Romans
3English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)
I surrender, Hillsongs
God's
Righteousness Upheld
3
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much
in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3
What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness
of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is
written,
“That
you may be justified in your words,
and prevail when you are judged.”
5
But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall
we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human
way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through
my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a
sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously
charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
No
One Is Righteous
9
What then? Are we Jews[a] any better off?[b] No, not at all. For we have
already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is
written:
“None
is righteous, no, not one;
11
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12
All
have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13
“Their
throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The
venom of asps is under their lips.”
14
“Their mouth is full of curses and
bitterness.”
15
“Their
feet are swift to shed blood;
16
in their paths are ruin and misery,
17
and
the way of peace they have not known.”
18
“There is no fear of God before their
eyes.”
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[c] will be
justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
The
Righteousness of God Through Faith
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.
NIV Application Commentary
The Righteousness of God by Faith (3:21–22a)
In verses 21–22a,
Paul reveals the very heart of the good news: God’s righteousness is available
to all who put their faith in Jesus Christ. This righteousness is the same as
Paul already announced in 1:17. It is
better translated “the righteousness of God.” Paul refers to a
definite “righteousness”: the process by which God acts to put people in right
relationship with himself. The “but now” that opens the paragraph contrasts the
situation in the time period before Christ, which Paul has described in the
previous chapters, with the situation that now exists after his coming (see
also 1 Cor.
15:20; Eph.
2:13; Col.
1:22). In other words, Christ’s coming announces a decisive shift in
salvation history.
God’s plan of salvation unfolds in stages—a “history”—and the coming of
Jesus the Messiah inaugurates a new stage in that plan. Paul elaborates this
idea in the two contrasting phrases “apart from law” and “to which the Law and
the Prophets testify.” Some interpreters think Paul is saying that God has made
known a new kind of righteousness—one that is “apart from law,” that is, a
righteousness not based on the law (the niv translation suggests this
interpretation). But it fits Paul’s focus on salvation history better to take
the phrase with the verb “make known”; note the nab rendering, that “the
righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.” “Law,” then, as
usually in Paul, refers to the Mosaic law.
Paul beautifully captures in just a few words the continuity and
discontinuity in God’s plan of salvation. The discontinuity? God reveals his
righteousness in Christ “apart from” the law of Moses. Like the “old wineskins”
of Jesus’ parable (Mark 2:22),
the Mosaic covenant simply cannot contain the “new wine” of the gospel. The
continuity? The entire Old Testament (“the Law and the Prophets”) testifies to
this new work of God in Christ. The cross is no afterthought, no “Plan B”; it
has been God’s intention from the beginning to reveal his saving righteousness
by sending his Son as a sacrifice for us.
At the beginning of verse 22, Paul
reiterates another point already made in 1:17: This
righteousness of God is available only “through faith.” Now, however, Paul is
more explicit: God’s righteousness “comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all
who believe.” The translation “faith in Jesus Christ” appears in almost all
modern translations. But another translation is possible and is being supported
by a growing number of scholars: “faith of Jesus Christ.” The debated
construction is a genitive: pisteos Iesou Christou. The niv takes this
genitive to be “objective”; that is, “Jesus Christ” is the object of the
noun “faith.” But it can equally well be a “subjective” genitive, with Jesus
Christ being the subject of “faith” (note the identical construction in 4:16, pisteos
Abraam, which means “the faith Abraham exercised”).
This alternative is particularly attractive here because it removes what
otherwise seems to be a needless repetition: “faith in Jesus Christ” and “to
all who believe.” Paul would then be making clear that our salvation comes
about both because of Christ’s “faith” or “faithfulness” to the task God gave
him to do as well as from our faith in him. This idea is theologically
acceptable, and Paul does use the noun pistis to refer to God’s
faithfulness in 3:3.
Other considerations, however, lead me to keep the usual translation
here, “faith in Jesus Christ.” In the present context Paul consistently uses pistis
to denote the response of believers to God (see, e.g., 3:25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31; also
throughout ch. 4).
