Another Way of Righteousness

 As we begin this morning, let’s read our text together from Rom. 3:21-31. This morning I want to focus on verses 21-26 as we understand this fundamental point that Paul makes in the book of Romans. Remember, Paul has been working out all of the ways that God’s wrath is revealed against the unrighteousness of man. In our last passage from the beginning of Chapter 3, Paul has concluded that “there is none righteous, no not one” (v. 11). Both Jew and pagan stand condemned before God. Now, Paul makes a turn, and a little ray of hope breaks through in his teaching. He says, in verse 21, that there is a way of righteousness that comes apart from the Law, though the Law actually reveals this way of righteousness. That way of righteousness is one that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Now, if we are good students of the Old Testament Law, we might want to pump the breaks here and say, “Now wait a minute, Paul! God’s law is very strict and the slightest disobedience carries heavy judgment, so how can you say that there is a way of righteousness that is apart from the law?” But, there is another way of righteousness that runs throughout the OT, and we miss it because we are so often caught up on the “do’s and don’ts”. Consider three places where this other way of righteousness shows up.

First, in Exodus 12, we pick up at the end of the nineth plague that God has unleashed on Egypt to bring the Pharoah to let the Israelites go. Once again, the Pharoah has refused. So, God instructs Moses to gather all of the Israelites for a new ritual. They are to take a young, spotless lamb, slaughter it, drain its blood, and splatter it on the doorposts of their houses. God warns that he is about to send the Death Angel into all of Egypt to take the life of every firstborn child. But, when the death angel sees the blood of a spotless lamb on the doorpost, he will pass over that home. Now, with the other nine plagues, God had protected the Israelites from their effects. But, with this tenth plague, the Israelites were at just as much risk as the Egyptians. If the Israelites did not act in faith and trust in the sacrifice of the lamb, their firstborn would be taken alongside those of Egypt. A few thousand years later, a man named John the Baptist is standing along the Jordan River. He looks up and sees Jesus coming down the valley towards him, and in John 1:29, he tells his disciples, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” The blood of that spotless Passover lamb that covered the sinful people hidden inside each home pointed forward to Jesus Christ, whose blood would cover our sins so that we might escape eternal death in Hell.

Second, in Numbers 21, the people of Israel grew impatient in their wilderness wanderings and began to grumble against God and Moses. So, God sent snakes into the camp to bight the people, and many of them died. The people begged Moses to intercede that they might be healed. God directed Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a staff. If the people looked up to that bronze snake, they would be healed. Again, many years later, a religious leader named Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. Nicodemus knows that, for all of his outward righteousness, he still isn’t worthy to inherit eternal life. He knows that, like those Israelites in the wilderness, he has been bitten by the curse of sin. Then Jesus tells him, in John 3:14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

Finally, in Exodus 16, again we find the Israelites grumbling for lack of food. So, God sends a miraculous, heavenly food called manna. With this miraculous bread, God gives some commands. The Israelites are to collect only enough manna to feed their families for a day. If they collect more than a day’s worth, what is left till night will spoil. On Friday, they were to collect two days’ worth so that they would have enough to eat on the Sabbath. The whole time they journeyed through the wilderness – over 40 years of wandering – God daily provided for their needs through this manna. Again, thousands of years later, a crowd came to Jesus to hear him teach. Jesus recognized that they didn’t have any food and they were stuck in the wilderness, so he miraculously provided bread and fish for all of them. The crowd was so amazed by this that the followed him around begging him to feed them again. In John 6:32-35, Jesus told the crowd, “It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven… I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Now, with all three of these miracles of the OT, I want you to notice three things. First, in all three, God rescues his people even though they have nothing to give him in return. So, notice in Rom. 3:24, Paul says that there is a way of righteousness that is by God’s grace as a free gift. Like the Israelites, we all have been bitten by the curse of sin and will surely die as a result. And just as God showed mercy to those grumbling Israelites in the form of a bronze serpent, so God shows mercy to us through his Son.

Second, in all three, God is the one to do the work. In the same way, Paul says in verse 25, Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. That word, “propitiation” means that Jesus has swallowed up the wrath that God has for our sins. Like the Israelites, the hot breath of the death angel would consume us in judgment, but for the blood of the Lamb of God that has been splattered on the doorposts of our hearts.

Finally, in all three, the grace and work of God were received by faith. So, Paul says in verse 26 that God has shown himself to be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ. This phrase is amazing to me. In Jesus, God has proven himself to be just because he has judged sin, once and for all, on the cross of calvary. But, in Jesus, God proves himself to be the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. In other words, God is right to declare us to be right because of our faith in what Christ has done. Like the Israelites who trusted that God would provide enough food to meet their need for the day, we are called to trust that God will provide eternal life through his Son.

Friend, Paul has the right of it – all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You cannot be good enough for God, and if you seek to walk the way of the law to make yourself good enough for God, you will only break yourself against the purity of his Law. But there is another way. Trust in Jesus Christ and what he has done for you through his death and resurrection.

Brothers and sisters, the righteousness that comes through faith is something we must take up daily. Remember, your righteousness does not come because you have somehow made yourself worthy. As Paul says in verse 27, boasting is excluded by the law of faith. Our right standing before God is a result of God’s grace and work. May we rest in his mercy as we live for him.