Romans 3

CHAPTER 3THEME: Availability of a righteousness from God

Romans 3:1

“Profit” means that which is surplus, that which is excess, and the question has to do with the outward badge of God’s special covenant with the Jews, circumcision. It looks as if Paul is in danger of erasing a distinction which God has made. The question is, if Jew and Gentile are on the same footing before God, what then is the supposed advantage of the Jew and what good is circumcision? Let me give you a statement of Dr. James Stifler: “If circumcision in itself does not give righteousness, if uncircumcision does not preclude it, what profit was there ever in it? A distinction that God made among men seems, after all, not to be one.” Now, this is the same question, I think, that we hear today. I get it because the gospel that I preach says that church membership has no advantage for salvation, that any rite or ritual you go through is meaningless as far as salvation is concerned. God has the world shut up to a Cross. He’s not asking you to join anything or do anything.

What God is asking the lost sinner to do is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he shall be saved. And until a person answers that question, then God hasn’t anything else to say to him. After he’s saved, then God probably will talk to him about church membership and about baptism. We hear people say today, “Well, doesn’t my church, my creed, my membership, my baptism help toward my salvation?” The answer is no, it doesn’t help you toward salvation. But if you are saved, then these things are a badge, and these things are a means of communicating to the world who you are. But if you’re not measuring up, then your church membership and your baptism are a disgrace; and instead of being sacred they become profane. Now Paul is going to answer the question: What advantage then did the Jews have?

Romans 3:2

Paul is saying, “Yes, the Jew has an advantage.” The advantage, however, created a responsibility. We need to note carefully the advantage the Jew had because there is a great deal of confusion in this area. I know men who are teaching in theological seminaries who make no distinction between Judaism in the Old Testament and the church in the New Testament. Paul is making it clear that God not only gave to the nation Israel the oracles of Godthey were the ones who communicated the Word of Godbut in the Word of God was something special for them. God is not through with the nation Israel. I always test a theologian at that particular point: Does God have a future for Israel?

My friend, if God doesn’t have a future for Israel, I don’t think He has a future for you either or for that theological professor. All God’s promises are in the same Word of God. God is going to make good Joh_3:16, and God is also going to make good His covenant with Abraham in chapter 12 of Genesis. Listen again to Dr. Stifler as he is speaking of Israel: “His advantage was not that God sowed Judaism and the world reaped Christianity. That blots out Judaism.

It was first of all ’that unto them were committed to the oracles of God,’ not that they were made a mere Bible depository, but that God gave them, as Jews, promises, not yet fulfilled, and peculiarly their own. The Old Testament, the record of its oracles, contains not one promise either of or to the church as an organization. It does not predict a church; it foreshadows a kingdom in which the Jew shall be head and not lose his national distinction as he does in the church.” Now, friend, I think that’s one of the most important and profound statements that has been made concerning the Word of God. At this point “great” theologians differ. Dr. Adolph Saphir was a converted Jew, and he made this tremendous, pointed statement: “The view that is so prevalent, that Israel is a shadow of the church, and now that the type is fulfilled vanishes from our horizon, is altogether unscriptural.

Israel is not the shadow fulfilled and absorbed in the church, but the basis on which the church rests.” Friend, that is an important comment, and that’s what Paul is saying herethat the Jew has a great advantage. God has a future for him, and his faithlessness will not destroy God’s promise. Listen to Paul:

Romans 3:3

“If some were without faith” is a better translation. Shall their lack of faith cancel out the faithfulness of God? This is another objection that would be put up, and Paul meets this by going back to the first. Now if the advantage of the Jew did not serve the intended purpose, does this not mean God’s faithfulness to His people is annulled? The Jew failed; doesn’t that mean God failed? No.

God’s promise to send Israel the Redeemer was not defeated by their willful disobedience and rejection. All His promises for the future of the nation will be fulfilled to His glory in spite of their unbelief. Now, my friend, you may not like that, but I personally thank God that His promises to me do not depend on my faithfulness. If it had depended on me, I would have been lost long ago. Thank God for His faithfulness!

