Romans 3:21-24 Commentary – But Now the Righteousness of God

Romans VerseQuest Commentary
Essay 21: But Now the Righteousness of God
Text: Romans 3:21–24

Romans 3:21–24 says, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” There are two words in Romans 3:21 that open the prison door after three chapters of courtroom thunder: “But now.” If a man has followed Paul’s argument from Romans 1:18 through Romans 3:20, he has watched the whole world dragged before God and found guilty. The Gentile is guilty. The moralist is guilty. The Jew is guilty. The religious teacher is guilty. The circumcised transgressor is guilty. The man with the law is guilty. The man without the law is guilty. The mouth of every sinner is stopped. No flesh is justified by the deeds of the law. Then, when every human defense is dead on the floor, the Holy Ghost writes, “But now.”

Those two words are the turn from condemnation to revelation, from man’s guilt to God’s righteousness, from stopped mouths to opened mercy, from the law’s mirror to Christ’s redemption. Paul does not say, “But now man has improved.” He does not say, “But now religion has found a way.” He does not say, “But now the sinner has climbed high enough.” He does not say, “But now the church has invented a sacramental pipeline.” He says, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.” That is the issue. The sinner’s righteousness is gone. The law has exposed him. The deeds of the law cannot justify him. So if there is going to be salvation, righteousness must come from God, not man. It must be revealed, not achieved. It must be received, not manufactured. It must be by faith, not by flesh. It must be by grace, not by merit. It must be through redemption in Christ Jesus, not through religious machinery.

Romans 3:21–24 is one of the great gospel passages in the Bible because it cuts the throat of every system that mixes human merit with justification. It kills Catholic sacramentalism. It kills legalism. It kills moralism. It kills ritualism. It kills the self-improvement gospel. It kills the idea that baptism, confession, mass, law-keeping, church membership, penance, commandment-keeping, or final religious performance can help justify a sinner before God. The righteousness of God is without the law. It is witnessed by the law and prophets. It is by faith of Jesus Christ. It is unto all and upon all them that believe. It is needed because all have sinned. It is given because sinners are justified freely by His grace. It is secured through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is not a religious suggestion. That is the gospel engine room.

Chapter One: “But Now” Changes Everything

The words “But now” are not filler. They are a dispensational and doctrinal turning point in the argument of Romans. Paul has just said, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” Then comes “But now.” The law has done its work. The mouth is stopped. The world is guilty. Man’s righteousness has been exposed as insufficient. The sinner has no plea left. Now God reveals righteousness apart from the law. That is why these words are so glorious. They do not appear while man is still bragging. They appear after every mouth is shut. Grace shines brightest when human boasting is dead.

“But now” also tells you that something has been manifested in a new clarity. The righteousness of God was not contrary to the law and prophets, but it is now manifested apart from the law as a means of justification. This is not God changing His character. It is God revealing His righteousness in the gospel of Christ with Pauline clarity. The sinner could not be justified by law, but God has now revealed righteousness without law. That is not lawlessness. That is not God relaxing His holiness. That is God providing in Christ what the sinner could never produce in himself. The law condemned. Christ redeems. The law exposed sin. Christ bore sin. The law demanded righteousness. God gives righteousness to the believer through Jesus Christ.

Those two words should make every guilty sinner stop trying to bargain with God. “But now” means the answer is not back under Moses. It is not back to Sinai. It is not back to circumcision. It is not back to temple sacrifices. It is not forward to Rome’s altar. It is not sideways into Protestant self-reform. It is not inward into mystical feelings. It is not outward into religious performance. “But now” points to what God has manifested in Christ. The sinner’s mouth has been stopped so God’s gospel can be heard. When man has nothing left to say, God speaks grace.

Chapter Two: The Righteousness of God Is the Issue

Paul says, “But now the righteousness of God… is manifested.” Not the righteousness of man. Not the righteousness of religion. Not the righteousness of law-keeping. Not the righteousness of sincerity. The righteousness of God. That phrase is the death of every man-centered salvation system. The sinner’s problem is not merely that he has done wrong things. His problem is that he lacks the righteousness God requires. He has come short of the glory of God. He does not need a small adjustment. He needs a righteousness outside himself. He needs what only God can provide.

The righteousness of God is not God pretending the sinner is better than he is. It is not God overlooking sin like a sleepy grandfather who forgot where he put His judgment. It is not moral softness. It is righteousness. God does not save sinners by denying His own holiness. He saves sinners in a way that satisfies His holiness. That is why the next verses will speak of redemption, propitiation, blood, and God being just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Grace is not God sweeping sin under heaven’s rug. Grace is God dealing with sin through the finished work of Jesus Christ and then justifying the believer on righteous grounds.

