From the time of infancy, acceptance becomes basic to our need. A baby wants to belong and find acceptance with her parents. She smiles, coos, and cries to find the embrace of acceptance. As she grows older, she may venture into her own unique methods for finding acceptance. After a while, it's not acceptance by parents that most intrigues her but acceptance by her peers. The way she talks, laughs, acts, and dresses often serve as tools for the embrace of acceptance.
Obviously, what is natural and normal acceptance by peers can turn ugly when one compromises morality in order to secure acceptance. Many of the problems associated with society, whether substance abuse or immoral behavior or even abnormal behavior, have acceptance as the underlying motive.
We all feel the need for acceptance whether we admit it or not. It's that longing for relationship that drives us—and that's normal. God created us to relate to others. The problem comes when we pursue relationships through sinful means; whether something perverse or immoral or just garden variety pride and self-pity. Our minds tell us that if we're going to be accepted by others then we must prove ourselves in some way or do something that impresses the other party. Action equals acceptance in the human relationship equation—at least, that's what is supposed.
Many centuries ago, a certain man moved away from the more populated area where he had grown up because he feared he would never be accepted by the king. He thought that had nothing to offer the king by way of service since he suffered from a debilitating disability. But even more of an issue happened to be that his grandfather had been the previous king; his father stood in line for the throne; but both had died. Custom in that era did not look good for this man. Most kings succeeding someone from a different family quickly killed any perceived rivals to the throne.
So this man, fearing that the new king might kill him, lived far away from the capital city in an obscure, hard to get to place known as Lo-debar, a name meaning, "a thing of nought," or we might say, "a place of nothingness." The man's name was Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, and grandson of King Saul. The one person that he wanted to accept him had the power to kill him—King David. But Mephibosheth had nothing to offer David to entice him to accept him.
Yet David chose to accept Mephibosheth. "Is there yet anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" David asked his servants. News arose that a crippled son of Jonathan remained alive. David called for him to appear before him. With much trepidation and probably an incredible case of the "jitters," Mephibosheth fell on his face before David. "Here is your servant!" he said to the king. Then, the most amazing words fell from the lips of the king: "Do not fear, for I will surely show kindness to you for the sake of your father Jonathan…" From that day onward, David took Mephibosheth into his own home where he ate regularly at the king's table and enjoyed the king's fellowship. David accepted Mephibosheth—not because he could do something for David or because he impressed David. The ground of his acceptance was in someone else—his deceased father Jonathan. David welcomed and accepted Mephibosheth in the same way that he would welcome Jonathan (2 Samuel 9).
Why tell this story? Because it offers a glimpse at our acceptance with God, that it is not found in our merit or what we can do for God or works that we might offer Him. God accepts us for the sake of His Son who died in our place. To be accepted by God is to be counted as righteous in His sight. Yet none of us owns such righteousness—not in ourselves. It's the righteousness of Christ for us that gives us, as sinners, acceptance before God. Do you rely upon Christ alone as the ground of your acceptance with God?
We considered in our previous study that verses 19-20 serve as a bridge or a hinge that takes us into the next theme of Paul's epistle to the Romans. It was not a mere literary transition to take up another subject but a bridge to connect two distinctly different yet necessarily conjoined themes. Our text begins Paul's exposition of the righteousness of God through faith in Christ. He actually introduced the theme in 1:17, "For in it [i.e. the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith"." Then he stopped for a long, thorough explanation of why we need the gospel and therefore the righteousness of God. In a sense, 1:18-3:20 is a giant parenthetical statement that explains why we need Christ's righteousness.
Verse 21 takes us back to the righteousness of God in the gospel by the phrase, "But now." Martyn Lloyd-Jones says of these two words, "There are no more wonderful words in the whole of the Scripture than just these two words 'But now'" [Romans: Atonement & Justification, Exposition of Chapters 3:20-4:25, vol. 3, 25]. The gospel is actually bound up in those two words! It has a similar ring and actually states the same thing as found in Ephesians 2:4, "But God." It's a phrase of contrast and transition. In our case, it's a phrase that takes us from death to life, from wrath to righteousness, from prophecy to fulfillment, and from shadow to substance.
When we see the word "now" we often think immediately of some reference to time. And certainly, in this context, that's appropriate, as we shall see. But I want us to think of something else: how this word "now" is qualitative, how it focuses on particular content or reality that affects us for eternity.
