You ready? Okay.
Good morning. Good to see you all.
I was asked to make an announcement, so forgive me for making an announcement first. What we are going to do is show the text so that you can see the text from the version we are reading from. We will also do that when we read a verse during the message.
Now, you know, you cannot handcuff speakers as much as you would like to, but when they are speaking extemporaneously and just mention a verse, we will not try to show it. But this is for a couple of reasons: everyone can see where we are, it will help the translator in the translation, and it will keep us together. So we are going to start doing that. That was mentioned Monday night to me, and I hope I got the announcement partly right. Is that what you told me? Okay. All right.
If you will turn to Romans 3, we will read. There are just eleven verses we are taking up this morning: the end of Romans 3, because we did the first twenty verses last time. This is Romans 3:21–31, and we will be reading from the Darby Version.
But now, without law, righteousness of God is manifested, borne witness to by the law and the prophets;
righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ towards all, and upon all those who believe: for there is no difference,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God;
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
whom God has set forth a mercy seat, through faith in His blood, for the showing forth of His righteousness in respect of the passing by the sins that had taken place before through the forbearance of God;
for the showing forth of His righteousness in the present time, so that He should be just, and justify him that is of the faith of Jesus.
Where then is the boasting? It has been excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by law of faith;
for we reckon that a man is justified by faith without works of law.
Is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not of the nations also? Yea, of the nations also:
since indeed it is one God, who shall justify the circumcision on the principle of faith, and uncircumcision by faith.
Do we then make void law by faith? Far be the thought: no, but we establish law.
Let us pray.
Father, again, as always, we come to You and present Your Word back to You. We can only understand it, Lord, when You enlighten it by Your Holy Spirit.
We are asking You this morning that You would enlighten these words that we have read, and that Your words, which are life and spirit, will come alive to us as we are sharing; that what is true in the Word of God, what is written in the Word of God, will become part of our everyday experience.
Make this so, Lord. It says so clearly in Your Word: what You send Your Word forth to do, it will be accomplished. And we stand on that together in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, this morning we have only read these eleven verses. You might think, by the way, at this time we will never get through the book of Romans. But it will at least be a little while.
The reason we are taking these eleven verses up is that they are all too important to hurry over. If we miss what is in these eleven verses, we miss the entire message of Romans. Now, I hope you see in a little bit that that is not an overstatement or an exaggeration on my part.
But justification by faith is the message of the book of Romans. It is the message we start with. We cannot begin the Christian life without understanding, in our experience, justification by faith. We cannot approach a holy God unless we understand the reality of justification by faith.
We would forever be lost as strangers and foreigners to God if we do not understand this matter of justification by faith. So this is what we will be dealing with this morning.
Now, this is very good news when you come to this chapter. I know you have borne with me as we have sort of meticulously gone through Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20. Do not be sorry that we took that time, and do not be sorry that the Apostle Paul took almost three chapters to describe the condition of man.
If you do not understand the condition of man—the absolutely corrupt condition of man, the absolutely hopeless condition of man—you will never understand the miracle of justification by faith. It is a miracle.
What happens here is that an enormous change happens in this letter. There is a new beginning in this letter. That hopelessness and despair came as we read with such specificity and such surgical precision. You know, I like that phrase: such surgical precision.
Paul dissected every thought of man, every behavior of man, every argument of man, every reason of man; and then, with that surgical precision, he came to the conclusion that it says in Romans 1: therefore, man, you are inexcusable. He begins that same thought in Romans 2:1: “O man, you are inexcusable.”
There is no justification for us to be saved, when you think about it. And that is the glory we come to here at the end of this third chapter. It is a great turn in the book.
Remember the scene. Do not forget the scene. Now, you may think this is taking liberty. I was so pleased to read later in my years, after the Lord seemed to impress me with this thought, that this is not taking liberty. Many saw this: this is a divine courtroom.
This is the divine Judge sitting on His throne, judging righteously. What we read about in the chapters before is that powerful phrase: the righteous judgment of God.