Romans 3:4

In other words, the unbeliever that raises this question is a liar and God is going to make him out to be a liar someday. Why? Because the faithfulness of God is true and cannot be changed. How important that is! John says, “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son” (1Jn_5:10). How bad is it not to believe that God gave His Son to die for you? Well, I’ll tell you how bad it is: You make God a liar. That’s what you do when you reject His Son.

Romans 3:5

By some subtle sophistry it might be argued that since the nation’s unbelief merely puts in contrast the faithfulness of God, God is not just to punish that which brings greater glory to Himself. A better translation would be: “Is God unjust who visiteth with wrath by judging” these people? Now this is the severest criticism that Paul faced in preaching the gospel of the grace of God. If God uses sin to get glory to Himself, then He should not punish the sinner. This, of course, was used by some as an excuse for sinning. We’ll find this again in Rom_6:1 and will deal with it then.

Paul asks the question in such a way in the Greek as to demand a negative answer. God is not unjust. He says, “I speak as a man.” That doesn’t mean that Paul is not writing this particular passage by inspiration, but rather that he is presenting this question from the finite and human standpoint. Now, the whole point is this: if my unrighteousness reveals the marvelous, wonderfully infinite faithfulness of God in the grace of God, then has God a right to judge me? That’s what Paul is asking here. This makes it very clear that the unsaved world in Paul’s day understood that Paul was preaching salvation by the grace of God. How wonderful!

Romans 3:6

If God would have no right to judge us because our sin merely reveals the grace of God, then God would have no right to judge any person, you see, because they would reveal something of the common grace of God. Paul’s answer is again an emphatic and categorical denial of any such premise that God is unjust. The argument here is that if this particular sin merely enhances the glory of God and the grace of God, then all sin would do the same. Therefore, God would not be able to judge the world. He would abdicate His throne as Judge of all the earth. This specious argument would say that Hitler ought not to be judged. And whoever you areeven if you are an unbelieveryou do believe that some people ought to be judged. Now, you may not think that you ought to be, but you believe somebody ought to be judged. Everyone believes that. We have that innate sense within us today, and God has put it there.

Romans 3:7

The lie here means moral falsehood. Each individual could claim exemption from the judgment of God because his sin had advanced the glory of God.

Romans 3:8

In this verse Paul drives his argument to its logical, yet untenable conclusion. This is called an argumentum ad absurdum. If sin magnifies the glory of God, then the more sin the more glory. Some had falsely accused Paul of teaching this absurdity. It was ridiculous, for it was Paul who insisted that God must judge sin. As surely as there is sin there must be judgment. You see, this facetious type of argument which Paul has met here makes a Robespierre a saint in the name of utilitarianism. It’s the old bromide that the end justifies the means. Now we come to this section where we have the accusation of “guilty” by God against mankind. Paul is going to conclude this section on sin by bringing mankind up before the Judge of all the earth. And the accusation of “guilty” is made by God against all mankindboth Jew and Gentile, black and white, male and female, rich and poor. It doesn’t make any difference who we are; if we belong to the human race, you and I stand guilty before God. And then Paul is going to take us to God’s clinic. It’s a real spiritual clinic, and the Great Physician is going to look at us.

We see that there are fourteen different charges made; six of them before the Judge and the other eight before the Great Physician who says we’re sick. In fact, we’re sick nigh unto death. To tell the truth, we are dead in trespasses and sin. That is our condition.

