Bible Study: Romans 3:21-26

Romans 3:21-26 The Just & The Justifier Through Faith

I. The Righteousness of God Manifested (3:21-22a)

• Besides the purity of the Law, His righteousness is also shown apart from the righteousness required in the Law. Truly, the Law is righteous, but only Christ satisfied the Law’s Requirement. (3:21a)
  
• The way in which the Law and the Prophets testify to God’s righteousness is through the prophecies contained in them about Christ and the need for Christ. The Law & the Prophets magnify sin against the backdrop of God’s Holiness and thus declare the absolute demand for salvation apart from a works based righteousness. They are a foreshadow of God’s Revelation in Christ.  (3:21b)
  
• Ultimately, God’s Righteousness is made manifested in the Life, Death, Burial, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ.  It is through faith in Him alone that a man is made righteous before God.  He is the One that all of Divine Scripture pours into and out of. (3:22a)
  

II. All Under Sin & Need Justification by Grace in Christ Alone (3:22b-25a)

• There is no distinction, for both Jew and Gentile are all under sin and thus fall short of the glory of God.  Paul is reemphasizing what He has already laid in verses prior when He quoted the Old Testament at length. (3:22b-23)
  
• Therefore, there is the need to by justified in Christ because He satisfied the requirement of the Law (Rom 8:4).  This gift of redemption through Christ alone is solely by the Grace, and none can boast because of this (Eph 2:8-10). (3:24)
  
• Christ was displayed publicly, so that the righteousness of God would be clearly shown in the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ.  Propitiation is a key word here because it indicates that Christ paid the penalty for sin by taking the wrath of God.  God’s righteousness was satisfied on the cross because Christ became sin (2 Cor 5:21), and God unleashed His full fury upon the Son.  Christ did not merely suffer; He accomplished salvation for His sheep on the cross, and it is His sheep that He laid His life down for (Jn 10:15).  In time, the Spirit would make the sheep born-again empowering them to have faith in Christ, something that they do not have in and of themselves in a prior spiritually dead state (Eph 2:1). (3:25a)
  

III. Punch-line: Demonstrating His Righteousness as both Just & Justifier (Rom 3:25b-26)

• God showed much forbearance with man’s sin over thousands of years, which is His patience by withholding His wrath until the proper time, and now in Christ that righteousness has been demonstrated on the Cross because sin as been dealt with. (3:25b)
  
• Just & the Justifier (3:26)
  

             1. He is found Just because He did not merely overlook sin and let it go unpunished.  He must deal with sin, lest He be charged as UnJust. (3:26a)

             2. He then is also made the Justifier and glorified through that because He alone could punish sin while at the same time redeem His beloved Sheep. (3:26b)

Unconditional Election

Throughout the Scripture, God shows special grace to both Jews and Gentiles.  Abraham, among many others were sinners as all the rest, yet God chose to make a great nation out of Abraham through which the Messiah would come.  Not only did a great nation come from Abraham, but all the nations are blessed through His Seed, which is Jesus Christ.  Abraham lived by faith and so did all of the others in the Hebrews 11 "Faith Hall of Fame".  So then, was this because God knew facts about Abraham in that God knew Abraham was going to choose God?  This is the predominant theme in evangelical life today, but that was not the case during and after the Reformation, of which much of that was reclaiming sound doctrines taught before the advent of the Roman Catholic Church.  

Scripture explicitly states that believers were chosen based solely on grace before the foundation of the world (Eph 1) and not based on foreseen faith.  Foreseen faith was taught because there was and is an incessant desire to preserve 'free-will'.  Man does have a free-will, but he only exercises that according to his nature, which is rebellion, for all people are considered children of wrath until the Spirit moves upon the hearts of the saints of God (Eph 2:1-3).  This work is impossible for man because man would never choose God because He does not desire God.  Romans 3 clearly states that none are righteous and none are seeking God.  To the carnal mind, we think it is unfair that God would choose some and harden the rest (Rom 11:7), yet who are we, the thing molded, to answer back to the One who molded us (Rom 9:14-24).  God sets eternal destinies, and the sinful flesh abhors that because we want control, yet it is God who has overriding authority and not us.  "The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes." (Prov 21:1)

The critical texts to look at are in 1 Peter 1:20 and Romans 8:29 with the word 'foreknowledge' being the focus of the controversy.  1 Peter 1:20, speaks of Christ being foreknown before the foundation of the world.  To say that this is speaking of facts about a decision the Son was going to make about the Father is absurd obviously.  Rather, it is speaking of the eternal covenant love that the Father gives to the Son.  This is the same word used in Romans 8:29 when speaking of believers in Christ.  Foreknowledge is clearly meant to be taken as covenant love and not merely facts about something that will come to pass in the future.  Throughout the Old and New Testaments, there are many occasions where God knew Israel or where a man knew his wife.  This 'knowing' has do with intimate love and not merely facts.  

