We are finally at the point where we are prepared to directly examine those spectacular passages of the Bible where the Apostle Paul writes about justification “by faith, not by works.” We shall begin with Romans 3:21-31. This magnificent piece of Paul’s writing is filled with some of his most powerful themes. It’s a well known and dearly loved part of the Bible. In this case, perhaps too well known! I say this in the sense that sometimes Bible verses become so familiar to people that they simply assume they know what the writer is saying. It can then be difficult to see the passage in a fresh way.
I wish to set out in advance two crucial assertions for understanding Romans 3:21-31. Then we shall work through the text, showing how all this plays out.
- Paul’s main point in Romans 3:21-31 is that because of the work of Jesus the Messiah, the time has now come for God’s gracious purposes to move out beyond the ethnic people of Israel in order to reach all nations.
- Paul has absolutely no intention of suggesting – in this passage or anywhere else in his writing – that human behavior is somehow irrelevant, or less important, or futile in regards to final salvation. This is nevertheless how many people mistakenly interpret this text.
Up until Romans 3:20, Paul has spend much of his energy describing how all people – including the Jews – are under the power of sin. In 3:21, Paul’s tone changes suddenly: “But now, apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed, though the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God comes through through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah for the benefit of all who have faith.” (3:21-22) We must first focus on the term “the righteousness of God.” There is a whole world of thought contained in this short phrase. Unfortunately, many Bible readers have completely missed this world of thought due to poor translations. For example, older versions of the NIV read like this: “But now a righteousness from God, apart from the 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.”
Needless to say, there is a huge difference between these translations. First, the correct text should read “the righteousness of God” rather than “a righteousness from God.” As the Greek should have made clear, Paul is here discussing God’s own righteousness. God’s righteousness is nothing less than the main theme of the book of Romans, clearly set forth in the programmatic verse 1:17, “For in the gospel, the righteousness of God has been revealed, from faithfulness to faithfulness.”
So what exactly does Paul mean when he’s talking about God’s righteousness? Recall that the home base meaning of righteousness is “to do the right thing.” The Biblical notion of God’s righteousness can best be understood in the following way: (1) The people of ancient Israel believed that their God was the one true God who had created all things. (2) When they reflected on the state of the world, Israel recognized that God’s creation was badly out of joint. The nations around them – and many within Israel itself – failed to worship and honor the one true God. As the result, God’s creation was marred by violence, injustice, oppression, suffering and ultimately death. (3) Yet because their God was the righteous judge of all the earth, the people of Israel prayed and hoped that one day God would act decisively to restore flourishing and life to his creation. Those who threatened to ruin God’s creation by embracing wickedness would be punished; the righteous would be vindicated. The evil which had infected God’s world would be rooted out and destroyed. Justice and righteousness would prevail.
Therefore, God’s righteousness ultimately refers to God’s unstoppable plan and purpose to rescue the entire creation from sin and death – to set all things right again. And God’s rescue plan is called…Israel! Some might be surprised that I didn’t write “God’s rescue plan is called Jesus.” Yes, that would ultimately be true. But the problem is that if we jump straight to Jesus and ignore Israel then we’re only going to flummox ourselves, and make it virtually impossible to understand our own scriptures. In you want to understand the Bible in general – and Romans 3 in particular – you must recognize that Jesus did not simply walk onto the stage of history out of nowhere. Rather, Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s covenant plan to bring justice and joy to all creation. This reality is nicely reflected in some Biblical translations which render “God’s righteousness” in Romans 3:21 as “God’s covenant justice” or “God’s covenant faithfulness.”
Jesus clearly saw himself as the climax of the long story of God and Israel. Paul shared this same understanding. That’s why in 3:21, Paul writes, “But now, quite apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed, though the law and the prophets bear witness to it.” Paul believed that God’s covenant with Israel – his plan to set all things right – had now come to fruition in Jesus. Even though this rescue was a new revelation of God that went beyond the law, it still was the fulfillment of all that Moses and the prophets had said in the Old Testament. Therefore, if we want to understand who Jesus is and what he accomplished, we must learn to see him as the climax of the drama of Israel.
In order for God to rescue creation, he needed human beings who would reflect his image. They would need to worship the one true God and live in obedience to him. God called Israel into covenant with himself so that Israel would fulfill this role – the role of genuine humanity. If Israel could be faithful to the covenant, they would receive God’s blessing. But just as importantly, they would be a blessing. God’s love, goodness, and wisdom would flow through Israel out to all the nations. In this way, God’s kingdom would extend throughout the whole earth. The lynch pin of this covenant plan is the king of Israel. If Israel was going to be faithful to the covenant, she needed a king who would lead her in righteousness. The people of Israel had spent centuries in exile, awaiting the moment when the Messiah would come; the great king who would redeem Israel and usher in the kingdom.
