5: Justification After The Cross (3:21-30)
5: JUSTIFICATION AFTER THE CROSS (3:21-30)
In 3:21, Paul begins to explain the solution to mankind’s need of salvation. But before we go on we must note once again the amount of space Paul has devoted to what we have called the “first half of the gospel”—the fact that human beings desperately need salvation. We are guilty, we are without excuse, we need salvation; and none of us can be saved on the basis of any good works we have done. And just why, someone might ask, is our situation so hopeless? Why is it so impossible for us, on our own, to find the cure? Our sin is incurable because of whom we have sinned against. We have deliberately sinned against a holy God, and therefore our situation is hopeless.
People have said to me over and over again, “But how can someone be eternally condemned for what he or she did in just seventy years, even if it was seventy years of wickedness?” The problem is not how little or how much we have sinned, but against whom we have sinned. We have sinned against an infinitely holy God who really exists. And in sinning against an infinitely holy God who really exists, our sin is infinite.
It is as though there were, opening at our feet, an infinite chasm of guilt. Suppose we brought our little buckets of righteousness (if we could even find any little buckets of righteousness!): How many finite buckets of righteousness would it take to dump into an infinite chasm of infinite guilt? It’s impossible! Having once sinned against an infinite God, the chasm is infinite and nothing we can dump in this chasm can fill it up.
So, is it hopeless? At this point in Paul’s presentation of the gospel, yes, it is hopeless. Whenever we are presenting the gospel to anyone, at this point we must say, “Yes, for you it is hopeless.” There must be no deviation from this stark reality. There must be not a hair’s breadth left of humanism or egotism. There must be no hope in anything, positively or negatively, internally or externally, religious good works or moral good works. There must be left not one single shred of hope, or we’re not presenting what the Bible teaches. People need salvation because they are totally under the wrath of a holy God. There is nothing for any individual human being to dump into his or her personal chasm of guilt. It’s nothing but an endlessly deep hole.
At this particular place Christianity and modern existentialism meet. The modern existentialist says, “Man is damned,” and the Bible says, “Man is damned.” The only difference is, with the existentialist’s damnation there truly is no hope; but thank God the Bible now goes on and, from 3:21 through 4:25 says, “Yes, there is overwhelming hope! There is a solution!”
Let’s recall again our theme verse: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (1:16). Having shown the universal need for salvation, Paul will now show where that salvation can be found. In 3:21-30 Paul will explain how those who have lived from the time of Christ on can find salvation. In 3:31—4:22 he will show how the people living before Christ found salvation. Then, in 4:23-25, he will bring these two eras of humanity together. Just as he showed the guilt of the Gentiles (1:18—2:16), then of the Jews (2:17—3:8), and then drew them together to show that all mankind is under the wrath of God (3:9-20), so will he now show the way of salvation for those living after Christ (3:21-30) and then for those living before Christ (3:31—4:22). Then he will again draw the two groups together (4:23-25). It’s a logical sequence. Let’s begin with 3:21: If all mankind is damned, if all are under the wrath of God, if there are no little buckets of righteousness to be poured into the infinite chasm of guilt, then how can anyone be justified?
The answer is simple and wonderful.
But now the righteousness of God without the law . . . (3:21a)
As soon as Paul begins giving his answer, we see the clear contrast with the previous verse: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in [God’s] sight. . . . But now the righteousness of God without the law . . .” Do you see the sharp line that’s drawn here? Here is a way to be justified with God in spite of the fact that all of us are morally corrupt. Here is a way to be justified with God in spite of the fact that we all have been rebels. Here is a way to be justified with God whether we’ve been the man without the Bible or the man with the Bible. Even though our hearts condemn us. Even though we have nothing good to bring.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. (3:21)
Remember how Paul began, in 1:2, by showing that his teaching is not unique to him or to the New Testament but is in the Old Testament too? And how in 3:10-12 he showed, once again, the continuity between his teaching and that of the Old Testament? Paul now quotes the Old Testament again. The Old Testament, just like the New, shows both the lostness of mankind and the means of salvation for mankind. There is no line to be drawn between the basic teaching of the Old and the New Testaments. The Bible is a total unity.
