WWUTT 1197 The Righteousness of God Manifested Apart from the Law? (Romans 3:21)

The Righteousness of God Apart from the Law in Romans 3

The righteousness of God is seen in his law, but we could not attain that righteousness by keeping his law. So in love, God gave us his righteousness by faith in his son, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Paul’s Transition from Human Unrighteousness to Divine Righteousness

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Romans 3, and there's a noticeable change in the text that we're studying today. I'm gonna start reading in verse 21. We'll go to verse 31. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, 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 Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

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.

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. Back to verse 21, where Paul says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. So an obvious transition has taken place here.

We've gone from talking about the unrighteousness of men to now the righteousness of God. The argument that Paul had been laying down for man's unrighteousness had started in chapter one, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

And then from there all the way through chapter three, verse 20, he has been arguing for how all of mankind is under sin, Jew and Gentile. But now we're in verse 21, where he focuses on the righteousness of God.

He's made his argument for the unrighteousness of man, that there is none good, no one who does righteous. And now we're looking upon the righteousness of God that has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

And that is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. So this is Paul's but God statement in Romans. We see this transition happen when he says, but God in Ephesians chapter two, verses one through 10.

He argues for the sinfulness of mankind, the sin that we were all under in verses one through three, referring to Ephesians two here. So verses one through three, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, but then you get to verse four and he says, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.

Those two words mean so much. We were sinners, we were headed for destruction, but God intervened and saved us from the judgment that we were under because of the rebellion that we had committed against God.

Martin Lloyd Jones even did a whole series on those two words, but God. And I believe that that series is linked to on our website. If you go to www .utt .com and you click on links, there's a section called notable sermons.

And under that, I think notable series or something like that. And under that is the, but God series from Martin Lloyd Jones. Now here in Romans 3 21, Paul doesn't exactly say, but God, but this is his, but God statement.

So he says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. So we have a change from talking about the unrighteousness of men to talk about the righteousness of God, but also notice that indirectly, Paul is saying that the law is righteous.

Now he's going to say that with more clarity and specificity when we get to chapter seven, but in the meantime here in verse 21, he says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

Previously, the righteousness of God was manifested in the law. We saw God's goodness and his holiness and his perfection through the law. We, again, back to verse 20, which we looked at yesterday, we could not keep the law, but through the knowledge of the law comes knowledge of sin for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

So we see the righteousness of God demonstrated in the law. And we also see our unrighteousness that he is holy and we are not because we could not keep his law. So we cannot attain to the righteousness of God.

If we fail at any point, we are guilty of having broken the whole law as James says. So there was no way for us to keep the law and attain this righteousness. Through the law, we had knowledge of our sin, but we saw God's perfection, his perfect holy character and how much more great he was from us.

So now we have the righteousness of God that's been given to us another way. We could not attain God's righteousness through the law, but his righteousness has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

So this isn't like a new righteousness. This isn't that God has said, well, the law doesn't matter anymore. No, the law and the prophets bear witness to this righteousness that has now been manifested apart from the law, but the law and the prophets were all pointing to his son whom God was going to send.

And this was to show God's righteousness. Verse 26, it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just in the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So all of the law and the prophets were building up to this.

The law was pointing to Christ. The prophets were all pointing to Christ. So now the righteousness of God has been given to us. It has become attainable for us apart from the law and the prophets, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

So it's apart from the law and the prophets in the sense that we don't keep the law to attain this righteousness that God has manifested for us. We don't follow the prophets in order to attain this righteousness that God has given to us.

It is by faith that we receive it. And Paul says, verse 22, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Now that is powerful. That is huge considering everything that we've read up to this point from Romans 1 .18 through chapter three, verse 20.

Previously, we had been reading over and over and over again that we've all broken the law and there was nothing we could do about it. You could not keep the law. The law was never even meant to bring us righteousness.

Rather, it was to make us knowledgeable of our own sin. So what a hopeless message indeed if that's where the message was gonna be cut off. If we ended with verse 20, by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, we would have gone, well, that's it then.

I mean, we are doomed. We're doomed to destruction. As it said back in verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the unrighteousness of men and we can't get righteous. We can't keep the law to be righteous.

