How God Saves Sinners
Lesson 5 Notes: Romans 3:21-26
“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.” (Romans 3:22-23)
We sometimes possess the ability to right a wrong, mend a misunderstanding, or repair a relationship; other times, we do not. Even a genuine apology can be refused. While a friend or loved one’s forgiveness offers relief, the rejection of an insufficient or misguided effort to make amends fails to bring the comfort we seek. We often try to justify and defend our hurtful behavior, yet some offenses exceed justification. Some transgressions create chasms that even our best attempts cannot span.
Paul’s convincing presentation of humanity’s fallen condition in Romans 1:1–3:20 leaves us speechless and defenseless, rightly accountable before God. Sin’s destructive force has separated us from our loving and righteous Creator. There is nothing we can say or do to justify ourselves and build a bridge back to God. But now, in the closing verses of Romans 3, glorious hope dawns like the rising sun, illuminating the only acceptable path to restoration. God has made the way to be declared right with Him. That way is through faith in Jesus Christ.
Salvation Through Faith – Romans 3:21-23
These verses mark the glorious turning point in Paul’s letter, the hinge upon which the door to the gospel opens. Since the letter began, Paul exposed humanity’s blatant rejection of God’s revealed truth in creation, our inability to keep God’s revealed law, and the power of sin over every person born since Adam and Eve. From the grim truth of God’s wrath against universal sin arises the wonderful news of God’s grace to sinners through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The tremendously beautiful words “But now” introduce God’s salvation plan to the Romans and all future readers. Theologian Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called these words the turning point in God’s dealings with humanity.1 Fellow Bible scholar Ray C. Stedman referred to verse 21 as “God’s great ‘nevertheless’ in the face of man’s failure.”2 Paul’s simple words introduce good news of great importance, echoed by all other gospel messengers. The teaching recorded here repeats and expands on Paul’s previously stated thesis,3 emphasizing the gospel’s power and importance.
The glorious news that unfolds in Romans 3:21 overrules the bad news echoed through the book’s first chapters. In Greek, “made known” is sometimes translated as “revealed.” Now, instead of God’s wrath,4 His righteousness is being made known. God does not keep His salvation plan secret.
All of this good news, especially God’s mercy and compassion, is rooted in His character. We do not deserve grace, but God gives it. We are not worthy, but He loves us enough to extend a way out of the chasm sin creates. That is one reason the message is called the gospel, or good news.
After proving his point about sin through Old Testament citations,5 Paul continued anchoring his good news in the Old Testament Scriptures: “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and Prophets testify.” The testimony of the Old Testament law foreshadowed Jesus’s perfection and sacrificial death, while the prophets testified to righteousness that would come through God’s promised Messiah.6
Paul’s explanation of God’s salvation plan contains theological words and concepts—terms largely unused in modern culture—rising from the timeless testimony of the Old Testament law and prophets. Revisiting these familiar concepts tethered the heartstrings of Paul’s original readers to generations of Abraham’s descendants. For both Jews and Gentiles, whether ancient or modern, examining God’s salvation plan through an Old Testament lens magnifies the glory of the gospel.
Israel’s moral law, a gift from God, established behavioral boundaries, restrained evil, and made God’s people distinct from surrounding nations. The inability to perfectly follow God’s moral law aroused awareness of sin,7 revealing humanity’s need for a Savior. Obedience to the law or any other behavioral standard cannot save anyone. Even though God gave the law as a blessing, salvation requires receiving God’s righteousness apart from human efforts or work.
In Paul’s day and our own, all religions except Christianity suppose people can and must aid their salvation through personal effort. Only Christianity humbles all who believe before God in complete dependence on Him to save them. The Bible insists that people can add nothing to what God has done on humanity’s behalf through Jesus Christ. Believers obediently follow Jesus as a grateful response rather than a saving necessity.8 Because mercy has been extended to us, we are to be a humble people who reflect that love, care, compassion, and mercy to others.
Paul left no doubt about how to access God’s saving righteousness: “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” Faith in Jesus Christ is the channel through which salvation comes to us and becomes ours. The only means by which any person can be declared right with God is by believing and receiving what He offers through the work of Jesus Christ. Even in Paul’s day, many felt God’s plan to give righteousness by faith alone made escaping judgment too easy. However, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s saving work eclipses any human methodology, tradition, pattern, or promise. The result? We are left to marvel at how God accomplished what we never could.