This is why we can rightly speak of the “Judeo-Christian tradition.” This terminology is entirely proper. We don’t believe just the New Testament. We believe the Old Testament too. A true Bible-believing Christian is just as interested in reading the Old Testament as the New. The two comprise one message, one complete unity. There are not two religions, the Old Testament and the New Testament religion; there is only one. Just as the Old Testament along with the New insists that all people, in and of themselves, are morally corrupt, so also both the Old Testament and the New Testament tell us that there is a “righteousness of God without the law.”
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of [in] Jesus Christ. (3:22a)
This, says Paul, is the answer. He will show the way for wicked men and women to be justified with God. Justification comes to sinful men and women when God declares that their guilt is paid for on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Because of Christ’s sacrifice of Himself on the cross, God declares that we are righteous.
Notice I said that God “declares” that our guilt is gone. The word declares is of utmost importance. It will come up again and again in our study of justification in 3:21—4:25. God does not “infuse” us with righteousness. It’s not something that’s pumped into you. God makes a legal declaration. Our guilt before God is a legal matter. When an unsaved person comes before God at the judgment, God will judge that person and say, “You are guilty.” It will be a judicial declaration. Likewise, justification is a judicial act. How thankful we should be that there’s the possibility of this prior judicial act before we must face God at the judgment. We have earned the declaration from God that we are guilty and therefore deserve His wrath. But on the basis of the finished work of Christ, God can declare us to be justified. He can declare that our guilt is gone.
What occurs when you accept Jesus as your Savior, first and foremost, is that God makes a declaration; and the declaration is, “Francis Schaeffer [or your own name], I declare you justified. You are properly, justly guilty on the basis of breaking your own moral standards. But on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ, your guilt is gone. The price is paid.”
Salvation is first and foremost a legal matter, since it has to do with our guilt before God. Later, in Romans 5—7, we will discover that salvation has other aspects in this present life. Then in chapter 8 we’ll learn of the wonderful future aspects of salvation. But the first great thing we learn is that salvation removes our guilt. God declares, “Your guilt is gone.”
Upon what basis does God declare us to be righteous, or free of guilt? It is only upon the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ. God remains a God of justice. He doesn’t say, “I won’t bother with your sin,” or, “I’ll overlook your sin.” That kind of attitude would make Him less than a perfect God. He would be acting in an arbitrary, relativistic way. But because Jesus bore the penalty for our sin, God can declare us justified.
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith [in] Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe . . . (3:22a)
This should remind us of something we saw in our theme verse: “. . . the gospel . . . is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (1:16). The gospel, as we noted, is universal; it is not just for Israel, but for the Gentile world as well. There is, however, a limiting factor: It is only for those who believe. This righteousness of God, available because of Christ, is available only “unto all and upon all them that believe.”
. . . for there is no difference: For all have sinned . . . (3:22b-23a)
In the midst of what would seem to be a climactic point in his presentation of the gospel, Paul returns to the crucial “first half” of his message—for he realizes that the gospel is meaningless unless a person really understands the depth of his guilt before God. There’s no use in asking someone, “Don’t you want to be saved?” unless that person knows how desperately he or she needs salvation. Without that deep sense of need, a gospel presentation is just a waste of time. If the Jew or the nominal Christian comes to an evangelistic meeting convinced that God will accept him as long as he does the best he can; if a Christian Scientist comes thinking he will be accepted just by thinking good thoughts; if the Roman Catholic comes thinking he can find his way to God by his own suffering in purgatory . . . no one who has such a mentality is going to accept Christ as Savior.
So Paul, at the very height of his gospel proclamation, returns again to the theme of sin. We might say to him, “Paul, you covered all this at the end of the first chapter, in the second chapter, and through most of the third chapter. Why don’t you move on?” But Paul, moved by the Holy Spirit, knows that unless people understand how truly guilty they are before God, they will never consider accepting what Jesus Christ did for them.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (3:23)
The verb tenses in this verse cover both past and present. In the past, all have sinned; in the present, all are coming short. Suppose that God would say, “All right, I will judge you on the basis of what you have done in your life up to now.” We would have to respond, “But I’ve sinned throughout my life.” And we would stand condemned. Suppose that God would then say, “All right, I’ll just forget the past and I’ll begin judging you from this day onward.” Surely, none of us is so foolish as to think that, from today onward, we could live sinless lives. Surely our hearts tell us that, even on the basis of our present and future life, we would still be condemned. “For all have sinned, and are coming short of the glory of God.” Paul leaves no room for human egoism. In the past we have sinned, in the present we are sinning, and in the future we will continue to sin. Salvation by works is impossible in all directions.
