Heritage Reformed Baptist Mission
ROMANS
Sermon 10
Righteousness Without The Law
Romans 3:21-31
"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that 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 that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law."
Among the many absolute truths the Bible teaches is the fact people, without exception, are sinners. They are born with that kind of nature. King David wrote in Psalm 51:5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. With that kind of nature, we must not be surprised at his statement in Psalm 58:3, The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Neither must we doubt the Word of God spoken by Solomon in 2 Chronicles 6:36, ...there is no man that does not sin...; and by Paul in Romans 3:23, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Besides being sinners, both by nature and by action, people are also incurably religious. Though they have chosen to leave the true and living God out of their lives, they still have a need to worship something. So, they make themselves gods of everything imaginable. Being creatures of Almighty God, they have a basic knowledge of right and wrong within them. Fearful that the wrongs in their lives will bring down the anger of their god, they make an effort to right those wrongs by doing something themselves to appease that god. Tragically, they are deceived into believing that what they do actually helps them.
But, even more tragic are those who are deceived into believing that it is their good works that make them right with the true and living God. For there are numberless people in this world who have received the truth of God about salvation who still want to do something and believe they must do something themselves to get right with God.
The deadliest sin a person can commit is the sin of unbelief. That is the sin that damns the soul forever. ...He that does not believe shall be damned, says the Word of God in Mark 16:16. And in John 3:18 we read these words. He that does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Unbelief is forever chained to PRIDE. Listen to the Bible speak from the Book of Proverbs about that. Proverbs 16:5 - Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. Proverbs 16:18 - Pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
It is pride that keeps people from believing God. It is pride that holds people back from publicly confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior of their lives, even when they know in their minds that He is the only way to God. And, it is pride that rejects the offer of salvation as a free gift, totally apart from works, the self-righteousness of man. Unless pride is overcome, the person who has it will never be saved. For God, by grace, has provided His own righteousness for the salvation of His elect. That righteousness is Jesus Christ. To believe on Him alone is salvation. To reject Him, or to believe on Him plus any human effort, is damnation.
God's law demands perfect righteousness. No one who knows anything at all about the law can honestly question that. But, in its demands for righteousness, the law did not provide righteousness for a sinful man. The best a person could do, the best a person can do under the law is try to do the best he or she can and establish some level of self-righteousness. But that is not acceptable with God. So, even the most successful keepers of the law, such as the Apostle Paul (he testifies in Philippians 3:6 that he was blameless so far as his adherence to the law was concerned), have not one glimmer of hope of ever pleasing God, or of ever being a child of God.
But, the law did witness of the need for righteousness by shining, as it were, a spotlight on the sin in everyone's life. And, it provided ceremonial rituals which were symbolic of the true way in which the righteousness of God would be given to man. The ceremonies themselves did nothing to cleanse from sin. But, those who observed them with faith that God would provide the needed righteousness, had their sins covered until they would be cleansed by the once-for-all sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament prophets also gave witness of the righteousness of God apart from the law. They condemned heartless religious observance of the ceremonies in words such as these from Isaiah 1, spoken to Israel. Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hate: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. The prophets also pointed to the One who would come and take away their sin, especially in these words from Isaiah 53. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief...Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows...But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all...it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
That prophecy, written mostly in the past tense because it was already done in the mind and purpose of God, spoke loudly and clearly of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of His elect. It also spoke of His resurrection, and of the fact that, by His sacrifice, those who believed would be justified in the sight of God.
And, that is exactly what our text declares. The righteousness of God, without which no one will ever see God, is given only but surely to all who trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Redemption of the soul that includes forgiveness of sins and being declared to be right with God is all in the Person and finished work of Jesus Christ. It is clearly a matter of the grace of God, not of any human works. The best, most moral people in the world need to be saved by grace through faith. The worst need nothing more.
That was God's plan from the beginning. Scripture tells us in Revelation 13:8 that Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But, there was a perfect time for that once-for-all sacrifice in God's plan. When that time came, God, according to His predetermined plan and purpose, delivered His only begotten Son to be crucified in full view of the whole world. By that act, God declared His righteousness in passing over the sins committed by those who had faith before then, and in forgiving the sins of all those who believe in Jesus ever since then. Also by that act, in which the Lord Jesus took upon Himself the sins of His elect of all ages and suffered the consequences, God is clearly seen to be both just in the punishment of sin and in justifying every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, then! What is there for anyone to boast about concerning righteousness? Absolutely nothing! The best among the Jews could not and cannot say that his faithful observance of the law made him righteous in the sight of God. The most moral follower of conscience among the Gentiles could not and cannot say that either. Salvation is of the Lord, by faith, not by the deeds of the law. Therefore, both Jews and Gentiles are justified in the sight of God by faith in the Person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Does that mean that the law of God is null and void? No, it does not. It rather establishes the law in the purpose for which it was given. That purpose was and still is to show to the world of people that the holy God requires perfect righteousness; that they are sinners who do not have that righteousness and cannot ever hope to get it by their own efforts; and, therefore, to point them to the one and only hope of the righteousness of God, Jesus Christ.
There can be no doubt that God has ordained faith in Jesus Christ alone as the means of declaring ungodly people to be right with Him. It is written in 2 Corinthians 5:21, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That is so plain that to misunderstand it is to be willfully ignorant or demonically deceived. Yet, there are obviously many who are either one or both, for they are still trying to please and/or appease God with the works of their own hands. Sacraments, ordinances, good deeds of all kinds and descriptions are preached by the false prophets of our day and practiced by the masses of people, even of those who profess to be Christian.
If you have up-to-now been thinking that you could be saved by works - by baptism or church membership or keeping the Ten Commandments or observing the Golden Rule - do what Paul and Silas told the jailer at Philippi when he asked, What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, they said. Immediately, he and everyone in his family trusted the Lord Jesus, and because they believed in their hearts, they confessed their faith by openly identifying themselves with the Lord in believer's baptism. That's what everyone who truly believes on the Lord Jesus Christ will do. For faith that justifies in the sight of God is faith that will be obedient to the Lord's commands.
If you, as a sinner, will repent of your sins and will call upon the Lord for salvation, I urge you to do that even NOW where you are.