Christ: The Mercy Seat

In our study of the good news so far in Romans 3:21-25 we have seen some very wonderful aspects of this good news. First we saw in Romans 3:21 that God’s righteousness does not come by works of the Law. This is good news because if God’s righteousness does come by works of the Law then no man can be saved because no man can keep God’s Law. If the righteousness of God comes by works of the Law then it is way too far out of every man’s reach. But verse 21 says, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested….” To which every hopeless and helpless sinner should proclaim, “Hallelujah – this is indeed good news!”

Second we saw in Romans 3:22 that God’s righteousness does come by faith in Jesus Christ. This is good news because now that which was impossible for us to attain and was totally out of our reach has now been brought near and within our grasp by the work of Another on our behalf. Since the righteousness of God comes by faith in Jesus Christ it is very near as Romans 10:8-13 says, “But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart – that is the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

Third we saw in Romans 3:23 that God’s righteousness is provided for any sinner who will believe. This is good news because all have sinned, whether Jew or Greek, and whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed. There is no partiality with God and nothing makes one man more or less savable than another.

Fourth we saw in Romans 3:24 that God’s righteousness is provided as a gift to believing sinners without any cause in them to earn or merit the gift. This is extremely good news or only those who were smart enough or rich enough or famous enough or powerful enough or whatever enough could be saved. As believers we would do well to remember that God has declared us righteous without any cause in us, based solely on His grace, through the redemption from sin’s penalty that is in Christ Jesus.

Fifth we saw in Romans 3:25 that God’s righteousness which is provided to us as a gift of His grace was purchased at a great price and high cost to God. This is good news because the only way that a holy God could justify sinners and remain just Himself in the process was through the sinless life and sacrificial death of a willing Substitute on behalf of guilty sinners. This was none other than the sinless Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. God did not have to give His Son and could have justly sent us all to hell. But even at such a great price and high cost to Himself, God did not spare His own Son but delivered Him over for us all (Romans 8:32). What a loving God we serve!

Now let’s look a little deeper into this matter of the great price and high cost that God paid for the gift of our salvation. We will do this by considering Christ as the mercy seat.

Our text says, “Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Romans 3:25). If you have the NIV it says, “God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood” (Romans 3:25 NIV). The word used here for “propitiation” or “sacrifice of atonement” means a sacrifice that turns away, satisfies, or appeases God’s holy wrath against sinners who have violated and not upheld His holy Law. So in propitiation the just wrath of God as the just penalty of God’s Law against ungodly, law-breaking sinners is turned away, appeased, or satisfied because His Law has been actually upheld through His wrath having been actually poured out on a sinless substitute.

So to speak of the cross of Christ as a propitiation or sacrifice of atonement is to speak of the sinless life of Christ and the sacrificial death of Christ as the only means of satisfying the justice of God and the only grounds by which He may extend mercy to any sinner. The Hebrew equivalent to the Greek word used for propitiation is used in the Old Testament in reference to the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies, where the high priest went once a year, on the Day of Atonement, to make sacrifice on behalf of the people. Therefore we could translate this verse as “whom God displayed publicly as a mercy seat in His blood through faith."

This brings us to one of the most wonderful illustrations of the work of Christ that is to be found in the whole Bible – Christ: the Mercy Seat! In order to understand this illustration and what Christ accomplished we must go back to the Old Testament and explain the symbolism of the work of Christ as found in Ark of the Covenant.

First though, we will start with Moses’ going up on Mount Sinai and receiving the two tablets of stone on which God wrote His Ten Commandments. While Moses was meeting with God on Mount Sinai and receiving Ten Commandments he was also receiving instructions from God on the construction of the Tabernacle and its furnishings. In Exodus 25:10-22 we read about the instructions for constructing the Ark of the Covenant. In Exodus 25:16 we read that the two tablets which contained the Law of God was to be put into the ark. In Exodus 25:17-21 we read about the instructions for constructing the mercy seat, the lid for the Ark of the Covenant. “You shall make a mercy seat…” literally a propitiatory (Exodus 25:17).