That is why our only hope is that God will find some way to justify us gratis, freely, without the need for a single iota of merit on our part.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (3:24)
That is exactly what God has done for us, through Christ! He has justified us “freely by his grace through the redemption” that is available to us because of Christ’s death on the cross.
This “redemption” Paul now talks about is just what we need. Nothing less will do. We don’t need a spiritual guide. We don’t need just some vague unity between Christ and ourselves. What we need is redemption, because what we are is guilty. On the basis of our personal moral code or on the basis of the law, we are guilty (1:18—3:20). But now, on the basis of “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” we can stand justified in God’s sight.
God’s grace, His redemption, is free to us. But it isn’t free in the sense that nobody paid for it. The reason it is free to us is because Jesus has paid the price. In one sense God never really forgives anyone’s sin. He can’t. If God forgave a single sin in the sense of just closing His eyes to it, we would no longer live in a moral universe. God Himself would no longer be moral. So He doesn’t forgive a single sin; every sin is punished. Yet, because Jesus paid the price for our sin, the matter is settled. It has been settled, not within the context of the absolute moral law by which God rules the universe, but outside of that law, or as Paul says in 3:21, “without the law.”
Throughout the Old Testament we learn of God’s perfect standard of justice. For instance, in Deuteronomy 25:1 we read, “If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.” What does justice mean? It means that the wicked will be condemned. By that standard, each one of us stands condemned before a God who by His own moral law must condemn us. Yet, because Christ paid the price for all our sin, “all them that believe” in Him (3:22) stand justified in God’s sight. This justification is given “freely” (3:24), without the addition of one iota of good works on our part—without our adding one hair’s breadth to the scale of divine justice.
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. (3:25)
God “set forth” Christ; that is, He presented Him to the world, to be a “propitiation.” A propitiation is a covering. Under the law in the Old Testament, the “mercy seat” covered the Ark of the Covenant. Now, Christ’s death on the cross covers our sins, just like the little boy being covered by his father’s overcoat. But Christ’s death doesn’t cover the sins of just anyone, only the sins of “all them that believe.” There are always these two elements: There is the work, which was entirely done on the cross by Jesus Christ; and there is the faith, the believing, the accepting of Christ’s work for our salvation. Christ’s death brings about “the remission of sins.” Nothing else, no additional work on our part, needs to be added. Christ’s death is a complete propitiation. It covers everything.
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (3:26)
A better translation, to capture the sense of the Greek, would be, “that he might be just and yet the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” In a way, this phrase and the verses that surround it constitute the center of the whole Bible, for they answer the most profound of all questions: How can God remain the absolutely just ruler of the universe, and yet justify me, an ungodly sinner?
Note, first of all, that God must remain absolutely just, or we have no real basis for moral standards. It is impossible to have moral standards without there being a moral absolute. Without an absolute, we are left with either hedonism or some sort of relative standard such as “whatever is best for society.” Words like right and wrong cease to have any real meaning. There must be an absolute, and the Bible provides the only adequate answer to this need for a moral absolute: The moral absolute is the perfectly “just” character of God Himself.
That’s why 3:26 is such a key verse. Because Jesus has borne our guilt on the cross, God can remain “just.” The moral basis of our universe can be upheld. Yet at the same time He can be the “justifier” of all those who believe in and accept Christ’s payment for their sin.
Whether I have been among those with the Bible, or those without the Bible, I have been numbered among the ungodly. Whether I’ve been a Jew or a Gentile, I’ve been under the wrath of God. So how can God justify me? As soon as God would justify me by overlooking my sin, He’s no longer just. And as soon as He is no longer just, we no longer live in a moral universe. And if we no longer live in a moral universe, everything collapses. But there is a way in which God can deal with my sin and your sin, and yet remain just. There is a way in which God, remaining just and therefore not deviating one iota from His holiness, not letting down the bars one tenth of one percent, can justify you and me. He can do this because Jesus Christ, His Son, took the full punishment for our sin.
