19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it - 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one - who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
To many people, the Bible is an excellent handbook for life. There are some wonderful life lessons to be found in its pages. Even most non-Christians would agree that it does contain some excellent teachings on how we should behave, and how we should treat one another.
The Bible though is not a collection of disconnected stories, each with a bit of wisdom on how to live our lives. Rather, it is a single story with three main themes.
Firstly, it tells us what’s wrong with mankind, then it tells us what God has done to make it right, and finally it reveals how history is going to turn out in the end.
Some Biblical scholars agree that the 13 verses we have just read is quite possibly the most important passage in the book of Romans. In fact, Martin Luther called it “the chief point, and the very central place of the Epistle, and of the whole Bible.”
When we consider what came out of the Reformation, and how it shaped the teaching and preaching of the early reformers, this particular passage of Scripture took centre stage and became the central teaching and focus of the Reformed Church.
One of the five Solas of the Reformation was the statement that we are saved by faith alone - sola fide. They tirelessly proclaimed that salvation does not come from our own works of righteousness, but by looking beyond ourselves to the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone became the rallying cry of the reformers as they drew the Reformed Church back to the authority of the Bible. They began with Sola Scriptura - the authority of the Bible alone, as the basis and foundation of what they believed and taught. And central to the teaching of the Bible is that our salvation is a gift of grace - this is what we looked at last Sunday - and that grace comes to us by faith, which is our theme for today. Those two words, grace and faith, belong together as they answer the most important question we could ever ask: How can a sinful person be made right with God?
Romans 3:20 tells us how we are not reconciled to God. “By the works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin”. By works of the law is works righteousness. At the foundation of the human condition is this struggle for righteousness. Every human being knows instinctively that there is something desperately wrong deep within themselves. Some deny that reality, but Paul addresses that attitude in Romans 1:18. “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” The truth is there, staring them in their faces, but because of their unrighteousness and sin, they have chosen to suppress and ignore the truth. It’s not that they don’t believe in God. They won’t believe in God.
So where does this instinctive desire to be reconciled with God come from? Just as a child yearns for acceptance and approval from their parents, so we long for a sense of acceptance, approval, security and significance. It comes to us from God. We were designed by God to find these things in Him. The emptiness we all sense within us can never be filled and satisfied by worldly things. It is only God who gives us the fullness we need. Jesus said in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” That’s what God gives to us.
The great problem we have is that our sin has separated us from God, so now instead of turning to God for our significance and sense of purpose, we go after the things of the world. They may bring temporary satisfaction, but they never last. This is what Paul was talking about in Romans 10:3. “Being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” There is our problem. We seek to establish our own righteousness, while at the same time we do not submit to the righteousness of God. This lies at the very foundation of the human condition. We need God. He created that need within us, but in our sinful state we want nothing to do with Him. Because we are enemies of God, we reject Him, but that creates all sorts of problems in our own lives and in the world in general.
Why is the world in such a mess? Because we have rejected God. In Him we will find our purpose and the solution for every human problem - without exception. But that means humbling ourselves and admitting that He was right, and we were wrong, so we don’t do it. Instead, we try to fix the problem ourselves, but this only compounds the problem. It doesn’t solve it, because as Paul wrote, in our sinful state we are ignorant of the righteousness of God.
Trying to make ourselves right with God by works righteousness does not work. Our attempts to obey the law are doomed to fail because we are born in sin, which means our very nature is at war with the law of God. With the one glaring exception of the Christian faith, every other religion (which are all invented by sinners) teaches that there are laws that need to be obeyed. The irony is that non-Christians often say the Bible is a list of do’s and don’ts, while in reality it is the exact opposite. It is the other religions that publish rulebooks - not Christianity.
Salvation comes to us by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, not by our futile attempts to do all the right things and trying to be the best we can be. That’s what every other religion does.
The question is, why do works of the law not save us?
Because relying on our obedience to the law in order to be saved requires perfect obedience. The pass mark is 100%. Not 99,999%, but 100. God is perfect and holy, and if we are going to obey the law in order for Him to accept us, we need to be perfectly holy as He is, and obey His law perfectly, which points us to the problem we are born with. We are born in sin, so it is not extremely difficult to obey the law of God perfectly. It is impossible. We are born dead in our sins and transgressions. We are born condemned to hell. This is why we need a Saviour outside of ourselves, because we can’t save ourselves.
Our sin leaves us legally guilty before God, and no amount of good works can repair the damage we’ve done. So the first part of Romans 3:20 teaches that works righteousness does not save us, and in the second half of that verse Paul tells us what the perfect law does: “Through the law comes knowledge of sin.” In other words, the law does not save us. Rather, it condemns us. It stands in judgment against us. God’s law is perfect, it is holy, and it is glorious, because it is a reflection of His nature, but when sinners are exposed to the perfect, holy and glorious law of God, all it does is show us how messed up we really are.
So how then, can we be saved? After telling us the bad news in verses 19 and 20, Paul gives us the good news in the next 6 verses. “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it - the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
We need the righteousness of God to be given to us in order for us to be acceptable to Him, and this is exactly what He has done through Jesus Christ. And the vessel - the means - of transferring or imputing that righteousness to us is faith. In faith, we believe we are saved. Not only that, but the faith we place in God is not our own faith, because our faith is weak and it cannot be trusted. True, saving faith is a gift we have been given. As we well know, our faith fluctuates, depending on the circumstances in our lives at any given time, so not only does our salvation depend on what God has done for us, but the faith to believe in Him is also a gracious gift He gives us.
Sometimes we feel like we’re barely holding onto the promises of God by our fingernails. Life is like that. Our faith is tested every day, and if we’re entirely honest, we would all admit that there are times when we don’t even feel like we are saved. We all struggle with doubts, but here is the good news: Our salvation does not depend on us holding onto God. If it did, we’d all be in serious trouble. Our salvation depends on God holding onto us. We have just sung the words, “great is Thy faithfulness.”