Moreover, Paul’s failure ever to make Jesus the subject of the verb pisteuo
(believe, entrust) makes it difficult to think that Iesou Christou is a
subjective genitive. Adding “to all who believe” is not needless repetition,
because Paul continues to be especially concerned to show that God’s work in
Christ is for everyone. His righteousness is “activated” only for those
who believe, but it is also for all those who believe.
The Backdrop of Universal Sinfulness (3:22b–23)
Why does God’s righteousness need to be available for “all who believe”?
Because “all have sinned.” Paul here inserts a brief reminder of his teaching
in 1:18–3:20,
which we need to understand to appreciate the universal dimensions of the
gospel. As Paul has argued, there is no basic “difference” or “distinction” (diastole;
see also 10:12)
between people, especially between Jew and Gentile. All are under sin’s power,
and all “fall short of the glory of God.”
God’s glory (doxa) in the Bible is, first of all, his own awesome
presence. But the Bible teaches that God’s people are destined to share in that
glory; thus doxa also describes the eternal destiny of believers (see
esp. Rom.
8:18; Phil.
3:21; 2
Thess. 2:14). Jewish texts speak of Adam’s having lost the “glory” of being
like God at the time of the Fall, and all human beings since him share that
fate. But what the first Adam lost, the second Adam, Christ, will restore.
Warren Wiersbe BE Bible Study Series
3. The Whole World Is Guilty! (3:9-20)
The third declaration was obvious, for Paul had already proved (charged)
both Jews and Gentiles to be guilty before God. Next he declared that all
people were sinners, and proved it with several quotations from the Old
Testament. Note the repetition of the words none and all, which in themselves
assert the universality of human guilt.
His first quotation was from Psalm 14:1-3. This psalm begins with “The
fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” The words “there is” are in
italics, meaning they were added by the translators; so you can read the
sentence, “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘No, God!’” This parallels the
description of man’s devolution given in Romans 1:18-32, for it all started
with man saying no to God.
These verses indicate that the whole of man’s inner being is controlled
by sin: his mind (“none that understandeth”), his heart (“none that seeketh
after God”), and his will (“none that doeth good”). Measured by God’s perfect
righteousness, no human being is sinless. No sinner seeks after God. Therefore,
God must seek the sinner (Gen. 3:8-10; Luke 19:10). Man has gone astray and has
become unprofitable both to himself and to God. Our Lord’s parables in Luke 15
illustrate this perfectly.
In Romans 3:13-18, Paul gave us an X-ray study of the lost sinner, from
head to foot. His quotations are as follows: verse 13a–Psalm 5:9; verse
13b–Psalm 140:3; verse 14–Psalm 10:7; verses 15-17–Isaiah 59:7-8; verse
18–Psalm 36:1. These verses need to be read in their contexts for the full
impact.
Romans 3:13-14 emphasize human speech–the throat, tongue, lips, and
mouth. The connection between words and character is seen in Matthew 12:34:
“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” The sinner is
spiritually dead by nature (Eph. 2:1-3), therefore only death can come out of
his mouth. The condemned mouth can become a converted mouth and acknowledge
that “Jesus is Lord” (Rom. 10:9-10 niv). “For by thy words thou shalt be
justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matt. 12:37).
In Romans 3:15-16, Paul pictured the sinner’s feet. Just as his words
are deceitful, so his ways are destructive. The Christians’ feet are shod with
the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15), but the lost sinner brings death, destruction,
and misery wherever he goes. These tragedies may not occur immediately, but
they will come inevitably. The lost sinner is on the broad road that leads to
destruction (Matt. 7:13-14); he needs to repent, trust Jesus Christ, and get on
the narrow road that leads to life.
Romans 3:17 deals with the sinner’s mind: He does not know the way of
God’s peace. This is what caused Jesus to weep over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44).