As human beings, we tend to think, “Well, God’s judgment might just be a little over the top.” That is what the world thinks. The world says to us, “How can a loving God judge man?” Well, if you understand what is presented in such detail by the Apostle Paul in these first three chapters, then you understand how broken we are and how much we need the Savior.
So the scene is the divine Judge in His divine courtroom, and He arrives at this verdict. I will just read this in Romans 1:32. This is speaking of men, by the way, and their condition:
Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that they who do such things are worthy of death, not only practise them, but have fellow delight in those who do them.
This is the verdict. This is the divine verdict. This is who we are.
And so we come now to Romans 3:21–31. It is so important that we capture what the Apostle Paul is talking about. This is the whole argument that Paul was waiting to make: that we have no righteousness in us. And let me be more specific: we cannot have any righteousness in us.
But yet God begins to move, and He does a miracle beyond anything that was ever done in any of His healings. He does a miracle beyond anything He ever did in making creation and the universe. He does the absolutely impossible when He justifies man—unjustifiable man.
You must understand these eleven verses. Griffith Thomas said—and I like what he said; I think it is the clearest thing I have ever read—of these eleven verses, “The present section constitutes the very center of the Apostle’s teaching.”
That is how important these eleven verses are. It is the very center of what the Apostle was trying to relate to us. The long journey of man trying to reach God has failed. There were no works. He went into the religious men, the irreligious men and women, and all mankind; and he concluded at the end, as it says in Romans 3, that there is not a righteous man.
So this is what we are going to be dealing with today: this matter of justification by faith. This is the secret of God. This is a miracle of God. I know I have said that—you may even hear it a few more times, and you have to put up with my emphasis—but it is the miracle of God beyond anything we could imagine.
God takes man who is unrighteous, cannot be righteous, and has no ability to be righteous; and He does a work where He sees them righteous in His eyes. That is Romans 3:21–31.
It begins with a wonderful phrase: “But now.” I love that phrase. When you look at Romans 3:21, it says, “But now.” That is looking back over the whole of those three chapters and saying that something so terrific has happened.
Now we see God has done something. When man failed to be what God was looking for, He moved. When man did not have the capacity to do what God was looking for, He acted. When man was utterly corrupt, this God who is incorruptible did something far beyond what we could ask or imagine, as it says in Ephesians.
So do not just go over those words, “but now,” and gloss over them as if they had no meaning. To the Apostle Paul, they had great meaning. He said, “But now, pay attention to this. God is going to do something no man’s mind could ever have conceived of, no one could have ever even thought was possible.”
He is going to do something, but now, that is the miracle of the ages. So that is the context with which we can begin.
We are first going to look at this matter of the righteousness of God manifested. I do not know if the little outline helped you when I sent it out yesterday, but there are four points we are going to look at. The first is the righteousness of God manifested.
You will note in that title it is not the righteousness of man manifested, because there is none, and there cannot be any. It is the righteousness of God manifested.
Look back at Romans 1:17. This was the prelude to what was coming, but Paul had to take those necessary steps to reveal what man was really like.
For righteousness of God is revealed therein, on the principle of faith to faith, according as it is written, But the just shall live by faith.
So when you come to Romans 3:21, it is picking up on Romans 1:17, when God gives the secret that a great gospel is going to be revealed. In that gospel would be the solution for all of mankind’s problems, and the one solution He does in particular regarding righteousness: justification by faith.
It says in Romans 3:21, “But now, without law, righteousness of God is manifested.” It repeats that all-important phrase in verse 22:
Righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ towards all, and upon all those who believe.
In other words, Paul was so absolute that he wanted us to get this secret that he repeated himself. He did not just repeat himself once; he repeated himself twice. When you go to verses 25 and 26, he makes it absolutely clear. He says, “It is His righteousness,” and then he repeats it in verse 26: “It is His righteousness.”
This chapter is not talking about our righteousness. It is talking about a righteousness that is far greater than any righteousness we could ever have or ever imagine. It is talking about a new righteousness, a righteousness that is God’s righteousness.
Repeat it twice, a righteousness to make sure you did not miss it: it is His righteousness. Repeat it twice so we can understand that is what he is talking about.