So what hope is there for man? That would have been a hopeless place for Paul to have ended this letter. But of course, we know that he's building up to pointing to Jesus Christ. So everything up to this point has been talking about how hopelessly sinful we are and there's nothing in and of our power we can do about that.

No one is righteous. No one understands. No one seeks for God. No one does good. No one will be justified in his sight by trying to keep his law. God gave us the law so we'd be knowledgeable of our sin so that we would recognize he's holy and we're not.

And having broken God's law, having fallen so far from him because we could not keep his law, we recognize there needed to be another way since we could not keep the law. And even if you made the decision today, well, I'm gonna start following the law.

I may have broken it up to this point, but I'm gonna start following the law now. Even if you were to make that decision, you still would not be righteous because you can't keep the law in a righteous way, in a way that is holy and pleasing unto God, and you've already broken it so you're already stained.

You're already guilty. If a man murders another person and then decides, well, I'm gonna go on now doing the right thing. I'm not gonna murder any more people. Is he now justified? And if he were to stand trial, the judge would say, well, yeah, you murdered this guy, but we're gonna forgive you because you've decided not to murder anymore.

You haven't murdered anyone after that. As long as you don't murder anyone else, then you're good. Would we say that that is a common sense judgment? No, that would be terrible. That would be an awful judge to make that kind of a judgment on a person.

If a person has murdered, they're guilty of that murder. And no matter what good works they do after that, it doesn't bring the person back to life whom they killed. So you cannot rectify the wrong that you have done by deciding at this point that I'm gonna go on doing the right thing.

You are guilty. You would be guilty forever if God gave you all eternity. Doesn't matter how many good things you did after that, it would never undo the wrong that you had done all those many years ago.

So even making the decision now, I'm gonna do all the right things starting today, that still would not make you righteous. What is going to pay for the transgressions that you had committed in time past?

Jesus Christ is the one who has paid for those sins. So the law makes us aware of the fact that we can't do it. There's nothing we can do to make right what we have done wrong. We need to be forgiven.

We need a savior, someone who's gonna save us from all of this injustice that we have committed against God. And the Lord sent his son, Jesus Christ, who kept the law perfectly. All of the law and the prophets were pointing to him.

We couldn't keep the law. We couldn't obey the prophets. As a matter of fact, what you saw over and over again throughout the Old Testament was the people of God turning against the prophets. Anyone who has at any point rejected the word of God is the same as anyone who had cursed or even persecuted the prophets because they brought a word from God.

If you've heard a pastor stand in the pulpit and deliver the gospel and you hated the pastor because he said, you're a sinner and you need a savior. Well, you're just the same as all of those who had come before and had cursed out the prophets.

You'd be just as bad as they were. That's still going on in the world today. Anyone who rejects the declaration of the gospel is the same as those who had rejected the word that came from God through his prophets.

They're the same as the Pharisees who had cursed Christ and had put him to death on a cross. So you have broken God's law and you have rejected his word. Jesus Christ came in obedience to the will of God.

So keeping the very word of God and he obeyed the father, submitting to the will and keeping the law perfectly so that he might become that righteous sacrifice for us dying on the cross for our sins. He is the savior.

He is the one who has paid the price that we owed because of our sins. We couldn't even pay that price. If you died in your sins, it doesn't wash away the sins that you had committed. You're tainted, you're unworthy, you're an unworthy sacrifice.

The sacrificial system that had been set up in the old Testament demanded a spotless sacrifice for your spotted transgressions. Jesus Christ is the perfect spotless lamb who died on the cross for our sins.

All of those laws, the sacrificial laws in the old Testament, everything that the prophets proclaimed all of that was pointing to Christ who would die on the cross for our sins. He is your atoning sacrifice, satisfying the wrath of God.

Propitiation is the word that is used here. He paid the price that you owed for your transgressions. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, he became sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

And he did this for our sake. When somebody took a lamb in to be slaughtered, to be sacrificed for sins, the head of the household, the husband, the father, he would take a lamb in to the priest. The priest would set it on the altar.

The father would place his hand on the lamb's head as the priest slaughtered the lamb and spilled its blood. And the symbolization of what was going on there with the hand on the head is that the sins and transgressions of the father or of his household were being placed on the lamb who was dying in his place.

A life was being given because as we read in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So Christ dying on the cross for our sins, there was that transference of our guilt onto him as he took our sins upon himself and died in our place.

