A Study of Romans 3:21-22
Introduction
John Chrysostom, one of the most eloquent preachers in church history, who lived in the 300s and died in 407, called Romans 3, “the very cathedral of the Christian faith.” So far in our studies through Romans, we have been walking up the sidewalk that leads to this cathedral. The book of Romans begins with a prologue of seventeen verses. And then from Romans 1:18 through Romans 3:20, the Lord basically just tells us how hopeless, evil, sinful, and alienated we are—from holiness and from Him and from heaven.
And He ends with a litany of quotes in Romans 3, verses 10 and following, that leave no doubt that this is the view of the entirety of the Bible. Quoting from Psalms and Isaiah, the passage:
10 As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;
11 There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
13 “Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways;
17 And the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Verses 19 and 20 draw the inescapable conclusion: Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
All the world is guilty! This is not just hypothetical or philosophical or theological. This means that left to ourselves we will one day stand alone in the courtroom of the universe, sobbing, begging, pleading to escape the licking flames eternal Hell and enter the paradise of eternal Heaven, but the hammer of judgment will fall and we will be cast forever into outer darkness.
1. But Now!
But here and now, just at this point of despairing hopelessness, the passage makes a sudden and dramatic right turn. Verse 21 says: But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.
These two words—but now—are as dramatic as any two words in the entire Bible. They imply a sudden and staggering change. The word but is a conjunction that signals a shift in the argument. The word now is an adverb meaning a change has just occurred.
Paul uses them as a formula in his writings several times:
- Romans 6:21 says, “But now you have been set free from sin….”
- Romans 7:6 says, “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law….”
- Romans 16:25-26 says this message was a mystery hidden for long ages past, “but now revealed and made known….”
- Ephesians 5:8 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”
- Colossians 1:22 says, “But now he has reconciled you….”
John Newton wrote out his testimony in the hymn “Amazing Grace,” and he said, “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.”
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “There are no more wonderful words in the whole of Scripture than just these two words, ‘but now.’”
John Stott wrote, “The two words ‘But now’ are the most hopeful words in the whole of Scripture. They signal that a new era has dawned in which God has revealed a righteousness which is his gift to sinful humanity.”
Have you ever had a “but now” moment in your life?
- I once tried to do things my way, but now I’m living for Christ.
- I was once self-destructive, but now I have strength and stability through the Lord.
- I was once sad and lost, but now I’m joyful and fulfilled.
So Paul said, But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets….
2. The Righteousness of God
What does he mean by “the righteousness of God apart from the law”? Paul uses the words “righteous” and “righteousness” forty-five times in Romans. Forty-five times? So we’d better figure out what he is talking about. He is talking about the perfections of the glory of God. This is beyond our understanding. This is past our comprehension. God is sinless, stainless, pure, and perfect, as white as blazing light, and utterly holy in His absolute, eternal, perpetual essence. In other words, He is right; He is always right; His thoughts are always right; His character is always right; His words are always right; His actions are always right. He is forever righteous in all His attributes.
But there is another dimension to this word. I don’t have the words to convey it, but what the apostle Paul is saying here is that when we, who are guilty sinners filled with corruption and shame, come to Jesus Christ, a remarkable exchange takes place. Our sins are imputed to Him, and His righteousness is imputed to us. We are declared to be just as righteous and holy and pure in God’s sight as Jesus Christ, which then allows us to come into His presence and have a relationship with Him.
The word “impute” means to credit something to a person’s account
Let’s read it again: Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law the Prophets testify.
Theologians call this “double imputation.” I shared this with a friend at lunch and he thought I said, “Double amputation.” He looked at me with alarm. “No,” I said, “not double amputation but double imputation.”
The 1689 London Baptist Confession put it like this, “Those whom God effectually calleth… he freely justifieth…but imputing Christ’s active obedience to them… and imputing their sins unto Christ.”
The Reformers used a simple illustration of this. Suppose you were wearing filthy garments, covered with sweat and dirt and vomit, tattered and torn and looking as if you lived in a garbage dumpster. You met Jesus and His robes were pure and bright and seamless and beautiful. He takes your ragged clothes and puts them on Himself, and He takes His beautiful robe and puts it on you.
A modern theologian who has written about this extensively is a Presbyterian scholar named J. V. Fesko. He wrote, “The doctrine of imputation teaches that in the doctrine of justification, God imputes or accredits the righteousness and suffering of Jesus to those who are in him and, conversely, imputes the sins of those redeemed to Christ. The 16th century Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, called this double imputation the ‘glorious exchange.’ What is ours becomes Christ’s and what is Christ’s becomes ours. This doctrine has roots in the Old Testament and fully flowers in the New, especially in the letters of the apostle Paul.”
The apostle Paul is now getting to and expounding on the theme he first presented in Romans 1:16-17, when he said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”
3. To Which the Law and Prophets Testify
Now, let’s go back to Romans 3:21, the “but now” verse, because we’ve only looked at the first half of the verse. It says, “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.”
By “the Law and the Prophets,” Paul means the entire Old Testament. I want to go back to the Presbyterian theologian J. V. Fesko. I’m going to share with you a rather lengthy paragraph from Dr. Fesko, but he says this better than I can.
