The Revealed Righteousness Of God

Romans 3:1–26. So we’ll be reading first 26 verse verses from this chapter. Romans 3: “Then what advantage has a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does a faithful, does their faithlessness nullify the— By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar, as it is written, ‘That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.’ But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict

wrath on us? I speak in a human way. By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come? As some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.” Verse 9: “Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive.

The venom of asps is under their lips, their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Verse 19: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

Verse 21: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God for his word. So this is a lengthy passage. So from this, we are going to see the revealed righteousness of God. So that's our sermon title today. So the revealed righteousness of God. So in the first two chapters, we have seen the revealed wrath of God. But now we'll be seeing the revealed righteousness of God.

When we saw from Romans chapter 2, verses 12 to 19, the second half of Romans chapter 2, so how law, whether in hearts or in hands, will only lead us to judgment. We saw that the law that God gave us, whether it is in our hands or whether it is in our hearts, will only lead us to judgment.

We saw four things last time. We saw Paul saying that everyone who has sinned will be judged, whether Jew or Gentile, whether they have the law in their hands or not. We also saw that Paul showing, we also, we saw Paul showing that even Gentiles have a law which is operating within them and they will be judged according to that law. And we saw Paul confronting the possessors of the law, that is Jews, for not obeying the law and thereby dishonoring God and blaspheming his name among Gentiles. And finally we saw Paul showing that a true Jew is the one whose heart is circumcised by the Spirit and who keeps the law.

Who keeps the law. So today we will look at Romans chapter 3 verses 1 to 26 and observe three things from this passage about the revealed righteousness of God. So there are three things that we’ll be looking at this morning. So we’ll see that God shows his righteousness in sentencing sinners. That’s condemning sinners.

God shows his righteousness in sentencing sinners. That we’ll see from verse 1 to 20. Verses 1 to 20. It’s a big section. And then we’ll see briefly that God shows his righteousness in saving sinners, in saving sinners. That’s from verse 21 to verse 25a, the first part of verse 25. Verse 21 to first part of 25. And then the third one is that we’ll see God shows his righteousness in sacrificing Jesus, sacrificing Jesus. That’s from 25b, second part of verse 25 to 26. So three things: God shows his righteousness in sentencing sinners, in saving sinners, and in sacrificing Jesus. So these are the three things that we’ll look at this morning. So the revealed righteousness of God. So the opposite to the word revealed is

hidden or mystery as the Bible uses the word. The word mystery can be used in two senses. It can be used for something that is hidden for a while to be revealed later. Like Christ in the Old Testament was revealed in the New Testament. Like clubbing of Jews and Gentiles in God’s kingdom that happens in the New Testament, or it’s mystery in the Old Testament. And like marriage union of Jesus and the church, we’ll see Paul saying in Ephesians 5, so it’s a mystery. So the word mystery can also be used as something that is permanently hidden from us, permanently hidden from us. Like the Bible says, “secret things belong to the Lord.” Not everything is given for

us to understand there are some ways or thoughts of the Lord that our limited minds cannot comprehend. We have puny minds, right? Tiny minds. We cannot understand or explain clearly how the Lord has been there since eternity past and how he exists as an uncreated being. We have no idea how God exists in that state. So that’s — I do not know whether we will be able to grasp it even in eternity. The secret counsels of the Lord will always be a mystery to us. We might easily answer the who questions, but the how questions about God remain a mystery to us. But whatever is

revealed we can grasp and be sure of it. So whatever is revealed is for us to know and believe. So Paul is still talking about Jews here in this passage. It’s more like a continuation of chapter two. So in chapter two it was Jews against Gentiles. Paul was comparing Jews with Gentiles in all their moral conduct and says there is no difference else and they will all be judged according to the law that they have, whether in hands or hearts. Here in chapter 3 Paul is pitching Jews against God, but then he also brings Gentiles into the equation, placing both Jews and Gentiles against God.

