In his Ars Poetica, the Roman poet Horace advised writers, “Do not bring a god onto the stage, unless the problem is one that deserves a god to solve it.” Romans follows this advice perfectly. Paul begins this letter with a God-sized problem: sin. 

• Chapter 1 condemns Gentiles before God. 
• Chapter 2 condemns the Jews before God.

Romans 3:10-12 indicts us all: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 

We are guilty, condemned, and helpless sinners. How can one get right with God? Various religions offer different answers. There is only one right answer. Romans 3:21-26 states it clearly, fully, and powerfully. Martin Luther called it: “The chief point, and the very central place of the Epistle, and of the whole Bible.”

Romans 1:16-17 is Paul’s thesis statement: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” The “righteousness of God” is the dominating theme of Romans. We relate salvation to divine love. God’s righteousness is the primary issue. God is holy; we are not. God’s righteousness demands that sin be punished. The way of salvation must satisfy God’s righteousness. Self-righteousness, good works, and religious acts do not suffice. 

Romans 3:21-26 explains how to get right with God: God saves sinners through faith in Christ alone. Leon Morris said, “In what is possibly the most important single paragraph ever written, Paul brings out something of the grandeur of Christ’s saving work.” How can one get right with God? Romans 3:21-26 explains three dynamics of how God saves sinners through faith in Christ.

Righteousness Manifested

Romans 3:20 says, “For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” To-do list religion does not produce the righteousness that God accepts. The law can show where you are wrong. It cannot show you how to get it right. Verse 21 begins with a dramatic contrast: “But now…” Having presented the bad news of sin, Paul presents the good news of salvation. How is righteousness manifested?

Not By Good Works. Verse 21 says, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.” The “righteousness of God” is the theme of this paragraph. The phrase occurs in verses 21-22. Verse 25 mentions “God’s righteousness.” Verse 26 speaks of “his righteousness.” Paul claims God’s righteousness “has been manifested.” It is not the presentation of something new. It is the revelation of that which has been hidden. God’s righteousness has been manifested at the cross. The finished work of Christ reveals the righteous way God saves sinners “apart from the law.” Adherence to the law of Moses in the Old Covenant does not make you right with God. God’s righteousness is manifested apart from the law. Yet “the law and the prophets bear witness to it.” John Bengel called this “a sweet antithesis.”

• What the Old Testament enfolds, the New Testament unfolds. 
• What the Old Testament conceals, the New Testament reveals. 
• What the Old Testament promises, the New Testament fulfills. 

The Bible consists of sixty-six books written by more than forty authors in three languages across two testaments over 1,500 years. Yet it is one grand story that progresses, integrates, and climaxes in Christ. John 5:39-40 says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

By Faith in Christ Alone. Verse 21 asserts what righteousness manifested is not. Verse 22 summarizes what it is: “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” This verse succinctly states the essence of the gospel. Verse 22 calls the gospel “the righteousness of God” for the second time in this text. It is the way God saves sinners without violating his holy character. God’s righteousness in salvation is manifested “through faith.” The 16th-century Protestant Reformers emphasized that justification is by faith alone. Faith is only as good as its object. The object of saving faith is “Jesus Christ.”

• We are not saved by faith in faith. 
• We are not saved by faith in ourselves. 
• We are not saved by faith in God. 

Jonah 2:9 says, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” God saves sinners through faith in Jesus Christ. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.” The gospel works “for all who believe.” The finished work of Christ is sufficient for all who believe. It is efficient to save those who believe. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Righteousness Provided

God demands righteousness. What God demands, God provides. How does God provide righteousness in Christ? 

All are sinners. Verse 22 ends with the beginning of a sentence: “For there is no distinction.” Jews have no advantage in salvation. Gentiles have no disadvantage in salvation. Our race-based distinctions are antithetical to the gospel. Romans 10:12-13 says, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” Verse 23 explains why there is no distinction: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This is the most clear-cut statement about sin in the Bible. 

We are sinners. Verse 23 says, “All have sinned.” “All” levels the playing field. No one is exempt. All are sinners. “Sinned” means “to miss the mark.” It pictures an archer who shoots the arrow but misses the bullseye. We may miss the mark differently. But all have sinned. 

