Called to Righteousness – Christian Puzzles & Answers

Called to Righteousness

Study Scripture: Romans 3: 21 -31.

Key Verse

23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus

25. Whom God has set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness.

Romans 3: 23 – 25.

INTRODUCTION

Our Study Scripture looks carefully at the universality of sin as well as whether a man can be “justified” with God. The Apostle had charged both Gentiles and Jews with sin.

Never forget that this fact applies to all men, the soldier, the Prime Minister, the President, the bishop, the Bible Teacher, as well as the average Pastor in the pulpit. Universal guilt is a basic fact. This fact is recognized in every society for they practice sacrifice recognizing that the anger of whatever they worship as God has to be placated. So they sacrifice and shed blood.

Paul had made it clear that mankind was guilty before God. The structure of the entire creation, as well as what God had implanted in man, had left him with no excuse for not glorifying and thanking God.

The words in Scripture used for “sin” has several meanings. It can mean to ‘miss the mark’ or it might mean a perverse missing of the mark. It might mean “rebellion” which is stepping aside by violating an express command. Another word for sin means falling by the side which suggests what happened in Eden and that reflects the weakness in our nature. There are sins of commission and sins of omission. Whatever sin is it is in the heart. It is deceitful. This makes according to the prophet Isaiah man’s righteousness, what man does, to become as filthy rags in the sight of God. It is foul smelling and insufficient to make us acceptable in the presence of God.

Man therefore began to change the glory of God into a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator. As a result, all kinds of vicious and evil forms of behavior had emerged. Man knew the judgment of God, and the death which awaited them for their sins, but they still persisted in their sins, enjoying them.

Men had had the Law written in their hearts, but that did not them from doing all the things that God hated.

God saw everything that man did. He saw all their secrets, and the facade that they had created. Nothing could be concealed, and there were no areas that could be hidden from God’s eyes.

Man does several things in order to try to fool God. He holds onto religious behavior, or to a series of instructions or pretensions, creeds, prayers, traditions, or forms of piety.

Man also prescribed rituals and rites, the exercise of which they depended on to show that they were God’s people. The Jews of course used circumcision in this way. Today we use baptism, confirmation, church membership, communion, prayers, and so to try to show who we are in relation to God.

But God is a realist. He knows that if there is a lack of commitment of the heart, the whole show of religion is meaningless.

Clearly if we do things because we think that God requires us to do them, instead of doing them to express what we genuinely feel in our hearts, voluntarily saying and doing what we really believe and want to do to please and glorify God, then it will be meaningless to God.

In other words, if a man has not exposed himself to the control of God, and lives for the glory of God, giving up the old life of self centeredness, everything that that man does is really play acting and religious hocus-pocus. It really is a kind of insult to God, for he treats God as a person who does not see the heart, and who is so weak that he can be fooled by the creature.

In today’s lesson Paul continues this discussion from Chapter 2, continuing to define the human condition to which the gospel provides an answer.

In chapter 2, Paul had undermined the confidence of those who think that because they have the Law they have some great advantage over those without the Law.

Paul indicts all those who think that doing things is what distinguishes them as people of God, failing to recognize that it is the hidden work of the Spirit in the heart that determines a man’s standing before God.

Outward markers, important though they are, will not save a person. Emphasis on these markers generally brings a presumption of confidence based on one’s privileged position. But that is deadly, for people who fall into that trap will forget that all men stand guilty before God.

In the Chapter we study today, the Apostle Paul goes into detail about his position, and shows that we must forsake all false refuges.

Paul discusses what is really important to God, recognizing that Israel is very important to God, and stressing the faithfulness of God. Though all men are unfaithful to God, God is faithful, and has fulfilled his promises to give his Son as Redeemer. Jew as well as Gentile needed a Redeemer because all were sinners and could not attain to the standards of perfection required by God to save themselves.

At this stage Paul asked an obvious question that would now come to the mind of his readers. He raises the question himself and then answers it.

Knowing that Paul had made a direct attack on Jewish self-confidence in Israel’s privileged status before God, his arguments would raise significant questions about the election of Israel, and God’s faithfulness to the chosen people. Jews could ask indignantly whether the great religious heritage given to them and the privileges given to them meant nothing at all. They could accuse Paul of undervaluing their heritage.

