Or, Righteousness: Always by Faith and by Faith Alone Romans 3:21-26 March 6, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

It is more surprising that anyone is saved than that anyone is damned. We know this. Men argue against it through lying teeth. We all know that there is a God, we all know that God is good, we all know that men who disobey God deserve hell. Pagan theologians don’t describe it exactly the same, it isn’t acknowledged with honesty by every pagan non-theologian. But it is true.

The last part of the list of cultural evil is that men know that those who practice such things deserve to die (Romans 1:32). That’s true even for those without clear connection to God’s law, they at least have a conscience that excuses or accuses (Romans 2:15-16). We know that there is good and bad, and we know that bad can only be paid for by blood.

Men have been making sacrifices for generations not because it’s fun but because it seems like the only thing that might please a god. The hecatomb is a hundred head (of oxen) sacrifice frequently found in the early epics. Even a modern man who fancies himself a comic tweeted, “We should just pin all the debt in the world to one guy and then kill him.”

The first blood sacrifice was in the garden as God killed an animal to make coverings for Adam and Eve. The Law gave more particular instructions, but men have been killing things to appease angry gods without any reference to Moses.

The ache in men’s hearts, acknowledged or not, comes from knowing what they deserve from God. “The wages of sin is death,” and “all have sinned.” All sinners are death-deservers, all men are sinners, therefore all men are death-deservers (a valid logical syllogism, AAA-1). There must be blood.

There was the idea of blood before the existence of flesh and blood. Peter wrote that we are ransomed not by silver or gold, but by the “precious blood of Christ” who was “foreknown before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:18-19). This is quite a statement. God in eternity before Genesis 1:1 anticipated, and believers in eternity forever will celebrate, the blood of the Lamb. Those whom He elects have their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 13:18). Blood shed belongs with God’s purpose to show His righteousness, not just in judgment but in justification. Blood shed belongs with God’s purpose to show Himself and His glory.

God’s Law and God’s Prophets pointed toward God’s righteousness, but God’s righteousness was embodied in Christ, and enacted in His death and resurrection. This is the gospel, needed by all and available for all the ones believing. By faith in Jesus Christ we are justified; in Jesus Christ we are redeemed.

Verses 25-26 focus in on Christ Jesus. They are the final parts to the paragraph, and they hinge on the first relative pronoun, “whom,” on which the rest of the paragraph depends. It’s Jesus’ blood that shows God’s righteousness, in His forbearance and His forgiveness, as well as in the Son’s penalty bearing.

“The righteousness of God has been manifested” (verse 21), “the righteousness of God (is being manifested” (verse 22), and now “to show God’s righteousness” two more times (verse 25 and verse 26), four times in the paragraph, a “demonstration” (NASB). It’s out in the open.

Explaining Forbearance (verse 25)

The major-league theology word is propitiation, and though we can define it, both verses 25 and 26 explain why it was necessary.

Propitiation refers to making God, or a god, happy again. It was used in the Greek and Roman culture to describe whatever was necessary to regain the goodwill of a deity (BAGD). It was an attempt to fix divine displeasure, to avert divine wrath. In E[...]