the words, but now.

6:20Things seemed absolutely hopeless in the last section. We are sinners who will not be justified by works of the law because we cannot keep God's law perfectly. We cannot do it. Even if we could, it would not make up for our past failures to keep God's law in the rest of our life. But now, Paul says, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. What does he mean when he says that? Verse 22: The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

7:00The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, and it is manifested through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. And Paul says that the law and the prophets bear witness to it. That's shorthand for the whole Old Testament, the law and the prophets. He says they bear witness to it. Now, he doesn't explain it here because he's going to do that later, especially in chapter 4. He's going to show how all of the law and the prophets bear witnesses. Bear witness to justification by faith. We'll get there next week.

7:34But I want you now to consider just a few verses from the Old Testament that teach justification by faith. Look on the screen. Genesis 15, 6. And Abraham believed the Lord, and God counted it to him as righteousness. Look at Isaiah 53. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Look at Habakkuk 2. Behold, his soul is puffed up.

8:15It is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Over and over again, we see that the Old Testament teaches justification by faith, that people are not declared righteous by what they do, but through faith in God and his promises. God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness. Isaiah said the coming Messiah would bear our iniquities, our sins, and cause many to be counted righteous. Habakku declared that the righteous shall live by his faith, which Paul quoted back in Romans 1. Saw that a few weeks ago. In other words, the whole Bible teaches justification by his faith. By faith, not just the New Testament. That's not a New Testament concept. It's a whole Bible concept. From Genesis to Revelation, the consistent message is that God justifies us. He counts us righteous through faith.

9:17Now, let's see that we are not just justified by faith, but through faith in Jesus. Let's pick up again in verse 21. But now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

10:03Many commentators call this the most important paragraph in the Bible. We saw that the whole Bible teaches justification by faith and not by works. And here in verses 22 through 25, Paul shows why that has to be the case, why we have to be justified by faith and not by works. It's because of what we find in verse 23. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We have sinned in the past, and we do fall short of God's glory in the present. And so, the Apostle John says it like this: look on the screen. He writes, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

11:02So, if you try to say that you're sinless right now, you are deceiving yourself. You fall short of God's glory today, no matter how good you are, no matter how much better you are today than you used to be. And if you say that you haven't sinned, that you've never broken God's law in your life, in thought, word, or deed, you're making God into a liar. Because he says that you have. He says that I have. He says we all have. Every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

11:37And so, what this means is that our past works aren't good, our present works aren't good, and so clearly we cannot be justified, we can't be counted righteous by our works. That's what Paul wrote back at the end of the last section in verse 20. No human being will be justified by works. So, if we are going to be justified, if we're going to be defending, Declared righteous by God, it has to be through some other way. And that is what Paul says here in the text. Look at verse 23 again.

12:10For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift. How are we justified? By God's grace as a gift. Grace is unmerited favor. It's undeserved. It's a gift that is given. You cannot earn grace. Earned grace, deserved grace, is an oxymoron. If you've earned it, if you deserve it, then it's not grace. It's your wages. It's what you have earned through your work. That's what Paul's going to argue in chapter 4. But friends, grace is undeserved favor. It's unmerited. It's a gift that is given to us and given to us by God.

13:04And how does this gift come to us? Verse 24. We are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now that word redemption is very important. In the ancient world, slaves who were purchased in order to be freed were said to be freed To be redeemed, someone paid a price, and as a result, the slave is set free. Now, what an important principle for you and I to understand. If you've ever taken economics before, you know that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Kids, this is very important for you to grasp and to grasp quickly in your life. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If something is free, it is because someone else paid for it. That is what that means. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you don't have to pay for something, it's because someone else paid for it. And what Paul is saying is that God's grace comes to us as a gift. It does not cost us anything, but it cost Jesus everything.

14:27Look what Jesus said in John chapter 8. Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The Son remains forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. See, we're all born slaves to sin. We are born with sinful hearts that lead us to become idolaters and lawbreakers and sinners. On our own, we can't stop and won't stop. That's why Jesus says, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

15:11But Jesus came to set us free from slavery to sin. How would he do that? Look at Mark chapter 10. Jesus says, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus came to serve by giving his life as a ransom for you and me. Because of our debt, because of our sin, rather, we owed God a debt that we could never repay. And so Jesus came to pay our debt for us.

