Sermon25-23 Rom3 Guide

Romans 3:19-31 theme verse Romans 3:23-24

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this eighteenth Sunday of 2025, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, we looked at the divinity and humanity of Christ, yet this week, we would like to look at the justice and mercy of God in Christ to learn few lessons together.

1)    First, to summarize today’s Bible verses, Romans 3:19-31, Paul, first reminding us that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, regarding the sins, says that no human being can be justified by keeping the law. Therefore, he concludes that there is only one way to solve the universal problem for all of the humankinds and that is the way to receive God’s righteousness through the redemption of Christ who fulfilled it on behalf of human beings by obeying during his entire life and even death on the cross. And he says that this righteousness of God can only be received through the faith and that those who are justified by the faith in Christ, can also fulfill the law by living according to the will of the Holy Spirit.

2)    By the way, even though this text is so important as Luther add a note alongside 3:21-26 that “The chief point, and the very central place of the Epistle, and of the whole Bible”, and also many commentators have expressed a similar understanding in lauding this section of Paul’s letter, stating it almost as enthusiastically, as Charles Cranfield, for example, declared at the beginning of his discussion of 3:21–26 that “this short section” is not only “the centre and heart of the main division to which it belongs” but also “the centre and heart of the whole of Rom 1:16b–15:13,” or Ernst Käsemann began his discussion of this passage with the conviction that “the doctrine of justification forms the center of Paul’s theology and of the present epistle,” yet, this passage has to be treated with precision, perception, and understanding, as John Ziesler stated in the opening sentence of his article on Rom 3:21–26, “are more pregnant, or more controversial, than this.” In this text, Romans 3:21-31, three principal foci of the Christian gospel emerge, I mean, the righteousness of God as the primary foundation and source of salvation, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ as revealed in his life, that is, his active obedience, and in his death, that is, his passive obedience, ,as the objective means of salvation, and the faith of a person as the only proper response to the divine provision and the work of Christ. These three are essential to the Christian message which has to be proclaimed. Here, righteousness of God is not only an essential attributes of God’s person, but also the primary gift given by God to repentant sinners. If it were not for the fact that God is righteous and just, all else would be impossible. In addition, all else would be hopeless if it were not for the facts that God (a) declares righteous all those who come to Him in repentance and ask for His forgiveness, (b) makes righteous all those who in humility depend on Him, and (c) expresses justice on behalf of his own and all those in need, particularly those who in their despair turn to Him for help and strength. (Richard Longenecker, NIGTC) And πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (pistis Iesou Christou) in v.22, I mean, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, which appears in Gal 2:16 and 3:22; Eph 3:12 and Phil 3:9, means His faithfulness both in His life, i.e., His ‘active obedience’ and in His death, i.e., His ‘passive obedience’ as the objective means for human salvation. So Thomas Torrance said that “Jesus Christ is thus not only the incarnation of the Divine pistis, but also He is the embodiment and actualization of man’s pistis in covenant with God. And He is not only the Righteousness of God, but the embodiment and actualization of our human righteousness before God.” And also Markus Barth has commented that “The Son is not only sent out by the Father and Judge to be a passive tool, as it were, of God. He also renders obedience to his commission by coming to fulfill his office. With his advent, “faith came.” … Thus faith in God (or better, faithfulness to God) and love for men are realized in Jesus Christ at the same time in the same deed.”

3)    And regarding His passive obedience, v25 says that “God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith,” here the Greek ‘ἱλαστήριον’ (hilastērion) which is translated as the ‘propitiation’ is better to be translated as the mercy seat’ which is the cover over the ark as the same Greek word was translated as the ‘mercy seat’ in Heb 9:5, since the LXX, the Septuagint, translated the Hebrew “כַּפֹּרֶת” which means to cover as the Greek ‘hilasterion’ in Lev 16:2, on which sacrificial blood was poured when the high priest entered the ‘Holy of Holies’ once a year as the ‘Day of Atonement’ ritual as Lev 16 described. Ans also the context of Rom 3:25 supports this translation since two tablets of ten commandments inside the ark as the representative of the Old Testament Law, condemn the people (Rom 3:19-20), so that all will die because of the condemnation of the law (Rom 7:12–13; 1 Samuel 6:19–20; 2 Samuel 6:6–7, etc). But, thankfully, the Ark is covered by the mercy seat, I mean, the cover in gold (Ex 25:17), so that by pouring out the blood of the sacrifices, it makes the condemnation of the law not reach to God who seats among the groups (Num 7:89). As such Christ who is the ‘mercy seat’ shed His blood on it, so that the condemnation of the law cannot reach to God. And for your information, the seven sprinkling of the blood (Lev 16:14-15) means that it perfect blocks the condemnation of the law and pouring the blood on the east, in the front of the ark means that there’s no problem between God and the ark (Rom 7:12), yet, since there’s problem between the law and us, so that the high priest sprinkles in the east side, I mean, in the front side of the ark, which locates between the ark and us. And then the latter part of the verse 25 says that “This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” Here in original language, God’s righteousness comes right after ‘by His blood’ so that it means, God forgives the sinners, yet by the blood of His Son to pay for the wage of the sin (Rom 6:23), the death. This is the justice and righteousness of God. And also the way God forgives the sins is said to pass over former sins. Here, πάρεσις (paresis) means to neglect it or to treat is as not seen as forensic terminology. So, even though still we have sins, but because of the blood of Christ, God neglects it, as Christ already paid for it.