Romans 3:9

Now Paul doesn’t mean “proved” here. That word is a little too strong; it does not have quite that shade of meaning, because Paul is not trying to prove man a sinner. Rather, he is showing that God judges sin. He assumes man is a sinner, and you don’t have to assume itit is evident. He is merely stating that which is very obvious today. The better word is charged"for we have before charged both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." He is just stating the case, by the way, that it doesn’t make any difference who we are todayhigh or low, rich or poor, good or badwe’re all under sin. Now it’s very important to understand what it means to be “under sin.” Man is a sinner four different ways. God is giving man four strikes (in baseball you get only three). (1) Man is a sinner by act. (2) Man is a sinner by nature. Sinning does not make a sinner; we sin because we are sinners. (3) Man is a sinner by imputation. We’ll see that later in this epistle. (4) The estate of man is under sin. We all are under sinthe entire human family. This is the first charge:

Romans 3:10

This should read, “It is written that there is none righteous, no, not one,” because it is a free rendering of Psa_14:1. He makes the positive statement that “none …doeth good.” “Doeth good” and righteousness are the same. What does it mean to be righteous? Well, it means to be right. Right with whom? We are to be right with God. And if we are going to be right with God, it is a little different from being right with your fellow man.

When we have differences with friends, we may or may not be to blame, but we have to reach some sort of compromise. But if we are going to be right with God, we are going to play according to His rules. Actually, you can’t play games with Him. You see, God’s salvation is a take it or leave it proposition. God is not forcing anybody to take His salvation. You don’t have to be saved.

You can turn it down. God says, “This is My universe. You’re living on My little world, using My sunshine and My water and My air, and I have worked out a plan of salvation that is true to My character and My nature. My plan and My program is the one that’s going to be carried out. You’re a sinner, and I want to save you because I love you. Now here it is.

Take it or leave it.” That’s what God is saying to a lost world. This is what He is saying to you. Have you accepted it? Well, I want you to know that I have accepted it. To be right with God, then, means to accept His salvation. When I was in school, I had a professor of sociology who really enjoyed batting that little ball around, saying, “Who is right? Who is going to make the rules?” Well, I know one thing: that professor is not going to make the rules. I know something else: I am not going to make the rules, and you are not going to make the rules either. God makes the rules. Take it or leave it. That is God’s plan; that is God’s program. There is none who is righteous, none right with God. But He has worked out a plan. No one has done good according to God’s standard, according to God’s method. That is the Judge’s first charge. The second charge is this:

Romans 3:11

In other words, there is none who acts on the knowledge that he has. No one is the person he would like to be. The third charge: “There is none that seeketh after God.” God is not concealed today. God is not playing hide-and-seek with man. He has revealed Himself. You remember that Paul told the Athenians, the philosophers on Mars Hill: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Act_17:30). He is not winking at sin today. God is out in the open telling man that he is a sinner and offering him salvation.

And His salvation is clear, you see. That’s what He is saying here. And there is none that seeks after God. The anthologies of religion say man is out looking for Godhow fallacious they are! It’s claimed that in the evolutionary process religion is man’s search for God. Well, actually, is religion man’s search for God?

No. That’s not what the Bible teaches. Believe me, man hasn’t found out very much about God on his own. He hasn’t advanced very far in that direction, because he’s going the wrong way. He’s going away from God. Then the fourth charge that He makes is:

Romans 3:12

They’ve detoured. They left the way they knew was right. And primitive tribes have an ancient tradition that way back at one time their forefathers knew the living and true God. My friend, if you are honest, you know that you are not doing what you ought to do. Furthermore, you are not going to do it, although you know what it is. You have gone out of the way. Man has deviated from the way. This is the fourth charge that God makes. The fifth charge is: “they are together become unprofitable.” The word unprofitable suggests overripe, spoiled fruit. It could be translated, “they have altogether become sour.” I am very fond of fruit, especially the papaya. But when it passes the ripe state and becomes rotten, there is nothing quite as bad as that. Mankind is not lush fruit; he is corrupt fruit. That is what the Judge of all the earth is saying. The sixth charge: “there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” This is a triple negative. Mankind is like a group of travelers who have gone in the opposite direction from the right one, and not one can help the others. Our Lord said to the religious leaders of His day, “You are blind leaders of the blind” (see Mat_15:14). That is what the Judge of all the earth says about you and about me and about everyone on the face of the earth. Now Paul transfers us over to God’s clinic into the hands of the Great Physician. This is a spiritual clinic, and the Great Physician says that we are spiritually sick.