The grammar indicates a snapshot in time. You are not on trial awaiting a verdict about your sinfulness. The charges are true. The evidence is airtight. The judge has ruled. The verdict is in. The case is closed. Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” 

We fall short. As sinners, we “fall short of the glory of God.” We are in a race we can never win. The sinfulness of sin weighs us down, slows us up, and wears us out. We come late, lag behind, and fall short. “Sinned” is a snapshot in time. “Fall short” is a video showing our continual failure to do God’s will. We keep falling short of the glory of God. None of us lives up to God’s righteous standard. Bishop Handley Moule wrote: “The harlot, the liar, the murderer, are short it; but so are you. Perhaps they stand at the bottom of a mine, and you on the crest of an Alp; but you are as little able to touch the stars as they.”

All can be saved. 

• Verse 23 states man’s problem. 
• Verses 24-25 present God’s solution.  

Paul uses three terms to describe God’s saving work in Christ. 

Justification. Verse 24 says that sinners are “justified by his grace as a gift.” “Justified” is a forensic term that means “to declare righteous.” Justification is more than forgiveness. It is to impute righteousness by divine decree. How does God righteous the unrighteous? Verse 24 says it is “by his grace.”Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” Justification is by his grace “as a gift” – without payment of money. John 15:25 says, “They hated me without a cause.” That’s how God saves us: “without a cause.” “As a gift” corresponds with “apart from the law” in verse 21. We are not saved by what we do or do not do. We are saved by his grace as a gift. Romans 4:4-5 says: “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” 

Redemption. Verse 24 says we are saved “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”“Redemption” is a commercial term that means to set free from bondage by the payment of a price. Slaves, debtors, and prisoners of war were placed in bondage. They could only be set free if someone intervened to pay the price. This is the reality of sin. Sin is bondage. John 12:34 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” There is nothing we can do to liberate ourselves. But God has paid the price for us. This divine redemption is “in Christ Jesus.” Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus lived the life we should have lived. At the cross, he died the death we should have died. His crucifixion and resurrection redeem sinners. Colossians 1:14 says, “In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Propitiation. Verse 25 says, “God put forward as a propitiation by his blood.” “Propitiation” is the averting of wrath by a sacrificial offering. The blood of Jesus satisfied God’s wrath against sin. God put Christ forward as a propitiation by his blood. We contributed nothing. It was all of God! 1 John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” This love gift is “to be received by faith.” William Cowper was a troubled young man who tried to commit suicide multiple times. While hospitalized for depression, Cowper read a Bible open to Romans 4:25. He wrote, “Immediately I received the strength to believe it. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement Jesus had made, my pardon sealed in his blood, in all the fullness and completeness of his justification.” Have you trusted the blood and righteousness of Christ for salvation? 

Righteousness Vindicated

   The greatest paragraph ever written has addressed two crucial questions. 

• How can sinners get right with God? 
• What has God done in Christ to save us? 

There remains one more question to answer: Is God right to justify unrighteous sinners? 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” How does God forgive sins and remain faithful and just?

God’s Forbearance. Verse 25 states God’s purpose of our justification, redemption, and propitiation in Christ: “This was to show God’s righteousness.” We often think about what the cross accomplished for us. We seldom think about what God did for God at the cross. The death of Christ vindicated God’s holiness, justice, and righteousness. Why would God need to prove his righteousness? It is “because in his divine forbearance he has passed over former sins.” God has not “passed over former sins” because God is unjust. It is because of “divine forbearance.”

• God is slow to anger. 
• God is patient with sinners. 
• God is a God of second chances. 

Divine forbearance is not a license to sin. It is a call to repentance. Romans 2:4 asks, “Or do not presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” Hear and heed this warning today. You may get by but you will not get away. Run to the cross! Acts 17:30-31 says, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has faced a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he pass appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

God’s Forgiveness. Verse 25 repeats and reinforces verse 26. Why does God save through faith in Christ alone? Verse 26 answers: “It is to show his righteousness at the present time.” “The present time” began at the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ and continues in the proclamation of the gospel today. In the finished work of Christ, God shows himself to be “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

• God the just punishes sinful rebellion. 
• God the justifier declares sinners righteous. 

Both paradoxical acts are true without contradiction. Psalm 85:10 says, “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.” That kiss happened at Calvary. At the cross, God punished Christ so that he might pardon us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This great exchange is available to “the one who has faith in Jesus.” Saving faith is more than mental assent or agreement. A Christian believes in Jesus as a characteristic of life. We are not saved by faith plus works. God saves sinners by faith in Christ alone.

John Newton – a converted drunk, blasphemer, and slave-trader – wrote the hymn, Amazing Grace.” In his later years, Newton often lost his memory in the pulpit and would need to be reminded of what he was preaching. On one occasion, Newton said, “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Jesus is a great Savior!” Is that your testimony?