Now we can fully comprehend what Paul means when he writes, “God’s righteousness has come through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah.” God has promised to rescue the creation through Israel. Jesus has been revealed as Israel’s Messiah. He is the faithful king who will lead Israel in righteousness. And not only will he redeem Israel, but he will bring blessing to all the nations. The idea of bringing blessing to all people is often overlooked among the exegetical fireworks on display in this passage. But we shouldn’t miss it because this is Paul’s main idea! When Paul declares the revelation of God’s righteousness through the faithfulness of Jesus, he immediately adds that this rescue is “for the benefit of all who have faith.” The “faith” part here is important, but the “all” is equally vital. Paul is here emphasizing that the time has now come for God’s salvation to move beyond ethnic Israel and reach out to all the nations.
Paul immediately goes on to proclaim: “For there is no distinction: all have sinned and fell short of God’s glory – and by God’s grace they are justified freely through the redemption which is found in the Messiah, Jesus.” When Paul writes “there is no distinction,” he clearly is referring to Jews and Gentiles. The fact that both Jews and Gentiles are both “under the power of sin” is the major theme of Romans 1:18 through 3:20. In making this assertion, Paul is merely restating what Israel’s prophets had said all along: even though God called Israel to fulfill the role of genuine humanity, they had heretofore failed in their task. But now through the faithfulness of king Jesus, not only can Israel be set right again, but people of every nation can benefit as well!
We’ve looked at the word “justified” before, and we know that this word has a strong courtroom sense. Justified means that a defendant appearing before the judge has been declared “in the right” or “not guilty.” However, we should not neglect to remember that this courtroom language can aptly be applied to the covenant. The covenant required Israel to offer God proper worship and obedience. God had given Israel the covenant law as a code of conduct. The blessings and the curses of the covenant depended upon Israel’s covenant behavior. God the judge would evaluate Israel’s covenant status depending upon her adherence to the Torah. Therefore, to be “justified” according to the covenant means that a person has been deemed by God to be an obedient member of the covenant in good standing. Paul is now making the astonishing assertion that justification – covenant membership – is no longer limited to the ethnic people of Israel. So again we see that Paul’s main point is that people of all nations – not just Jews – can now be brought into the covenant family of God on account of their loyalty to Jesus.
Please note: Paul has no interest here in defining faith as being independent of our behavior. As we’ve emphasized again and again, when Paul writes about “faith” in Jesus, he does not limit himself to the shrunken and anemic definition of faith which prevails in many Christian circles, whereby faith entails simply belief in Jesus and mental agreement that he died on the cross for our sins. Authentic Pauline faith certainly includes these concepts, but goes much further into the realm of commitment, loyalty and allegiance. When he writes that God’s action in Jesus is for the benefit of “all who have faith,” this could just as well be translated “for all who are faithful to Jesus” or “for all who give their loyalty to Jesus” or “for all who give their full allegiance to Jesus.”
Now granted, when someone first comes to faith in Jesus, the elements of belief and trust will be important. We believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, thereby affirming that he truly is the Messiah. We trust that his death provided forgiveness for our sins. However, even when faith is born, the more active elements of faith – such as commitment and loyalty – are not absent! Consider the sacrament of baptism, which all the early Christians regarded as the rite of entry into the church. Just prior to baptism, Christians would be called upon to confess with their lips that “Jesus is Lord,” demonstrating their new allegiance to him. They would renounce their previous corrupt and sinful ways of life and make vows of obedience to Jesus. Baptism often involved removing one’s clothing before entering the water, then being given new white garments after immersion. This practice was a powerful symbolic reminder that the Christian had cast off their old patterns of living and committed themselves fully to holiness of life.
So Paul’s point in emphasizing “justification by faith” is not to diminish the importance of human behavior. Again, the main point is that membership in the people of God is no longer limited to the physical descendants of Israel. Rather, right standing before God is now available to all peoples.
Next week we shall continue to unpack the remainder of Romans 3:21-31. But I would like to conclude this week’s blog by making one last point. We noted above that Paul sets forth God’s righteousness as the main theme of the book of Romans in 1:17: “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, from faithfulness to faithfulness.” Our interpretation of Romans 3 now beautifully explains exactly what Paul meant by that somewhat dense and difficult verse. We can now offer the following expanded paraphrase of Romans 1:17: “For in the gospel (the announcement of Jesus as the Messiah, the true king of Israel) God’s righteousness (his plan to set all creation right again) has been made known. On account of Jesus’ own faithfulness, God’s rescue plan now reaches out beyond the boundaries of ethnic Israel to include people of every nation. And the only appropriate response is to offer to Jesus the risen King our own complete faithfulness.” Everything fits so nicely.