So God not only saves us, but He provides the faith we need in order to believe that we are, in fact, saved. So the next time you are struggling with doubts about God, and you feel like your faith is letting you down, remember this: The faithfulness of God will never let you down. You may feel a million miles away from Him, but if you have confessed with your own mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, if you are a Christian saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, then God is holding you firmly in His hand, despite what you may be thinking or feeling at the time. And He will not let you go. You are His, and you are His for all of eternity.
Our salvation does not depend on what we think, or on how we feel. Our salvation depends on the facts of history, and the facts are that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and one day Christ will come again.
Remember the cross. Remember why it was necessary, and remember what God did for you there. He is righteously angry with us because of our sin. We deserve His wrath, and we deserve condemnation. We all deserve to be sentenced to hell. But God in His grace sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin. As Paul wrote about Jesus in Romans 3:25, “whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood.”
The cross was necessary for our salvation because of the justice of God. He could not simply turn the other way and pretend our sin doesn’t matter. A price had to be paid because the justice of God had to be satisfied. So He sent Jesus to die, and as He died our sin and condemnation was exchanged for His perfect righteousness. Where we failed to keep the law of God, Jesus fulfilled it perfectly, and it is because of this that God declares those who believe in Jesus to be righteous in His sight.
The cross was not just Jesus showing us God’s love. It was also a place where God’s justice was satisfied. The cross is the place we see the justice and the love of God together. And Jesus offered us more than forgiveness. He gives us justification. Someone once put it this way: Forgiveness says, “You may go, you have been released from your penalty,’ but justification says, ‘I want you to stay; you are welcome to stay in my presence.”
It is only when we grasp the doctrine of justification that we will understand we are accepted by God once more. It is only when we are justified by faith in Christ, that we finally find the acceptance and significance we all yearn for, because as God declares us to be righteous, in His eyes, we are given Jesus’ perfect record. God accepts us because even though we broke the law, Jesus upheld the law on our behalf.
It’s not that we become righteous enough for God to accept us, but rather that He declares us to be righteous even while we are sinful, ungodly and enemies of God. Despite all of that, He declares us to be righteous because of what Jesus has done for us.
Martin Luther called it “passive righteousness”. It is the Biblical truth that God has not only forgiven our sin, but also credited to us the righteousness of Jesus, because that is the only thing that can save us. We are passive recipients of the righteousness of Christ, because He has done it all for us. Romans 3:21-22 again: “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” And the faith to believe is a gift God provides for us.
When John the Baptist baptised Jesus, God said, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) The Gospel message is that God is pleased with us, not because of anything we are or we have done, but because He is pleased with Jesus.
And the good news is that all of this comes, not from us doing anything, but simply by faith. Sola Fide, faith alone is the key to receiving the righteousness of God, or to be justified.
Faith is the means which God chose by which the righteousness of Christ becomes ours. Faith is the instrument by which we receive the righteousness of Jesus, and it is through faith alone: sola fide.
In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul lists various spiritual gifts, and one of these gifts is faith, and it is this gift which God gives to all believers.
Why is it so important to understand that we receive the gift of salvation by faith alone? It is because faith means receiving something, not doing something or even being something. So when we say we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, we are saying that we do not save ourselves. God saves us. He Himself saves us, and He saves us both completely and eternally.
When you sit down and really think about it, the mind boggles at just what God has done for us. That He would put His own Son to death in order for rebellious, evil sinners like us is just beyond our comprehension. Surely it is too fantastic, too unbelievable to be true.
Have a look at Hebrews 11:1. If you’ve spent any length of time in the Bible, these words will be familiar to you. “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Many of you can recite that verse off by heart. But just stop and look at it again. Read it slowly. Can you explain exactly what these words are actually saying? No you can’t, and that is the whole point. That God would do what He did for us is too fantastic to fully understand, and to truly believe it to be true is beyond our comprehension. God did do for you what the Bible teaches, and knowing that your own faith would never be strong enough to hold onto that truth, He has given you as a gift, a faith strong enough to believe it.
This is why so many reject it because it makes no sense. This is why Paul in 1 Corinthians 1 calls the preaching of Christ crucified foolishness to those who don’t believe. And he’s right. How often do you hear, “You don’t believe all that do you?” That’s the foolishness of the unrepentant heart suppressing and denying the truth because of their unrighteousness.
And this is why, in order to truly believe it, we need a faith greater than we have in order to accept it. We need a supernatural faith to comprehend and hold onto the Gospel message, and this is exactly what God gives us. My weak faith and your weak faith will always let us down. We don’t have it within ourselves to hold firmly to God, so He holds onto us.
He gives us the gift of faith to believe that what He says He will do for us, He will do. This incredible, wonderful plan by which lost sinners are saved for all of eternity is God’s plan from beginning to end. And make no mistake - He will see it through. He will complete what He has begun. Philippians 1:6 says, “I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Homegroup Study Notes
Read Romans 3:19-31
If obedience to the Law of God cannot save us, and salvation is a free gift of grace from God, what is the purpose of the Law?
Discuss the differences between us being justified by grace and justified by faith.
Read Hebrews 6:13-20
Faith is a word we are very comfortable with. We have faith that someone will do what they have promised to do. We have faith that our favourite sports team will win their next game. We even hear people saying, “Keep the faith!”
How does human faith differ from the faithfulness of God?
Read Hebrews 11:1
Critics of the Christian faith will say this verse is full of contradictions, and even Christians have difficulty in fully understanding this verse.
Why do you think God inspired the writer to the Hebrews to put these words so cryptically?
What does Hebrews 11:1 really teach us?