God's Righteousness (1) (Rom 3:21-24)

“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Rm 3:21-24)

His intention was clear. It was to show both Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians that they were all under the power of sin and God's wrath without exception. Jews and Gentiles, religious and unreligious, are all under the power of sin.
 
Paul said,
“We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Rm 3:9-12)
 
Paul has been leading us to this point since 1:18. And the conclusion is: everyone is under sin. No one is righteous. Before we were saved by Christ, we were citizens of sin. We belonged to it.
 
This does not mean that one person is as sinful as the next person. It means that our condition is the same. We are all lost no matter how big or small we perceive our sins to be, and there is no degree of lostness.
 
When we look at the contents of Romans chapters 1 to 3, the word 'despair' can easily come to mind. How can we avoid God's wrath against our sin? No one is righteous before God. Everyone is under sin. In other words, everyone in the world is subject to sin and God’s wrath. And, we see the terrible results of sin in the world.
 
Sin is not an abstract problem, but an existential one. We see sin destroy our lives and the relationships we have, and turn the world into chaos. This makes us face deep despair. However, despair is not necessarily a bad thing.
 
Just as light is brighter on a very dark night, the darker our despair due to sin is, the more God's grace is revealed. Only when we have been in this deep despair and recognize that we can't overcome it on our own can we realize the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice and rely on Him.
 
God’s Righteousness
All right. Paul then talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ that sets us free from the chains of sin.
 
“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Rm 3:21-24)
 
Romans 3:21 starts with the word “But.” “But” is a word that reverses the statement that came before it. Some biblical scholars say that this word is the greatest antonym in the Bible because something wonderful came that couldn’t be even imagined before.
 
Paul also used the word “now.”. We usually use the word 'now' to express our determination to move toward a new life, abandoning the things of the past. The word 'now' is a word that divides the past from the present and the future.
 
Then, what is the past that is being referred to here? That’s what Romans 1:18 to 3:20 talks about. Human beings are described as sinners. The Gentiles knew God but didn’t glorify Him and refused to accept Him in their hearts. So, they committed all kinds of sins against Him. Even though Jews received God’s word, they didn’t obey it, but used it to judge others.
 
Therefore, all humanity, both Gentiles and Jews, were sinners against God, and they were heading to eternal death because of their sin. However, Paul used the words "but" and "now" to emphasize the pivotal moment in which something new that changed everything appeared. It was the righteousness of God revealed through Jesus.
 
The gospel, which means good news, reveals the righteousness of God. Outside of the gospel, we must develop our own righteousness, offer it to God, and say, “Accept me.”
 
However, the gospel says that God has made perfect righteousness, and He freely offers it to us even though He paid an unimaginable price for it. It is through this righteousness that we are accepted. This is the uniqueness of the Christian gospel. We’re saved not because we deserve it, but because we accepted the gospel.
 
So, “now,” “apart from the law,” the righteousness of God has been made known. What Paul’s talking about here is that the righteousness of God is essentially different from the law because this righteousness is not something that can be obtained through observing the law.
 
Paul also said, “The law and the Prophets testify” the righteousness of God. The phrase “the law and the Prophets” was often used to describe all the Scriptures in the Old Testament. It means that the righteousness of God is promised in the Old Testament in hidden form.
 
This hidden righteousness of God was now revealed with the appearance of one person:  Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
 
Paul said in Romans 1:17, “In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.” Paul already explained that  “the gospel is Jesus Christ our Lord” in previous verses. So, we can easily infer that the righteousness of God which is different from the law but promised in the Old Testament is now revealed through Jesus Christ.
 
Then, what is the righteousness of God? 
 “All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Rom 3:24)
 
God’s righteousness can be defined as freely justifying unrighteous people. God’s righteousness is to call “sinners” “righteous.”
 In Romans 4:5, Paul described God as “God who justifies the ungodly.”
 
This expression is very surprising in light of the Old Testament because in the Old Testament, God says,
“I will not acquit the guilty.” (Ex 23:7)
 
Deuteronomy 25:1 says, 
“When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty.” (Dt 25:1)
 
And Proverbs 17:15 says, “Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent - the Lord detests them both.” (Pr 17:15)
 
So, it is against the righteous nature of God to call the wicked righteous without any cost. A judge who says that an unrighteous person is righteous without paying anything can’t be a righteous judge.
 
However, in the book of Romans, God calls sinners righteous and justifies the ungodly without them paying a price. How can that happen? We know the answer. That’s because Jesus, the Son of God, paid the price for our sins with His death on the cross. That’s how God can justify sinners without them paying. On our side, we pay nothing. But, on God’s side, He paid the most precious price to give us righteousness.
 
The reason God is truly righteous is that He abandoned His throne in heaven, came into the world in the form of His creation, and died on the cross on our behalf to call us righteous. So, we can say that the cross is God's most righteous way to justify sinners.
 
God’s righteousness can only be obtained through the death of Jesus. And, He willingly laid down His life because He loved us so much. The thing left to us now is how we can respond to this indescribable grace of God in our lives.