4)    And then proper response of human to this provision of righteousness of God and the faithfulness of Jesus Christ is the faith through which we can receive all the benefits. Regarding this faith, Paul raises an important question, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith in v.31? Here the Greek καταργέω (katarkeo) means to nullify, to abolish, etc. (Rom 3:3; 4:14; 6:16 etc.) so that we are faced up with other question ”Then do we not keep the law?” since we are justified by faith alone in the previous verse, in order words, does the doctrine of the justification by faith abolish the law, or promotes a licentious life? As some people accused Paul of betraying Moses and abolishing the law (Acts 21:21, 28). But, Paul clearly said, “By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law, by faith (v.31).” In other words, He says that the doctrine of the justification by faith does not nullify the law, rather uphold it. Because as the law in this verse does not mean the whole Mosaic laws, instead, the standard for our moral law as we can see in Romans 2:21-22, those who have the faith in Christ live the life requested by the law (Gal 6:2; James 1:25; 2:8, 12), after becoming true Israelites so that we can say that the faith upholds the law, because true faith results in true obedience to God’s will, the law of God (Rom 1:5; 16:26) In other words, because the justification by faith in Christ does not abolish the moral law, rather upholds it, so the faith does not morality, rather upholds it. It is not correct to say that “even though faith is good, but his morality is not good”, rather we can say that “since faith is wrong, his or her morality is wrong.”

5)    And regarding this justice and mercy of God in Christ, the Belgic confession Article 20 confesses that “We believe that God – who is perfectly merciful and also very just – sent the Son to assume the nature in which the disobedience had been committed, in order to bear in it the punishment of sin by his most bitter passion and death. So God made known his justice toward his Son, who was charged with our sin, and he poured out his goodness and mercy on us, who are guilty and worthy of damnation, giving to us his Son to die, by a most perfect love, and raising him to life for our justification, in order that by him, we might have immortality and eternal life.”

6)    Especially in the second paragraph of Belgic confession article 20 that God made known His justice toward His Son, who was charged with our sin while He poured out His goodness and mercy on us, who are guilty and worthy of damnation, giving to us His Son to die, by a most perfect love, and raising him to life for our justification, in order that by Him, we might have immortality and eternal life,” we can know His perfect love for us, and that’s why Apostle John said “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”

7)    By the way, v.26 says that “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.” Yes, since God is not only God of love, but also God of Justice, in order to save the sinners who have guilt of sin, He crucified His Son on behalf of the sinners, and fulfilled the requirement of the law. As such, God did not ignore the justice, even though He is almighty God who can do anything, rather He kept the law so that no one, not even the Satan who is the accuser, cannot raise an objection of God’s justice. Through this way, God says He is just and can justify those who has faith in Christ, in other words, the way of redemption of God shows His righteousness and also justifies those who believes in Jesus. (JK Byun, Commentary of the Romans)

8)    And as it is said that the faith in Jesus Christ who was faithfulness to God and to us by the justification of righteous God results in the life of holiness, not just remaining the verbal proclamation, which means being near God, like God, given to God, and pleasing God, as J.I. Pecker said, since the faith results in the sanctification since the justification and sanctification are inseparable, therefore, I pray that this year we all can live the life of holiness through the redemption of Christ by the righteousness of God which was declared as our justification.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that in Christ, the justice and mercy of God are interwoven together as one so that the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Christ justifies us by faith. So, meditating on what the faith means, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And also we can know that our faith is not just thought or verbal declaration, yet it should be expressed in our life of holiness which is being near God, like God, given to God, and pleasing God as JI Pecker said. So after reviewing whether our faith reached this holiness, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.