The Old Testament provides several important passages that constitute the foundation of the doctrine. One of the most important is Leviticus 16 the Day of Atonement. On this day of days, the high priest was supposed to offer a sacrificial bull on his own behalf, to ensure that he was ceremonially pure and free from defilement so that he could enter the Holy of Holies and offer the necessary sacrifices on behalf of the nation.
In addition to the sacrificial bull, the high priest took two goats: he sacrificed one and then performed a hand-laying ceremony on the other: “And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.”
In this hand-laying ceremony three things stand out: (1) Aaron lays his hands on the head of the goat, which signified the transfer of something. (2) in this case, the high priest transferred the sins of the nation to the scapegoat, evident by the fact that he confessed Israel’s sins as he laid his hands on the goat; and (3) the goat bore the sins of the people and carried them outside the camp.
The protocols of the Day of Atonement hint at the sacrifice of the coming Messiah and the manner by which he would redeem his people. The more the Old Testament progresses, the more the shadows give way to the dawning light of the Messiah.
The prophecy of the Suffering Servant [in Isaiah 53] is one place where the darkness gives way to greater light. Language evocative of the Day of the Atonement marks Isaiah’s prophecy: the Messiah “has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
These two statements echo the language of Leviticus 16 particularly, the fact that the scapegoat bore Israel’s sins, and in similar fashion the Suffering Servant carried the griefs, sorrows, sins, and punishment that would bring Israel peace….
Isaiah highlights the fact that the Suffering Servant would “make many to be accounted righteous,” and conversely, he would “bear their iniquities” and be “numbered with the transgressors.” The Suffering Servant was not himself sinful but would nevertheless be counted among sinners. Yet, stunningly, the sinners would be “accounted righteous;” that is, the law would have no claim on them because the Suffering Servant would give to them his perfect law-keeping status. The Suffering Servant is not inherently sinful and the sinners are not inherently righteous, yet by God’s grace the Servant bears the sin of sinners and accounts them righteous. Isaiah clearly propounds the doctrine of imputation—the glorious exchange.
Do you see how cohesive the Bible is! It’s not a conglomeration of miscellaneous writings that serve as some kind of collection of religious thought. It is a unified book with a single driving message, which is the Gospel.
Paul wants us to know that the Gospel is not some new invention of his. It was and will always be the message of the Old Testament and of the entirety of Scripture. Do you realize—and this is amazing—in the sixteen chapters of the book of Romans., the apostle Paul quotes directly from the Old Testament more than sixty times, and he clearly alludes to Old Testament verses more than eighty additional times. Romans contains more Old Testament usage than any other of his letters. Romans is saturated with Old Testament references. We’ll notice it all the way through the book. Paul is showing us how the doctrine of justification by grace through faith is the only way in the history of the world that anyone has ever been placed into a right and reasonable relationship with God.
4. Through Faith In Christ
Look at verse 21 again and then on to verse 22: But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
What does it mean to believe, to place your faith in Christ? It’s more than intellectual agreement with factual information. R. C. Sproul said, “Saving faith involves trusting in Christ alone for salvation—not just believing facts about Him but placing one’s entire confidence in Him and resting on His righteousness.”
I’ve been reading the biography of Dr. John Stott, the British Anglican pastor and teacher, whom I quoted earlier in this episode. I once went to the Urbana Missionary Conference in Urbana, Illinois, partly because he was scheduled to preach there. I had never heard him in person, and he was up in years. But on the evening he was to speak, they announced he was ill. I never heard him in person, but I’ve long admired his ministry.
His biographer said that in his mid-teens, John Stott was aware of two things about himself. “First,” as John later said, “if there was a God, I was estranged from Him. I tried to find Him, but He seemed to be enveloped in a fog I could not penetrate. Second, I was defeated…. I fell far short of the person I wanted to be.”
A friend invited John to a Sunday afternoon meeting of a Christian group, and John began going. One of the speakers was a man named Eric Nash. Nash had a vision of winning young men to the Lord, and he was there speaking on Sunday, February 13, 1938, when John Stott, sixteen years old at the time, attended. At the end of the meeting John went up to Nash with questions, and the Bible teacher invited John to go for a drive in his car. Nash explained the Gospel to him. He didn’t press the teenager to make an immediate decision, but he challenged him to consider it.
That evening in his dormitory room, John Stott knelt beside his bed and prayed, opening the door of his heart to the Lord. John wrote to Nash about his decision, and for the next five years Nash sent him letters once a week, teaching him the truths of the Bible.
Years later, John Stott wrote a book on the message of Romans, in which he said, “Christianity is ‘the gospel, good news that God’s grace has turned away his wrath, that God’s Son has died our death and borne our judgment, that God has mercy on the undeserving, and that there is nothing left for us to do, or even contribute. Faith’s only function is to receive what grace offers.’”
He said, “Faith is the eye that looks to him, the hand that reaches out to receive his gift, the mouth that drinks the living water. Faith is nothing but the means by which we receive Christ.”
Have you trusted Christ like that? Is your life wrapped in His righteousness? You can rest the full weight of your eternal soul on Him, and you can do that today.
We’ll pick the passage back up at this point next week. Thank you for digging into the book of Romans with me! If you are enjoying this podcast, tell someone else about it, and remember to give it a five-star review. And don’t forget to pick up a copy of my book, The 50 Final Events in World History.
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