You know, up to now, the book of Romans never mentions man’s righteousness. If you read it, read those three chapters. Go over them; read them over and over. You will discover man’s righteousness is never mentioned. Man’s unrighteousness is absolutely mentioned. We have no righteousness.
And so here is introduced God’s divine solution. He will do something far beyond what we could have imagined, far beyond what we could have hoped for, far beyond what we think is possible; and it all has to do with His righteousness. You get that? Is everybody with me so far? I think you have to see this before we can go on.
Never is man’s righteousness spoken of in those early chapters. This is the righteousness of another. Do you understand that? This is the righteousness of another. That is the whole basis of the book of Romans and the message of the glorious gospel.
It is not a righteousness we could ever have. I know I have said that, but I am going to make sure you get it. It is not a righteousness we could ever have; it is not a righteousness we could ever gain in ourselves. It is a righteousness that is given by Him.
That is the great secret of justification by faith. It is the righteousness of another One, not you. That is the simple definition of it.
Now, righteousness is an important word in Romans. It is mentioned thirty-eight times. You may not have known that. That is just a little bit so that, when you go through it yourself, you can understand that the key word throughout Romans is righteousness.
Now we are beginning to discover that it is a matter of whose righteousness it is that makes the difference. That is the secret. More than any other book in the New Testament, Romans mentions righteousness. So this is what we are dealing with.
There is a righteousness of another One that is the secret of justification by faith. That is the whole story that he introduces with these repeated phrases: God’s solution.
Now, this is another important point as we talk about justification by faith, because many Christians say this wrong. God’s solution was never to make man righteous. Do you understand that? We sometimes say, “He made us righteous.” He did not make us righteous.
You are confusing justification by faith with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. It is true: once we are in Christ and the Holy Spirit begins to work, He begins in us a sanctifying work—not just a justifying work, but a sanctifying work. In that work of sanctification, the Holy Spirit conforms us to the image of the Lord Jesus.
That is different. That is not what we are talking about in Romans 3. What we are talking about is this first thing, and that is justification by faith.
Listen to 1 Corinthians 1:30. I will try to obey and go read it so I do not lose anybody.
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who has been made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption; that according as it is written, He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord.
Now, do you know who the “but of Him” is? The “but of Him” is God. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus. Listen to this: “Who has been made.” Underline that phrase in your Bible: “Who has been made.”
That is the key phrase that was revealed to the Corinthian believers: who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption. So look at it again: “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,” and shorten it: “Who has been made unto us righteousness.”
We were never righteous. We were never intended to be righteous. He was going to do this work where He transfers—and we will get into that in a moment—righteousness to us that is not our own. Because we stand in that righteousness that is His, we can approach a living God, and we can live under His blessings.
Make sure, before we go on from this point, you understand: God’s solution was never to make us righteous. God’s solution was to make Him our righteousness from the beginning. That is the key of Romans 3.
It tells us another thing: our righteousness is not a thing. We often think of love and grace and mercy and all these things of God. But here in 1 Corinthians 1:30, it makes it abundantly clear that our righteousness, our holiness, all our wisdom, and all these other things mentioned are a person and not a thing.
How marvelous that is. God gave us a Person. God did not do a work in you and say, “Okay, I have made you righteous. Now you are righteous.” No, you are not.
It is a mistake many people make when they read the book of Romans. It is a fatal mistake, because when they think they are all of a sudden righteous and try to live the Christian life, they go into deep despair. What they need to understand is the difference. So our righteousness is a Person. That is the key.
Even the best people, even the best people. You think of Nicodemus. I always like to say, in John 3, Nicodemus is the best of Israel’s sons.
Some people slight Nicodemus. I am a little offended for him, if I can be offended for him, that somehow Nicodemus is put down as this coward that sort of slunk—that is not a good word, probably; my English-major wife is going to go crazy—to Jesus during the night to ask Him a question because he was afraid.
He was not afraid. He wanted to have Jesus all to himself, alone, and ask Him these burning questions. He believed He was a teacher sent from God. He believed in the Lord Jesus. This was the best of Israel’s sons.