While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving not only the Ten Commandments on the two tablets of stone, he was also receiving all the necessary instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle and the proper regulations of divine worship (see Hebrews 9:1-5). But because Moses was gone for so long the people got out of control (Exodus 32:25), made a golden calf, and offered it burnt offerings and peace offerings; and the people entered into immorality (Exodus 32:1-6).

So when Moses came down with the Law in his hands which he was supposed to put into the Ark of the Covenant after its construction, he became angry and threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain (Exodus 32:19). But God commanded Moses to bring two new tablets and He once again wrote the Ten Commandments on the new tablets (Exodus 34:1, 28). These unbroken tablets of God’s Law were placed in the Ark of the Covenant when the tabernacle was erected and the Ark was placed in the Holy of Holies (Exodus 40:17-21).

The broken tablets speak of man’s inability to keep God’s Law. However, the unbroken tablets speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, who in the fullness of time, was born of a woman, born under the Law, and kept the Law perfectly. Just as the unbroken Law was kept in the Ark of the Covenant so the Lord Jesus Christ kept the Law totally and therefore He was without sin, without spot, and without blemish.

But the Ark of the Covenant had on it a lid called the mercy seat. Inside the Ark was the unbroken Law which demands justice through the execution of any sinner. There is no mercy in the Law – only justice – but God in His love has provided a way to maintain the justice of His Law and to extend mercy. This is the purpose of the mercy seat. At each end of the mercy seat were two cherubim (Exodus 25:18). It was on the mercy seat in between the two cherubim that once a year the high priest came in and sprinkled the blood of the lamb on the mercy seat showing that the payment for sin against the Law had been made by an innocent substitute – one that had not violated or broken the Law. The reason that flawless animals were required by God in the sacrificial system is because they were to illustrate the flawless life of the Lord Jesus Christ who would then die to uphold the justice of God’s Law in order that God could legally extend mercy to those who would receive it.

So in essence, the Mercy Seat was an illustration of the death bed of the innocent substitute who would never break God’s Law but who would die for those who had. “But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying” (John 20:11-12).

The High Cost of Salvation

Salvation is a free gift but it is not cheap! The salvation which comes to us freely as a gift by God’s grace was purchased at a great price and high cost to God. Three words are used in Romans 3:24-25 that express the high cost that God paid for our salvation: (1) redemption, (2) propitiation, and (3) blood.

Redemption carries the idea of delivering, especially by means of paying a price. Basically and fundamentally our redemption is from under the Law which has a two sided meaning. In other words when we speak of our redemption from under the Law we must see it and speak of it as two sides of the same coin.

First we are redeemed from under the Law because we are in bondage to the Law. Now the Law is not some evil task-master and that is not why we are in bondage to it. Men are in bondage to the Law because it is the expression of the perfect and just demands of a perfect and just God. God is Law-giver and Judge and His Law must be upheld perfectly or else the penalty for violating His Law must be upheld perfectly. So without being redeemed from under the Law men who have not upheld the precepts of God’s Law perfectly must face the penalty of God’s Law which God will uphold perfectly. The only way for you and I to be redeemed from under the Law is for Someone to uphold the Law perfectly in its precepts and then die a sacrificial substitutionary death to uphold the penalty for violating the Law perfectly. Does anyone know what His name is?

Second we are redeemed from under the Law because we are in bondage to sin. The reason that we are in bondage to the Law is at its root because we are in bondage to sin. This is the flip side of the coin of being redeemed from under the Law. We cannot keep the Law because of our sinful passions and therefore we are in bondage to the Law because we are in bondage to sin. So in order for us to be redeemed from under the Law we must be saved from or redeemed from sin. The Bible speaks of our being redeemed from sin as being redeemed from every lawless deed (Titus 2:14) and as being redeemed from our futile way of life (1 Peter 1:18).