This matters because much modern religion wants mercy without righteousness. It wants forgiveness without blood. It wants acceptance without justification. It wants a god who waves everybody in because he is too tender to judge. That is not the God of Romans. Romans reveals a God whose wrath is against ungodliness, whose law stops every mouth, whose judgment is according to truth, and whose righteousness is manifested in the gospel. The sinner is not saved because God forgot justice. He is saved because Jesus Christ met justice. The righteousness of God is the issue, and the gospel is God’s answer.

Chapter Three: Without the Law

Paul says this righteousness is “without the law.” That phrase is a hammer blow to legalism. The righteousness of God for justification is manifested without the law. That does not mean the law was evil. Romans 7 will say the law is holy, just, and good. It means the law is not the channel by which the sinner receives justifying righteousness. The law can tell a sinner what righteousness demands, but it cannot give him righteousness after he has already broken it. The law can condemn the guilty, but it cannot redeem the guilty. The law can show sin, but it cannot wash sin away.

“Without the law” means the sinner is not justified by commandment-keeping. He is not justified by doing his best. He is not justified by keeping the Sabbath, observing feast days, submitting to circumcision, following Moses, or placing himself under a covenant God did not give to the Body of Christ for justification. The law is not the ladder. It is the mirror. If a man looks in the mirror and sees dirt on his face, he does not rip the mirror off the wall and try to scrub himself with it unless he has lost his mind. The law shows the sinner his filth. Christ cleanses.

This also exposes every Church Age substitute for law-righteousness. Men may not call it Moses, but they still build their own law systems. They say you must be baptized to be saved. You must take the sacraments. You must confess to a priest. You must endure in works to keep justification. You must join the right church. You must keep the commandments sufficiently. You must surrender enough, perform enough, promise enough, prove enough. Paul says righteousness is manifested without the law. If God says without the law, no priest, pope, preacher, denomination, confession, catechism, or religious salesman has the right to sneak law back in through the side door.

Chapter Four: Witnessed by the Law and the Prophets

Paul says this righteousness was “being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” That is balance. The righteousness of God is without the law as the means of justification, but it is not contrary to the Old Testament Scriptures. The law and prophets witnessed it. They testified to it. They pointed toward it. They did not produce it in the sinner, but they bore witness to God’s way of righteousness. Paul is not preaching a gospel detached from Scripture. He is preaching the fulfillment and revelation of what the Scriptures had already been testifying.

The law witnessed to righteousness by showing man’s guilt, by setting forth sacrifice, blood, priesthood, atonement, and substitution in shadow form. The prophets witnessed to righteousness by speaking of the Lord’s Servant, the coming Redeemer, the suffering Messiah, and the salvation of God. Isaiah 53 shows the sin-bearing Substitute. Jeremiah speaks of “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Habakkuk says, “The just shall live by his faith.” The Old Testament is not silent about God’s righteousness. It points forward, testifies, foreshadows, and prepares the way. But the full doctrinal explanation of justification by faith apart from the deeds of the law comes blazing through Paul’s gospel with unmatched clarity.

This is where right division keeps a man from falling into a ditch. One ditch says the Old Testament has nothing to do with Paul’s gospel. Wrong. Paul says the law and prophets witnessed it. The other ditch says because the law and prophets witnessed it, there is no distinct Pauline revelation, no mystery, no dispensational difference, and no need to distinguish Israel from the Church. Wrong again. Witnessed is not the same as fully revealed in all its Church Age doctrinal detail. The law and prophets bore witness. Paul gives the full explanation of righteousness without law, faith of Jesus Christ, justification freely by grace, redemption in Christ, and the mystery later stated in Romans 16. Let the Bible say both things.

Chapter Five: By Faith of Jesus Christ

Romans 3:22 says, “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” Here is how the righteousness of God comes to the sinner: by faith of Jesus Christ. Faith is not a work. Faith is not a sacrament. Faith is not a religious achievement. Faith is the receiving hand that takes God at His word concerning His Son. The sinner stops trusting himself and believes on Jesus Christ. That is the end of boasting. That is why Romans 3:27 will say boasting is excluded by the law of faith. Faith does not give man glory. Faith gives God glory because faith admits God is true and man has nothing to offer.

The phrase “faith of Jesus Christ” is rich. It points to Christ as the object and ground of saving faith, and to the faithfulness connected with Him and His finished work. The righteousness of God is not by faith in a vague religious feeling. It is not by faith in faith. It is not by faith in the church. It is not by faith in baptism. It is not by faith in one’s ability to persevere. It is by faith of Jesus Christ. The sinner is saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. Christ is the center. Christ is the ground. Christ is the object. Christ is the Redeemer. Christ is the righteousness-providing Saviour.