So that’s what we see here in this portion today. So we look at the first point, that God shows his righteousness and sentencing. That’s from verse 1 to 20. Paul starts off with some questions which were meant to engage people in the dialogue, but then that’s a rhetorical thing he asks. If you look at verse 1 in chapter 3: “Then what advantage has a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?” Again these are topics that he raised in chapter 2 and concludes saying a true Jew is the one who is inwardly a Jew and true circumcision is of heart. But then he goes back

to the ethnic nature of Jews and circumcision, and asks if there is any advantage or profit to the Jews for being Jews or having the sign of circumcision. Does it help in any way? This is in comparison with Gentiles or Greeks in the context, in this context. So with the flow of thought from the previous chapter we normally expect Paul to say no, but he says, “Yes, much in every way,” he says. What does Paul mean by that? He gives the reason there. He says, to begin with, or first, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God, or the Word of God, the Scripture

the Bible that they have. They have the Word of God, the special revelation of God, unlike the general revelation in creation. It is a book that holds the key to the deeper knowledge of God. That they have the means of grace to know and experience God, the window to heaven itself. Jews had the Bible which Gentiles did not have. Is that not an advantage for Jews over Gentiles? Yes, that is what Paul is saying here. Just imagine, there are non-Christians in this world who do not have the Bible with them.

But there are Christians in the church, and there are so-called Christians in the same church, who are technically non-Christians, nominal Christians. But where are they? In the church, in the local church. So do these so-called Christians have any advantage over non-Christians who are outside? Yes, they have. They have the Bible being preached. They have access to witness baptism and the Lord’s Supper. They have access to the fellowship of the saints, and these are all means of grace. So being close to them, is it not an advantage over those in the world without them? Absolutely yes. So the argument stops there. It is an advantage for them, for the Jews in that case here in this context, but they are not benefiting from that. But the chances of profiting from them are high. So now Paul

goes on to raise three sets of rhetorical questions that people might raise, and debunks the illogic behind those questions and answers them briefly. So first it is in verses 3 and 4. He says, “What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?” He says, “By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar, as it is written, ‘That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.’” So there are Jews who did not have faith in God and they were not faithful to God’s — they broke the covenant that God made with Israel and have

become unfaithful. So there is a breach of trust on their side. So Paul asks this question: if they become unfaithful towards God, will God stop being — and stop being faithful to — will God forget all his promises? Will God change his way because of human behavior? Paul says, “By no means,” by no means. Even if the whole world are sinners, unfaithful, God remains faithful. It is a strong reply and a firm one about God. What Paul is saying here is that God will always remain God no matter how people respond to him. He will always be true to himself and to his word, to his promises

he never changes. He never goes back on his word. He will remain faithful forever, for he is God, not man. Even if the whole world or whole humanity are liars and God is left alone, then he remains true. He will always be true to his promises. He will never change them or break them. So after Psalm 51 verse 4: “Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” So when it says of God “you may be justified,” it is not saying that God is made

righteous by that, but that God is being declared or being shown as righteous. He is always righteous, but then for us to know, it is being declared that he is righteous. When someone judges God, he will stand before the world — that is, God will stand before the world — as blameless or victorious over all the judgments of men. He is the only non-guilty one in the entire cosmos. The second set of questions are in verses 5 and 6. It says, “But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us?”

“I speak in a human way. By no means, for then how could God judge the world?” Here the logic is a bit wayward. Paul is not the one who is raising these questions seriously, but he’s showing how the world thinks about God. Here is the logic that people say: we have sinned, and God is using our sin to show himself as righteous, so our sin is actually helping God to show his good character. So in that, his — he is profiting. God is profiting from us. So why should he repay us with his wrath, with his judgment? Is that a fair trade?

It should be a win-win situation, right? How can he win because of us and let us lose? Is he unrighteous to do so? Paul says he's speaking in a human way or as a man, like as a foolish one. So this is the way the world thinks about God.

So that’s how the world reasons. Then Paul gives the answer, “By no means.” God cannot be unrighteous. But if he is, then how can he judge the world? I mean, he should instead reward us for helping him to show his righteousness, right?