Paul has laid out the reality that all humanity is under sin (3:9) and therefore, all humanity lives under the sentence of eternal death (6:23). The wrath of God has been revealed from heaven against us because of our ungodliness and unrighteousness evidenced by our suppressing God's truth (1:18). God has given us over to our sin; He has rendered us inexcusable before Him; His law has pinpointed our sinfulness and judged us guilty of capital crimes against the Creator (1: 24-32; 2:1-11; 3:19-20). We stand before the eternal Judge. We hear the evidence against us as transgressors whose lives are rooted in iniquity. Our mouths are shut tight by the absolute truth of the charges. Our excuses vanished; our defense exhausted; we have nothing left to say. Then we hear, Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Of every charge against us, we slink lower and lower, hanging our heads as we realize the hopelessness of finding acceptance before the eternal Judge.
"But now!" Think about those two words! The scene is darker than pitch: "there is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one" (3:10-12). Then we hear the voice of sovereign grace shouting above the charges against us, "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested." We've been attempting to find acceptance with God by means of the Law. Whatever our understanding of the Law, whether through the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount or whether the moral law of God written on the conscience and embodied in laws throughout history, we've tried to use it as a means for acceptance with God. But to no avail! Vain attempts to conform to the law cannot wipe away our transgressions. Though we may try with all our might to render ourselves acceptable to God when we realize God's holiness and our sinfulness, we fail over and over. The standard is too high—perfect righteousness. Our performance is too dismal—none righteous. Death, judgment, and wrath await us! It's not that the Law has failed us. It's done the job God intended: shutting our mouths from the excuses we make, holding us accountable to God, and giving us the knowledge of sin (3:19-20). What we need is to be justified in God's sight. We need to be found "not guilty" rather than "guilty." We need to be declared "righteous" or just instead of unrighteous. But the Law cannot do that: "by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight" (3:20). Nothing within us, nothing that we can do, no status that we can achieve, no religious activity or service that we can muster—absolutely nothing, can make us righteous enough to find acceptance in God's sight.
Do you feel the weight of this truth? Do you see the spiritual death in which you live apart from Christ? Do you recognize that you stand condemned to face the wrath of an infinitely righteous God?
"But now," Paul writes; God in the greatness of His mercy and grace has acted on your behalf. "Apart from the Law" or 'without the Law' or 'distinct from the merits in the Law,' "the righteousness of God has been manifested." Manifested in what? Remember that big parenthesis from 1:18-3:20; Paul is getting back to the gospel declaration. "In it the righteousness of God has been revealed," that is, "apart from the Law [as the failed means to righteousness before God and acceptance by God due to human sinfulness] the righteousness of God has been manifested." God is declaring the way to righteousness before Him; He's explaining how sinners can be declared acceptable in the holy presence of God—and it's not through adherence to the Law; it's not through anything that you do. It's in the gospel that the righteousness of God has been made known—purely, completely, and only in the gospel of Jesus Christ! The gospel takes dead men and makes them alive. The gospel takes those living in darkness and brings them into the eternal, glorious light of relationship to God. The gospel takes those condemned in Adam and makes them acceptable to God in Christ. The gospel takes those under the wrath of God and counts them as the righteousness of God through faith in Christ. In light of that, I think we see that the "But now" is quite appropriate!
Is this something completely new? Is the gospel of God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ something that belongs only to the New Testament while there was yet another way to God in the Old Testament? Paul answers that question by stating that "the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets." In other words, what Paul declared was not truth previously unheard of in the Old Testament era. Instead, he implied that he was picking up where the Law and the Prophets—that is, the entire Old Testament [a Hebraism for all of the OT]—left off. The gospel is new in quality; it is new in its fulfillment and full disclosure by the coming of Christ. But it's not new as though the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ had never existed.
When Paul preached in Pisidian Antioch on the first missionary journey, he cited the story of the Old Testament as evidence of the gospel. It was promised by God that one of David's descendants would sit upon the eternal throne. So Paul could say, "From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus" (Acts 13:23). Jesus Christ's death took place because "they [the Jews] had carried out all that was written concerning Him" (13:29). "But God raised Him from the dead." And so Paul could say, "And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, 'You are My Son; Today I have begotten You'" (13:30-33).
Rather than finding the Old Testament contradictory or inadequate, Paul could declare before Felix, that he served God, "believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves [the Jews accusing him], that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked" (24:14-15).