Paul adds that this righteousness is “unto all and upon all them that believe.” There is the open offer and the actual application. It is unto all. The gospel can be preached to every sinner. There is no racial wall, no class wall, no intellectual wall, no moral wall that says Christ cannot save. Jew and Gentile alike need this righteousness. But it is upon all them that believe. It is not automatically applied to every man regardless of faith. Universal offer is not universal salvation. The righteousness is provided in Christ and applied to the believer. The dividing line is not Jew or Gentile, moral or immoral, rich or poor, religious or pagan. The dividing line is belief in Jesus Christ.

Chapter Six: For There Is No Difference

Paul says, “for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” There is no difference in the matter of guilt and need. That does not erase dispensational, national, or covenant distinctions in the Bible. Jew, Gentile, and the Church of God still remain distinct categories in Scripture. Israel is not the Church. The Church is not Israel. Gentiles do not become Jews by believing. But when it comes to sin and the need for the righteousness of God, there is no difference. Jew and Gentile both sinned. The law-holder and the lawless both sinned. The religious man and the pagan both sinned. The respectable sinner and the scandalous sinner both sinned.

“All have sinned” is one of the most familiar verses in Romans, but familiarity should not dull the blade. All means all. Have sinned means the record is already stained. Man is not on probation to see whether he will eventually need grace. He has already sinned. He has already come short. He has already missed the glory of God. Religion may compare sinners with other sinners, but God compares sinners with His glory. That is why every mouth is stopped. Man has not merely come short of his personal potential. He has come short of the glory of God. That is an infinite gap, and no human work can bridge it.

This verse also explains why the same gospel is needed by all. The Jew needs Christ. The Gentile needs Christ. The child raised in church needs Christ. The pagan raised in darkness needs Christ. The moral man needs Christ. The criminal needs Christ. The preacher needs Christ. The professor needs Christ. The Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, atheist, agnostic, and religiously confused all need Christ. There is no difference in the need. All have sinned. All come short. The only righteousness that can answer that condition is the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ.

Chapter Seven: Justified Freely by His Grace Through Redemption

Romans 3:24 says, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” That is one of the greatest sentences in the Bible. “Justified” means declared righteous before God. Not gradually improved until acceptable. Not put on religious probation. Not partially forgiven until sacraments finish the job. Justified. The guilty sinner who believes on Christ is declared righteous on the ground of Christ’s redemption. That is not fiction. That is not legal pretending. That is God’s righteous declaration based on the finished work of His Son.

“Freely by his grace” is enough to bankrupt every religious system that sells salvation in installments. Freely means without cost to the sinner because the cost was paid by Christ. Grace means unmerited favor, not wages, not debt, not religious trade, not human contribution. If it is freely by His grace, then it is not by your baptism, your communion, your confession, your church membership, your law-keeping, your tears, your vows, your reform, your giving, your ministry, or your endurance. Those things may have places when rightly understood, but not as the ground of justification. The ground is grace through redemption in Christ Jesus. Let religious flesh squirm. The verse still says freely.

“Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” tells you that grace is free to the sinner but not cheap. Redemption means a price was paid. The sinner is not justified because God ignored sin. He is justified because Christ paid the price. Redemption is in Christ Jesus, not in Rome, not in the priesthood, not in the baptistry, not in the altar call, not in the law, not in the sinner’s promise, not in the church roll, not in moral effort. In Christ Jesus. The sinner who wants justification must come to the Redeemer. That is where grace meets righteousness. That is where guilt meets blood. That is where the condemned man receives a standing he could never earn.

Conclusion

Romans 3:21–24 is the glorious turn in Romans. After the wrath of God has been revealed, after the Gentile world has been exposed, after the moral judge has been condemned, after the Jew has been stripped of false confidence, after every mouth has been stopped, and after no flesh has been justified by the deeds of the law, God reveals His answer: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.” That is the gospel breaking into the courtroom. Man has no righteousness, so God provides His. Man cannot be justified by law, so God justifies by grace. Man has sinned and come short, so God gives redemption in Christ Jesus.

This passage destroys every mixed gospel. Righteousness is without the law. It is witnessed by the law and prophets. It is by faith of Jesus Christ. It is unto all and upon all them that believe. It is necessary because all have sinned. It is given freely by grace. It is through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. There is no room here for priestcraft, sacramental machinery, law-keeping, religious merit, probationary salvation, or human boasting. If justification is freely by His grace, then the sinner’s contribution is excluded. If redemption is in Christ Jesus, then the sinner’s hope is not in a system. If the righteousness is of God, then man’s righteousness is not the answer.

So let the two words stand in all their glory: “But now.” They are the answer to Romans 1 through 3. They are the turn from guilt to grace, from condemnation to justification, from law to righteousness without law, from man’s failure to Christ’s redemption. The sinner has come short of the glory of God, but Christ has not. The sinner has no righteousness, but God has manifested righteousness. The sinner cannot pay, but Christ has redeemed. The sinner cannot boast, but he can believe. And the moment he believes on Jesus Christ, he is justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is not religion. That is salvation.