And yet, when he came to the Lord for explanation, the Lord’s word to him cut him right off, if you read John 3. He asked a question, and He said to him, “Nicodemus, you must be born again.”
Now, why is that? Do we know what born again means? We think it is just an experience we have where we believe in the Lord. But brothers and sisters, being born again is much more than just an experience on the day we believed in the Lord Jesus.
Being born again means that now we have a new source of life. That is what born again means. The source of life is no longer our pitiful abilities. The source of life is now this divine treasury that is the Son of God.
When we have the Son of God in us, we have everything we need to begin to live the Christian life. That is what He was trying to get through to this good man, this best of all men. He said to him, “You must be born again, or you cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
He did not want him to forget it. So just like the Apostle Paul repeated himself, He said it again: “You must be born again to enter into the kingdom of God.” You cannot see it or enter into it without it.
What you need, Nicodemus, with all of your sincerity, all of your belief, and all of your so-called goodness, is a whole new source of life. So that is what being born again means, if you look at it carefully.
It says here, in this manifestation of God’s righteousness, a brother said this—I thought it was so clear. He said, “The thought of manifestation calls special attention to the essentially divine source of righteousness, and the impossibility of it coming from man.”
Remember that: the essentially divine source of righteousness, and the impossibility of it coming from man. That was the message of the Apostle Paul. It is impossible for us.
He uses the only negative verse, if you want to use it, here in these glorious eleven verses: Romans 3:23. But he does not want you to forget where he came from in Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
You know, brothers and sisters, this is the key. Every one of us has fallen short. We sin because we are sinners. It is our nature. It is our corrupt nature that we inherited from our father Adam.
What God is trying to show us through the Apostle Paul is a whole new source of life that you need to live by. Unless you, as a believer, begin to learn to live by this whole new source of life, you will never understand the greatness of the miracle.
Another thing I want you to remember on this matter of the righteousness of God that is manifested or revealed is that it is never attained; it is only obtained. Now, do you understand the difference?
We can attain something by our efforts. We can attain great wealth. We can attain a position. We can attain a reputation. We can work hard, and people will recognise us. That is human attainment. You get something you have worked for. You have given yourself to something, and therefore you attain it through your own efforts.
The other one is quite different. In the biblical sense, we obtain something as the free gift of God. It is something that is given to us. It is something that we do not have, and it is something that God makes available to us. When He makes it available to us, it is ours.
That is the difference between attaining and obtaining. The Bible uses this word, impute. Now, I know some of you get a little hung up—I do, as much as you, maybe more. You read these words, like impute, and you do not know what they mean.
Impute explains the transfer of His righteousness. That is all that it explains in the Bible. He imputes a righteousness to us that is His. In that glorious position—and I do not like to use the word disposition—and reality, we stand so that in His eyes we are righteous.
That is what it means. That is all it means. That is what impute means. It means to reckon.
Now, I do not know if you have noticed, but if you read the book of Romans, you cannot go anywhere without seeing the word reckon. It is everywhere. Reckon occurs eighteen times in the book of Romans, and reckon means it is added to your account.
It does not mean it is yours. You understand the difference? By the way, it is an accounting term, an accounting word. John and Mac love this word. They probably have a secret tattoo somewhere you do not know about.
It means debits and credits. It means something has been added to your account that never was there in the first place. So reckon: when you go through the book of Romans, try to find these eighteen words about reckon. God reckons it so; He adds it to our account.
Let me explain with a little illustration. If you had a bank account called righteousness—and you do not—and you went to the bank and looked at your statements, there would be zero in it. Okay, I think it would be worse than that. You would have debits. You would not just have zero. You would be so in the hole, you would be bankrupt.
And in that moment this glorious word comes in: “But now.” Thank God, He did not leave us in this condition, this terrible, hopeless condition. He did not at all.
He thought of a grand plan where He would transfer His own righteousness to us, impute it to us, reckon it to us, count it to us, so that in the end God sees us righteous in the Lord Jesus. Do you understand that? How wonderful that is.
