The Center of the Whole Bible

D.A. Carson – Session 1 – Live Blog

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 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.

Romans 3:21-26, ESV

This text focuses on righteousness because the previous two chapters have focused on sin and rebellion.

You can not understand what Paul is saying in Romans 3:21-26 until we understand what Paul was saying in Romans 3:9-18.

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

First and foremost, we must understand that sin is basically idolatry. God is marginalized and set aside for something else.

Example: When we are shown a picture of our graduating class, who do we look for in the picture first? Ourselves, of course!

Example: When we walk away from an argument or a debate, don’t we always replay the argument in our heads? Have we ever lost a re-run of an argument? Of course not, we must always come first.

The previous two chapters in Romans reveal that both Jew and Gentile supress the truth and neglect God. Therefore, we both need to be reconciled to God.

Paul, then, establishes four points:

1. Paul sets forth the revelation of God’s righteousness in relation to the Old Testament.

v. 21 – “But now” – It is not saying that the Old Testament is full of God’s wrath, ‘but now’ we have Jesus meek and mild. The Old Testament speaks of God being slow to anger, and the New Testament has Jesus calling people children of the devil along with Jesus giving some of the most descriptive visions of hell. Carson states that just as the love of God from the Old to the New Testament is ratcheted up and made clearer, so the wrath of God from the Old to the New Testament is ratcheted up and made clearer. So “but now” speaks of the law as that which made the righteousness of God known. “But now” the righteousness of God comes apart from the law, but through Jesus. The entire time, the law had been testifying of Jesus as the ultimate revelation of God’s righteousness and covenant. To understand this, in the New Heaven and the New Earth, will there be any signs commanding that we shall not commit murder or adultery? Does the morality change because the law is no longer posted? Of course not, the law of not committing murder is actually pointing to loving people. We should read the whole Bible to see the bigger picture of what God is saying.

2. Paul sets forth the availability of God’s righteousness to all human beings without racial distinction on the condition of faith.

It is given by faith to all who have faith. God provides it with no distinction because there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile in their falling short of the Glory of God. All people are in need of this righteousness and this righteousness is made available to all people who have faith.

3.Paul sets forth the gift of God’s righteousness through the propitiation of Jesus Christ.

In the ancient world, some would become slaves to pay off loans to those whom they borrowed. One could go and buy your freedom from slavery by the payment of another to buy you out of slavery. God presented Christ as a propitiation by His blood. In pagan cultures, propitiation works by the worshiper trying to offer something to the gods to make them propitious towards them. Rather, in Christianity, we do not do anything to make God propitious towards us. Some have used expiation here by saying that God was already propitious towards us and did not need to be made propitious. Explanation: God stands over against us in wrath because we have rebelled against Him. God stands over us in love  because He is that kind of God. So the same God who loves us and gives Himself for us is also angry at us for our sin against Him. Christ does cancel the sin (expiation), but the wrath of God is set aside by Christ’s death (propitiation). The idea of a judge who sentences a fine upon a criminal but pays the fine himself does not do justice to the idea of God’s propitiation. Judges in our world are not the one’s who were sinned against, they are simply administrators of a bigger system of law. In fact, judges today have to step down if they were the one against whom the crime was committed. However, with God, He is the One sinned against and is always the most offended party. David even sees this by saying “against You only have I sinned” while speaking with God (Psalm 51). Despite David sinning against MANY others, God is the most offended party. God’s wrath must, therefore, be set aside.

4. Paul sets forth the demonstration of the righteousness of God through the cross of Christ.

“God did this to demonstrate His justice” – usually when we think of the cross, we think of it only in terms of the demonstration of God’s love for us. While that is true, Paul speaks of the cross as the demonstration of God’s justice. God had passed over so many former sins (v. 25), but now God reveals His justice in paying for the sins Himself by way of the cross? Would God be just in forgiving the sins of a person “just because He is a nice God?” We might be impressed with His soft-heartedness, but we would certainly not be impressed by His justice. God sends His Son to set aside His own wrath (propitiation) to demonstrate His justice and righteousness in that the sins have been paid for upon the cross of Christ.

Q&A

1. Do you think it was more difficult to understand the method of salvation (salvation by faith) living in OT times, NT times or now?

- YES! It is always difficult to understand the issue of faith alone in the salvation of sinners. We too often believe that the Gospel is for “good” people.

2. What do we lose if we deny the doctrine of propitiation?

- We lose an understanding of the wrath of God. The wrath of God MUST be set aside, because the wrath of God is real. We will end up thinking that God sent Jesus to redeem our lives with each other and the world, all the while leaving out that our sin is an offense to God and therefore we must be reconciled to God and are in desperate need of God’s forgiveness. This can only be achieved through the cross of Christ in propitiation. The cross achieves much (the death of sin, etc), but at the heart of it all is the doctrine of propitiation.