Eternity Daily Bible Study: No. 514 Romans 1-8 - A Righteousness That Is By Faith Verses: Romans 3:24-31 Topic: Freely Justified Date: 26th September 2005 Romans 3:24-31 HCSB They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (25) God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. (26) He presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus. (27) Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. (28) For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. (29) Or is God for Jews only? Is He not also for Gentiles? Yes, for Gentiles too, (30) since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. (31) Do we then cancel the law through faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we uphold the law. The problem is - how can fallen mankind stand before a holy God? How can the creature and the Creator have any fellowship at all? How can God and the image of God be reconnected? Standing before God's throne requires justification - being OK before God and able to stand before Him "just as if I'd never sinned". The Law did not enable mankind to stand before God, in fact it only brought condemnation and death by showing us up as being sinful. Justification cannot come through the Law. So how can it come? How can the problem be solved? By another way, by another means of justification, that involves the price of our sin being paid by someone else. The argument so far....(from last week) 1.Justification was impossible under the Law which only brought condemnation. 2. No one can earn their salvation because we are all (Jews and Gentiles) under sin. 3. So an alternative means of justification has to be found - that which is by faith. 4.Justification by faith operates differently and works entirely "apart from the Law". Now Paul says: 1.Justification by faith is "free" as far as we are concerned because it has been purchased by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 2.Christ was the propitiation - the payment for our sins and God in His patient restraint has passed over our sins. 3.The death and resurrection of Christ makes God righteous in that sins have been paid for. 4.This also enables God to declare righteous those who have faith in Him. 5.This excludes human boasting because we cannot earn our salvation. 6.We are justified by faith part from the works of the Law. 7.Both Jew and Gentile, circumcised and uncircumcised are justified by faith. Now let us look at this a bit more deeply: There are two ways to achieve status. Firstly you can be born into status and it comes for free through relationship as a son or daughter of a powerful person. Or you can earn status by hard work and climb the ladder by your own sweat. Justification via the Law is like the second alternative. It says "I can make it" and strives to attain righteousness, it suits our pride but ultimately it fails. Legalism fails because we are too fallen and God's standards are too high. We cannot earn salvation by hard work and through our own spiritual sweat. That leaves being born into God's family as the only alternative. If we could be made a son of God, then we would have status in heaven and everything would be OK. But we cannot become a son of God by following the Law any more than I can become a son of the Queen of England by following English law. The English law will only put me in jail - that is all it can do with a sinner. Being born-again into the family of God is what makes us sons and daughters of God and that comes "by faith". John 1:12 But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name, Galatians 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Status comes through relationship and relationships are built on trust, which is another way of saying "by faith". But the legal side of thing still has to be dealt with. The legal side of our guilt is dealt with by the cross of Christ. On the cross Jesus paid the price for our sins - that is what Paul means by the word propitiation. God's wrath is satisfied and completed in the death of Christ. God has placed His wrath on His only Son and He has paid the penalty.(see Romans 3:24-26 above) So the Law is made irrelevant in two main ways: a) Heavenly status as sons of God now comes from faith relationship and not from spiritual /legal achievement. (John 1;12, Galatians 3:26 above) b) The power of the Law to punish us is removed by the death of Christ which pays out our penalty.. Colossians 2:13-14 MKJV (13) And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, (14) blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. So the Law is no longer a factor in achieving righteousness and its power to condemn us and to separate us from God, as a result of or sin, is taken away and nailed to the cross. We no longer have to live up to a set of spiritual standards to be pleasing to God. We are pleasing to God because of our faith in Christ Jesus. Not having to live up to a set of spiritual standards in order to please God sounds like spiritual anarchy to some. Which is why Paul adds the comment: "Do we then cancel the law through faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we uphold the law." Justification by faith is not anarchy but rather involves a repentant sinner being invited to fellowship with God and to a new and holy life empowered by grace. Faith sets us in a loving relationship with God and causes us to be born-again to a new and living way in which the image of God is renewed in us and we become filled with the Spirit of Holiness and Truth and live godly lives of love and thus uphold the law. Justification by faith puts the law aside, so we need not feel guilty or condemned. It invites us into an adventure of growth in grace where we ultimately fulfill the law by becoming like Jesus. But we do so not by serving the letter, but by serving in the Spirit. Romans 7:6 MKJV But now we having been set free from the Law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the letter. 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