When God looks at us now, He does not see all those sins of your youth. He does not see all those sins of your adulthood. He does not see all those problems you have created for yourself and others. He sees you in Christ Jesus, and He sees you as righteous.
Is that not wonderful? That is the whole story of justification by faith. He reckons something to our account that was never there in the first place and could not be there. The more we tried for it to be there, the more we failed.
But one day God said, “Okay, I have proven to you that you cannot do this. I have proven to you that you cannot do what you have been called to. Now I am going to do something you would never expect. I am going to reckon to you My own righteousness so that, when God sees you, He sees you as one who has never sinned.”
How remarkable. Can you imagine?
This is where we are, brothers and sisters. This is not just a position. This is not just a fundamental doctrine that we hold. This is the greatest miracle ever: that God would look upon you and God would look upon me, and He would say, “I see you in My beloved Son as absolutely righteous.”
That is what impute means. This, brothers and sisters, is what God has done. Justified does not mean you are made righteous. Justified means you are counted righteous. That is the secret of Romans 3.
Now let us look more particularly at this justification by faith. Justification by faith requires one vital thing on your part—only one thing. This is all that is required of you for justification by faith. Everything else is done by God, but it requires you to believe.
It requires you to believe in the finished work of the Lord Jesus and accept His gracious gift to you. Once you believe, it is in your account.
I wish I could make that clear, but it is in your account, and it will never be taken out of your account. Tomorrow, when you sin—tomorrow, when you say a bad thing about me because you did not like what I said—God will not say, “Oh, I am extracting now that account. Look again; you are back at zero. Worse than that, now you are really bankrupt.”
He does not ever do that. He never will do that. This is a righteousness that can never be taken away.
Your righteous acts can go up and down. One day you have a good day and you think, “Oh, look at me. I can approach God. I can pray in faith. I can get up and preach a word. I can share the gospel.” The next day, when you fall, you think, “Oh, what a terrible day.”
Now, did you think your righteousness changed? Your righteousness can never change because your righteousness was never you in the first place. Your righteousness was the Person of the Lord Jesus, and it always will remain the Person of the Lord Jesus.
Then the Holy Spirit takes up that sanctifying work and begins to make you righteous. You get the emphasis, okay? I hope you do.
You remember the story in Mark 5 of Jairus’s daughter. When he went to meet with the Lord—some of you know the story—he said, “My daughter, can You heal her?” I am not going to read these verses, so you just have to trust me or read them later. It is Mark 5.
His daughter was in a desperate condition. What happened in that story is that Jairus, this man of the synagogue, was with the Lord, and the Lord was going along. Then the woman with the issue of blood came up. She had had this issue of blood for twelve years, and there was no relief for her. She went to physicians, spent all her money, and there was no relief for her.
They were delayed when that woman pressed upon the Lord Jesus, and He realised power had gone from Him. Then a courier came from Jairus’s house and said, “Do not bother the Master anymore. The girl has died.”
Can you imagine that heartbreaking moment for Jairus? He had gone to the Lord. The Lord agreed to go to his home. The Lord agreed to heal his daughter, and yet the word comes: “Your daughter is dead. Do not bother the Teacher any longer.”
But something happened. The Lord said, “Only believe.” That is the word. It is impossible for man, but only believe.
The one vital thing you and I can do to make the righteousness of God and justification by faith our real experience is only to believe.
I will never forget years ago when Michael Woods—I still keep it as a treasure—gave me this little cardboard thing that was perfectly laminated, and it had a little stand. It said, “Only believe.” It is from Mark 5.
I will never forget it. I always kept it right on my computer at the office, so if I was having a terrible day, all I would do is look up and read two words: “Only believe.” That is all you have to do.
Then the Lord went to the home, and He healed the girl, and she rose. They even made fun of Him, and He healed the girl. “Talitha cumi”—is that the word? He healed her. Only believe.
How marvellous that is. Righteousness and justification by faith are inseparably linked. You must believe. That is all you can do. You cannot improve your righteousness, but if you do not believe in what God has done, that righteousness can never be accounted to you and reckoned to you.