15:49We were born slaves to sin, but Jesus came to set us free by purchasing our freedom, by redeeming us. And he redeemed us by paying our ransom, by laying down his life for us, the debt that we could not repay to God with his own life. Look again at verse 24. We are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

16:30Now that word propitiation is one that you have probably never seen before in your life unless you've read the Bible. That is not a word that we use in everyday language. Propitiation means atoning sacrifice. Atoning sacrifice. And an atoning sacrifice is a sacrifice that not only satisfies God's wrath, but it turns God's wrath into favor. An atoning sacrifice is one that satisfies God's wrath and turns that wrath into favor. I want you to remember what we saw in Romans 1.18. Look on the screen. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

17:20God's wrath burns against all people, Jews and Gentiles, because every one of us is unrighteous. Every one of us is ungodly. Every one of us from birth suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. And so Jesus came to make an atoning sacrifice for our sins, a sacrifice that not only satisfies God's wrath, but turns that wrath into favor. Friends, this is so important for you to grasp. Because listen to me, this is the very heart of the gospel message. This is the very heart of the gospel message. This is why biblical theology matters. This is why it's so important that we understand the great truths of Scripture. Because when we understand these great truths of Scripture, especially the truth about our salvation, we are moved to love and worship God. We are moved to live lives of gratitude for what He has done for us because we understand what He has done for us. Or at least we are on the path to understanding what He has done for us.

18:33Jesus came to make an atoning sacrifice for our sins, a sacrifice that not only satisfied God's wrath, but turned that wrath into favor. And so, by shedding His blood for us, Jesus did so much more than just securing forgiveness for our sins. You see, forgiveness means that when you stand guilty before the King, the King says to you, you may go. I will not hold this against you. But propitiation means that when you stand guilty before the King, the King says to you, You may come.

19:20Enter into the fullness of my love. Do you see the night and day difference between those two things? Forgiveness. Is you may go. Propitiation is you may come. And that is the heart of the gospel. That Jesus has made propitiation for our sins. He laid down his life. He shed his blood. He made an atoning sacrifice that satisfied God's wrath and turned God's wrath into favor. And how do we receive that sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf? Look at verse 25 again. whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

20:06We receive Jesus' atoning sacrifice through faith because it is offered to us as a gift of grace. You don't earn gifts. You receive gifts. There's a huge difference there. And we receive the gift of God's grace by faith in Jesus. And so, friends, what have we seen this morning? The whole Bible teaches justification by faith. We will be declared righteous by faith and by faith alone. But it's not our faith that justifies us. It's our faith in Jesus that justifies us. We are not justified by the amount of faith that we have, but by the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. Listen to me. You can have all the faith in the world.

20:58But faith alone. Alone will not save you. Only faith in Jesus Christ, who shed his blood as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, will save you. We are not saved by faith, but by faith in Jesus. And now we come to that critical question. That question that we asked at the beginning of the sermon: How can God justify those who believe in Jesus Christ? How can He count righteous those who are unrighteous and still be righteous Himself?

21:36That is what Paul answers in that last section. Is God just to justify believers in Jesus? Let's look at verse 25 again. Look at the second half. This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. By the time Jesus died and rose again, people had been sinning against God and each other for thousands of years.

22:23But that whole time, God is justifying people, He's counting them righteous through faith. Abraham is a prime. Example, God counted his faith as righteousness, and every other old covenant believer as well. But that also means that God is passing over their sins that entire. Remember, there's no free lunch. Nobody has paid for these sins. That seems unrighteous, unfair, unjust. Surely a righteous God cannot simply pass over sins. Well, that's exactly right. God cannot simply pass over sins. If he did, he would not be just. Justice has not been served if God passes over sins.

23:13But friends, God had no intention of simply passing over sins forever. No, Paul says that at the present time, that is in Paul's lifetime, God showed his righteousness by putting forward his only son as a propitiation by his blood. God put forward Jesus to bear the wrath that we deserve for our sins. And Jesus himself understood this. When he was talking to Nicodemus, one of the greatest teachers in Israel, look at what Jesus says. He tells Nicodemus, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life. But the wrath Of God remains on him.

24:05Jesus said, if you don't believe in the Son, if you do not believe in him, the wrath of God remains on you. You've got to bear it yourself because God cannot just pass over your sins. He cannot pretend like they never happened. But if you do believe in the Son, then Jesus says that He came to bear God's wrath for you. Jesus came, he said, to drink the full cup of God's wrath all the way down to the bottom until there was nothing left. He came to drink the full cup of God's wrath, all the wrath that we had stored up against ourselves for our ungodliness, our unrighteousness, our suppression of the truth. He came to drink that full cup of wrath for us.

24:58And that is why when he hung on the cross, all of the gospel writers record that he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It is the only time in his life and ministry that he does not call him Father or my Father in heaven. He uses the distant term God. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because Jesus was bearing the wrath of God for you. And for me, for every one of his people. Instead of punishing us, he punished Jesus. God gave us his only son. He put him forward as a propitiation, as an atoning sacrifice in your place and mine. So look again at verse 26.

25:48It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. You see, friends, if God sent everyone to hell for eternity because of their sins, that would be just. That would be fair, because that is what sinners deserve. That makes sense to us because we understand how justice works. Crimes have to be paid for, sin has to be paid for. We understand that. But that's not the question. The question is: how could God justify sinners? How could a righteous God declare the unrighteous to be righteous?