Note however that Paul had not questioned the fact of the election of Israel, but was showing that God had a larger picture before Him, namely the status of the world that stood before Him, the Creator. It is in this big picture that Israel’s Covenant had stood.

The previous Chapters are essential to understand what the Apostle is teaching.

Paul in light of what he had just taught in chapter 2, now asked the question as to what value there was in being a Jew, or put another way, what value or advantage was there in circumcision.

Paul’s reply was emphatic, immediate, and to the point. The circumcised Jew had a great advantage in all respects, because especially, God had given divine, authoritative communications to them. They had the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, the institution of the ceremonial Laws, the prophecies about the “seed of the woman”, the Messiah, and all the books of the Old Testament. All this contained the mind of God, the infallible and authoritative God.

The Jews had these oracles entrusted to them. They therefore had a clearer knowledge of God than the Gentiles, and knew exactly whom God was and how God wanted to be worshiped. As keepers of these divine words, and being specially helped by God, they had a position of honor, and closeness to God.

The Jews though entrusted with the very ‘words’ of God, and privileges that went along with it, did not all believe God, though they have all the means of light and knowledge. They constantly read the Scriptures, and made attempts to follow them, even though they did not follow the promises of God faithfully and believed in the Messiah when He came.

But would the unbelief of the larger body of the nation invalidate or nullify the truth and faithfulness of God in his promises, asks Paul! Would their unfaithfulness to their trust lead to God not being faithful to His promises! They had the message that God wanted all of men to have, kept it to themselves, looked at possession of this message as something signifying that they alone were very special to God, and refused to share it with others. But would God be like them and be similarly faithless!

Paul responded to this with a “Let it not be” or as one writer puts it, “Away with such a thought”. Paul repudiated such a possibility, and in fact expressed abhorrence at it.

The truth of God could never be nullified because of His people’s faith or lack of it. God would always be true to His word, and always carry out His purposes, even though every man turned out to be a liar and false.

Let us look at what this position that God takes means.

In the final analysis it really made no difference if you are unfaithful or not. God will remain faithful to His promises, and in doing so will not withhold His judgment on the disobedient, but will save the remnant that he has chosen and preserved.

This idea that God is faithful in spite of Israel’s unbelief is of course an extremely important matter to Paul.

So Paul therefore quotes from Psalm 116: 11 and Psalm 51: 4 which expressed the idea that God will continue to be true even though every man becomes a liar. God abides faithful, and His goodness and truth is unchangeable, so that He puts to silence all charges of injustice. When men are bold enough to challenge God’s faithfulness and argue about His goodness, they will fail in their charges and accusations. God would overcome, for His judgment would always be proved to be absolutely just and right.

As a matter of fact, Paul stated the argument that wickedness actually displays how just and holy God is, and serves to highlight or accentuate God’s glory, thus leading men to see His beauty and glorify Him, and gives no support to the idea that God would therefore not punish unrighteousness of the Jews or other men.

Though there was a good result in the end, the end cannot be used to justify the means. God was going to work out all of His plan, and even though His enemies opposed Him He would succeed and show Himself as glorious. But the wicked would not get off because God’s plan succeeded and God was shown to be glorious. If God allowed the wicked to escape judgment simply because God’s plan succeeded in the end, evil would never be judged, and God would prove to be unjust and evil.

Any suggestion that Paul was teaching, “let us do evil so that good could, come out of it” was really slander against Him. Though God uses the evil of man to praise Him, man is still responsible for his iniquity. God will judge iniquity. The fact that everything worked to God’s glory, and God was glorified, did not remove the judgment on evil.

To suggest therefore that God was unfair in condemning sin was blasphemy to the nature of God. Those who suggest this, and question why God condemned sin, are therefore rightly to be themselves condemned. They deserve condemnation, or judgment.

Man, Jew or Gentile, in other words all humanity was under the same umbrella of condemnation. Those who trusted in their privileged position, or boasted in the Law as making them different were just as condemned, as were others.

Paul, to prove his case from real life, went into the Scriptures to prove that all are under the guilt and power of sin, and therefore a sentence of condemnation. The Jews were better off because they had the words of God to teach them more, but they had proved that they were no better than anyone else. Paul now quoted from different passages of Scripture to show the depravity of all human beings. Here he refers to Psalm 14: 1 and 53: 1-3 to make the point that all people, without exception, are unrighteous, do not understand God, do not seek him out, have turned away from him, and are worthless or useless, not doing any good.