The gospel is found throughout the Old Testament. It shows up in the promise that the serpent's head would be crushed by the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15). It's found in the promises given to Abraham that all the earth would be blessed through his seed (Gen. 12:3). Jesus declared that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and that he saw it and was glad (John 8:56). It's found in God's deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt, especially by the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. When you come to the sacrificial system in Exodus and Leviticus, we find the gospel latent in them. As Lloyd-Jones comments, "It is nothing but a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that He has done; it is the Law witnessing to this thing that God has done once and for ever in the Person of His only begotten Son" [35].
Read Psalm 2 and 110 and see the Son as the exalted, eternal King. Read Psalm 22 and see the description of His suffering and crucifixion. Read Isaiah 9 and 11 concerning His deity and exalted office as Messiah. Read Isaiah 53 and see the explanation of the necessity of His death for us as well as the sovereign work of God through Christ for our salvation. Read of His kingdom in Daniel 2, 7, and 9. Read of His saving grace and electing love in the book of Hosea. See the gospel in Zechariah's symbolism and in Malachi's forthright declarations.
Realize that the Apostles and early Christians that preached the gospel did so with the Old Testament as their only Bible. They expounded the Law, Prophets, and Wisdom literature in relationship to the final revelation of God in Jesus Christ and His finished work. That's why the writer of Hebrews, who explains much of the gospel through the Old Testament, declared, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world" (Heb. 1:1-2). That's precisely what Paul says in Romans 3:21: this gospel of the righteousness of God is the grand culmination of divine revelation; it's what the Law and the Prophets foreshadowed and proclaimed, and now God is pleased to reveal it to you in Christ.
The weight of "But now" therefore carries an element of time, too. The "now" points specifically to the revelation of Christ in the Incarnation, perfect obedience to the Law, suffering of death at the cross, burial, and triumphant resurrection. The Old Testament provided the shadows and glimpses of which our Lord Jesus Christ is the substance. What may have appeared obscured or difficult to understand in the symbols and ceremonies and events is now crystal clear in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul repeats twice in verses 21-22, "the righteousness of God"; why is that the case? His whole subject has focused on the kind of righteousness humanity lacks but which is necessary to find acceptance with God. Keep in mind that the word means more than just being a good person. It's a legal term. Its message is primarily forensic or legal and has only a few glimmers of ethical or moral implications; yet those appear only after the legal declaration of righteousness has been made (e.g. Galatians 2:16-20). We use a phrase quite often that I think is appropriate to explain what Paul has in mind. We refer to someone being "right with God." By that, we don't mean that someone is morally perfect; otherwise none could be described by that phrase. Nor do we have in mind that someone has negotiated with God and come to some kind of satisfactory terms. Instead, we mean that such a person has a right standing with God. God accepts him.
That's why I have trouble with the language so common in evangelical circles of "accepting Christ." It's as though He is on trial and we size Him up, and finally decide to accept Him into our circle of relationship. Now I understand how the term is meant but language conveys meaning; and I don't think we want to suggest that we've put Jesus Christ on trial to decide whether or not He is acceptable to us. So I would encourage you to work that phrase out of your evangelical vocabulary. Instead, the gospel is not about us accepting Christ—it is about Him accepting us as righteous. We welcome or receive Him (that's good biblical language evident in John 1:12) because, due to His redemptive work, He accepts us as righteous in His sight. But how does Jesus Christ accept us?
I think it's safe to say that Paul has hammered again and again that "by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight" (3:20). He's not through with that hammering, either! He summarizes in 3:28, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." As he expounds the righteousness of God in the gospel, Paul has stated that God has revealed it to us "from faith to faith" (1:17). We saw that this phrase emphasizes a growth and progression in our faith. In other words, we're not justified because we make a decision for God but because we believe and keep believing the gospel of Christ. Our reliance is upon Christ alone. We're accepted by God through the instrumentality of faith in Christ because of His righteousness displayed in the redemptive work of Christ. It's important to see how Paul qualifies the righteousness of God: "being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe." It's not some other kind of righteousness but "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe." In no way does Paul view faith as meritorious, as some would claim. All of the merit is in Christ! That's what he explains, and we'll consider later, in 3:24-26. That's why he chides, "Where then is boasting. It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith" (3:27). So, exercising faith in Christ does not constitute works since no one can be justified through works. Then what is it? It's faith! It's the instrument that God has chosen that defies human logic and puts us in absolute dependence upon the sufficiency of Jesus Christ in the gospel.