But he says, no, it’s wrong. Paul says it’s wrong. That’s the answer for his rhetorical question. And the third set of questions are in verses 7 and 8. “But if through my lie, God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?”

“And why not do evil that good may come? As some people slanderously charge us with saying.” There, Paul continues the same line of thought but changes the results here. If you look at the results. Again, if God’s truth is shown plainly and he is glorified in it, all because of my lie, again, if God is profiting from my lies, then why condemn me as a sinner? A pronounced sentence of judgment on me.

Is it a fair trade? Is it a win-win situation? Again, no. That’s what they say. So this is how the world thinks and says, “See, I am sinning for his glory, and I can bring him more glory by sinning more.” Paul is showing how some people are thinking here. Not only that, but there are some who are saying that Paul is teaching these things himself. That’s a slander against Paul. They are falsely attributing this teaching to Paul. Says it’s a slanderous attack on him. So this teaching is called antinomianism.

Anti means against, nomos means law. So it’s against the law. So it is anti-law. People who believe that reject the role of the law in our daily lives and says that it is all of grace and no more of works. So they say that now that Christians are saved by grace and kept by grace, the law anymore, and even if they continue in sin they will be saved by grace alone. That’s a heretical teaching. That’s a heretical teaching. It is not from the Word of God. You might have heard about OSAS, once saved always saved. That’s a movement, and that falls into this category as well. It is true that once we are saved we will never lose our salvation because it is all God who does it. But if we love sin and continuing in sin, then it means that we are not saved at all

in the first place. If we are saved, then there’ll be a change of life. There will be change of allegiance. There will be change of passions. Once we loved sin before we knew Christ, but once we know Christ, we’ll love Christ and his righteousness and hate sin.

So if there is no hatred in our hearts towards sin, if we are loving sin and enjoying sin in our life, then it means that we are not born again at all. So Paul says, “Their condemnation is just.” God will punish them, judge them finally.

That’s why Matthew 7 says, Jesus says in Matthew 7 that there will be many on that day saying, “Lord, Lord, did we not do this for you? Did we not do this in your name?” But then the Lord Jesus will say, “Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.”

God judging them and sentencing them to eternal punishment is the right thing for him to do. For he is a righteous God who demands righteousness from us. Now Paul asks the final questions in verse 9. “What then? Are we Jews any better off?”

He uses this word “better” in a comparative sense. He’s comparing Jews to the Gentiles or Greeks. He said before that they had advantage over Gentiles, but does that make them any better than Gentiles? Paul’s answer is no, not at all. Why? Because he says, “For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,” that is, under the judgment of sin.

God declares the punishment for sin and shows his righteousness by doing so. To show that Paul uses scripture again. Verse 10 says, “as it is written.” So Paul is not just using logic, reason or philosophy, but then Paul is using the word to build his argument.

He says, “As it is written.” Then he goes on with a big list. “None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.” So these few verses talk about the kind of person humans are. We are not righteous at all. We do not have any righteousness of our own. Every one of us is the same. We do not understand what righteousness is. We do not seek God in our unrighteous state, but instead we turn away from him and his ways, and we have become worthless. Who all, says Paul, both

Jews and Greeks, everyone in this world, all of us have become worthless. That is people from every nation in this world. And in those nations, people from all classes and castes, educated or uneducated, managers or drivers, verse men or women all have sinned all have sinned that includes you and me as well verse 13 onwards it says their throat is an open grave they use their tongues to deceive the venom of asps is under their lips their mouth is full of curses and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood their paths are ruin of misery and the way of peace they have not known there is of God before their eyes.

So then Paul uses the words throat, lips, mouth to show that words are corrupted and he uses feet, paths and way to show that our actions are destructive. So our words are corrupted, our actions are destructive. And he says our eyes, that shows our perspective, our mind. And it says there is no fear of God in us. That is why we choose to dishonor God in our sinful nature. It is like Paul asking, what causes destruction among us. And he says, your words and actions, my words and actions, are to simply put, you and I.