Faith occurs seven times in Romans 3. That is inseparably linked. Justification is justification by faith. You cannot get away from that. How we need to know that. Seven times it is in there; faith occurs thirty-eight times in the book of Romans.
No wonder it starts, “The just shall live by faith.”
I think of something marvellous about this faith. I will behave and go to Galatians 2:20. Somebody asked me recently to consider the exchanged life. Well, this will be the shortest message you have ever heard. Galatians 2:20 is the exchanged life.
I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live I, but Christ lives in me.
That is the Christian life. I am crucified with Christ. God’s solution was not to resurrect you, revive your old man, make your old man righteous, or do something in your old man that would be just sufficient enough to get you into the kingdom.
God’s work, the miracle of His work, was to replace you. Now, I know some of you may not like that. You may think that is kind of cruel. But God’s idea was that now the One who lives in you is Christ Himself. You remember I talked about the other source of life.
Then it says something even more marvellous. “But in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith.” There we are: justification by faith. You think that is it, right? You think it is your faith, right? But look what he said:
The faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given Himself for me.
Now, did you notice it was the faith of the Son of God? Did you notice when you read in this version, when it talked about faith, it was the faith of the Lord Jesus?
If you read all of the literal translations, except for one that I could find, every one of them says, “The faith of the Son of God.” When you read the King James Version—you know how much affection I have for the King James Version—it is the faith of the Son of God, not faith in the Son of God.
When you read the Darby Version, it is the faith of the Son of God, not faith in the Son of God. Do you understand the difference?
We are given a faith that is stronger than our faith. We are given faith that energises our weak faith so that we can believe in all that the Lord Jesus does and lay hold of all that the Lord Jesus is.
That is what it means: the faith of the Son of God. Christ lives in me—the exchanged life. The faith of the Son of God—the exchanged life. It is all of Him, brothers and sisters.
How marvellous that is. I think that is the most precious thing when you read Romans 3. I remember trying to explain that to the folks in Pakistan. I am not sure if, in all the translation it went through, it came across.
But we should not look at it as just faith in, as if we have to muster up enough faith to believe what He has done. We should believe what He has done because the word in Mark 5 is, “Only believe.”
It might just be a little mustard seed of faith. It might be a kernel of faith. It might be a hairbreadth of faith. But when it is combined with the faith of the Son of God, everything can be accomplished. That is what it means in Romans 3.
It is not even the strength of our own faith in the end. Verse 22 says, “By the faith of Jesus Christ.” Verse 26 says, “And justify him that is of the faith of Jesus Christ.” Galatians 2:20 says, “By the faith of the Son of God.”
How marvellous His solution was. He gives us His own faith.
Not only does He give us His own faith, He does something else because of our unrighteousness and our being sold under sin, as Paul describes later in Romans 7. He cleanses us with the power of His blood.
In Romans 3:25, it says, “Through faith in His blood.” Did you realise that the stain of sin is irremovable? I think that is the right word. I think it is.
You cannot remove it. You will never get rid of the stain of sin in yourself. It does not matter how much you do to serve God. It does not matter how many meetings you go to. It does not matter how holy you try to live. The stain of sin will never be removed by your actions.
But the stain of sin is completely removed by the blood of Jesus. You remember what it says in 1 John: His blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness—not just the bad parts, not just the hidden parts, but all unrighteousness.
How marvellous that is. Through faith in His blood, we are reckoned righteous. This is justification by faith.
Another thing about justification by faith—you have to notice this; it is very clear in these eleven verses—justification by faith is free. Now, can you imagine?
My daughter—we just helped my daughter, our daughter, forgive me, I will hear about this one—our daughter-in-law and our son in North Carolina move and get through her house. She had a piano. It seemed like everybody wanted a piano, and she advertised a piano on Facebook, I think it was, free. It was free.
People went nuts over a free piano. I remember she showed me the Facebook page, and she kept paging through it and seeing all the people that wanted the free piano.
