In our journey through Romans, we today come to a paragraph that the 16th-century Reformer Martin Luther called “the chief point of the whole Bible.” Another commentator says it’s possibly the most important single paragraph ever written.
Romans 3:21-26 is a teaching that’s normally called justification by faith.
But Paul builds into it. From 1:18 to 3:20, he’s been giving us a diagnosis of the human race, and we only see how significant this paragraph is if we feel the weight of Paul’s diagnosis.
My plan this morning is to summarize that diagnosis and then introduce the good news.
So let me begin with this question: what is a human being? I wonder how you would answer that question.
The world around us tends to go in one of two directions. On the one hand, there is the conviction that, whatever else human beings are, we are fundamentally good.
Some of you may be familiar with a book written by the Dutch author Rutger Bregman whose English version is called “Human Kind.” A clever title, right? Human Kind!
The thesis of the book is that humans are fundamentally good and decent.
If we’re sometimes capable of great evil, that’s the exception, the outlier. Perhaps the sign that there’s something wrong with the system. But humans are fundamentally good.
On the other hand, there is the insistence that we’re not that special. Ever since Charles Darwin, before in fact, people have argued that human beings are just another animal.
We shouldn’t be surprised when human beings behave like animals because that is what human beings are.
We should in fact be suspicious when human beings begin to think that they are more important than other animals.
From Romans 1:18 to 3:20, Paul insists that we are doubly wrong. We’re shooting both much too low and much too high. Human beings are more magnificent than you can imagine. And human beings are more horribly bent out of shape than you might ever have realized.
Three things about human beings so far in Romans:
1. Human beings were made to know God.
Romans is quite brief about this, but there is no doubt that human beings were made spectacular. We were made to know God.
That’s true, first of all, of the whole of humanity.
Romans 1:21: Humanity knew God;
Romans 1:23: Humanity had the glory of God;
Romans 1:25: Humanity had the truth about God.
Of course, in each of those verses, Paul is about to say that we threw it away. But slow down first. We are not just animals. We are not meant to be just one among the creatures.
We are meant to be the God-knowers. We are the truth-tellers. The species with our eyes on the heavens, the truth in our hearts, and the praise of God on our lips.
In the language of Genesis, which Paul has in mind here, we are made in the image and likeness of God.
And if that’s true for the whole of humanity, it is especially true of Israel, which is the focus of chapter 2.
Romans 2:17: Paul writes, “Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; 18 if you know his will and … you are instructed by the law; 19 if you are … a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children.”
Again, we’ll see in a minute that Israel doesn’t live up to any of that, but of course, they did have the law, and they were instructed, and they were supposed to know God and be a light in the darkness.
Romans 3:1: “What advantage then is there in being a Jew? … 2 Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.”
You see, all humanity and Israel in particular were not created to be basically decent and occasionally kind, not to do too much harm. We were made to know God. Entrusted with the truth about him.
2. Human beings suppress the truth about God.
And that is where the section begins: Romans 1:18: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”
Here again, there are two different flavors of how human beings suppress the truth in Romans chapters 1 to 3.
The Gentile flavor is idolatry. Romans 1:25: “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”
We were made to know God and to tell the truth about him, but humanity became a race of truth suppressors/truth deniers—living in God’s world and worshiping almost anything else except our Creator.
But there’s also an Israel flavor of this too. We saw it last week:
Romans 2:1: “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else … because you who pass judgment do the same things.”
Human beings suppress the truth either by idolatry or hypocritical self-righteousness. Judging others while doing the very same things.
This is Paul’s conclusion of what we have become:
Romans 3:9: “What shall we conclude then? Do we (Israel) have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Poisonous lips. Mouths full of curses and bitterness. No one fears God. Head to toe. Hand and foot. Mind and lip. Every part of us!
We were made to have our faces towards the heavens. We were made to know God. But what did we become? Far from God. Far from the truth. Destroying one another.
Humanity. We’re more noble than you can imagine, more corrupt than you can imagine.
3. Human beings are guilty and condemned.
The whole setup of these chapters is a trial. God is the judge, and we are in the dock.
First, all humanity stands condemned before God. We saw that two weeks ago. God is angry, we said. All humanity guilty and condemned.
But Israel too. Romans 3:19: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.”
Guilty. Silenced. Defenseless before a Holy God.
And the law can’t help.
Romans 3:20: “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.”
The law shows us just how bad we are.
So, this is humanity. Not just Human-Kind, made by God to be Human-Knowers. Not Human-Knowers anymore, we have become Human-Liars; and not just Human-Liars, we are Human-Dyings; humans facing death and judgment.
It’s quite a thought, isn’t it? Every human being you know, every single person in this room, every member of your family, every person on your course, everyone in your university, everyone in your workplace, everybody that you walked past on the way this morning, everyone in the buildings around us, everyone in every country that you have ever been to or could hope to go to—all of them, humanity, the same, suppressing the truth about God without excuse, facing judgment.
And I hope you can now appreciate why verses 21 onwards are such a significant paragraph in the logic of Romans.
I’m going to read it, but remember I said three weeks ago that the word “righteousness” means a righteous verdict. When you face judgment, a judge can either declare you guilty or not guilty. Condemned or righteous.
So let me read it.