Romans 3:13

When you go to the doctor, what’s the first thing that he says to you? Well, I have to go in for a regular check-up because of the fact that I apparently have cancer in my system, and I report regularly in case of an outbreak. Well, it is a ritual for me to go in, and I sit down in the little room where he does his examination. Do you know the first thing that he says to me? “Open your mouth.” Then he takes a little wooden stick and pushes it around in my mouth, and he looks at my throat. Likewise God, the Lord Jesus, the Great Physician, does that with mankind. Do you know what He says? “Their throat is an open sepulchre.” Have you ever smelled decaying human flesh?

When a little girl in Nashville was kidnapped many years ago, the sheriff of the county was a member and a deacon in my church. He called me up and told me they had found the body of a little girl, and they were going out to exhume it. He wanted to know if I wanted to go with them. I got to the place where they had taken the body outit had been buried several daysand the body was corrupt. Oh, it was terrible! I’ve never been as sick in my life as I was at the odor of corrupt human flesh.

I always think of that in connection with this verse. When God looks down at you, friend, He doesn’t say what a sweet, fine little boy or girl you are. God says you smell like an open grave! Someone, I think it was Mel Trotter, said, “If we could see ourselves as God sees us, we couldn’t even stand ourselves!” Well, that is what Paul is saying here. And “with their tongues they have used deceit.” That’s number two. And the second thing my doctor says to me (after he looks at my throat) is, “Stick out your tongue!” That’s what the Great Physician says to the human family. “Stick out your tongue.” And when God looks at the tongue of mankindthat means your tongue and minedo you know what He says? “The poison of asps is under their lips.” There’s a snake house and a place for reptiles in the zoo in San Diego, California, which I have been through several times. As I look at the vicious fangs of those diamondback rattlers, I think of the poison that is there. Friend, right now, if you go and look in the mirror, you will see a tongue that is far more dangerous than any diamondback rattlesnake. He can’t hurt your reputation at all. He can kill your body, but he can’t hurt your reputation.

You have a tongue that you can use to ruin the reputation of someone else. You can ruin the fair name of some woman. You can ruin the reputation of some man. I think today the most vicious thing in some of our churches is the gossip that is carried on. I actually advised someone not too long ago not to join a certain church, because I happen to know that some of the worst gossips in the world are in that church. And I want to tell you they have slaughtered the reputation of many individuals.

Do you know who they are? They are the so-called spiritual crowd. I call them the spiritual snobs, because that’s what they are. With their tongues they use deceit, and “the poison of asps [adder’s poison] is under their lips.” Oh, how vicious the human tongue is! How terrible it can be.

Romans 3:14

This is the fourth thing the Great Physician says about man. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud; under his tongue is mischief and vanity. Also he is prone to curse. And if you listen to what is being said today, you know that cursing is in the vocabulary of all men, whether he is a ditch digger or a college professor. They’re better at using profanity than they are at any other language. A man challenged this verse one time when I was a pastor in downtown Los Angeles. He didn’t believe it was true. So I said to him, “Let’s test it. You and I will walk out here to the corner, and the first man who comes by, whoever he is, you punch him in the mouth and see what comes out. I guarantee that it will be as God says.” Then God says the fifth thing.

Romans 3:15

Isa_59:7 gives the unabridged version: “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.” What a picture this is of mankind"Their feet are swift to shed blood."

Romans 3:16

Man leaves desolation and distress behind him. This is included in Isa_59:7 which we have quoted.

Romans 3:17

Man does not know the way of peace. Look about you in the world today. After all these years man is still talking about peace, but he hasn’t found it. Just read your newspaper, my friend; there is no peace in this world.