The apostle Paul spoke of this two-sided truth in Romans 7:1-6: “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning her husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”

There is a high cost to being redeemed from under the Law and from our sin!

Propitiation carries the basic idea of appeasement or satisfaction. In human terms, propitiation means appeasing someone who is angry, usually by a gift. But this is not what it means in the Bible. In the Bible, propitiation means the satisfying of God’s holy Law, the meeting of its just demands, so that God can freely and legally forgive those who come to Christ. So in propitiation the just wrath of God as the just penalty of God’s Law against ungodly, law-breaking sinners is appeased or satisfied because His Law has been actually upheld through His wrath having been actually poured out on a sinless substitute – God’s own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Propitiation isn’t something that we do for God but something that God does for Himself and for us. There is no gift that we could give God that would satisfy His wrath for our violation of His Law. So propitiation is always the work of God and never the work of man.

In propitiation the penalty for violating God’s Law which incurs God’s wrath is turned away from the deserving sinner onto the undeserving Substitute in order that the Law is upheld, the sinner can be legally forgiven, and the Law-giver is satisfied and remains just.

There is a high cost to appeasing or satisfying the wrath of God for violating God’s holy Law!

Blood tells us what the price was that redeemed us and made propitiation for us. Jesus had to die on the cross in order to satisfy the Law, redeem men from under the Law, and justify lost sinners. Our salvation cost our Savior His life. We read that life is in the blood and therefore we know that when Jesus shed His blood for our forgiveness that He gave His life. We also read that without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

There is a high cost to our salvation and so we should not neglect so great a salvation.

If you want to know what our salvation cost God the Father then take a good look at Genesis 22

If you want to know what our salvation cost the Son of God then take a good look at Psalm 22

As we look at the cross of Calvary we see that our salvation cost God everything and yet He was willing to give it in order to redeem us and maintain His own glory and the fame of His name!

Justified Without a Cause

As we have moved into the good news, the heart of the gospel in Romans 3:21 and following, we have already seen three wonderful aspects of the good news.

First we saw that the righteousness of God does not come by the Law (Romans 3:21). This is indeed good news because if the righteousness of God does come by the Law then it is completely out of our reach because there is not a single one of us that can even come close to keeping the Law of God because we are all sinners and we are all incapable of meeting the standard of righteousness that God requires.

Second we saw that the righteousness of God does come by faith (Romans 3:22). Again this is indeed good news because now we see that through faith in Jesus Christ the righteousness that God requires is very near to us having been achieved for us by the perfect obedience of Christ to the precepts of the Law in His sinless life and by the perfect obedience of Christ to the penalty for violating the Law in His sinless and yet sacrificial death. We need both aspects of Christ’s obedience to the Law if we are to be saved because we need His perfect obedience to the precepts of the Law credited to our account because we are incapable of perfect obedience to the precepts of the Law and we need His perfect obedience to the penalty of the Law credited to our account because we have already broken the Law and owe its penalty. This was the whole purpose of the incarnation and the reason that God sent His only Son into the world – so that Jesus Christ, the Son of God in flesh, could live a perfect life under the Law, die for crimes against the Law, and thereby become the Savior of all who believe in Him. “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

Before we move on to the third wonderful aspect of the good news let me say a word about the necessity of the incarnation through a virgin. Adam was created first, given the responsibility of headship, and was therefore viewed by God in a legal capacity as the federal head of the human race. Therefore when Adam sinned God imputed the sin of Adam to the rest of his descendants who would ever be born through the agency or the seed of a man. Mary, the mother of Jesus had a sin nature just like the rest of humanity because Mary was born through the agency or seed of a man. However, when God brought His Son into the world He did it without the agency or seed of a man – “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23). Since God brought His Son into the world this way then He did not have to impute to Him the sin of Adam and his sin nature. Jesus was born under the Law but without a sin nature and was therefore able to do what Adam did not do although Adam also did not have a sin nature to begin with.