This is quite humiliating to sinful man because it gives him no room to boast, and especially not in salvation (Eph 2:8-10).  Life, especially and including salvation, is all grace.  We like to think that we are in control of our destiny, yet it is God who is in absolute control, and apart from His electing grace, none would enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  This seems so unfair to us at first, yet the fair thing for God to do is to elect no one and condemn all, yet the fact that He elected anyone is solely by grace alone.  In doing that, He receives all the glory.  People come into this world dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1) thus spiritually dead. There are none out there trying to find God apart from the Spirit breathing new life into someone, which is how men are 'born again'.  Men are born again and then are able to exercise faith in Christ by the will of God and not the will of the flesh (John 3:5-8).  It is quite true that God commands all to repentance and whosoever would believe will be saved.  However, the hardness of man's heart and his rebellion against the Lord magnifies the need for God's grace to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

Because it is all of grace, why then do we evangelize?  That is because God ordains both the ends and the means, and the means is through weak men to spread the good news to all tribes, nations, and tongues, for the elect are from all over the map.  Actually, the word Church is derived from the Greek word meaning 'called out ones'.  Believers are called sheep, elect, saints, and other such terms.  All of these terms carry the meaning of a special love that God has given to believers in Christ by grace alone!  This is totally humiliating, and so Christians ought to be the most humble people, for apart from His grace all of us would be bound for Hell!  Oh what grace He has shown to us! Amen!  

I am first and foremost unworthy to be called a saint of God, yet He has chosen me by His grace to bring His good news to the nations.  Oh what joy that is!  May we thank Him each day as we meditate upon His goodness upon those who know Him and have been known by Him from before the foundation of the world! Amen!

Charging Onward For The Glory of Christ

The ESL was awesome tonight!  We had a mix of ethnic backgrounds with mostly Hispanics. Approximately 35 adults were there this week, and virtually everyone who was there last week was there this week, so we see solid trend in those returning.  We are so amazed at the Lord's work in this. We keep it fun but productive at the same time; the mock market was especially exciting as we role-played in our creation of a supermarket.

The Spanish/English Bible study went incredibly well also.  We had about 8 adults attend, and most were Hispanic and some with a Hindu background.  The Lord opened up some enormous doors with that.  We are still in awe at how many folks

 showed up.  Even more-so, they were quite receptive, and I believe some will come back to the Bible study next week.  Where words were few, drawing pictures helped out--Chris is good at drawing sheep and stick men we found out:) We focused on four questions regarding the Passion Week: Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? What did Jesus accomplish on the cross? What did Jesus Christ conquer in His Resurrection from the dead? Who receives the glory for salvation?

Truly, we charge forward desiring to bask in the presence of the great prize who is Christ our Lord!  This world is fleeting away, yet Christ remains, and we passionately desire more of Him each day!  Let us therefore bow before Him in Absolute worship!  Holy! Holy! Holy is the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world from both Jew and Gentile! Amen!

Grace upon Grace

We are praising the Lord today for His immense grace to us!  After having endured several months of waiting for a better job opportunity to open up, He has answered boldly!  God-willing, I will start the Norcross dispatch job next week; it will be a tough duty, but I am very thankful for the opportunity.  May the Lord use this to draw us closer to Himself as He already has! Amen!

Total Depravity

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins," (Eph 2:1)  This verse, among many others, magnifies the devastating consequences of sin in the Garden of Eden.  Man in this life is not as bad as he could be, for God does restrain evil all the time, yet this verse does reflect our inability to choose God apart from Sovreign Grace. 

The problem is that an unregenerate man seeks only sin, and never seeks God on his own.  He is given wholly to his sin and has erected idols in the place of worshipping God (Rom 1:22-25).  Even more so, "... the mind set on the flesh is death ... because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God." (Rom 8:6-8) In an unregenerate state, none are seeking God (Rom 3:11), and this fact asserts just how polluted man is.   The straw-man scenario that there are people out there searching for God and just can't find Him is simply not true.  In the same way, the other straw-man scenario that people are searching for God and He just won't show Himself to them because they are being "... prepared for destruction?" (Rom 9:22) is just as foolish.  Truly, none are seeking God apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. 

The reality of physical death existing all around us reflects the spiritual death that is already within those who do not know Christ, as was once the condition of we who now believe.  Nevertheless, with God all things are possible! Amen!  God in His great power breathes life into 'dead men walking' (the status of the non-believing one could say), empowering them to believe the gospel.  What great glory this is, and may we who have been born again by the Spirit of God rejoice! (Jn 3:8)  I say rejoice!  To Him alone be the glory alone for such an awesome act of Loving Grace! Amen!