Delving into the Scriptures

Romans 3:21-26
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

And now we come to it – the answer to all the question and problems that have been posed so far in Romans. In fact, this section of scripture is full enough for an hour long sermon – I will try and go for 2-3 shorts posts and cover the key topics…..

In our last post we went through the purpose of the law – the law gives knowledge of Sin – but it does not impute righteousness to anyone – all it does is give knowledge. So now apart from the law, we see God’s Righteousness – which is imparted to us through faith in Jesus Christ. Lets go through this piece by piece.

Apart from the Law – This means that though it came through the Law, the righteousness of Jesus being imparted to us through Faith is not reliant on the Law. We do not need to meet all the requirements of the Law to be saved – we just need to believe in Jesus.

Being witnessed by the Law – It is the Law and the prophets that Jesus came to us through – much of the Law and most of the prophets all pointed towards ’something new’ to come in the future – that something was a someone – Jesus. It is the Law that testifies to Jesus and the work that He did, therefore being witness to Him.

Through Faith in Jesus Christ – God’s righteousness is both revealed and imparted to us simply – through faith or belief in Jesus Christ. There is no magic ticket. No magic formula. Nothing else or special we need to do – it is not works, or actions, or formula’s, or secret teachings – it is simply faith in Jesus Christ.

To all and on all who believe – God is not discriminatory. If you believe – it’s yours. There is no special people, caste, color, race, sex or anything else – all means all.

So there you have it – God’s righteousness and the forgiveness of sins is available through faith in Jesus Christ – to anyone and everyone who choses to believe. This also has a reminder on the other side – anyone who claims anything different is a liar and a false prophet – God’s word is clear in this regard – that we are saved through Faith in Jesus Christ. Nothing else. You can be saved and die 1 second later – and you are still saved. Remember that!

God, I pray you will teach us the power and simplicity of this message, that all we need to do is have faith in Jesus and we are saved. Give us the ability to grasp the life changing power of this message and apply it in our lives. In Jesus Name. Amen.