God's wrath that was poured out upon him in his death by his blood. We receive all the benefits of that sacrifice, the forgiveness, the grace, even eternal life and becoming fellow heirs with God. We receive this through faith.

So 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.

Faith is the hand on the head of the lamb. And even more than that, because what a person received when they placed their head on the lamb that was being slaughtered, they simply received forgiveness for their sins, atonement for sins through the sacrifice.

At least it was all pointing to the great atonement that was to come and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of lambs and goats really had no power to save a person of their sins. That's the argument that's made in the book of Hebrews.

But all of this was a transference, even the hand on the head of the lamb was transferring sins unto Christ who would ultimately be that lamb who would die on the cross for us. So faith is that transference.

Believing in God, trusting in him, what he has said in his word, it is faith that is the hand on the head of the lamb, transferring sins unto the Christ who died for us, the Messiah who laid down his life in our place.

And we mourn as we see that our sins had to be placed upon him there, recognizing what kind of great sacrifice had to be made for us. And also seen demonstrated in this, the great love that God has for us, that he would give his own son.

We could not die in that place and have our sins forgiven because death was what we deserved for our sin. And then we would be forever separated from God. We died in our sins, we would perish in our sins.

But it is in giving Jesus Christ such a great huge sacrifice that was made. Jesus being perfect and Jesus being the son of God was a great enough sacrifice to pay for the sins of the millions upon millions upon millions of people who would place their faith and trust in him, both those who had come before the cross and those who had come after.

This sacrifice was so great that the number of people who have been forgiven by faith in this sacrifice is uncountable. And in fact, the apostle John even talks about that in the book of Revelation, when he looks and sees the multitude of saints who have been saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he says, they are a multitude that cannot be counted. All singing the praises of God and unto the lamb gathered around the throne for all eternity. What a beautiful picture that will be. But I mentioned that so that you can know and praise God for how great a sacrifice this was, what power there is in the sacrifice of Christ.

Paul saying back in Romans 1 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. You've read the verse, you've memorized the verse, you've quoted the verse, but have you really considered the power that's quantified in the verse?

God's power demonstrated in the cross of Christ with the sacrifice of his son, and also God's love that is demonstrated in the cross in giving his son for us. What a huge event. It's the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

How do we receive that transfer of our sins upon Christ, his righteousness upon us? So now when God looks at us, he doesn't see that sinful rebellious person who is under the wrath of God anymore, rather he sees a son or a daughter that is in his love.

How do we receive those benefits? By faith. It's the hand on the head of the lamb that our sins have been placed upon Christ. And something else happens there that did not happen when the head of the household placed his hand on the lamb as it was being slaughtered in the tabernacle or then in the temple.

There was not a transfer of righteousness onto the person from the lamb to the person because the lamb didn't have righteousness, but Jesus has righteousness. And the righteousness of God is transferred to us by faith in Jesus.

That double imputation, our sins imputed to Christ, his righteousness imputed to us so that when the father looks at us now, he doesn't see the object of his wrath, but the object of his love because of what Christ has done for us.

This we receive through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Let's finish there. We'll pick up tomorrow. Heavenly father, we thank you so much for this wonderful gift of your son. And may we not take this for granted.

Let us not fall into a habit of just reciting words or just thinking of things that, it's Christianese. It's the stuff we do because we grew up Christian or we go to church. Maybe we were saved from great sin.

Maybe somebody who was listening to this has one incredible testimony of I was living in sin. There's no reason for me to have even survived all of the horrible stuff that I was doing, but God was gracious to me, rescued me out of that and gave me the gospel.

And I repented of my sin and I believe and now I'm saved. But years have gone by and through this process of just doing the Christian thing over and over again, we've become lax. We've kind of become ho-hum in our faith.

Let us never lose that appreciation for the goodness of God that's been demonstrated in your word through Christ on the cross for our sins. We rejoice in it every day. We were sinners. We were under God's wrath.

We were headed for eternal destruction, but you saved us. You are good. You are holy. You are an awesome God. Help us to be so full of that joy day by day in what has been given to us by the father through the son, Jesus Christ, that by faith, we would have fellowship with God now and forever.

We don't take that for granted, but we love to be able to be in God's presence day by day. Forgive us our sins this day. Lead us all the more in your righteousness. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.