Based on Paul’s progressing discourse, we learn that faith, while essential, is not a work to achieve or accomplish. Like every good thing we experience or possess,9 faith comes as God’s gift. Ephesians 2:8-9 explicitly states, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Faith joyfully receives what Scripture affirms and God freely offers.
The church in Rome represented a multiethnic cross section of the Roman Empire. Though the Jewish law restrained some specific sins for Abraham’s descendants, Paul effectively argued, “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Both Jews and Gentiles suffer under sin’s corruption. There are no exceptions. Because of our shared fallen condition, all people equally need restoration to a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. God’s plan for salvation by faith miraculously reaches beyond ethnicity, economics, and education to every person. In their saved state, formerly estranged people are reconciled to God and others. This salvation is both individual and corporate. It saves believers and connects fellow believers to one another.
Salvation by Grace – Romans 3:24
Because sin corrupts every person’s moral, intellectual, and volitional capabilities,10 God offers a magnificent, multifaceted plan to save us. God’s grace—His delight in saving the undeserving—shines beautifully at the center of the gospel. God’s glorious grace joins together the great truths of justification and redemption. These terms easily stirred wonder in Paul’s original readers. But all who believe today can also rejoice that we “are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Justified – Paul clarified that justification comes by way of God’s grace. Paul’s original readers understood justification as a legal term. When a judge acquits someone of crimes, the judge declares them justified. Regardless of guilt or innocence, the judge’s declaration or verdict of innocence gives the person right standing with the law. This news dramatically changes an accused person’s life. Similarly, God declares believers in right standing before Him—no penalty remains for their sinful offenses. They are justified!
According to the Bible, justification of sinners is only possible by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. How can sinners become right with a holy God? How can humanity be reconciled to the God they rejected? How can God possibly declare guilty people righteous when justice must be satisfied? Because of His grace, God accepts Jesus’s death for sin in place of our death and freely declares those who believe as justified. What joy this brings to all who believe!
Justification is not a process but a once-in-a-lifetime, permanent pronouncement by God Himself. While God knows believers will not live the rest of their lives perfectly, He never reverses His ruling. By His ongoing grace, righteous living grows in a justified believer through a process called sanctification.11 All true Christians, no matter how great their failings, stand before God in His Son’s perfect, unchangeable righteousness.
Redeemed – Paul declared that God’s grace also brings about redemption by Christ. On one level, Paul’s original readers understood commercial redemption as buying and selling. They also understood redemption as a theological term revealing God’s heart toward His people. God redeemed Abraham’s descendants from Egyptian slavery, declaring His loving desire for a relationship with them. At an astounding cost, God purchased the freedom of His beloved people, who cannot change their fallen condition by themselves. Because of God’s grace, Jesus has freed every believer from slavery to sin by His death on our behalf.
The prophet Hosea lived a heartrending picture of commercial redemption. Hosea purchased his adulterous wife out of slavery to her sin and sin’s betrayal.12 His wife deserved the suffering resulting from her sin, but Hosea’s purchase modeled God’s compassion for human helplessness. Apart from redemption by Christ, all people are hopelessly enslaved to sin and its consequences.13 Jesus paid the price for our redemption, “not with perishable things such as silver or gold,” but with His own precious blood.14
In the Old Testament law, kopher referred to a guilty person’s redemption. If an ox mortally wounded someone, the negligent owner’s life could be taken as repayment. However, the law allowed the ox’s owner to pay the redemption price, the kopher, to the slain person’s family and redeem that person’s life. In the same way, the Lord Jesus’s death mercifully delivers believers from the death they deserve—the righteous punishment God has set for sin.15
Another Old Testament term for redemption is goel, a “kinsman-redeemer” (“guardian-redeemer” in the NIV). Because Jewish law required land to remain within a family, the nearest relative was obligated to redeem property when death or financial hardship threatened its loss. This person was a “kinsman.” If he purchased and restored the property to the family, he was a “kinsman-redeemer.” Sometimes, the kinsman’s duty extended to marrying the widow and raising heirs. Boaz, in the book of Ruth, was such a redeemer.16 The goel had to be a willing close relative able to pay the ransom. A stranger or coerced relative did not qualify. Jesus fully met the goel qualifications to become humanity’s kinsman-redeemer. He became our kinsman by taking on a human body. By His perfect life, Jesus alone could pay the price for sinful people, and He willingly offered Himself to save us. Redemption by Christ is a stirring display of God’s personal, intimate involvement in mending sin’s destruction.
