Commentary - Romans 3:21-26

Bird's-eye view

After three chapters of systematically dismantling every human claim to righteousness, the apostle Paul arrives at the very heart of the gospel. Having shut every mouth and proven the whole world guilty before God, he now unveils the breathtaking solution. This passage is the continental divide of the book of Romans. Everything before it flows down into the valley of condemnation; everything after it flows out into the sunlit plains of God's grace. Paul explains how God can be both perfectly just, refusing to compromise with sin, and at the same time the justifier of wicked men. The answer is a righteousness that comes from God Himself, apart from any human effort or law-keeping. This righteousness is received by faith alone and is grounded in the substitutionary, wrath-absorbing sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God put Christ forward publicly on the cross as a propitiation, a satisfaction of His own holy wrath, thereby demonstrating His perfect justice in both forgiving past sins and in justifying believers in the present. This is the central announcement of the Christian faith, the bedrock of our salvation.

The logic is relentless and glorious. Because all have sinned, there can be no distinction in our need. And because justification is a free gift, there can be no room for boasting. The entire operation is a display of God's righteousness. He is not sweeping sin under the rug; He is dealing with it fully and finally in the person of His Son. The cross is where the seemingly irreconcilable attributes of God, His justice and His mercy, meet and kiss. This is the good news that silences all our self-justification and opens the door to a righteousness that is truly alien, a gift from another world.

Outline

Context In Romans

Romans 3:21-26 does not appear in a vacuum. It is the answer to the problem that Paul has painstakingly constructed from Romans 1:18 to 3:20. In that section, he acts as a prosecuting attorney, indicting the entire human race. First, the pagan world is condemned for suppressing the truth of God in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18-32). Then, the moralist who judges others is shown to be guilty of the same sins (Rom 2:1-16). Finally, Paul turns to his fellow Jews, who prided themselves on having the law, and demonstrates that their possession of the law only increased their culpability, as they failed to keep it (Rom 2:17-3:8). He concludes this section with a barrage of Old Testament quotations to prove his central thesis: "None is righteous, no, not one" (Rom 3:10). The law's function was not to make men righteous, but to shut their mouths and prove them guilty (Rom 3:19-20). The entire world stands condemned, without excuse. It is into this profound silence of universal guilt that the magnificent declaration of "But now..." in verse 21 breaks forth.

Key Issues

The Great Courtroom Exchange

To grasp what Paul is saying here, we must keep the biblical metaphor of a courtroom firmly in mind. God is the righteous Judge. Humanity is the guilty defendant. The Law is the standard by which we are judged, and it has already delivered a verdict of "guilty" against every one of us. The sentence for this guilt is death. The problem seems intractable. If God is a just judge, He cannot simply say, "Oh, never mind." A judge who lets criminals go free is not a just judge. But if He enforces the just penalty, then we are all damned. How can God maintain His perfect, unbending justice and, at the same time, save the very people His justice condemns?

The answer Paul provides is a glorious legal transaction, a divine exchange. God credits to our account a righteousness that is not our own. It is the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. And He charges to Christ's account all of our sin and guilt. On the cross, Christ takes the full penalty that our sin deserved. God's justice is therefore completely satisfied. He punishes sin, every last bit of it, in the person of His Son. Because justice is satisfied, He is now free to declare righteous those who place their faith in this substitute. This is what it means for God to be both "just and the justifier." He did not compromise His justice to save us; He satisfied it.

Verse by Verse Commentary

21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

The phrase But now signals a dramatic turn in the argument. After the bleak diagnosis of universal sin, here comes the remedy. A righteousness from God has been revealed, and it operates on a completely different principle from the Law. It is apart from the Law, meaning it is not achieved by our rule-keeping or moral efforts. This is a crucial distinction. The righteousness that saves is not a human achievement but a divine revelation. Yet, this is not a total novelty, a plan B that God cooked up when the Law failed. Paul is careful to add that this righteousness was witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. The entire Old Testament, from the sacrificial system to the prophetic promises of a new covenant, pointed forward to this moment. The gospel is not the abolition of the Old Testament, but its fulfillment.