Men do not have any understanding of spiritual things, do not worship God in spirit and truth, seek communion with Him, but have in fact gone out of the way of God and His commandments into the ways of death and darkness, becoming filthy or so corrupt that they have become unprofitable to themselves, to other men and to God. Every part of their body contributes to their vileness, wickedness, and to their condemnation. All parts of their body are affected.

Their throat is said to be an open sepulcher, for it cannot be satisfied, but will keep on devouring and taking in, and swallowing no matter how much it is given. Psalm 5: 9.

Men used the tongue to flatter themselves, other men, or God, lying in every area of doctrine or practice. See Psalm 16: 9 and 57: 8. They live to deceive others. The poison of snakes was under their lips. See Psalm 140: 3. Poison, which of course works secretly and underhandedly, knocking out and killing signify the mischief in the tongue without anyone being aware of what it is doing.

The mouth frequently sins. Psalm 10: 7 Very little but cursing comes out of it. Sinful words, cursing, wrathful and deceitful words, that is, bitterness or burning wrath, goes against those that it should be blessing.

The heart and the mouth were sinful, and therefore sins of action inevitably result. See Proverbs 1: 16, Isaiah 59: 7. These men are ready and eager to murder the innocent, for malice and hatred is in them.

All their ways and methods bring misery, ruin, and destruction. Isaiah 59: 7. They scatter mischief and misery in their path.

They are ignorant of the ways of true peace, the way of peace with God, of Christ the peacemaker, the gospel of peace, the Spirit of peace, or of wisdom, which brings peace. They are ignorant of all that is right, and are unjust, deceitful, and contentious by nature.

They have no reverential awe of God, because this could only spring from a sense of holiness and goodness. They do not understand the nature of God, nor are they concerned for the opinion of God. They could not care less.

THE TEXT

Because of this state of affairs discussed above, the Law existed to make all men conscious of sin. It therefore is obeyed only when a man wished or ignored what he wished. It made everybody realize that they were accountable to God, and silenced all argument. The Law showed God’s standards. In its operations it showed that people were unable to live up to them. This applied to all mankind, for it was because of the disobedience of man that led God to call Abraham and create the nation of Israel.

The Law made everyone answerable to God, and then condemned everyone, since nobody could argue that they were not under sin. No one could argue that their nature was pure, and that they could meet the righteous standards of God, and thus avoid God’s righteous judgments. In other words the best that man can do is a bust.

Clearly then, nobody could justify himself before God through the Law, for even though one tried to be obedient to it, being sinful men, obedience would be by its very nature imperfect. Only a perfect man like Christ could keep the Law perfectly.

One writer comments:

“Paul pinpoints the essential problem. No one truly worship God, and all have turned to other gods. We have dethroned God and become the rebel rulers of our own lives. This explains our condition. It’s no wonder, then, that our understanding of truth is lacking and that we are unable to implement God’s good purposes out of Love for him. None is righteous, and no one does well”.

Humanity clearly has a problem and we will now be told that the solution is close at hand, found in God’s faithfulness and righteousness.

Men can turn. They are called to righteousness.

One writer’s comments help us understand what God requires, and what man actually succeeds in doing.

The word “justified” “is a forensic word, or legal term, and stands opposed to being condemned; and signifies to be acquitted, discharged, and made righteous in a legal sense, which can never be done by an imperfect obedience to the Law: men may be justified hereby in their own sight, and in the sight of others, but not in “his sight”, in the sight of God, who is omniscient, and sees not as man seeth; who is pure, holy, and righteous, and whose judgment is according to truth.”

All who try to live according to the rules that God has given, expecting to be saved by keeping these rules, will discover that they have failed. They will realize that they have fallen short, and are naked before God. But verse 21 provides the other part of the story of the gospel.

So the Apostle begins to deal with a famous question posed in Job 9:2 as Job contends with the attacks of his friends.

“But how can a man be justified with God”.

Job’s problem has a solution. He knows that despite the incredibly righteousness and holiness of God and the depravity of man there must be a solution and he hints at it as he laments

“For He is not a man as I am

That I may answer Him,

And that we should go to court together.

Nor is there any mediator between us,

Who may lay his hand on us both”.

