But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets.But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets;But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
6 sermons cite this verse
… as we saw last week be the greatest transition verse in all of the Bible, Romans 3 21, Paul says, but now a righteousness from God apart from the law has been made known. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There's no difference. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace to the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God has presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. In other words, men, all men sinful before God, but God has poured out the wrath due sin upon his son so that anyone, anywhere can be saved from their sin and reconciled to God forever. Which then leads to the question how is that possible? How is that a reality? And he answers that question in Romans 4 and 5. He says it's through faith. It's not through work. It's not through you doing a bunch of work for God. …
… The greatest transition in all of the Bible is Romans 3.21, but now. Sin, sin, sin. But now righteousness from God apart from the law has been made known. And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ through all who believe. There's no difference. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace, the redemption that comes by Christ Jesus. God has presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, a propitiation through faith in his blood. God loves you so much. He has made a way for you to be saved from all your sin. He has sent his son. So don't think, well, what's the list of things I need to do? No, it's all based on what he has done. God has sent his one and only son. He's lived a life you could not live in your own life. Perfect obedience to God. He's died the death you deserve to die. He's died in the place, the punishment for sinners. …
… But Paul is talking about no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Verse 21 introduces that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. So, he's not saying that all are justified in verse 24, but as he's carrying this argument, he's thinking specifically about those who receive the righteousness of God. There's no distinction with them, for every one of them has fallen short of the glory of God. And now he continues here thinking about the Christian. How are we justified? We will revisit this doctrine again in verse 26. As I said last week, we're moving particularly slowly. We will speed up later to take, you know, sentences at a time in a few verses, but these are so important and so rich. We're taking over these weeks just one verse at a time. So, we'll have occasion to come back to justification in verse 26 and elsewhere throughout the book, but here he introduces this grand theme in its positive dimension. And so it's worth asking, well, what is justification about? …
… 3, verse 21. So, all of the bad things out there, how broken and evil and dark the world is, go right to 21, chapter 3. But now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, the righteousness of God through faith in Christ. Give us the gospel, Paul. Therefore, they think, all right, what do you got for us, Paul? We see it. We see it. Boy, that's an ugly picture, isn't it? It sure is, Paul. Therefore, what do you have for us? Second word, you. Wait a minute. I sort of picture it. Paul hadn't been there. He wasn't there, but you sort of picture it as if Paul's kind of, he's got an arm around the Romans there, the Jewish Christians. I mean, sort of, would you look at that? Yeah, Paul, that is true. That's really bad, isn't it? That's what the world is like. And they're sort of all huddled up, just in it together, just down on one knee, just looking out. …
… we're talking about grace and how important it is for us to understand this free gift that all of us receive together. Romans chapter three, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known. Last week, if you weren't here, we talked about the difference between the law and grace. The law, the old covenant, what we used to be under, The law could tell you how bad you were, point out your sin, but could never give you the power to overcome your sin. In the New Testament, in grace, Jesus doesn't point out our flaws and our weaknesses. He puts our eyes on the cross, puts our eyes on the blood of Jesus, puts our eyes on the empty tomb. I just love this because I said it last week, the first time the law is preached in the Old Testament, 3,000 people die. The first time grace is preached in the New Testament, 3,000 are saved. The law kills, but the Spirit gives life. Anybody thankful that we're no longer under the tyranny of the law, but we're under the canopy and the umbrella of Jesus? Come on, somebody clap if you're grateful to be under grace today. We're under grace. Read it again. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known to you, to which both the law and the prophets even testify of Jesus. The righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. I like that, to all who believe. So it doesn't matter your socioeconomic background. …
… God's marketing strategy, what is it? Well, you see in Romans chapter three, verse 21, that Paul makes a massive pivot. Now, we're in a study throughout the book of Romans. The book of Romans is the Magna Carta of the Christian faith. It's the constitution of the Christian faith. is probably the most important book in the Bible. If you understand the book of Romans, you understand what it means to be a Christian, and you understand what it means to walk with the Lord. So I want to challenge you to be here at Fellowship Church for the next several weeks. And you know, too, I want to just say hi to all of our different campuses. If you're in downtown Dallas, downtown Fort Worth, if you're in fabulous Frisco, Alasso Ranch, you're watching online. If you're watching one of our online presentations on another streaming platform, radio, whatever, welcome to Fellowship Church. This is going to be an exciting day as we study the most important paragraph in the Bible, which is Romans chapter 3, verses 21 through 28. …