22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;

Paul now defines this righteousness more precisely. It is a righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is the instrument, the empty hand that receives the gift. It is not a work that earns us merit. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ and His finished work. This gift is available for all those who believe. The offer is universal, but it is only applied to those who actually believe. And this leads to the great leveling principle of the gospel: for there is no distinction. In the matter of salvation, it does not matter if you are a Jew with the law or a Gentile without it. All are in the same boat, and all must be saved in the same way.

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Here is the reason there is no distinction. All have sinned. This is Paul's summary of the argument he has been building since chapter one. The verb tenses indicate a past action with continuing results. We all sinned in Adam, and we all continue to sin in our own lives. And the result is that we all fall short of the glory of God. This means more than just failing to meet a standard. The glory of God is the radiant manifestation of His perfect character. We were created to reflect that glory, but sin has shattered the mirror. We fail to honor Him as God, and we fail to bear His image as we were designed to do. We are all bankrupt.

24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

Because we are bankrupt, we can contribute nothing to our salvation. It must be a free gift. We are justified, which is a legal term meaning "declared righteous." This declaration is not based on anything in us, but is given as a gift by His grace. The word grace means unmerited, undeserved favor. It is free in every sense of the word. But it was not cheap. This free gift was purchased at an infinite cost, accomplished through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Redemption is a marketplace term. It means to buy something back, to pay a ransom. We were slaves to sin, and Christ paid the price to set us free. That price was His own life.

25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith, for a demonstration of His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;

This verse is dense with glorious truth. God displayed publicly Jesus as a propitiation. The cross was not a secret, backroom deal. It was a public spectacle. The word propitiation means a sacrifice that satisfies wrath. It is the turning away of God's holy anger against sin. This was accomplished in His blood, a clear reference to His sacrificial death. And again, it is received through faith. Why was this necessary? For a demonstration of His righteousness. This answers a profound theological question. For centuries, God had seemed to pass over the sins of Old Testament saints like Abraham and David, forgiving them on credit, as it were. How could a just God do that? The cross is the answer. The cross demonstrates that God was not ignoring those sins; He was planning all along to pay for them fully in the death of His Son. The cross vindicates God's justice throughout all of history.

26 for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Paul repeats the point for emphasis. The cross was a demonstration of God's righteousness at the present time, in the gospel era. And here is the magnificent conclusion, the solution to the divine dilemma. The purpose of it all was so that God could be simultaneously and without contradiction both just and the justifier. He is just because He punished sin fully in Christ. He is the justifier because, on that basis, He can now declare righteous anyone who abandons self-righteousness and puts their faith in Jesus. The demands of His holy character and the desires of His merciful heart are both perfectly fulfilled at the cross.

Application

The application of this passage is as profound as it is simple. First, it demolishes all human pride. If salvation is by grace through faith, then there is no room for boasting. Your good works, your religious heritage, your moral efforts contribute absolutely nothing to your right standing with God. We are all sinners, and we all must come to God with empty hands. This is deeply offensive to the natural man, who wants to believe he is basically good and can earn his way to God. The gospel tells him he is a condemned criminal who must throw himself on the mercy of the court.

Second, it provides unshakable assurance for the believer. Our standing with God does not depend on our fluctuating performance, but on the finished work of Christ. God has already declared us righteous. The verdict is in. The case is closed. When we sin, we do not need to fear that our justification is in jeopardy. We need to confess our sin and remember that the propitiation for it has already been made. Our righteousness is as secure as Jesus Christ Himself, who is seated at the right hand of God.

Finally, this truth should fuel our worship and our witness. To understand what God has done for us in Christ is to be overwhelmed with gratitude. It is to see that the cross is not just a display of God's love, but a stunning display of His perfect righteousness. He is holy, holy, holy, and He has found a way to bring unholy people like us into His presence without compromising an inch of that holiness. This is the good news we have been given to proclaim to the world, a world that is still trying to justify itself by its own pathetic efforts. We get to announce that a perfect righteousness is available, as a free gift, to all who will simply believe.