But the Bible teaches that there is a Daysman who has divine nature and who can lay His hand on God as well as on man and can reconcile man and God and bring them both together.

So we are confronted with the phrase of transition“But now”.

Verse 21. Paul was not introducing something new into the Old Testament, for he stated that the “Law and the Prophets”, a phrase used of the entire Old Testament, testified to the fact that there was a justifying righteousness.

The Law ‘discovered’ sin, and shows what righteousness is, but it does not show the sinner the righteousness, which justifies from sin.

Verse 22. That is the role of the gospel. The Scriptures of course bears testimony to the justifying righteousness of Christ. See Genesis 3:15, 15: 6 and many other passages.

There is therefore “a righteousness from God through faith”, which is the righteousness of God without the Law. This is righteousness available to all sinners on the basis of faith in Christ alone. Therefore since everybody is a sinner, everybody can be saved on an equal basis without distinction or exception.

There is no difference of nation, age, sex, or condition. The righteousness is equally given to all. The ground at the foot of the Cross is level.

The focus now is immediately on the person of a Savior for it is by faith in Christ Himself that you come into this standing for it is He who saves us. As one writer said

“The gift involves a relationship to a living person”.

It is made clear in John 1:12

As many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God”.

Verse 23. Why is this so? Men certainly differ in many respects, but there’s no difference in the sense that all men deserve the wrath of God. No man has fulfilled the beautiful plan God had designed for him. Man was made to bring glory to God, but his sinfulness has made that impossible.

There is no other way and all the religions of the Earth cannot bring man to a sense of his value, worth and standing in the sight of God.

Verse 24. God had therefore moved of His own accord to denying all human effort, all the claims of positive thinking, and by Himself giving us all we need for salvation. Man has done nothing to deserve this, but God had freely given us what we need.

The righteousness God requires of man comes from God but it is for all those who believe. So we are told that whoever believes in Him will not perish.

So this kind of perfection that God wishes might be missed and not attained by good church persons. Job, though he was upright, knew that he had need for a Savior so that he could come into the presence of God. The great prophet Isaiah knew that he was undone and unfit for the divine presence. The great prophet Jeremiah felt the same way. The Apostle Peter testified that Jesus should depart from him for he was a sinful man. The Apostle Paul when Jesus appeared to him fell on his face and tells us that he found out that was the chief of sinners.

God has set Jesus to be the ransom. Man was in a state of captivity to sin and Satan, and Jesus, as the Redeemer, took the sins of His people unto Himself, bore them, and took them away. He provided satisfaction. He was a sacrifice to obtain salvation for men, so that they could be free.

The word used to tell us what happened is “justify”. To justify does not mean to be righteous or to appear righteous. It means to be “declared righteous”. But note that we are still sinner. But despite that we are given righteous standing because of Jesus Christ. We are saved when we personally believe for the gift that is offered must be taken so that it can become effective in the life of the one who takes it.

Do not forget therefore that it is God who does this justifying freely by His grace. You cannot add to this for it is God who freely, completely and entirely who saves us. So as the song says quite rightly,

“Nothing in my hand I bring;

simply to Thy cross I cling”.

All this has been done “through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ”.

This obviously means that Jesus Christ is the one that did something that brought the work of redemption. We here face the Cross and the death of Jesus. Any church therefore that does not talk about the Cross of Jesus Christ and yet say that they are following the teaching of Jesus Christ is really teaching “another gospel”. The only real gospel is based on the redemption which Jesus accomplished on His Cross.

Verse 25. The redemption of Christ was now described also as “propitiatory sacrifice”. Christ is the one making satisfaction to divine justice for the sins of the people.

It is to be carefully noted that the word “propitiation” is the Greek word that means “mercy seat”. This reminds us of the many ceremonies and sacrifices that climaxed on the annual Day of Atonement when the blood of a bull was sprinkled on the “mercy seat” which was symbolic of God’s throne in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple.

After calling on all believers to pay special attention to these words which are the heart of the gospel and the ground of assurance so that there should be no struggle of doubt and uncertainty that God is quite satisfied this writer states:

“I want you to pay very special attention to Paul’s argument here, because this is the answer to that struggle. First, he states that God has accomplished a propitiatory sacrifice: God presented Jesus as a “sacrifice of atonement” (that is the phrase here) through faith in his blood. His words, “sacrifice of atonement” are really translating a single word in Greek (hilasterion) which is translated “expiation” in some versions, and “propitiation” in others. I know that these words are theological terms, and may not make much sense to you. But I want you to understand their meaning, because this is the heart of the gospel:

Expiation is that which satisfies justice;

Propitiation is that which awakens love.