The sinner does not want to know God’s truth (Rom. 1:21, 25, 28); he prefers to
believe Satan’s lie. God’s way of peace is through Jesus Christ: “Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
(Rom. 5:1).
In Romans 3:18, which cites Psalm 36:1, the sinner’s arrogant pride is
prescribed: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” The entire psalm
should be read to get the full picture. The ignorance mentioned in Romans 3:17
is caused by the pride of verse 18, for it is “the fear of the Lord” that is
the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7).
These quotations from God’s law, the Old Testament Scriptures, lead to
one conclusion: The whole world is guilty before God. There may be those who
want to argue, but every mouth is stopped. There is no debate or defense. The
whole world is guilty, Jews and Gentiles. The Jews stand condemned by the law
of which they boast, and the Gentiles stand condemned on the basis of creation
and conscience.
The word therefore in Romans 3:20 carries the meaning of “because,” and
gives the reason why the whole world is guilty. No flesh can obey God’s law and
be justified (declared righteous) in His sight. It is true that “the doers of
the law shall be justified” (Rom. 2:13), but nobody can do what the law
demands. This inability is one way that people know they are sinners. When they
try to obey the law, they fail miserably and need to cry out for God’s mercy.
Neither Jew nor Gentile can obey God’s law; therefore God must save sinners by
some other means. The explanation of that means by which people can be saved
occupied Paul for the rest of his letter.
The best way to close this section would be to ask a simple question:
Has your mouth ever been stopped? Are you boasting of your own
self-righteousness and defending yourself before God? If so, then perhaps you
have never been saved by God’s grace. It is only when we stand silent before
Him as sinners that He can save us. As long as we defend ourselves and commend
ourselves, we cannot be saved by God’s grace. The whole world is guilty before
God–and that includes you and me.
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion
How do you feel when you see
or hear the words “you are guilty”? Why?
Why do people not want to
admit their guilt? How have you experienced this in your own life?
What four stages of
“devolution” are described? What was the cause?
Why do people suppress the
truth about God? When have you struggled with this?
Why is this just one short
step from idolatry to immorality?
What does it mean that,
because of people’s sin, God “gave them up” or God “gave them over” (1:24, 28)?
Who or what are the witnesses
that prove the guilt of the Jewish nation?
At the time of the writing of
Romans, what displeased God the most about the Jews?
Instead of special treatment,
what did God’s blessings actually give the Jews? How might this be true for
God’s blessings to you?
What does Romans 3:10 (“There
is none who does good,” nasb) mean to you when you see people who seem to be
good people doing good deeds? Why would Paul say something like this?
Romans 3:21–4:25
Paul’s theme in the second section of his letter was
salvation–righteousness declared. He proved that all people are sinners; so his
next goal was to explain how sinners can be saved. The theological term for
this salvation is justification by faith. Justification is the act of God
whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous in Christ on the basis of
the finished work of Christ on the cross. Each part of this definition is
important, so we must consider it carefully.
To begin with, justification is an act, not a process. There are no
degrees of justification; each believer has the same right standing before God.
Also, justification is something God does, not man. No sinner can justify
himself before God. Most important, justification does not mean that God makes
us righteous, but that He declares us righteous. Justification is a legal
matter. God puts the righteousness of Christ on our record in the place of our
own sinfulness. And nobody can change this record.
Do not confuse justification and sanctification. Sanctification is the
process whereby God makes the believer more and more like Christ. Sanctification
may change from day to day. Justification never changes. When the sinner trusts
Christ, God declares him righteous, and that declaration will never be
repealed. God looks on us and deals with us as though we had never sinned at
all!
But how can the holy God declare sinners righteous? Is justification
merely a fictional idea that has no real foundation? In this section of Romans,
Paul answered these questions in two ways. First, he explained justification by
faith (Rom. 3:21-31); then he illustrated justification by faith from the life
of Abraham (Rom. 4:1-25).