Third we saw that the righteousness of God is provided for all who believe and only those who believe because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22-23). This is indeed good news because God didn’t have to provide His righteousness to any sinner. Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God then all who attempt to attain the righteousness of God some other way and who do not recognize the work of Christ on their behalf will be horrified on the day of judgment. Necessary to receiving the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is the recognition of one’s sinfulness and inability to attain the righteousness of God by works of the Law. We must recognize that we can’t and He never said we could; He can and He always said He would. We must recognize that the only way we can ever attain the righteousness of God is as a gift without any cause whatsoever in us.

And that brings us to our text where we see that we are justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24).

Justified – means to declare the rightness of something or someone. Justification is God’s legal and right declaration that all the demands of His Law are fulfilled on behalf of the believing law-breaker through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Justification is a legal transaction that changes the judicial standing of the sinner before God. Our justification must be a legal transaction or else the transaction itself would be illegal. If God is illegal in justifying the ungodly then God Himself would be unjust. The apostle Paul will deal with this matter thoroughly in Romans 3:25-26.

In a matter of strict justice the only pardon that can be given is a principled pardon whereby first and foremost the one giving the pardon does so in a legal manner which upholds the law. So in a matter of strict justice you cannot pardon someone without dealing out the punishment. So under strict justice the only pardon that can legally be offered is one of Penal Substitution.

So our justification is a legal and principled pardon based on all the demands of the Law being fulfilled on our behalf by the work of Christ that is given to us as a gift by God’s grace – Oh what a Savior!

Gift/Freely – since we cannot attain the righteousness of God through the Law because of our wickedness then the only way that we can be justified is as a gift. And if it is as a gift then we do not deserve it nor can we earn it. A gift is something given freely, unearned, and undeserved by the recipient.

The KJV says, “Being justified freely by His grace….” The NASB says, “Being justified as a gift by His grace….” The Greek word translated “freely” or “gift” means gratuitously or without a cause. The same Greek word is translated in John 15:25 as “without a cause” – “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’”

We are justified without a cause! In other words we are justified as a gift, freely, or without a cause because there is no cause in us that would merit the salvation of God or cause Him to show us favor. It is all of grace!

Grace – is giving what one does not deserve. We do not deserve the gift of salvation through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus but God gives it because He is rich in mercy and full of grace. We deserve to die and go to hell being separated from God for all eternity but in His grace He offers us a full and free pardon and eternal life with Him for all eternity through Jesus Christ.

Redemption – carries the idea of delivering, especially by means of paying a price. Salvation is free but it is not cheap!

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree…” (Galatians 3:13).

“But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:11-14).

“Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

God's Righteousness for Sinners who will Believe

The righteousness of God does not come through the Law because we all are sinners, there are none righteous, there are none good, and we all like sheep have gone astray and each one has turned to his own way. Many of the Jews were relying upon the Law (Romans 2:17) believing that they could attain to the righteousness of God through it. However and praise God, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets" (Romans 3:21). If the only way that we could attain the righteousness of God and be saved was by the Law then none – I repeat – none would be or could be saved.

The righteousness of God does come through faith in Jesus (Romans 3:22) because this is the only way that God can give sinners the righteousness of God without violating His own righteousness. Now think about it with me – God didn’t have to save anyone; He could have righteously and justly sent everyone to hell. However, in order to save anyone there was only one way that God could do it and still be true – Penal Substitution. Someone who was willing and able had to live a perfect life fulfilling the commands of the Law and then die in the place of sinners to pay their penalty for committing crimes against the Law. So that Someone was Jesus Christ the Son of God and we read that God did not spare His own Son but delivered Him over for us all (Romans 8:32).

So when we put these two truths side by side – the righteousness of God does not come through the Law; the righteousness of God does come through faith – then we come to the logical conclusion that the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ is only for those who believe – only for those who actually have faith in Jesus because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22-23).

Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God then all who attempt to attain the righteousness of God some other way or who think that they have faith but not the faith God is looking for will find themselves horrified on the day of judgment. All need the righteousness of God, which is on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ, but not all believe that they need it and not all have saving faith although many believe that they do.

That men are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone has always been God’s only way of saving. All the Old Testament saints were saved this way and all New Testament saints were and are saved this way. While there is such a thing as different dispensations in the way in which God does things – there never has been and never will be a dispensation where men are saved some other way than through faith in Christ. The point of Hebrews 11 is to show that there has never been a means of salvation other than faith in Christ.

But what is a major concern to me, especially in the day in which we live, is that there is such a thing as false faith, even in the name of Christ. Now this has always been true according to the Scriptures but it is also true according to the Scriptures that this will get worse before the return of the Lord (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3).

Today there are people who have prayed a prayer, been baptized, joined churches, and claim to have faith in Jesus but their faith is false. False faith might be faith in good works, faith in a prayer prayed, faith in a denomination, faith in faith, or many other forms of faith misplaced. Many I am sure have head knowledge of the facts about Jesus and confuse that for faith.

But the saving faith in Jesus Christ that the Scriptures teach about is much more than a simple affirmation of certain truths about Christ. One can affirm certain truths about Christ – even His death, burial, and resurrection – and still not love Him and serve Him out of a heart of gratitude for what He has done on their behalf. This means that they have not made proper application with their sinfulness and their need for the righteousness of God that only comes through Christ who loved us and gave Himself up for us.

Those who have a false faith are all for being saved but not for being sanctified. In other words they are all for not going to hell but not all for parting with their sins. These are all for the privileges of Christ but not for being persecuted for Christ. They are for salvation from suffering but they do not desire to be saved from sinning. They would have Jesus as Savior but not as Lord. And yet how can one be saved from hell without being saved from sin and how can one be saved from sin without having Jesus as Lord? Even the Gospel these claim to be saved by, says, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

In order for faith to be genuine and saving faith one must see his sin, see his need to be justified by the righteousness of God, and see that it comes only as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. The person who has been truly saved knows for sure that there is no other way that God can or will save and he is thankful to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ for so great a salvation.

God only gives His righteousness to those who have faith and no man will arrive at the righteousness of God any other way.

"But Now" - The Good News!

The Holy Spirit speaking through Paul took 64 verses to establish the sinfulness of all men and the wrath of God against sinners (Romans 1:18-3:20). These 64 verses contain the worst news ever! All men everywhere (regardless of how religious or irreligious) have suppressed the truth about God, broken the laws of God, and by each one turning to his own way, all have become useless to God. And God is holy, righteous, and just. Therefore God is most certainly going to pour out his wrath on every useless, truth-suppressing, law-breaking sinner.

God Himself has said that the wages of sin is death and that sinners must be banished to hell out of His presence and away from His glory. And here is the really bad news – we have already sinned against God so there is absolutely nothing we can now do to make ourselves right with God. Even if we were able to live in perfect obedience from now on we would still die and go to hell because of the crimes that we have already committed against a holy God and His righteous laws.

So if we stopped at Romans 3:20 then no one could ever be saved because there is nothing man can do to arrive at the righteousness of God or to justify himself in the sight of God. God’s own unfailing, always right, and totally reliable Word has already declared the sinful and wretched estate of all men. All have sinned and deserve to die and go to hell.

With nothing that man can do to make himself right with God – is there any hope? Since God is holy, righteous, and just then the holy, righteous, and just penalty for violating His Law must be upheld. So is there any way that God can forgive sinners without violating His holiness, righteousness, and justice? Is there a remedy? Is there a solution? Is there an answer?

Actually there is only one answer to the question: is there any way that God can forgive sinners without violating His holiness, righteousness, and justice – and that is through Penal Substitution. On man’s part his salvation was and is an impossibility. On God’s part man’s salvation is a possibility but only through one means – the substitutionary death of an innocent individual on behalf of the guilty in order to pay the penalty owed by the guilty and to impute the innocence of the substitute to the guilty. This is the Gospel; this is the good news; this is the only answer to the dilemma and God did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all.