But do you know you have been given something more incredibly free than anything imagined? Totally free. Totally free. It did not cost you anything, but it cost God everything: to give His only begotten Son. To you, it is free.
If you also read in that section, it is grace. It is all of His grace. You did not deserve it. You could not deserve it. It was grace, grace upon grace, and it is unmerited favour to you. All of grace—that is what it means.
So when you talk about this thing of justification by faith, I want you to remember a few things:
Did you think you could pack so much into eleven verses? But the Apostle Paul did. How tremendous this is. What a message it is.
But it is more than that. There is more than that. The third thing is that He makes the impossible possible. Now, how does He do that? That just seems like it cannot be done.
The most important verse, I think, is Romans 3:26:
So that He should be just, and justify him that is of the faith of Jesus.
How does He do this? Have you ever thought about what a dilemma God is in? We always say we are in a dilemma; we have a problem. But think of the problem of a holy God justifying the ungodly. How would you untie that knot?
How is it even possible that God could remain just and, at the very same time, justify the ungodly? You have to at least admit that is surely a divine predicament—a very big one.
So this is what we see in this impossible situation: how He is to be just and justify the ungodly.
Romans 1:32, we have already talked about: those who know the righteous judgment of God, that they who do such things are worthy of death. The death penalty.
You may not think what you did in your lifetime deserved the death penalty, but you have upon your head the death penalty. Until the Lord Jesus intervenes—in that phrase I like so much from a dear sister in this room—and interrupts your life, you are living under a death sentence.
So how is God going to be just and justify the ungodly, who are so corrupt and living under the death sentence? You remember what it says in Hebrews: “It is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment.” That is where we are. That is what we have inherited throughout: the death sentence.
But God does something marvellous. As a matter of fact, in Romans 6:23, just a few chapters from here, it says, “The wages of sin are death.” Did you know that? The wages. We earn it. You did not just get it; you worked for it.
You had to put some effort into it. All of yourself and Adam had to be manifested, and you rightly earned it as wages. This is the payment.
Romans 3:24, however, says something great God did: “The redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” How could He be just and justify the ungodly? He did something miraculous.
Now, some of your versions use the word propitiation. This is where there is an offering made for your sin. That is what propitiation means: it averts the wrath of God. That is true.
But I like the way Darby and most of the literal versions put it. They say, “Christ is our mercy seat.” How marvellous that is. That is what propitiation means.
What mercy has been shown to you and me, that we who were in such a position—an unsavable position, a corrupt position, an impossible position—God would do something in His mercy that would rescue us from that kind of darkness.
This is how He does it. Let me read it, because I am conscious of the translators: 2 Corinthians 5:21. I think you know this verse. This tells us how God does that great miracle.
He who knew not sin, He was made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in Him.
Did you catch the importance of that phrase? He who knew not sin, He was made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in Him.
Literally, think about it, brothers and sisters. He did not make us righteous, but He made His Son sin for us. This is a miracle.
Who could have thought a holy God would take His beloved Son, in whom is all His delight, and make that beloved Son sin itself—manifest sin?
You remember when the Lord Jesus hung upon the cross, and He said to the Father, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” What tragic words they were.
Do you know that is the moment when the sin of the whole world, when the sin of all mankind, came upon the Lord Jesus, and the Father, who is just and holy, could not even look at His Son?
What a miracle—a miracle beyond anything we could describe. He did not make us righteous, but He was willing to make His Son sin, that we may be reckoned righteous.
He became the mercy seat. Think about it. I do not know what you know about the mercy seat, but the mercy seat is only mentioned once in the King James Version in the whole of the New Testament. It is in Hebrews.
He said, “I am not going to read it,” but it says, when it is talking about these things, “We cannot talk about this now.” So it is the one time it is mentioned in the King James Version. In many of the versions, it is not even explained.
But when it is mentioned here in these other versions I am telling you about, it says Christ is our mercy seat. What that means, if you look at the Old Testament, is that the only piece of furniture in the tabernacle, or in the temple, in the holiest of all, is the mercy seat upon the ark of the covenant.