26:33The answer is the cross. On the cross, Jesus took our place, bearing the wrath of God for us. Jesus' bloody death proved that God is just, that he would not simply pass over the sins of his people, but that someone would pay for the consequences of our sins. Because Jesus lived a sinless and perfectly obedient life. All who believe in him, all who receive him by faith, are justified by God. We are counted righteous through faith in him. On the cross, God demonstrated his righteousness by putting Jesus to death in our place. He revealed himself to be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

27:27And so, where does that leave us? What must we do? Well, as Paul shows us in the last paragraph here, we've got to move from a law of works to the law of faith. Let's pick up in verse 27. Then, what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law.

28:29Every single Thing that Paul has said to this point has focused on what God has done for us. But now, in this final section, the focus shifts. What must we do? What is our response to what God has done for us? Paul says that response is to move from a law of works to the law of faith. I want you to notice he doesn't say the law of works and a law of faith. He says we've got to move from a law of works to the law of faith. Why does he say that?

29:14It's because you can't be justified by any law of works. You can't be justified by any law of works. You will not be justified by working hard to keep God's law because you haven't kept it perfectly and you won't keep it perfectly. And so you can't be justified by trying to keep God's law. But you won't be justified by any other law of works either because every other law of works is just a man-made system. Now, that system may have been invented by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon cult, or by Muhammad, the founder of Islam. It might be your own system of works that you have devised, saying, If I do these things, I will be righteous. If I avoid these things, I will be righteous. It doesn't matter. You will not be counted righteous by any law of works because that's not God's standard. God's standard is not Joseph Smith's standard or Muhammad's standard or your standard or my standard. God's standard is His perfect law, and we have not kept it. We won't keep it. For all have sinned and do fall short of God's glory.

30:36So no one will be justified by a law of works. We will only be justified through the law of faith. The law of faith. And he says it that way because there is only one. You've probably heard people say, all faiths are basically the same. As long as you have faith, you'll go to heaven. But that is not true. Jesus did not say that. He said, I am the way and the truth and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me.

31:16Faith does not save us. We are not saved simply by having faith in something or anything. We are saved through faith in Jesus, the one whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. As a gift of his grace. That's why Paul says here that boasting is excluded. It's ruled out because nobody can boast in their works. Nobody earned their righteous standing before God. Boasting is excluded by the law of faith. Faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, not faith in works that we have done.

31:55So, brothers and sisters, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ this morning and you've been struggling for a long time because you feel like you are just not good enough, your performance is not good enough, your obedience is just not good enough, I want you to let Paul's words sink in in verse 28. Look there. For we hold that one is justified by faith, apart from works of the law. You are accepted by God. You are loved by God. You are received by God and welcomed by God because Jesus succeeded where you failed. He shed his blood so that we would never be punished, never be condemned, never be cast out. He shed his blood to redeem you and me from slavery to sin. He shed his blood to bring the gift of God's grace to you and to me. And so, believer in Jesus, rest in the righteousness of God this morning that is credited to you through faith in Christ.

33:19And if you are here today and you've been trying to justify yourself by a law of works, any law of works, you need to stop because our works don't work. No human being will be justified by works of the law. Instead, you need to receive the person and work of Jesus by faith. God put him forward as an atoning sacrifice for your sins. He shed his blood in your place. All you need to do is receive that gift by faith. You can do that right now, right here, this morning. You can tell God, God, I have spent my whole life trying to earn your favor through my performance, through religion, through my list of do's and don'ts, through trying to be a good person. I've spent my whole life doing that, but no more.

34:23Today, this morning, I am going to put my faith in Jesus and trust. That His atoning sacrifice was all that was necessary to reconcile me to you, to not just forgive me for my sins, but to earn my place in your family. You can do that today. Some of you have been putting that off for weeks. You've been putting that off for months. You've been putting that off since you were a kid. And today needs to be the day that you no longer trust in yourself, but you put your faith in Christ alone and hope in Him alone for salvation. Receive Him this morning. There will not be a better day. There will not be a better time. Receive Christ today.

35:14So, if you've ever wondered how could God justify the unrighteous, people like you and me, Paul tells us, we will be justified through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we pray that even now your Spirit would. Be at work in us and among us. God, I pray that you are speaking directly to many men and women and children in this room right now, moving them to receive your Son by faith. I pray that this morning, for the first time, it's clear to them that they've been trying to justify themselves by what they do.

36:25And we pray that many would profess faith in Christ today, that many would confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, that many would be baptized and begin following Jesus as one of his disciples. We pray for that. And God, we pray for every Christian here with us today. Every Christian who feels like a failure, who feels burdened by all that they are not doing, who feels burdened by all that they have done. I pray that you would minister to them this morning and remind them that it is not their works, but the work of Jesus that allows them to come before you with confidence.

37:20God, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for meeting us here today. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.