Our text begins with two very important words – “But now.” But now – looking back at the bad news that we are unholy, unrighteous, unjust, and unable to make ourselves right with God; that we are totally incapable of fulfilling and obeying the Law of God; that we cannot attain the righteousness of God by works of the Law; and with all hope that we might somehow be good enough to please God destroyed, we read, “But now!”

Against the dark and black backdrop of the bad news of our sinfulness and total helplessness God places His bright and brilliant diamond of His good news/Gospel with the words “but now.” But now – the good news (Romans 3:21-22)!

First, God’s righteousness doesn’t come by works (Romans 3:21)

Apart from the Law – The righteousness on which our justification depends is entirely apart from the Law. In other words no man can attain to the righteousness of God by keeping and obeying the Law because he can’t (Romans 3:20). So what we can’t achieve (the righteousness of God) by the Law, God imparts as a gift apart from the Law. What we can’t do God can do and did do! The way I see it we only have two choices – (1) we can attempt to arrive at God’s righteousness by our ability to keep His Law and fail or (2) we can arrive at God’s righteousness by His ability to keep His Law and then give His righteousness to us as a gift through faith.

If we attempt to arrive at God’s righteousness by our ability to keep His Law then what we would actually have would be a righteousness of our own derived from the Law and then the righteousness of man (my righteousness or your righteousness) would be equal to the righteousness of God. But if we cannot attain to the righteousness of God by our ability to keep the Law then we need the righteousness of God apart from the Law which is by faith.

If the righteousness of man is sufficient for his justification then the righteousness of God is unnecessary; the Law can give life; and the death of Christ was needless. If the righteousness of God is necessary; does not come through the Law; then the death of Christ was needed and there is no room whatsoever for the righteousness of man.

This is the ground and the basis for the Holy Spirit inspired explanation of the Gospel – we are justified by faith apart from works of the Law; the two do not and cannot mix; and there is no boasting whatsoever on man’s part because he had no part.

These two different methods of justification are irreconcilably opposed – the one by grace the other by works and they do not mix – “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace” (Romans 11:6). And the opposite is true – “But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work” (Romans 11:6 KJV).

So we are saved by grace alone through faith alone by Christ alone or we are not saved at all because we have not believed God and if we have not believed God then we have not received His righteousness because it only comes apart from the Law through faith.

The righteousness of God has been manifested – The righteousness of God is His divine righteousness; the standard by which we will be judged; the standard that must be met and upheld perfectly; the standard by which we must attain if we are to have eternal life; and the righteousness that He freely gives and imputes to those who have faith in Christ Jesus.

The righteousness God requires cannot be performed by sinful man – this is why it is apart from the Law. The righteousness of God is compared and contrasted to the righteousness of man with the righteousness of God being the only ground and basis for man’s justification and for God’s remaining just in the process. The righteousness of God by which we are justified and He is just is based on the righteousness of Christ in His perfect obedience to the Law of God.

For God to justify a man without upholding His own Law would make God a liar and unjust. So in the perfect life of Christ the precepts of God’s Law were magnified, upheld, and fulfilled by Christ. In the substitutionary death of Christ the penalty for violating God’s Law was magnified, upheld, and fulfilled by Christ. Therefore the Lord Jesus fulfilled the Law both in its precept and its penalty, and has magnified the law and made it honorable (Isaiah 42:21) so that God can be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

So apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested/revealed in that He justifies the ungodly based on the truth that His righteousness as found in His Law is given to us on the basis of the finished work of Christ fulfilling the Law which allows God to justify us by crediting the righteousness of Christ to us and thereby God remains just in the process with His own righteousness still intact. Therefore the righteousness of God comes to us by faith and not by works of the Law. That is why we read, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4), and, “By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith” (Romans 3:27).