Romans 3:21: “But now (he’s just made the strong case that humanity are Human-Liars, Human-Dyings)
But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God (a righteous verdict from God the judge) has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness (righteous verdict) is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
This is huge, and Paul is going to spend the next several chapters unpacking it.
But what I want to do now is just to explain three important words in the paragraph that he’s going to come back to: justification, redemption, and propitiation.
1. Justification
To justify is actually the verbal form of the word righteous, so the verse can be translated: “and all are righteoused or righteousified freely by his grace.”
To be justified means that the judge rules you are free of all charges—there is no ground to punish you.
In other words, the judge says you are a good person and declares you righteous.
This makes justification different from forgiveness or pardon. When you are forgiven or pardoned (both wonderful things), you are still guilty; only the punishment is removed.
But justification is more.
When most people go before a court and are found not guilty, it simply means there is no sufficient evidence that they are guilty. With justification, there is sufficient evidence showing that you are a good person, and the judge declares you righteous.
You leave the court not just with a clean slate but with a badge of honor.
And this declaration of righteousness:
– It is given freely; you don’t earn it.
– It is given by grace; you don’t deserve it.
2. Redemption
If justification comes from the legal world, redemption comes from the commercial world.
It was mainly used, for example, to describe the payment of a ransom to set a slave free.
Paul uses it here to express the fact that, though we were enslaved under the bondage and power of sin, a payment has been made to set us free. The idea is freedom.
We are no longer slaves to sin, no longer under judgment, and no longer facing death. The Lord Jesus has paid a ransom to set us free.
Which leads us to the third word:
3. Sacrifice of Atonement
Romans 3:25: “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.”
The term “sacrifice of atonement” is not one word but translates from one Greek word: *hilasterios*. In English, other translations use the word “propitiation.”
The concept comes from Old Testament worship, where God provided a way for his people to deal with sin. An animal, symbolically carrying the sins of the people, would be killed, and its blood would be sprinkled on the mercy seat.
This blood symbolized a payment, restitution, or just punishment for sins.
So when Paul describes Jesus as the sacrifice of atonement, or propitiation, he is referring to the cross—Jesus’ blood shed to pay the death penalty for our sins.
Imagine a Netherlands football game on Tuesday: if someone fouls one of our strikers in the penalty area, and the referee sees it and confirms it as a foul but says, “Play on,” the whole nation would be in chaos. A foul in the penalty area demands a red card and a penalty. Justice!
For our justification, it’s not that God suspends justice. He is not calling what is wrong right, nor is he sweeping anything under the carpet. There are no deleted emails, no hidden dossiers. It is not a mistrial or legal fudge.
The judge punishes our sins. Justice is done at the cross!
That means the only ground, the only basis on which we can be right before a holy and just God, is the cross. That is our only hope and our only confidence. Otherwise, we are merely “human lyings and human dyings.”
A Scottish preacher who pastors in America has a viral clip where he talks about the thief on the cross.
You know the thief beside Jesus, to whom Jesus said, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Imagine him arriving at the gate of paradise. The gate steward asks, “Sir, how did you get here?”
The thief has nothing to say. He has no good works to point to. He was a criminal right up to his death. He was rightly hung on a cross, facing justice.
So the steward says, “Excuse me, sir, let me call my supervisor.”
The supervisor arrives and interrogates him further. The thief has very little religious knowledge. He wasn’t even sure who Jesus was, had never served a church, and never paid tithes.
There’s absolutely nothing he can say about himself as a reason to enter paradise.
In frustration, the supervisor asks, “Sir, but on what basis are you here?”
To which the thief responds, “The man on the middle cross said I could come.”
That’s all he has to offer. That’s all he needs. The man on the middle cross said he could come.
And friends, whoever we are, that’s all we need: the man on the middle cross.
So Romans 3:27 says there is no place for boasting. It would be ridiculous. We don’t contribute to our justification. No righteousness we can earn; it’s freely given, by grace.
And if there’s no place for boasting, there’s also no place for feeling ashamed. There’s no reason to feel like you don’t belong or that you’ve made too many mistakes. God wouldn’t possibly love you, and this church family wouldn’t welcome you.
We all come the same way—not through what we do, but through what Jesus has done for us.
If you’re feeling ashamed, remember that Jesus died for that shame. He died for that guilt so you wouldn’t have to face it.
Because there is no communion today, I want to end slightly differently.
You might be here today sensing that the man on the middle cross is calling you to come—perhaps to come afresh or because you’re unsure.
Whoever you are, whatever you have done, you can receive the final verdict of righteousness today.
I’ll say the prayer first so you know what’s coming, and then I’ll say it again more slowly so you can repeat it after me.
There’s nothing magical in these words. I’m not promising that if you say these words, heaven is guaranteed for you.
But this is the kind of prayer that, if you pray to Jesus and mean it, He will take your place and give you a right standing with God.
So here’s the prayer:
“Dear Lord Jesus, I see that you died for the sins of humanity. I want to turn my back on living life for myself and suppressing your truth. I trust in your sacrifice on the cross for my sins. Please forgive me and make me yours. Amen.”
I’ll pray it again, and anyone who wants to, please echo it in your heart:
“Dear Lord Jesus,
I see that you died for the sins of humanity.
I want to turn my back on living life for myself and suppressing your truth.
I trust in your sacrifice on the cross for my sins.
Please forgive me and make me yours. Amen.”