Romans 3:18

Paul seems to sum up all of man’s sin in this final statement. He has no fear of God at all. Man is living as if God does not exist. Man actually defies God. What a picture this gives of mankind! Now we come to the final thing Paul has to say about sin. Because there are still those who will say, “Well, we have the Law and we’ll keep the Law. We will hold onto it.”

Romans 3:19

Man cannot attain righteousness by the Mosaic Law. It is as if mankind in desperation grabbed for the Law as the proverbial straw when drowning. The Law won’t lift him up. Actually, it does the opposite. To hold onto the Law is like a man jumping out of an airplane, and instead of taking a parachute, he takes a sack of cement with him. Well, believe me, the Law will pull you down. It condemns man. It’s a ministration of death.

Romans 3:20

Now, I challenge any person today who believes that you have to keep the Law to be saved to take this verse and explain it. “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” And “justified” means to be declared righteous, to be saved, to meet God’s standards. You can never do it, my beloved. It’s absolutely impossible for mankind to do. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified.” Then what is the purpose of the Law? “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” Rather than providing a salvation for man, the Law reveals man to be a sinner. Between verses Rom_3:20 and Rom_3:21 there is a “Grand Canyon” division. We move out of the night into the day. Now Paul begins to speak of God’s wonderful salvation. He will talk about justification by faith, which will be explained in the remainder of the chapter.

Romans 3:21

AVAILABILITY OF A RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM GOD"The righteousness of God" should be a righteousness of God, since the article is absent in the Greek. This “righteousness” is not an attribute of GodHe says that He will not share His glory with anothernor is it the righteousness of man. God has already said that “…our righteousness are as filthy rags …” (Isa_64:6), and God is not taking in dirty laundry. Then what righteousness is Paul speaking of? It is the righteousness which God provides. Christ has become our righteousness. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1Co_1:30).

Also we are told in 2Co_5:21: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” It is very important for us to recognize tht God is the One who provides this righteousness. It’s not something that you and I can work out, but rather it is something that God has provided for us. A righteousness that God demands, God also provides. This is a righteousness that is apart from the Law, that is, you can’t get it, my friend, by doing something or keeping somethingnot even God’s Law. You can’t keep the Law to begin with. God can’t save you by law for the very simple reason that you can’t measure up to it. God can’t accept imperfection, and you and I cannot provide perfection. Therefore, He cannot save us by law. “Being witnessed by the law and the prophets” means that the Law bore witness to it in that at the very center of the Mosaic system was a tabernacle where bloody sacrifices were offered which pointed to Christ. Also the prophets witnessed to it when they spoke of the coming of Christ, His death and resurrection.

For example, Isaiah prophesied, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all…. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand” (Isa_53:6, Isa_53:10). Both the Law and the prophets witnessed to this righteousness that God would provide in Christ.

Romans 3:22

When I was a young preacher I thought that the grace of God had to go way down to reach the bad sinners but didn’t have to go down so far to reach others who weren’t so bad. But now I know that God’s grace has to go all the way to the bottom to get all of us. Each one of us is completely lost outside of Christ. Either you are absolutely saved in Christ, or you are completely lost outside of Christ. All of us need the righteousness of Christ. There is no difference. The righteousness of Christ comes to us through our faith in Christ. Great men of the past have given some apt definitions of this righteousness. William Cunningham wrote: “Under law God required righteousness from man. Under grace, He gives righteousness to man. The righteousness of God is that righteousness which God’s righteousness requires Him to require.” That is a deep definition, but it is a good one. The great Dr.

Charles Hodge has given this definition: “That righteousness of which God is the author which is of avail before Him, which meets and secures His approval.” Then Dr. Brooks gives this definition: “That righteousness which the Father required, the Son became, and the Holy Spirit convinces of, and faith secures.” Dr. Moorehead writes: “The sum total of all that God commands, demands, approves, and Himself provides.” I don’t believe it can be said any better than the way these men have said it. Now this righteousness, as we have seen it, is secured by faith, not by works. Let’s look at these verses together. Let me give you a free rendering of these verses: Even the righteousness from God which is obtained by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe: for there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory [approval] of God. That this righteousness is by faith, not by works, the Lord Jesus made clear when they asked him, “…What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said unto them, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (Joh_6:28-29). And the important thing about securing this righteousness of God is not that there’s any merit in your faith or that there’s merit in just believing. Because, actually, faith is not a work on your part. The object of faith is the important thing. Spurgeon put it like this: “It’s not thy hope in Christ which saves you.