Faith is not something that you do for God to save you. Christ has already done the saving work through propitiating God or averting His wrath through His bloody death in our place at the cross. It's not faith that saves but Christ that saves. Faith brings us to Christ. Faith opens our hands to receive what Christ has already provided through His redemptive work. What is this faith?
Faith has a negative side. It is a rejection of self-reliance for salvation. It defies self by declaring "that nothing good dwells in me" (7:18). Therefore, faith is accompanied by repentance. It doesn't stand alone because in looking to God's provision in Christ, faith turns from sin and the way of rebellion against God. This is what stymied the rich young ruler. He could not say, "Nothing good dwells in me"; instead, he told Jesus Christ, "All these things I have done from my youth up." He would not admit his sin and inadequacy before God. He had no faith because he had no thought of repentance. Faith turns one's eyes to God by turning away from sin and self (Mark 10:17-20).
Faith is positive, too. It is an acknowledging and assenting to the truth in Christ. Saving faith is never a 'faith in faith'; it is never turned inward. Faith looks outside oneself to the only refuge for sinners: Jesus Christ. Faith relies on the biblical revelation of Christ as the Son of God and Son of Man—absolute deity and absolute humanity in one person; perfect in righteousness; crucified as the sin-bearer satisfying divine justice through the one death; raised from the dead in demonstration of God's acceptance of His redemptive sacrifice; exalted to the right hand of the Father where He reigns forever as Lord; and returning as Judge of the living and the dead at the consummation of the ages.
But faith doesn't stop at this assent to the truth in Christ. Faith is reliance upon Jesus Christ alone as He is revealed in the gospel. It is reliance upon what Christ has done on your behalf as the righteousness of God that gives you acceptance before God. It's trust in Him, dependence upon Him, finding your refuge in Him, believing in Him, casting yourself upon Him—alone as your righteousness before God.
Faith acknowledges the truth of Christ, faith relies upon the person and work of Christ, and faith receives Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King. Faith welcomes Him and embraces Him as the revelation of God's righteousness, the only mediator between sinners and the Holy Father, and the King and Lord of life.
Notice the specific focus of faith: "through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe." Paul often uses repetition to get his point across, stating a truth one way and then looking at it from another angle (e.g. Gal. 2:16). He does that here. First, he uses an objective genitive that shows us that Jesus Christ is the object of our faith. Some argue that Paul is using a subjective genitive in this phrase, which would refer our acceptance before God as the faithfulness of Christ or even as the faith of Christ. John Murray explained, "It would be alien to the whole teaching of the apostle to suppose that what he has in mind is a faith that is patterned after the faith which Jesus himself exemplified, far less that we are justified by Jesus' own faith, that is to say, by the faith which he exercised" [NICNT: Romans, 111]. Our justification is based upon the sufficiency before God of Christ's redemptive work. Faith directs us to Christ [Murray, 111]. It gives us no refuge but in Him who died for us. Second, Paul reiterates this in the second clause, "for all those who believe" or better "for all the ones believing," which shows the present, ongoing nature of saving faith. It is those who rely upon Jesus Christ alone for standing with God that are declared and accepted as righteous before God.
Lest there be anyone thinking that he or she might be an exception, Paul hastens, "For there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Whether Jew or Greek, male or female, religious or non-religious we share in condemnation before God. God created us for Himself—for His "glory." Yet our bent to sin and practice of transgressing His law leaves us, not just a little bit short of God's glory but woefully lacking. One writer put it so clearly. "The harlot, the liar, the murderer, are short of it [sc. God's glory]; but so are you. Perhaps they stand at the bottom of a mine, and you are on the crest of an Alp; but you are as little able to touch the stars as they" [Bishop Handley Moule, The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans¸ in The Expositor's Bible (Hodder and Stoughton, second edition, 1894), 97, quoted by John Stott, Romans: God's Good News for the World, 109].
Rather than relying on what you cannot do—make yourself righteous and thus acceptable before God, cast yourself upon God's provision for sinners to be acceptable before Him—the righteousness of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here's the ground of your acceptance and assurance of pardon with God—Jesus Christ's obedience as your righteousness; Jesus Christ's death as your satisfaction for God's justice. Are you relying upon Jesus Christ alone?
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