If we are “justified freely” yet redemption involves a required price to secure sinners’ freedom, some have wondered if salvation is truly free. Though the Bible speaks of redemption’s price, fallen people have no means to pay for their redemption. Instead, God Himself pays the price through Christ so salvation may be free for the undeserving. What incredible news!
Righteousness from God
Salvation is God’s multifaceted gift of grace1 that delivers fallen humanity from sin’s penalty, sin’s power, and eventually from sin’s presence. Paul’s meticulously presented gospel declares that God freely provides His own righteousness for people who possess no true righteousness of their own.2 This perfect righteousness becomes ours through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, making it possible for God to declare sinners justified—no longer awaiting sin’s penalty. The Lord Jesus, humanity’s sacrifice of atonement, died to redeem fallen people from slavery to sin’s power. This action connects us to God and to others. It is the basis for the formation of the Church, a spiritual community consisting of those who have experienced God’s forgiveness in Christ. No Christian is to go it alone. The redeemed, who receive God’s gracious gift of salvation through faith, will enjoy eternity in God’s presence, where sin and its influence will be no more.3
Paul proved “there is no one righteous, not even one.”4 Every human needs God’s gracious rescue regardless of ethnicity, economics, or intellect.5 Because God desires to save humanity from His wrath,6 His gift of righteousness gives immunity from His just wrath against sin.7 Salvation is possible only because God undertook the work of justification, redemption, and atonement and imparts the glorious results through faith alone.8
God’s Spirit and the Bible work together to open our hearts and minds to the salvation that God alone makes possible through faith in Christ. Apart from receiving God’s gift of salvation, we labor to justify ourselves to God through religious observances, pious works, and empty spirituality. When we deny that only God’s power can give us His righteousness, we reject accountability to God, assume our best is acceptable, and march toward His just judgment already condemned.9
The gospel eternally transforms the lives of all who place their faith in Christ. Former enemies of God become His friends. Those who were once far from Him enjoy a restored, loving relationship, free from fear that sin will ever again taint their right standing with God. Salvation also connects us to others and frees us to encourage one another as we seek to reflect what God has done for us. People freed from sin’s downward spiral stand as witnesses to God’s grace, which He extends to any who would believe in Christ’s atoning sacrifice. Will you accept God’s gift of salvation through faith and dare to tell others the good news that God offers it to them as well?
1. God’s gift: John 3:16; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9
2. God’s offer of salvation: Isaiah 55:1; Romans 3:24; Revelation 22:7
3. No more sin: Hebrews 12:23
4. No one righteous: Romans 3:10
5. Access for all: Romans 3:22-24; 10:13; Titus 2:11
6. God desires salvation: 1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9
7. No condemnation: Isaiah 50:9; John 5:24; Romans 8:1, 34
8. God’s work: Isaiah 43:25; 44:22; 1 John 1:9
9. Condemned: John 3:18
Salvation in Christ – Romans 3:25-26
Paul continued enriching his explanation of God’s salvation plan with Old Testament imagery. The phrase “a sacrifice of atonement” (the Greek word hilasterion) and the related terms “atoning sacrifice” (hilasmos)17 and “make atonement” (hilaskomai)18 are rare in the New Testament. However, they support and deepen modern readers’ understanding of atonement by pointing back to God’s provision for sin’s forgiveness under the law.