Being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets – The Law and the Prophets (the whole Old Testament Scriptures) testify that the righteousness of God comes by faith and not by the Law. Let’s go back to God’s courtroom and watch and listen as the Law and the Prophets are called to take the witness stand.

Law, did you witness to the truth that the righteousness of God comes by faith and not by the Law? Yes! I plainly stated that “cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them” (Deuteronomy 27:26). I plainly stated that “they are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:1-3). I gave the illustration of Abraham receiving Your righteousness by faith – “Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6) and I showed that faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness before he was circumcised (Genesis 17:23). Also I spoke of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account” (Psalm 32:1-2).

Prophets, did you witness to the truth that the righteousness of God comes by faith and not by the Law? Yes! I plainly stated that “the righteous man shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). I plainly stated that “whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 2:32). And I plainly stated that “by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11).

God’s righteousness comes by faith (Romans 3:22)

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ – a person is saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone, apart from anything else. Even the Old Testament saints were saved by faith in Christ – although they didn’t know His human name. Speaking of the faith of Abraham – where we have read that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness – the Lord Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and He saw it and was glad (John 8:56). When Abraham believed God he believed God about the Christ (Galatians 3:16 compared to Genesis 15:5-6). There never has been and never will be any other way for men to gain the righteousness of God necessary for salvation other than through faith in Jesus Christ.

For all those who believe – both Jew and Gentile

For there is no distinction – all are sinners and all are in need of the righteousness of God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

God’s righteousness doesn’t come by works of the Law but by faith in Jesus Christ – this is good news! Our works can’t save us but His works can! The righteousness of God is unattainable and so far away that we could never get to it by our works. The righteousness of God is attainable and very near so that we can get to it by faith – “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart – that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:8-9).

Universal Guilt of the Whole World

As we have been studying through Romans, in the first two chapters, we, both Gentiles and Jews, have been summoned into God’s courtroom and presented with the charges against us (that we are sinners) and the evidence has been given which proves our guilt beyond any shadow of doubt. All the Gentiles who did not have God’s Law sinned against the law that was written in their hearts and therefore they would perish without the Law. All the Jews who had God’s Law and sinned against the Law will be judged by the Law and perish with it.

God in His Word has established the total depravity of humanity and the impending condemnation for the unrepentant at the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. This is the bad news – this is the dark and black backdrop against which God will display His shining and radiant diamond of good news – the Gospel.

Having removed all arguments from would be debaters in the first eight verses of Romans 3, the apostle Paul now turned to the last witness – the Law - and the most incriminating evidence given by that witness – God’s all-knowing, all-seeing, and never wrong evaluation of mankind! Here, the last witness summoned to give testimony, gives evidence of the universal guilt of the whole world.

First of all there is the charge (3:9) – all are under sin

Second there is the witness (3:10a) – “as it is written” means that the Law is the witness.

Third the charge is repeated by the Law itself (3:10b) – “There is none righteous, not even one.”

Fourth there is the evidence to prove the charge beyond any reasonable doubt (3:11-18) – this evidence is threefold and involves the whole man and not just part of him – referring again to the total depravity of humanity.

I. The evidence of corrupt character (3:11-12) – depraved will
A. The mind is corrupt – “There is none who understands”
B. The heart is corrupt – “There is none who seeks for God.”
C. The will is corrupt – “All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.”

II. The evidence of corrupt conversation (3:13-14) – deceitful words - a person’s corrupt character will manifest itself in corrupt conversation.
A. (13a) – Psalm 5:9
B. (13b) – Psalm 140:3
C. (14) – Psalm 10:7

III. The evidence of corrupt conduct (3:15-18) – destructive ways
A. (15-17) – Isaiah 59:7-8
B. (18) – Psalm 36:1

Fifth there is the verdict (3:19-20) – unredeemed humanity is guilty of all charges and has no defense because God who is true and cannot lie has made His case and the whole world must stand in silence acknowledge that He is right!