So you and I cause destruction wherever we go, with our words and actions. That’s how worthless human beings became. And we can see the patterns of them all throughout the scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, right? How great men can sin. Now let us ask this question, how can we destroy others? So we can do that in two ways, directly or indirectly. So we can destroy others directly or indirectly. So you can be as bad as you can be to destroy others directly. You can do evil others with an evil intention and destroy them. We have the ability or capacity to do much evil. Only the grace of God is holding us back. Or else we can do it indirectly by not helping others when they

need our help, by showing a cold shoulder towards them. We can be very passive towards others, not care for them and let them be destroyed in their own sins. When you see a brother or sister sinning grievously by not warning them, but instead by trying to be good to them in your own eyes, you’re actually destroying them.

You’re encouraging them to continue in their sin by not warning them. So if you read the book of Joshua, you’ll see a theme which is expressed in the first half of the book as people did what was right in their own eyes. People did what was right in their own eyes. But the second half of the book expresses the same theme in a different way. It says people did what was evil in God’s eyes. People did what was evil in God’s eyes. So what was right in man’s eyes is evil in God’s eyes. See, there are two different perspectives here. Whose is the

right perspective, ours or God’s? Obviously it’s God’s, right? So brothers and sisters, remember this: what is right in your eyes might not necessarily be right in God’s eyes. So that’s why we better read our Bibles and get to know what true righteousness is. And God has shown it to us.

Paul concludes the above section with these two verses in 19 and 20. “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”

“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” He’s simply saying that if people who have this privilege of holding the law in their hands cannot be justified by that law, then what about those who do not have the written law in their hands? How can they be justified? If the law only shows our sin, then the whole world stands guilty before God, the Jews and Gentiles, everyone, all of us. We can do nothing. Even with that law of God, it only gives us knowledge of sin but will not help us

to overcome sin and the more we try to do we fail, then where is our hope of salvation? So where is our hope of salvation? So all that we have heard so far looks like bad news for us, right? Bad news for us.

There are — you can do a lot of things, many things, to get right with God. But then the Bible says you and I can do nothing but sin against God. So if that is the case, if that is our case, and where is our hope of salvation? So the first letter in verse 21, chapter 3:21 of Romans, the first letter in verse 21 should give us great hope. And what is that word? “But.” It gives us a contrast. What has been said, our hopeless situation, was presented so far in those 20 verses. But now with this word “but” there

must be some hope, because Paul is going to say something in contrast to what he has just said. So we will look at that second point. So point number two, God shows his righteousness in saving sinners, in saving sinners. Verse 21 onwards: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that

is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” The word manifested here in these verses means to make visible, to make known, or we can say to show. To show what? Is God showing here his righteousness? Here is not showing that he is righteous, but his righteousness. If righteousness is his coat, it is like God showing his coat, not himself. That is not something new in the New Testament, but was there even in the Old Testament as well. Even in the Old Testament, Abraham believed the Lord and him as righteousness,

Genesis 15 verse 6. This was true of many Jews even before and after Abraham. Even in the Old Testament there were people who lived by faith, but only after Jesus entered into this world and accomplished our salvation on that cross, things became visible of how that faith is counted as righteousness. So this righteousness of God, says Paul, is revealed, is shown apart from the law. It is not through the law we get this righteous, but it’s apart from the law. It is not of the law, through the law, but God is revealing it to us, but completely besides the law. The law has nothing

to do with this righteousness in one sense that God is showing. To whom is God revealing or showing his righteousness? To all, both Jews and Gentiles, that is, to all those who trust in Jesus, without any distinction of Jew or Gentile. God shows it to people from all nations, tribes and — but the, notice, it is not just to all, but it is for all, for all who believe and put their faith in Jesus. It is not just shown to them, but it is given to them. Why? Now see, because all have sinned and failed to match up to the standards of God. They need righteousness

