Or, Righteousness: Always by Faith and by Faith Alone Romans 3:21-26 February 27, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

It would be challenging to find a more important paragraph in the New Testament. The truth in it depends on the realities about Jesus’ life and death and resurrection recorded for us in the Gospels. But if 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 is the summary of gospel history, then Romans 3:21-26 is the cream that rises to the top of gospel theology.

A couple brief comments: I love paragraphs, and what they lack in terms of navigation helps—which chapters and verses provide—they make up for in interpretation parameters. I love copies of Scripture that make the paragraphs clear, and I usually preach paragraph by paragraph.

This paragraph is about the power and grace of God’s righteousness. Having spent a couple chapters proving that righteousness is needed, now Paul will spend a couple chapters showing how righteousness has been procured (by the sacrifice of Christ) and is being provided (by the gracious yet just Father).

I’m going to take a couple whacks at this paragraph, and for a couple reasons. First, there is that much relief to rejoice over; there’s no benefit to skim too quickly over the depths of our comfort. Second, there will be a lot to hear today, including the seminar. Besides, when it comes to the preaching part of my job I have been wanting to do better getting you the food but not making you sit so long. There are practical concerns and trade-offs when it comes to preaching paragraphs, and you are mostly and consistently gracious however much I cover, but it is my desire to honor the Lord and His Word while serving you well.

Verses 21-26 are grammatically one sentence (punctuated differently by various translations, the NASB acknowledges one sentence), though verses 25-26 drill in on Christ Jesus in a way that will let us exalt Him as our propitiation next week.

Righteousness for Any Believer (verses 21-22a)

The subject is the righteousness of God and it is spelled out twice. The action is one of revelation, of disclosure, and though the verb manifested is explicit only once it is implied another time. There is a contrast between how righteousness is, and is not, made manifest.

Verse 21 introduces the second major heading of the letter. Paul greeted the Romans and shared his theme that in the gospel “the righteousness of God is revealed” (Romans 1:17), but since Romans 1:18 he has been showing that God’s righteousness is being revealed through God’s judgment on those who are not righteous. Whether or not men care, this is their condition. Whether or not men wish they could do something about it, they can’t. This paragraph beginning in 3:21 is the hinge into God’s righteousness being revealed through justification.

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it, (but) the righteousness of God (is being manifested) through faith in Jesus Christ for all the ones believing.”

A new page has been turned but the book is still the same. Now we know more than even the Jews knew before the Messiah came. They had God’s standards, but no one kept them, “not even one” (Romans 3:12). According to 3:20, a man’s works were never meant to merit or earn a right standing with God, though the law meant that he could rightly assess his works. Not just “now” as a new section of the letter, but “now” as a new season of manifestation.

The gospel does not reveal a new or second way to salvation. Paul will illustrate this with Abraham and David in chapter 4, but here he is careful to show the continuity of God’s righteousness as being witnessed to by the Law and the Prophets, a thing that is still true. Justification by faith is not a Pauline invention, it is p[...]