Grace Institute: The Pauline Epistles: Romans : Romans 3:21-5:21

Romans Survey of the New Testament: The Pauline Epistles Winter 2006

Previous: The Wrath of God against Unrighteous Humanity (Romans 1:18-3:20)

Justification of Humanity through Faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:21-5:21)

Justification through Jesus Christ (3:21-31)

Justification through Christ's Propitiation (3:21-26)

Now we come to the heart of the book of Romans. This is the crux (no pun intended) of Paul's discussion, as he outlines the means by which we can be saved from the wrath of God.

While obedience to the Law is a futile path, the Law and the prophets do show a way to find the righteousness of God (3:21), namely through faith in Jesus Christ (3:22). Through Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God has been manifest (3:21). That is to say, there is no distinction between the righteousness of God and Jesus Christ. Jesus is the righteousness of God (3:22).

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (3:23), but by the gift of His grace and the redemption of Jesus we are justified (3:24)! The English words justified and righteousness are translations of the same Greek root word, d??a??? . To be justified means to be made righteous. Justification means the process of being given the same righteousness as is found in Christ.

If we are totally depraved, how can we possibly be considered to have the same righteousness as Christ? How can God look upon me and consider me, a man who has no good inside of me, to be a righteous person? It is only through the propitiation of Christ.

The blood of Christ serves as a propitiation, or an appeasement of God's wrath, so that God, in His forbearance, is able to pass over our sins (3:25). Propitiation is a fancy way of saying that, while God was angry at me, his anger has been satisfied, or appeased, through Christ's sacrificial death.

Therefore, through Christ's appeasing sacrifice, God is able to remain just. That is, God's wrath against sin is upheld in Christ's death, so that God is free to be just and also be the justifier of those who believe (3:26).

This then is the core truth of the entire book of Romans: Jesus is the righteousness of God (3:21-22). Therefore, his death on the cross is able to appease God's wrath (3:25a), so that God can pass over our sins (3:25b) and still uphold His righteousness and His justice (3:26).

Justification is Available for both Jew and Greek (3:27-31)

Therefore, because our works can not bring about our salvation, we can not boast (3:27). Justification comes apart from the works of the Law (3:28). Justification comes through faith in Jesus' sacrificial death (3:27b-28a).

God is the God of both the Jew and the Gentile (3:29). While the Law was only available to the Jew, faith is available to both Jew and Gentile. Circumcised or uncircumcised, justification comes only through faith, not the Law (3:30).

Proof From Scripture: Abraham (4:1-25)

Paul takes this central argument found at the end of chapter 3 and uses examples from scripture to prove his point. His primary case is made through the life of Abraham. Abraham was justified (i.e. made righteous) because he believed God (4:3), not because of his obedience to the Law (4:2).

Paul explains the details of justification in verse 4 and 5. Justification is having righteousness credited to us without having earned it. This is an accounting term, and it is as if we had a debt, but the debt holder credits our account so that the debt no longer exists.

King David understood the concept of justification, and praises God for the blessing of justification in his Pslams (4:6-8).

The blessing of justification is available to the circumcised and the uncircumcised both. This is also proven from the life of Abraham. Abraham was justified by God before he received the commandment to be circumcised from God (4:9-12). Abraham is reckoned as righteous in Genesis 15:6. It is 24 years later, in Genesis 17, that God gives Abraham the covenant of circumcision.

Therefore, the promises of Abraham belong to those who are justified by faith (4:13,16), not those who try to be justified by the Law (4:14), for the Law only brings about God's wrath (4:15).

When God promised Abraham that he would have many descendents, Abraham believed even though he was “as good as dead” (4:17-21). That belief resulted in his justification (4:22). Now, Abraham's faith serves as an example for all of us (4:23), that if we believe in the God who raised Jesus from the dead, we too will have righteousness credited to us (4:24).

The Great Exchange (4:25)

Paul concludes this section with a brief statement which provides us with a foreshadow of things to come in chapter 5. Paul will be showing in the following chapter the mechanism by which Christ's death brings about our justification. Verse 25 of this chapter gives us a glimpse of that mechanism:

He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. (Romans 4:25)

In His death, Jesus took on our transgressions and experienced the wrath of God those transgressions demanded. In exchange, we were justified. That is to say, we took on His righteousness. In the cross, Jesus became our sinfulness while we became His righteousness. This is what Martin Luther called “the Great Exchange. [1]”

What a glorious Savior we have. That Jesus would willingly take on the sin and wrath of God which He does not deserve so that we might receive the righteousness and acceptance from God that we do not deserve. Praise be to God for His great salvation.