It’s Christ. It’s not thy joy in Christ that saves you. It is Christ. And it is not thy faith in Christ that saves you, though that be the instrument, it is Christ’s blood and merit.” Now, friend, that’s very important to nail in our thinking. And that righteousness is like a garment. It is available to all, but it only comes upon all that believe. And then he says that it’s needed by everyone: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Now that doesn’t mean that there is not a difference in sinners. Let me illustrate this with a very homely illustration. Let’s suppose that we folk here in California play a game called “Jumping to Catalina.” Catalina Island is out in the Pacific Ocean at least fifteen or twenty miles from the shore of California. We will go down to the pier in Santa Monica, and we will take a big running jump, and we’ll see who can jump to Catalina.

Somebody’s going to say, “That’s an impossible jump!” Frankly, no one has jumped it, but it’s a lot of fun playing the game. Suppose you and I play the game. You may be able to jump farther than I can jump, but you will miss Catalina. And the fellow who jumps the farthest gets the wettest and has to swim farther back to shore. Of course, nobody could jump to Catalina. Some are better than others, but it’s rather childish to play a game like that and say, “I jumped farther than you did.

I’m better than you are, and I’m better than half the church members.” Suppose you areand you may well bebut what difference does that make? You have not come up to the glory of God.

Romans 3:24

“Freely” is the Greek word dorean, translated in Joh_15:25 “without a cause.” Our Lord Jesus said that they hated Him freely, without a causethere was no basis for it. Now Paul is saying, “Being justified freelywithout a cause.” There is no explanation in us. God doesn’t say, “Oh, they are such wonderful people, I’ll have to do something for them!” As we have seen before, there is nothing in us that would call out the grace of God, other than our great need. We are justified without a cause. It is by His grace, which means that there is no merit on our part. Grace is unmerited favor; it is love in action. It is “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Redemption is always connected with the grace of God. The reason that God can save you and me is that Christ redeemed us; He paid a price. He died upon a cross to make it available to us. You see, justification by faith is actually more than subtraction of our sinsthat is, forgiveness. It is the addition of the righteousness of Christ. In other words, we are not merely restored to Adam’s former position, but now we are placed in Christ where we shall be throughout the endless ages of eternity the sons of God! John Bunyan was driven almost to distraction because he realized that he was such a great sinner with no righteousness of his own. And he said at that time, “When God showed me John Bunyan as God saw John Bunyan, I no longer confessed I was a sinner, but I confessed that I was sin from the crown of my head to the sole of my feet. I was full of sin.” And Bunyan struggled with the problem of how he could stand in God’s presence even with his sins forgiven. Where could he gain a standing before God? And so, walking through the cornfields one night, as he wrestled with this problem, the words of Paul (who was another great sinner, who called himself the chief of sinners) came to him, and his burden rolled off his shoulders. The word from Paul was Php_3:9: “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” And when you read Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, you’re reading actually the story of Bunyan’s life. And you remember, when Pilgrim came with that great burden on his shoulders through the Slough of Despond, he didn’t know what to do until finally he came to the Cross, and there the burden rolled off, and he trusted Christ as his Savior. “By his grace” is the way God saves us. This is the fountain from which flow down the living waters of God in this age of grace. And so, because of what God has donesending His Son to dieGod is able to save by grace. And Paul in Eph_2:4-5 says, “But God, who is rich in mercy [that means He has plenty of it], for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;).” And Dr. Newell said of that grace, “The grace of God is infinite love operating by an infinite meansthe sacrifice of Christ; and an infinite freedom, unhindered, now, by the temporary restrictions of the law.” Today a holy God is free to reach down to meet your needs. How wonderful it is to know a holy God is free to save those who will trust Christ.