to stand before God, and the only way that a person can be justified is by God giving them his own righteousness. It is like when we were cold and shivering in our sin, God clothes us with his blanket of righteousness to warm us up in righteousness. This righteousness is like God is putting on us so that we can stand before him justified. Now he declares as righteous, that is, to justify us. How? It is his grace alone. It is a gift that we receive. We can demand a gift or snatch it from his hands, or we pay for it? Then who pays for

it? Paul says Christ Jesus. He will pay for it. He is our redemption, he says in this passage. He is our redemption, he is a redeemer, the one who paid the price for our sins on that cross. And he is a propitiation, he says, the one who by taking the wrath of God upon him on our behalf, satisfied it and appeased it with his blood.

He died in our place with our sin upon his shoulders. On that cross, God stripped Jesus of his garments of righteousness and with it, he clothed us who have repented of our sins and trusted in Jesus. And when we do that, he strips off our sin and puts it on Jesus. It's a great exchange that's happening at the cross. At the cross, at the cross, God washed away all our sins with the blood of Jesus, and now we stand justified in God's sight because we have received Christ Jesus by faith. Is this true of you today in your lives? Dear ones, lift up your eyes and look to the cross where Jesus died. Forsake your sins and trust him and him alone, and you will be saved. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, keep looking

to Jesus. Do not take up your eyes from him even for a moment. Soon we will meet our Savior, and we will be like him for the rest of eternity. So the third point that we'll look at is, God shows his righteousness in sacrificing Jesus. That's from verse 25b to 26, second half of 25 to 26. We have just looked at what God had done on that cross to save us from our sins. It is the same act that shows that God is a righteous one, says Paul here. There is a reason God is doing this. It says, “this was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.”

“It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” So God's way of justifying sinners shows God's righteousness. Now Paul is talking about God's personal righteousness here, not the shared righteousness. In the past, in the past, God did not punish some people for their sins but justified them because of their faith. People like Abraham, Moses, David, the faithful Israelites and the believing Gentiles. God did not bring their sins up to judge them, but God justified them freely even before Jesus accomplished the works of salvation on that cross, the work of salvation on that cross.

He overlooked their sins. God overlooked their sins. It is as if he's turned aside his eyes, not looking at their sins, as if he's ignoring their sins, leaving them aside. So he overlooked their sins in his divine patience, but then extracted the full penalty of their sins on that cross later in history. He put all their sin on Jesus, and Jesus died for their sins. In that way, God was showing his patience towards people in the past, and he's also showing his justice on that cross. So it is through the punishment of Jesus God is showing us that he is just and righteous God. Even with us, it is a same God was

patient with us, overlooking our sins until the day we became born-again Christians. God never leaves any sin unpunished, for is a righteous, holy and just God. Every sin must be punished, either in Jesus on that cross or in the sinner himself. God by doing so, by sins, shows himself as a just God. And he is the one who justifies those who put their trust in Jesus.

So for this reason, brothers and sisters, we need to take all sins seriously. And by all means, mortify them. That means, put them to death in us. Paul constantly calls Christians to do so. Put off your old self, put on the new self. Put off your old ways, put on the new ways.

So this is a constant war that we fight every day in our lives. If we are Christians, then our lives must be different from our past lives. From this world and from unbelievers around us. We must be different. We are truly Christians, we carry God's righteousness in us and on us. That means we represent God in this world, and we show God's righteousness to this world. How? By our words and actions, and by guarding our own testimony. Why do we do that? So that people will come to Jesus and be clothed by his righteousness. We'll be living witnesses for Christ. We are living witnesses for God's righteousness even in this world. What a joy it is to show God's character in us and through us. What a great privilege. What a blessing. We don't deserve it, but God in his love

for us gave us a chance. So dear Gospel Life Church members, will you show his righteousness to this world day after day, week after week, year after year? Will you show his righteousness to this world by walking in his righteousness and by talking about his righteousness? Will you be committed to this great mission together as a church? So towards this end, let us all live righteous lives in Christ, through Christ and for Christ. Thank you.