God gave Israel an annual remembrance that testified to their need for an atoning sacrifice—the Day of Atonement. The ark of the covenant, a gold-covered wooden box, contained stone tablets with instructions God gave Moses on Mount Sinai. This was the second set of tablets; Moses had broken the first set when the people forsook God for a golden calf.19 The ark’s lid was called the atonement cover or mercy seat. The lid featured two golden cherubim standing on opposite ends and facing one another. Their wings stretched upward and almost met directly over the ark. God’s presence would meet with the high priest above the mercy seat, between the outstretched wings of the cherubim.20
God’s people could not keep God’s law. The law contained within the ark bore witness to the people’s sin, which God does not ignore. Sin must be punished. God’s judgment against all lawbreakers is deserved. But God does not leave His people in a state of guilt. On the Day of Atonement, God instructed the high priest to make atonement for the people’s sins by sprinkling the blood of a sacrificial animal on the atonement cover. Symbolically, the blood of the innocent substitute covered the broken law. God declared the sin punished, satisfying His wrath and justice.
In grace, God lovingly established the sacrifice of atonement and justified all who came to Him through faith. The sacrificial animal pointed forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, who became the ultimate sacrifice for atonement. Jesus, and only Jesus, provides the perfectly sufficient atonement sacrifice.21 His shed blood brings redemption and a renewed relationship between people and God. With Jesus as the final, once-for-all sacrifice for sin, God gloriously cleansed sin, fulfilling what the Day of Atonement foreshadowed.
Paul anticipated the question, “What about the sins of people who lived before Jesus?” Paul explained that God’s salvation plan had looked forward to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, who paid the penalties for past sins. Eternal God always planned to provide Jesus as the ultimate atoning sacrifice.22 Consequently, “he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.” God’s forbearance, His loving patience toward sinners, demonstrated that He is supremely righteous and merciful. God does not forgive sinners by ignoring their sin. Rather, despite their sin, He declares believers righteous. All because Christ paid the penalty they owed.
For centuries, God graciously refused to condemn imperfect heroes of the faith who trusted in Him. He stored up His judicial wrath and poured it all on His Son at the cross.23 God has always justified sinful people by their faith. We see God’s grace extended to people such as Abraham, who compromised his wife’s honor to save his own life,24 and Moses, who killed an Egyptian.25 David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband.26 And Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho.27 God’s people lived by faith, despite their failings.
God counted all these sinful people righteous and delighted in fellowship with them.28 He called Abraham His friend29 and David “a man after his own heart.”30 He spoke face-to-face with Moses31 and gave Rahab a privileged position in Jesus’s ancestry.32 Was God unjust when He forgave them? No! The death of Christ vindicated God’s righteous forbearance of past sins. The cross proclaims that God acted justly when He justified the ungodly.
In the first 2½ chapters of Romans, Paul proved that humanity’s biggest problem is God’s wrath, His righteous anger against sin. The Creator of all things determines the standards for His creation, and His standard is perfection. No one can grasp the greatness of God’s grace without coming to terms with God’s wrath against wickedness. Human beings could not appease God’s wrath with the animal sacrifices God ordained or by following the law He gave. God knew people could never save themselves by working toward a standard they could never meet. In mercy, God gave a law people could not perfectly follow to reveal their need for the Savior He would send. Paul declared that God has eternally achieved justice and satisfied His wrath through Jesus’s death.
God has made the way to be declared right with Him. His wrath against sin and its harmful consequences flows from His overwhelming, protective love. God’s loving sacrifice of His one and only Son33 not only covered (expiated) sin’s guilt but appeased (propitiated) God’s wrath against sin so we may have a renewed relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ.
Take to Heart
In Romans 1:16, Paul expressed his enthusiasm for the gospel, “because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.” After he clarified humanity’s sin, which only God’s power could overcome, Paul offered the best news condemned sinners could hope to hear. For all who would believe, the righteousness of God has been revealed. Only God could save humanity from His wrath and remain perfectly righteous in doing so. Only God could judge sin while rescuing sinners. Only God could make a way for depraved sinners to meet His righteous standards. That is exactly what He has done by grace through Jesus Christ.
How did Christ’s death accomplish salvation? First, through justification. God legally declares the guilty righteous, justice achieved, and sin’s penalty paid. Second, by redemption. Jesus, our dear Savior, brought us out of sin’s powerful bondage, restored us to our heavenly Father, and set us free from sin’s eternal consequence—death. And third, because of atonement. Jesus’s blood covers a believer’s guilt and satisfies God’s wrath against their sins—past, present, and future. Sin has been forever overcome by one God, through one Savior, with one grace-filled plan to offer salvation to all.