Dr. Newell again said, “Everything connected with God’s salvation is glad in bestowment, infinite in extent, and unchangeable in its character.” And it’s all available, and only available, in Christ Jesus. He alone could pay the price. As Peter put it to the nation Israel, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Act_4:12).

Romans 3:25

Notice it is “faith in his blood.” That blood speaks of His life"…without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb_9:22). And I tell you, when you put a knife in the body of a man and the blood pours out, that man is a dead man because “the life of the flesh is in the blood.” And the life of Jesus Christ was given. That blood is a very precious thing according to Simon Peter. Now, these two verses are filled with words that are jawbreakers: propitiation, righteousness, remission. Although they are difficult words, don’t be too frightened of them, because when we boil them down to our size, we find that in these two verses we have what Calvin called the very marrow of theology. Calvin also wrote: “There is not probably in the whole Bible a passage which sets forth more profoundly the righteousness of God in Christ.” “God hath set forth"God is the sole architect of salvation, and He is the One today who is able to save. You and I cannot save; no religion can save; no church can save. Paul said to the Corinthians, “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ …” (2Co_5:18). He did it. Now, He is giving to us the ministry of reconciliation, and so all that the holy God is asking you and me to do today is to be reconciled to Him. You don’t have to do anything to soften God’s heart.

I have a friend who was an evangelist for years, and he always liked to get people to cry. I used to ask him how many tears you’d have to shed to soften God’s heart. “Oh,” he said, “don’t be ridiculous.” I told him, “I’m not being ridiculous. You are. You say you’ve got to come down to the altar and shed some tears.” My friend, God’s heart is already soft. All you have to do is come. He is reconciled to you.

He says to you, “Be ye reconciled to God.” Christ has been “set forth”; that is, He has been exhibited or displayed. “To be a propitiation” points back to the time over nineteen hundred years ago when Christ was set forth as the Savior. You will recall that the veil of the temple hid the mercy seat and only the high priest could go in past that veil. But today Christ has been set before us as the mercy seat. Speaking of the mercy seat, the writer of Hebrews says, “And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat …” (Heb_9:5)the Greek word for mercy seat, hilasterion, is the same word translated “propitiation.” Christ has been set forth as the mercy seat. You recall that the poor publican cried out, because he needed a mercy seat, “…God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luk_18:13), which literally is, “God, if there were only a mercy seat for me, a poor publican, to come to!” You see, when a Jew became a publican, he cut himself off from the temple and from the mercy seat that was there. Paul is saying that now there is on display a mercy seatGod hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. It is wonderful to know that we have a holy God who in joy and in satisfaction and delight can hold out to the world today a mercy seat. And God doesn’t reluctantly save you. If you come, He saves you wholeheartedly, abundantly. Some folk tell me that after I am saved I still have to search and pray and tarry for something more. My friend, when I came to Jesus, I got everything (see Eph_1:3). Oh, how good He was! He didn’t hold back anything. And He says to come, He can accept you. “…him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (Joh_6:37). Actually, you and I were shut out from a holy God. But the way now has been opened up for us by His blood. “To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins are past.” That doesn’t mean your sins and my sins of the past; it means the sins of those who lived before the Cross. You see, back in the Old Testament, they brought a little lamb. And I’m sure you don’t take a little lamb to church to sacrifice. Today it would be sinful to do that. But back then, before Christ came, it was required; the Law required it. Now, that little lamb pointed to the coming of Christ.

No one back in those days believed that the little lamb could take away sins. I don’t think any of them did. Suppose you had been there when Abel brought a little lamb to God, “Abel, do you think this little lamb is going to take away your sin?” He would have told you no. And you would have said, “Then why did you bring it?” His answer would have been, “God required it. God commanded us to bring it.” Heb_11:4 tells us “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain….” In other words, he did it by revelation, because “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom_10:17). The only way Abel could have brought that sacrifice by faith was for God to have told him to bring it.

