Faith in Christ Apart from Works: Romans 3:21-23

Introduction

We started back in the book of Romans last week and in this most important of passages in the book of Romans and perhaps the whole Scripture we see how the need for God’s righteousness in the first major section now leads to how God can give sinful men that righteousness.

This passage teaches how God can be just or righteous while at the same time declare sinners to be righteous.

We have seen how Paul uses different terms to describe what is happening here. We started looking at several and defined these terms.

I said that believers should insist that these terms be defined accurately because a wrong or inaccurate definition can be deadly.

What do I mean by that?

Take for example the word “justification,” which means “to be declared righteous,” not “to make righteous.”

The first definition takes place at a point in time while the second is a process. The second should rightly be the definition of “sanctification,” not justification.

Sanctification is the process by which we are made more and more into the image of God and Christ.

But that process can take place only after we have been justified, after we have been saved.

There is a whole movement that actually accepts the definition of justification as making one righteous.

This quote is taken from the official Catechism of the Catholic Church, so we are hearing how they themselves define justification: “Justification includes the remission of sins, sanctification, and the renewal of the inner man.… It is granted to us through Baptism.”

The Catholic church has broadened justification to include sanctification.

They say that justification is granted to people through baptism. In other words, the Catholics are teaching that works are involved in one’s justification.

But as we have repeatedly seen in Martin Luther’s life, he was trapped in a system that requires him to work for his salvation. He truly wanted to attain justification before God.

What did Luther do to attain justification before God?

He did as many things as he needed to and then more. For example, as a monk, he would go to his priest to confess sins that he had not committed.

His priest became so fed up with him that he told Luther, “Look here, if you expect Christ to forgive you, come in with something to forgive–blasphemy, adultery–instead of all these peccadilloes.” Luther felt he could never do enough to attain a justified state.

There was no rest, no assurance for Luther that he was right with God.

This became his view of God:

“Is it not against all natural reason that God out of his mere whim deserts men, hardens them, damns them, as if he delighted in sins and in such torments of the wretched for eternity, he who is said to be of such mercy and goodness? This appears iniquitous, cruel, and intolerable in God, by which very many have been offended in all ages. And who would not be? I was myself more than once driven to the very abyss of despair so that I wished I had never been created. Love? I hated him!”

That is the response of one man who was taught that in order for God to justify him, he would have to work for it.

But how much is enough?

For someone like Luther who truly wanted to be right with God, it is a status that he had to labor endlessly for, and even then, he wasn’t sure if God was happy with him.

To Luther, God was like a parent whose child could never do enough to please Him.

But this is the tragic implication when you don’t get the definition right. Justification means that God declares guilty sinners to be righteous and as we shall see in this passage, works of the law has nothing to contribute to that declaration.

Faith in Christ Apart from Works

As I mentioned last week, this passage from vv. 21-26 seeks to explain how God can be both just and justifer of sinners at the same time. Vv. 21-24 explains how God justifies sinners and v. 25 explains how he is just in doing so. Let’s look at how God justifies sinners first.

I. How God Justifies Sinners (Romans 3:21-24)

We see that the way God justifies guilty sinners is to give them His righteousness. Sinners have no righteousness of their own and since God is the only One who is righteous, it has to come from God.

We already saw last week that the phrase “righteousness of God” occurs 4 times in this passage (vv. 21, 22, 25, 26) and that the Greek root is related to words like “justified” (vv. 24, 26), “just” (v. 26).

The phrase “righteousness of God” is at the heart of the theme of this book.

We also saw what Paul means when he uses this phrase, that first, this phrase refers to the righteousness that God provides, in this case, to sinful people, which is great news, since sinful men have no righteousness of their own.

They can only get it from God, who alone is the source of all righteousness.

And second, this phrase refers to the righteousness that God displays. In other words, when God provides sinners His righteousness, that saving action of God actually shows that God is righteous.

We will actually see both of these aspects here in this passage.

A. Not Through Works of the Law

1. The Timing: But Now

Notice the timing emphasized in the first two words “But now.” These two words signal a shift, a change from the past. The contrast is between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

In the past, there was a domination by sin (“under sin” in 3:9ff), and as a result, all mankind is justly condemned, helpless, and powerless to escape from the clutches of sin and to escape God’s judgment.