It has the two cherubim. You remember, if you read—I think it is Exodus 16—God goes into great detail with Moses on how to build it. The two cherubim have their arms outstretched and meet together over the centre of the ark.
God tells Aaron and Moses in Leviticus, “I will meet with you there.” He tells them more than that: “I will speak to you there.” And then He says even more: the Shekinah glory of God will appear to you there over the mercy seat.
Brothers and sisters, this is the miracle God has done. Christ, who is our mercy seat, was made sin for us. God meets with us there. God speaks to us there. God’s glory can now appear to us there in Christ Jesus.
This is the glory of Christ, our mercy seat. How marvellous it is. Christ, our mercy seat, is the message of the book of Romans. Everything is made available in Christ Jesus.
This is how God can be just and justify. He was made sin. That issue of death was settled because, if you can imagine, His only begotten Son died for every man. That is what Hebrews says.
Now the miracle is accomplished. He is just and justifies. He is able to justify the ungodly because He bore the sin.
You know, there are two goats when it speaks of the mercy seat in the Old Testament. The first goat was slain, and the blood was taken. The blood was put upon the mercy seat and sprinkled upon the ark, or before the ark, by the high priest.
That goat died for our sins. It is the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in Israel. One goat had to die for our sins.
There was a second goat. He is called a scapegoat. The high priest went out to that goat, laid his hands on that goat, and transferred the sins to that goat. The scapegoat went out into the wilderness and took away our sins forever.
Christ is both of those goats. That is the mercy seat. Oh, brothers and sisters, this is justification by faith.
One last thing. How can we boast? If God has done all this, how can we boast? Look at Romans 3:27 to the end. It is just a few verses.
Where then is the boasting? It has been excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by law of faith;
for we reckon that a man is justified by faith without works of law.
Is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not of the nations also? Yea, of the nations also:
since indeed it is one God, who shall justify the circumcision on the principle of faith and the uncircumcision by faith.
Do we then make void law by faith? Far be the thought: no, but we establish it.
Brothers and sisters, there are three questions. “Where is the boasting?” That is the first question. It has been excluded in verse 27.
“By what law?” is the second question. Did you do anything to deserve it? Can you do anything to deserve it? “Of works?” is the third question.
Then the answer says, “Nay, but by the law of faith; for we reckon a man is justified by faith without the works of the law.” There is no boasting. Nothing you can boast of. Never can you say, “I did this.”
But there is boasting that is allowed. If you look at 1 Corinthians 1:31, after it says God has made Him our righteousness, it ends in verse 31:
He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord.
That is whom we boast in. What a miracle this is. Boasting that is excluded by anything we can do is included because we have the One in whom we can boast, and He never fails.
This is Romans 3:21–31. We receive a righteousness that is His because we have none. We respond in faith, receiving the free gift of God and His grace.
We live: “The just shall live by faith.” Not our weak faith, but the faith of the Son of God. This is the whole explanation.
Now, God had this in His heart from the very beginning. I found a verse in Isaiah 45:25 that, quite frankly, I had never remembered reading before. This is what He told the children of Israel. This is what He told them was His plan. They just did not understand His plan.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.
That word in Hebrew means, “and shall boast.” In the Lord are we justified, and in that we can boast. This is the message at the end of Romans 3.
How marvellously full these eleven verses are of what we have in Christ. All we have in Christ is what He has done and who He is. This is what we can boast in.
We are justified by faith, not by anything we have ever done, but because of the great miracle of redemption: Christ. He was just. He remained just, and He became the Justifier of the ungodly. This is justification by faith.
Lord, we just come to You and ask that, in Your mercy, You would deliver us from misunderstanding.
Lord, in Your mercy, You would deliver us from thinking there is anything in us that can cause You to justify us. But You would open our eyes to the grand miracle where mercy and truth meet together in Christ, our mercy seat; where righteousness and peace kiss one another, as it says in Psalm 85:10.
There, in the miracle of redemption, we are fully justified before a holy God. Lord, open our eyes, cause us to see, and cause us to live in the reality of what You have done.
We ask this in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.