And that is what God did. You might have said to Abel, “Specifically what do you think God has in mind?” And I think he would have said this, “Well, God has told my mother that there’s coming a Savior. We don’t know when, but until He comes, we’re to do this because we’re to come by faith.” And so the “sins that are past” means that up to the time when Christ died, God saved on credit. God did not save Abraham because he brought a sacrifice. God never saved any of them because they brought a sacrifice. A sacrifice pointed to Christ. When Christ came, He paid for all the sins of the past and also for the sins this side of the Cross. “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” On this side of the Cross we don’t bring a sacrifice, but we are to trust in Christ and His blood. Now Paul raises a question:

Romans 3:27

If God is saving by faith in Christ and not by your merit, your works, then where is boasting? What is it that you and I have to crow about? We can’t even boast of the fact that we’re fundamental in doctrine. We have nothing to glory in today. Paul asks, “Where is boasting then?” And he answers the question he raises. “It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.” The word law in the first instance is not restricted to the Old Testament Law but means the principle of lawany law, anything that you think you can do. The second reference to law excludes the Old Testament Law and means simply a rule or principle of faith. In other words, God has the human race not on the merit system, but on the basis of simply believing what He has done for us. Therefore, it excludes boasting.

Romans 3:28

This is not a conclusion that Paul is coming to or even a summing up of what he has said. Rather, he is giving an explanation of why boasting is excluded. Why is boasting excluded? Man is justified by faith. Now Paul not only drives the nail in, he turns the board over and clinches it. Listen to him:

Romans 3:29

In other words, does God belong to the Jews alone and not also to the Gentiles? And Paul says, “Yes, to the Gentiles also.” Now, listen to this. This is a very cogent argument. Paul says, “If justification is by the law, then God does belong to the Jews. But if justification is by faith, then He is the God of both Jews and Gentiles.” Now, notice the logic of this. If the Jew persisted in this position, then there must be two Godsone for the Jews, one for the Gentiles.

But the Jew would not allow this. He was a monotheist, that is, he believed in one God. Probably the greatest statement that ever was given to the nation Israel was Deu_6:4, “Hear, O Israel: Jehovah, our Elohim is one Jehovah” (literal translation mine). That was the clarion message He gave in the pagan world before Christ came.

Romans 3:30

In other words, there’s only one God. And in the Old Testament, He gave man the Law. Man failed. God didn’t save them by their keeping the Law; salvation was always by the sacrifice which man brought in faith, pointing to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:31

The reference to the Law, I think, brings in another meaning of this word. It is not restricted to the Mosaic system here. Neither does it refer to just any law. Rather, it refers to the entire Old Testament revelation. “Faith” excluded the works of the Law. But did it abrogate the entire Old Testament revelation? Of course not!

Paul will demonstrate in the next chapter by Old Testament illustrations of two men, Abraham and David, that it did not exclude that. These two key men, outstanding men, were saved, not by law but by faith. To begin with, Abraham was born and lived and died four hundred years before the Law was ever given. Abraham did not live on the basis of the Mosaic Law since it was not yet given in his day. God saved him on a different basis, which is by faith. And somebody says, “Well, then what about David?” Now, very honestly, do you think David could have been saved by keeping the Law?

Of course he couldn’t. The Old Testament made it very clear that David broke the Law. And yet God saved him. How? Well, He saved him by faith. David trusted God and believed God.

Even in his sin, he came in confession to God. God accepted him and saved him by faith. Today, my friend, when you and I will take the position that we’re sinners and come to God and trust Christ as our Saviorregardless of who we are, where we are, how we are or when we areGod will save us. For God today has put man on one basis and one basis alone. His question is, What will you do with My Son who died for you on the Cross?