But now God has manifested His righteousness, but now God has provided a way for man to be delivered from their slavery from sin, but now God has made it possible for man to be reconciled to Himself.

There is a shift between the Old and New Covenant when it comes to the unfolding of God’s plan of redemption. You can see why this is such good news.

2. God’s Righteousness Not Attained by the Law

Having signaled that things are different between the Old and New Covenants, we are going to see Paul emphasizing the contrast by pointing out the discontinuity between the Old and the New Covenants.

This manifestation of God’s righteousness is apart from the law.

What does that mean?

In the context of what came before, we have seen that the law did not rescue the Jews from the power of sin. In fact, that was and has never been the purpose of the law. The law was never given to save sinners. But what we have seen over and over again in the OT was the utter inability of the Jews to comply with the law.

Therefore, it is wrong for some to conclude that the way OT saints are saved is different from the way NT saints are saved. They claim that people in the OT are saved by works while in the NT they are saved by faith.

Nobody has ever been saved by works, and that includes OT saints. That will be the major point of emphasis in ch 4 when Paul uses Abraham as an extended illustration to prove his point that Abraham, the OT patriarch was saved by faith alone.

“But now” in this new era, God has acted to deliver and rescue man and the law contributes nothing to a person being declared righteous.

The law here refers to the Mosaic law, as part of the Mosaic covenant in God’s progressive revealing of His plan of redemption.

In the OT, God repeatedly called upon His people to obey His laws. That was part of the old era, but since Christ’s sacrifice of Himself on Mt Calvary, the way God gave His righteousness to unrighteous people is not conditioned upon their keeping of the law, because Jesus has perfectly fulfilled the demands of the law on our behalf.

Therefore, to clarify what the phrase “apart from the law” means, we can insert the word “works” of the law. God’s righteousness has been manifested apart from works of the law. God’s righteousness cannot be earned by being obedient to the law.

An important clarification: This does not mean that a believer has no relation whatsoever with the law (cf. 3:31). That is what some people also claimed, that since Christ perfectly fulfilled the law, we as Christians have nothing to do with the law, we are free from the law, so to speak. That is not the case at all. Paul will argue that as believers we are to uphold the law in ch. 6.

This is significant because it is what makes Christianity distinct from all the religions of the world.

Christianity is unique from the religions of the world in that it does not require you to work yourself into it; in fact, it absolutely rejects the idea that you can contribute any works.

You cannot do works of the law that function as preparation for your entrance into Christianity and you cannot do works of the law in conjunction with what God is doing; ie, God is working and you are also contributing to the work, like working as a team.

Neither can we do works of the law subsequent to God’s justification, to maintain our justification or contribute to our salvation.

Now, is there any thinking on your part that you can somehow contribute to your salvation, that you can work your way to God, that you have made some promise to God and you have to keep it, or that in order to keep yourself in God’s good graces, these works are necessary?

Application

This works righteousness can creep into a believer’s mind even if you believe 100% that no works can contribute to your salvation.

Have you ever sinned against God and feel that God is angry at you, and that there is something you need to do to get into God’s good graces again.

If not, God might strike you with His lightning bolt. Works do not contribute to getting you into God’s good graces and it does nothing to keep you in God’s good graces.

Note very carefully what I am saying and not saying.

What I am saying is that works do not save you and works do not keep you saved. My emphasis is that we have a biblical understanding of good works.

Good works don’t save, and also don’t keep you saved.

3. The OT Bears Witness to God’s Righteousness

Here, Paul blunts the discontinuity that we saw previously by emphasizing the continuity that the law and prophets actually bore witness to the righteousness of God. The law refers to the first five books of the OT and the prophets refer to all the books that came after that. The phrase “law and prophets” is a reference to the OT.

Lest you think that the old covenant was somehow inferior, it repeatedly points forward to the day where God will manifest His righteousness.

But we have already seen Paul’s numerous quotations from the OT so far in our series in the book of Romans.

But what about the verses in the OT that specifically speak of God manifesting His righteousness? Let me point you to just two:

Isa 53:11 “by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”

Here we get a glimpse into how God’s righteousness is accounted to sinners; it is by the work of His righteous Servant who would bear their iniquities.