The amazing truth in this passage unfolds the heart of Romans and the entire Bible. God’s compassion for sinners and plan to redeem them by His grace has been at work since humanity first fell into sin’s corruption.34 Unfortunately, today’s readers often view the Old Testament books and prophets as unrelatable and irrelevant to their lives. Paul has carefully connected the message of the Old Testament with the reality of the gospel of Christ. God’s laws for holy living, the rise and fall of His chosen nation, and prophecies of purifying judgment and restoration all point to God’s deliberate intervention in human affairs to bring His plan of salvation to fruition. The glorious gospel is now made known to us in Jesus Christ. What encouragement do you gain from understanding God’s heart to save humanity? How might the testimony of the Old Testament law and prophets heighten your appreciation for those books and increase your wonder at God’s tireless saving work across the ages?
God’s gift of salvation transcends every distinction we draw between people. He offers salvation to all who recognize their need for His righteousness and receive Christ’s gift. Faith in Jesus’s sacrifice makes salvation accessible to people of every language, skin color, economic status, gender, age, and background. If a person has a heartbeat, Jesus died so they could be justified and redeemed. Whom might you consider too far from God to turn to Christ for salvation? All who enjoy salvation today were hopeless cases apart from God’s intervention. Will you pray that God deepens your understanding that all are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus? What helps you see everyone as God does and delight to share this powerful gospel?
God’s gracious generosity in salvation invites us to worship Him and calls us to reflect His kindness and mercy to a world that desperately needs His righteousness. Does the good news of the gospel humble you before the Lord with deep wonder and gratitude? The gospel’s breathtaking news of God’s great power to save sinners reveals His grace. No human would conceive a plan where we are not the story’s hero. We struggle to accept that we cannot offer God anything to appease His wrath against our sin, but the gospel frees us from trying to earn what God has freely given through Christ. Righteousness before God does not depend on our family, good deeds, intelligence, Bible study attendance, church denomination, or religious observances. Do you struggle to accept that your salvation only requires faith in Christ? Will you give up trying to make yourself acceptable to God and instead receive Christ’s righteousness and the full benefits of His blood-bought redemption? If you have already been justified through your faith in Christ, how will you resist the ongoing temptation to make yourself or someone else the hero of your ongoing Christian journey? God has made the way to be righteous; His way always has been and always will be through Jesus!
1. Martyn Lloyd-Jones,“The Turning Point: But Now” February 22, 1957, MLJ Trust, audio
2. Ray C. Stedman, “But Now” 1976, Ray Stedman Ministries, transcript and audio, 40:50
3. Paul’s thesis: Romans 1:1-5, 15-16
4. Wrath revealed: Romans 1:18
5. Old Testament proof: Romans 3:10-18
6. Old Testament testimony: Luke 24:25-27
7. Consciousness of sin: Romans 3:20
8. Follow Jesus: Luke 9:23; 14:27
9. Good gifts: James 1:17
10. Sin’s corruption: Romans 3:9-20
11. Sanctification: Romans 6–8
12. Picture of redemption: Hosea 3
13. Under sin’s power: Romans 3:9
14. Redeemed by Christ: 1 Peter 1:18-19
15. Death for sin: Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23
16. Boaz as kinsman-redeemer: Ruth 3
17. Sacrifice of atonement: 1 John 2:2; 4:10
18. Make atonement: Hebrews 2:17
19. Tablets: Exodus 31:18; 32:19-20; 34:1, 28-29
20. Atonement cover: Exodus 25:17-22
21. Jesus, not animals: Hebrews 10
22. Slain from the creation: Revelation 13:8
23. Once for all: Hebrews 9:26
24. Abraham: Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-18
25. Moses: Exodus 2:11-15
26. David: 2 Samuel 11
27. Rahab: Joshua 2:1-21; 6:22-25
28. Sinful people righteous: Romans 4:3; James 2:25
29. His friend: 2 Chronicles 20:7; James 2:23
30. His own heart: 1 Samuel 13:14
31. Face-to-face: Exodus 33:11; Numbers 12:8; Deuteronomy 34:10
32. Jesus’s ancestor: Matthew 1:5; Hebrews 11:31
33. Sacrifice of Son: John 3:16
34. First prophecy of salvation: Genesis 3:15
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