“Can a person be right with Almighty God?” Romans 3:21-26 (Copy)

This question was asked by a patient who had disseminated cancer and did not have long to live, “Can a person be right with Almighty God?”. It is an age old question - similar questions are asked three times in the book of Job, possibly the oldest book in the Old Testament:

“Can a mortal man be more righteous than God. Can a man be more pure than his maker?” Job 4:17

“But how can a mortal man be righteous before God?” Job 9:2

“How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of a woman be pure?” Job 25:4

Can this question be answered? Certainly it can, this what the word ‘gospel’ or ‘good news’ means? This is the message Jesus brought and passed on to us through his apostles’ writings, this message is indeed ‘good news’ for every person who is willing to listen to Jesus.

There is Good News

When Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, a group of Christians he had not yet met, he was answering this same question. It was this message from God that Paul longed to share with as many people as possible.

“I long to see you that I may impart some spiritual gift to make you strong . . . That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.” Romans 1:11-15

The gift he wanted to share was knowledge, the good news about Jesus. This knowledge is vital as it is through a response to this that people can become right with God – or in other words made ‘righteous’. Paul continues,

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed . . .” Romans 1:16-17

A lady who was dying came to understand the gospel for the first time and she committed herself to the Lord Jesus. When visiting her in the local hospice I wanted to emphasise God’s ‘good news’ or gospel for us. I wrote her name on a piece of paper and opened my Bible.

“Let the Bible represent the Lord Jesus. You now belong to him because you have committed yourself to him. You are now ‘in Christ’.”

I closed the Bible hiding the paper with her name on it within its pages.

“Now when God looks at us he does not see our sin, the good we have failed to do as well as the wrong things we have done, instead he only sees the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. We now share in Christ’s righteousness. Furthermore, because Jesus is now in heaven, as we are in him, we also will join him in heaven.”

I then shared with her that great verse on assurance that shares the sense of security that God wants all Christians to have,

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus . . .” Romans 8:1

The Bad News

What a tragedy it is for the Christian message to be summarised as ‘God is love’, forgetting that he is also a holy, righteous God. My wife and I attended a funeral of a man who was known to be antagonistic to the Christian faith, yet his funeral was in a church. The vicar told us that the last time the man had been in the church was at his wedding over fifty years before. The vicar went on,

“But now he is back with us and his spirit has gone to a better place to be with the God who loves him!”

That is not the message of the Bible. The Lord God hates all rebellion against him and his Son. The fate of those who reject his rule is hell, according to Jesus and his apostles.

So often people think there is another way to please god and say such things as,

“I try to live a good life.”

“I’ve never done anyone any harm.”

“I’m not a sinner!”

“I’m a religious person!”

In the next section of Paul’s letter to the Romans he corrects such misunderstanding. In God’s eyes we are all sinners, no-one reaches God’s standard. It is because of this that we all need a Saviour. The good news is that a Saviour has come. Being religious is not an answer. However religious a person may be, they still fall short of God’s standard of perfection.

Paul continues to explain that religious Jews have the same problem as heathen Gentiles, in God’s eyes we are all sinful people and therefore we all need a Saviour.

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last” Romans 1:16-17

Until we grasp how much God hates our sin we can never understand the ‘good news’. Paul continues,

“For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” Romans 1:18

This section in Paul’s letter (Romans 1:18 – 3:20) keeps emphasising this ‘bad news’. He emphasises what the Old Testament teaches,

“There is no-one righteous, not even one: there is no-one who understands, there is no-one who seeks God.” Romans 3:10-11

Religious and irreligious people have the common problem:

“There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:22-23

The great preacher, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, has stressed this fact,

“No man can be a Christian without recognising his utter hopelessness.”i

The Very Good News

Straight after this depressing section describing the plight of all people comes the exciting phrase,

“But now . . .” Romans 3:21

There is a solution to our problem. All true Christians have had a ‘But now’ experience. Paul likes to use this phrase as it reveals the radical change that takes place when we accept the gift of God’s righteousness by being ‘in Christ’. Here are a few examples:

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” Romans 6:22

“But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” Romans 7:6

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” Ephesians 5:8

“But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation . .” Colossians 1:22

How can I become right with God?

Paul now gives us us God’s answer. This summarises the gospel, it explains how we can be seen by God as righteous:

“21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,

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

24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—

26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Romans 3:21-26

This passage has been described as:

“ . . . possibly the most important single paragraph ever written.”ii

Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said,

“It is no exaggeration to say of this section that it is one of the greatest and most important sections of the whole of Scripture.”

Note what it says. Righteousness is a gift, given to those sinners who are following Jesus. True Christians are now, at this present time, considered by God to be justified (just as if I’d never sinned!) because of what Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man did ‘once for all’ for us on that cross.

The whole Bible is clear that, however exemplary our lives are, we still fall far short of God’s righteous standards and so we all need a Saviour. Our religious devotion and our good deeds can never qualify us to join with the presence of God. Trying to keep God’s law, to obey religious rules, is doomed to be an inadequate solution.

Martin Luther was a devoted monk who came to realise that all his efforts to live in a religious, godly way were a failure. He had been taught that God’s righteousness meant that God condemned sinners and Luther recognised that that was where he stood. He had tried hard to satisfy God by his religious devotion and the way he lived but still his conscience gave him no rest. In his autobiography he wrote,

“Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God, . . . and also by the gospel threatening us with his righteousness and wrath!

Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at that place, most ardently desiring to know what St. Paul wanted. At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely,

“In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’”

There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which [the] merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me.”

What joy and peace such an understanding of this gospel brings us. This righteousness in not something I can achieve by the way I live but it is a status that God has given me because I now belong to him and his Son. Luther understood that by trying to keep God’s law it was not possible for anyone to enter into a right standing with God. The only remedy for our plight is what Jesus, the Son of God, has done for us. Jesus gives the status of being righteous to all those who personally commit themselves to him – it is only by being in such a relationship that forgiveness can be given to us.

A repeated message

This is the repeated message throughout the Bible and it is one that every church should be teaching. What we do cannot satisfy God but Jesus has won the right to present us holy because we have turned, repented, and now follow him:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

Grace is the kindness of God that we do nor merit. Salvation is a gift of God because we belong to his Son. Jesus died to be our substitute.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

We are given this status of being ‘righteous’ because we are ‘in him’, that is we now belong to Jesus.

“But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7

Note the tenses used here. We have been saved, we have been justified because we belong to the Lord Jesus. This is very different to belonging to a church. Church membership cannot save us.

A young lady visited my clinic wearing a beautiful silver cross round her neck. After sorting out the medical question I said,

“Excuse me asking, but I was admiring your cross. Does that mean that you are a Christian?”

“Yes, I have been baptised - - but it depends on what you mean by a Christian!”

“Surely the Bible teaches that a Christian is someone who is sold out to the Lord Jesus.”

“Oh!” and then after a pause she said, “Then I’m not!”

Being a Christian is not an insurance policy that a person takes on ‘just in case’ by going through the rites of being baptised or confirmed. Putting my faith in the Lord Jesus, trusting him for my salvation, is the beginning of a radical new life, lived for his ends and his glory. If that effect is not present then it is unlikely that a person is yet saved.

BVP

April 2023

iMartin Lloyd-Jones, ‘Romans: Atonement and Justification,’ Zondervan p. 24-25

iiLeon Morris, ‘The Epistle to the Romans’, Eerdmans, p 173