Both of these terms are involved in the death of Jesus, but expiation does not go quite as far as propitiation. Propitiation arouses care through to the awakening of God’s love toward us. That is why I think “propitiatory sacrifice” is a better translation than the word “expiation”.

Note therefore that justification is the declaration which identifies believers as the people of God. It occurs through redemption which is really the rescue from the slavery of sin. At this rescue there is once and for all forgiveness of sin.

The Law and justice of God demanded satisfaction by His obedience and sacrifice. Thus God is said to be pacified, or made propitious. By Jesus’ actions, the wrath of God would not fall on the persons who had faith in Him, for by His actions He had removed the obstructions in the way of the Love, which God had always had for His people.

The shedding of the blood of Christ was necessary for redemption, peace, reconciliation, and remission of sin. It is by “faith” in His blood that man becomes a partaker of the benefits of His propitiation, benefits such as peace, pardon, atonement, justification, and adoption.

All sins of the Old Testament Saints were ‘passed by’ before Christ came to sacrifice Himself for those sins. God had not remitted the sins, but had only exercised His forbearance not to punish them, until an adequate atonement for them could be made. God had ‘passed by’ the sins of believers before, but now had remitted them, because Christ was set forth as the propitiation for sin through faith in His blood.

We cannot over -emphasize the fact that the Father provided satisfaction and He did it through redemption in Jesus. Note carefully that “redemption” means “ransoming” and that is the word used in a slave market. Jesus therefore is said to have purchased us from the slave market using an intensive word which really means “ransoming away”, so that what Jesus did was to take us away from the slave market so that never again can we return to that.

Note carefully also that the approach to God is on the basis of blood. This might seem something that some do not like and some churches refrain from discussing but the fact is that we approach God through the blood sacrifice of Jesus.

Faith therefore rests in the saving work of Jesus Christ and so we do not need to struggle for rest is what God has given us. In essence therefore faith means to stop trusting in anything else because of the Father’s sacrifice of Jesus.

The Father has provided the Daysman, the Mediator for sinners so that they can be reconciled to God who is Light, with no darkness at all, and who is Love. Faith is given as a gift and it is the means by which we receive the salvation of God and we realize that Christ has died for sinners. One writer therefore says that faith really says, ‘Thank you Lord and I trust you in the merits for what you have done’.

Verse 26. The faithfulness of God to His promises to provide Christ was now manifested. The righteousness of God as well as the righteousness of Christ was now made clear. All the prophecies of the Old Testament and the expectations of the people were met and openly declared. The death of Jesus was the answer to the elaborate sacrificial system, which stressed the need for an unblemished animal to act as a sin offering.

The animals’ death had simply put away sin, but the death of Christ was effective for all men, past and present, Jew and Gentile.

This was a display of the grace, Mercy, and goodness of God. All the works of God and the nature of God himself would necessarily be seen in redemption of Christ. In Christ the believers would find a perfect righteousness. No-fault could be found there.

Christ, who was God’s propitiatory sacrifice for sin, was now set forth publicly, not like the Mercy seat in the Tabernacle, which was hidden from view. The death of Christ demonstrated God’s own judicial righteousness. It was absolutely necessary for God to act in such a way that everyone saw that He was righteous, and that His own righteousness and His demands against His sinful people were satisfied. God even provided His own Son to die, so that His death would vindicate God’s own righteousness, and enable God to declare every believing sinner righteous.

This then as one writer says,

“That is the glory of the good news of the gospel. God’s love has been freed to act toward us, and his justice satisfied, so that it is no longer compromised by the fact that he forgives sinners”.

So therefore as the hymn says,

“My hope is built on nothing less,

than Jesus’ blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

but wholly lean on Jesus’ name”.

Our safety is in the righteousness of Christ. We cannot trust in

-the church

-the sacraments

-education

-culture

-tribe or nation.

We have so many songs to remind us of these truths. There is one popular song that teaches the heart of the lesson:

“What can wash away my sin?