Benefits of Justification (5:1-11)

After explaining that we are justified by our faith, Paul explains the benefits of this justification. First, being justified means we have peace with God which is obtained through the grace of God (5:1).

We have hope (5:1-5)

The second benefit of our justification is the hope that God will continue the work of salvation (5:2b). This hope allows us to, not just endure tribulation, but exult in tribulation.

Being justified means God considers us righteous judicially. But that does not mean we always behave in a righteous manner after our initial salvation. God is continuing the process of salvation as we grow and mature in our Christian character. This is called sanctification, and will be dealt with by Paul in chapters 6 and 7. The process of sanctification begins with tribulations, which results in our perseverance, which develops proven character, which results in the hope of a future salvation (5:3-4). This future hope is called glorification, and will be dealt with extensively by Paul in chapter 8.

This hope doesn't disappoint for it is guaranteed to us by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in our lives (5:5). The Spirit's presence in the life of the justified serves as the down payment of the current work of sanctification and God's future work of glorification (Ephesians 1:13-14). As we experience the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives it serves as an assurance that the process of salvation is continuing. This is what gives us that confident hope.

We are reconciled to God (5:6-11)

The third benefit of justification is our reconciliation with God (5:11b). Such reconciliation comes through Christ's death on our behalf. It is rare to find people who will lay down their lives for a good and righteous person (5:7). But Christ died for us when we were ungodly (5:6b), sinners (5:7b), and enemies of God (5:10). We exult in god because through Jesus Christ, we are no longer enemies of God under His wrath (5:9), but we are reconciled to God (5:10-11).

Mechanism of Justification (5:12-21)

How can it be that the death of one man can serve to reconcile multitudes of people to God? If Christ has died on our behalf, wouldn't Christ need to die a multitude of deaths? Paul addresses this question by exploring the mechanics of justification in verses 12-21.

Imputation of sin (5:12-14)

Jesus did not need to die individually for each person, for Jesus serves as a “federal-head” of humanity. Just as Adam served as our first federal-head, bringing sin to all humanity, so Jesus serves as a “second-Adam” bringing the possibility of righteousness to all humanity (Romans 5:14b, 1 Corinthians 15:45). Whereas sin and death spread to all humanity because Adam sinned, so grace and life can spread to all humanity because of Jesus death.

All human beings are born sinful. The default human state is not one of goodness or even neutrality. Our default state is sinfulness, for we have inherited the sin of our father, Adam. This one man caused sin and death to enter the world, so that all are sinners because of Adam (5:12).

It is not our disobedience to the Law which brings about sin and death (5:13), for sin and death existed between the time of Adam and Moses (5:14). Instead sin is imputed onto us apart from the Law (5:13b).

Like it or not, we are stuck with the consequences of Adam's sin. Because we have been born into Adam's race, we are all sinners condemned by God. That's why David, in Psalm 51:5, says “in sin my mother conceived me.”

Often the doctrine of imputed sin is seen as unfair of God. There are two responses to this perceived injustice:

1. Do we really think that we would have behaved differently than Adam in the Garden of Eden? Are we really so self-righteous as to presume that we would have resisted a temptation that Adam, who lived in perfect relationship with God in an paradise, was unable to withstand?
2. If we are resistant to the idea of Adam's federal-headship, then we must resist the federal-headship of Christ, which results in our justification. For federal-headship is the mechanism by which the death of one man can substitute for the death of many (5:15). Salvation comes from trusting in Christ's federal-headship.

Imputation of righteousness (5:15-21)

If through the transgression of one man many died, so through Jesus, the grace of God can abound to the many. Paul then makes a series of comparisons between the federal-headships of Adam and Jesus:

The sinful act of one man, Adam, results in the death, judgment, condemnation and the imputation of sinfulness to all humanity. The righteous act of one man, Christ, results in life, justification and the imputation of righteousness available to all of humanity.

The imputation of Adam's sin took place before the Law was given (5:14). Sin did not enter the world through the Law. But the Law didn't help humanity's sinful situation, but just resulted in even more sin (5:20). But that doesn't make the Law a bad thing, for were there is more sin, there is more grace from God. Paul is not saying that the Law results in more sins taking place, but that the Law makes us more and more aware of our sinfulness. Therefore the Law is good because as we see our sinfulness more and more, we see grace abound more and more. This will be more fully explained in Romans 7:7-12).

Paul summarizes this section in 5:21, showing that while sin rules, it results in death, where grace rules, it results in eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Footnotes

1. J. I. Packer. Growing in Christ. (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books, 1994), 80.

Next: Part III - Sanctification by Faith