So people in the OT are not left ignorant as to how God is going to manifest his righteousness, how He is going to credit righteousness into sinners’ bankrupt accounts.

As to the prophets’ witness that there are no works of the law that can justify a sinner, we only need to look at Isa 64:6, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”

If our righteous deeds are like filthy garments, then there is no hope that any work we do can contribute to our justification.

B. Through Faith in Christ

This picks up the key verse in 1:17, “for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.” Now we are told what or who we should put our faith in, that the object of our faith is Jesus Christ.

This is very important.

Our faith is not in the sinner’s prayer. The sinner’s prayer has never saved anyone. Jesus Christ is the only One who saves, and that is why we put our trust in Him alone.

The only way sinners can access the righteousness of God is through faith alone, not through works of the law. No works of man can give us access to God’s righteousness.

1. What Faith Is

The word “faith” (pistis) and “believe” (pisteuo) are related in the Greek. God’s righteousness is available only through faith in Jesus, it is available to anyone who believes in Jesus.

What is faith?

This is a good opportunity for us to examine what this faith is all about. We have said repeatedly that true conversion entails faith and repentance. Scripture clearly and repeatedly establishes the fact that salvation is not attainable by any form of works. But some people have claimed that repentance is a form of works. They say that it is something you do. But if you go by that line of argument, then isn’t faith a kind of work as well since you have to put your faith in Jesus?

a. Faith is a gift from God.

The clearest passage that teaches this is Eph 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

b. Faith is an attitude, a posture, a conviction of the heart.

It says first, I will no longer depend on myself to work to gain a righteous standing before God.

But rather, I will completely trust and depend on God to declare my righteous standing before Him through the finished work of Christ on the cross. So faith is not trusting in myself but trusting completely in Christ.

c. Faith has an object: Jesus Christ.

This is very important. Our faith is not in faith, our faith is not in the sinner’s prayer or baptism, our faith is not in a particular denomination or church, our faith is not in our parents’ faith.

The sinner’s prayer has never saved anyone. Jesus Christ is the only One who saves, and that is why we put our trust in Him alone. But it is not just believing Jesus; it is believing in Him, on Him, into Him.

In other words, it is not just having a knowledge of who Jesus is and what He has done, but it really is putting my life into His hands and trusting Him to save it. Therefore, it is my total commitment of my entire being into His hands.

John Murray sums it up this way: “It is not faith that saves but faith in Jesus Christ; strictly speaking, it is not even faith in Christ that saves but Christ saves through faith.

d. Faith’s Subject is Anyone.

As we shall see, there is no distinction.

2. To All Sinners without Distinction (3:22b-23)

God’s righteousness is available to all because there is no distinction. Why no distinction? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There are no exceptions. We have already seen that in 3:9-18. Everyone, whether Jew or Gentile, wise or foolish, educated or uneducated, rich or poor, royalty or commoner, is in the same category of sinner.

Since all sinners need God’s righteousness, it is available to all.

Notice that Paul describes sin as falling short of the glory of God. Glory refers to what makes someone distinct. In the case of the glory of God, it has reference to His perfection. Only God is perfect and none other. Falling short of God’s glory is missing the mark of perfection. The present tense denotes that this continues to be the state that man finds himself in.

One day, we shall attain that perfection when we are glorified (8:29-30). That is when we will attain the perfect image of God. But sin marred that image.

There is also a sense that sin is not giving God the glory. Back in 1:21 we see that sinful man did not honor God or give thanks to God.

Conclusion

When Luther uncovered this glorious trust that one is justified by faith alone in Christ without works of the law, this is what He said: “Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that “the just shall live by his faith.”

Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.

The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the “justice of God” had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven.

It is indeed liberation and full assurance and peace that result from this glorious Biblical understanding.

Reflection Questions

1. What other reasons can you think of as to why we should insist on biblical and accurate definitions of these terms used in Romans 3:21-26?

2. Have you ever used works as a means to justify yourself, even as a believer? What is the biblical understanding of good works in the life of a believer?

3. Why is the Object of our faith so important to emphasize?