God’s love is seen, not in forgiving sin, for in a sense no sin can ever be forgiven or we would cease to live in a moral universe. God’s love is seen, rather, in sending His only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price, to be the covering for all our sin. God maintains His holiness. He doesn’t deviate from His total justice. And yet, without abandoning His moral law, He can fully justify anyone who believes in Jesus and accepts His perfect sacrifice for sin.
So, who is eligible for this covering of sin? Anyone? Everyone? Unlike many modern philosophers, God does not view us as just so many faceless masks. He doesn’t deal with us as if we were mere machines. He treats us as individuals. He deals with us on the level on which He created us—as moral and rational beings. Therefore, even though Christ’s death is a sufficient covering for all sins, there is a condition on who will receive this covering. This covering of sin, this justification, applies only to “every one that believeth” (1:16), to “all them that believe” (3:22), to “him which believeth” (3:26).
Which individuals does God justify? He justifies those who through faith accept what Christ has done for them, those who are united to the work of Jesus Christ with the instrument of faith.
There are two factors in salvation: the basis and the instrument. The basis of our salvation is the finished work of Jesus Christ, without a hair’s breadth of any human good works added to the scale. The instrument by which we share in this salvation is our faith, our believing God. Our faith does not have saving value. We’re not saved on the basis of our faith. We’re saved only on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ. But the instrument by which we share in this is our faith. Our faith links us to the salvation Christ provides. Our faith is the empty hands that accept the gift of salvation.
Our faith has no saving value. Our religious good works, our moral good works, have no saving value because they’re not perfect. Our suffering has no saving value. We would have to suffer infinitely, because we have sinned against an infinite God; and we, being finite, cannot suffer infinitely. The only thing in all of God’s moral universe that has the power to save is the finished work of Jesus Christ. Our faith merely accepts the gift. And God justifies all those who believe in Jesus (3:26).
If all this is true, then verse 27 is certainly an understatement:
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. (3:27)
By modern-day humanist standards, the gospel is decidedly “unhumanist.” If my faith has saving value, if my suffering has saving value, if my religious works have saving value, if my moral works have saving value, I could boast before God on that basis. As Paul will express it in 4:4, I could consider God to be in my debt and could say to Him, “You owe it to me.” But as we have seen up to this point in Romans, we humans are all in a decidedly unhumanist situation. We have all sinned. We have all rebelled. And since we have sinned and rebelled against an infinite God, we are infinitely guilty. There is only one hope for us—the grace of God. Not the grace of God in closing His eyes against sin, but the grace of God in sending the Redeemer, the propitiation, the one who shed His blood. This is our only hope. There is no room for boasting.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (3:28)
This is Paul’s great conclusion, and this verse was so very crucial to Martin Luther’s understanding of the gospel. Considering that Luther lived after hundreds of years of a Roman Catholic emphasis on works, and during a time of increasing humanism, you can just see why this verse became his great cry. This was Luther’s verse, and it should be ours as well. It should fill us with thankfulness as we recall that we have been “children of wrath, even as the others” (Eph. 2:3), but have been saved eternally by grace through faith. This should smash any cold orthodoxy just like a dish being smashed on the floor. How can we be cold about this great truth? “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”
Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. (3:29-30)
Paul has brought it all together. Why do we need salvation? Because we’re guilty. Why do we need salvation? Because we’re under the wrath of God. The man without the Bible, the Gentile, is under the wrath of God (1:18—2:16). The man with the Bible, the Jew, is under the wrath of God (2:17—3:8). Then Paul draws them all together, declaring everyone to be under God’s wrath (3:9-20). Then he tells us this marvelous way of salvation that God has provided through the finished work of Jesus Christ (3:21-28). And then he draws all mankind together again, declaring that God is the same God toward all people; and all people—Jews and Gentiles alike—must be justified in exactly the same way (3:29-30).