Read more here on Justification, read more here on Sanctification
The Bible Panorama
Romans 3
V 1–8: ADVANTAGED? This chapter asks a lot of questions. First, if
acceptance with God is a circumcision of the heart, and not an outward
circumcision, what advantage does a Jew have in being a member of the
circumcision? Paul confirms the great privileges of being a physical Jew. Of
course, he knows this as a Jew himself. They have the Scriptures as the
‘oracles of God’. The sinful unbelief of some of the Jews does not negate God’s
faithfulness in giving them these privileges. The very sinfulness of the Jews
demonstrates the wonder of those Scriptures and the righteous and holy
standards of God by which they are judged. That is not to say that Jews must
sin more to make God’s standards of holiness appear greater. God loves holiness
and will judge the world for being unholy. V 9–20: BETTER? Paul asks if Jews
are better than Gentiles, and concludes, ‘Not at all.’ Everyone is unrighteous,
self-seeking not God-seeking, practising evil in word and deed, and living
without the conscious fear of God. As the whole world is guilty, then there is
no one in the world who can be justified by anything he or she does. V 21–26:
CHRIST Only Jesus Christ can justify a sinner, be he Gentile or Jew. Given that
‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’, it is the righteousness
of God, put to our account when we put our faith in Christ, that is seen by God
as ours and justifies us because we have no righteousness of our own. Not only
that, but Christ shed His blood as a ‘propitiation’. That means that, when
Christ died on the cross for our sins, our wicked rebellion that offended our
holy God was punished by His wrath falling on Christ in our place. Thus
cleansed by His precious blood and with His righteousness put to our account,
we find that, as we put our faith in Him, we are justified by Him who is both
just and the Justifier. V 27–31: DIFFERENCE? The six questions put in this
short section basically ask a more fundamental question: what difference does
this make? It excludes boasting because we are justified by faith, not by our
own deeds. He is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews because all can
come to Him by faith. God’s law is not annulled by faith in Christ, but rather
it is fulfilled, because His just sacrifice fulfils the law for us. We have a
desire to walk in that law through Christ, not in order to be justified, but to
obey Him.
Dictionary of Bible Themes
8157 righteousness, as faith
Full faith and trust make a person pleasing in the sight of God.
Human righteousness compared with God’s righteousness
Human beings cannot by themselves achieve righteousness in the sight of
God Ecc 7:20; Isa 64:6; Mt 5:20 See also Pr 21:2; Da 9:18; Mt 23:28; Lk 16:15;
Lk 18:9; Ro 3:10,20; Php 3:6-7
True righteousness is the result of the action of God
Ro 8:3-4; Eph 4:24; 1Jn 2:29 See also Ro 6:13,16-20; Ro 8:10; Ro 14:17;
Gal 5:5; Eph 5:9; Php 1:11; Heb 12:11; Jas 3:18; 1Pe 2:24; 1Jn 3:10
Faith pleases God
Ge 15:6; Heb 11:6 See also 1Sa 26:23; Ps 32:10; Ps 40:4; Ps 84:12; Ps
106:30-31; Jer 17:7; Hab 2:4; Heb 10:38; Heb 11:4,7
Righteousness and faith in Jesus Christ
It is God-given and not the result of human effort Ro 1:17; Php 3:8-9
Paul is contrasting this righteousness with his own previous efforts. See also
Ac 13:39; Ro 3:21,27-28 It is apparent that faith is not regarded as another
kind of “work” which earns salvation; Ro 4:1-8; Ro 5:17; Ro 9:30-31; Gal
3:11-12
Faith is centred on Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished Ro 5:1-2
“justified” means “declared righteous” in a legal sense. See also Ro 3:21-26;
Ro 4:18-25; Ro 10:6-10; Gal 3:6-9
Saving faith is not mere belief, but acting on the basis of that belief
Jas 2:21-24
Yours for the sake of His Church and Kingdom
Blair Humphreys
Southport, Merseyside, England
