Romans 3:21-24 (NIV)
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
This is one of the clearest expositions of the gospel in all of Scripture, broken down into its simplest form.
Paul has previously shown that those without the law cannot be more than intermittently righteous because they do not have the law, and they don’t always follow their conscience. But the Jews, those who do have the law, cannot be genuinely righteous either, because it is not possible to fully obey the law in mere human strength.
But God didn’t leave things at that impasse. Instead, He sent Jesus to die to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind, to rise again to prove His victory over sin and death, to ascend to the right hand of the Father to intercede for those who put their trust in Him, and to send the Holy Spirit to live in the hearts of His people in order to reshape their hearts, to guide them into right ways of thinking and acting, and to empower them to be able to follow His commands from the heart.
This true righteousness, a righteousness that is foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament, is apart from the law in the sense that it is not based on an external set of rules and reliant on mere human power to obey. It is based on God’s moral law written on the heart, and obedience enabled by true transformation and empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
This true righteousness is enabled by faith in Jesus. It is not an add-on to salvation for a few “saints” but is an intrinsic part of the New Covenant made in Jesus’ blood (Luke 22:20). And it is freely given to both Jew and gentile, since both groups need it since both are guilty of sin and of falling short of God’s glory.
Notice that a key part of this salvation, whether extended to the Jew or the gentile is justification, a declaration that their sins have been paid for in full, and that they can begin again with a clean slate, a genuine fresh start. This new start is a powerful gift of God’s grace. Paul Himself experienced this in Damascus, a complete remission of his heinous sins against both Jesus and His followers that resulted in transformation of his heart and a resultant drastic change in his actions and attitudes (Acts 9:19b-22). He was truly a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)!
Father, it is amazing to see how clearly and succinctly Paul defines the gospel in these few verses. One of the great problems that I see here is how we frequently use Romans 3:23 as a stand-alone memory verse. (It is not even a whole sentence by itself. It starts with a lower-case f in “for” and ends with a comma!) Although the verse is true itself, when it is read in context, it is even more amazing. We have not only ALL sinned and fallen short of Your glory, we are also ALL justified freely by Your grace through faith in Jesus. Amazing! Thank You for this stunning good news! Amen.