The Cross and Justification, Part 2 | Christ, His Cross, His Church

Romans 3 :21-31

In Romans chapter 3 In verse 21 we read this, “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. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one – who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.”

Justification is needed by all. Everyone needs this. Everyone who has lived since Adam over the course of some 6000 years of human history, everybody needs this gift of justification, no matter what the language, no matter where they live, no matter the color of their skin. Everybody needs this.

 You and I are on the same level as everyone else. We’re all levelled by our guilt before God, and everyone needs this justification that is offered to them in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jews and Gentiles face the same problem. We all have failed. We all are guilty before God apart from Christ, and we are all without hope. Look at Romans chapter 3, verse 23. Having just said in verse 22, actually I should pick it up there, I guess, “The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction.” Verse 23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

There’s no distinction based on geography. There’s no basis for distinction based on ancestry. Those of you that were born, blessed to be born into a Christian family, you have no advantage in the matter of justification over someone who is not, because you are guilty, in and of yourself, and there is nothing about your spiritual heritage that puts you in a better position as it relates to the matter of justification than anyone else in the world. There is no distinction because, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

 Humanity, we are in a common lot with everyone else in humanity. The gospel excludes boasting because, justification is a gift of grace, is our next point, as we go into verse 24. Let’s look at it here, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We saw in verse 23, verse 24, and are justified by his grace as a gift. Now, God would have been perfectly just, perfectly righteous, to have required an eternal penalty from every one of us, as the just punishment that our sins deserved.

As I like to say, a sin against an eternal, the eternal law of an eternal God requires an eternal punishment. Look, this is not a light matter. This is not something that we can just kind of casually interact with. This is, this is, life stopping, soul stopping, truth that stops every one of us in its tracks, and calls us to come to grips with the condemnation of the law, and the reality of the, the, offer of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the gospel, and to work out the implications of that in our heart.

 God would have been perfectly just to require an eternal penalty to pay for our sin. Beloved, you and I, you and I, cannot argue any righteousness of our own to mitigate the penalty or the guilt. There’s nothing that we can say. Our mouths have been closed by Romans chapter 1 through chapter 3, verse 20. Our mouths have been closed. There’s nothing for us to say. The guilt is universal. The guilt is individual. The guilt is deep. The guilt is eternal. There is nothing we can do. There’s nothing we can say.

Scripture would teach us the fear of God, as we contemplate the reality of our guilt before him. Now, in light of all of that, to realize that justification is freely offered to us as a gift; a God who could righteously condemn us, instead offers a gift to us, something that is apart from merit. This is not from the mind of man. This is not from, this is not from, human philosophy and human speculation that would create a gospel.

 Man would never create a gospel that condemned himself, vindicated God, and left man without hope, or without boasting before man, or before God. Men don’t come up with things that condemn themselves. And in light of this, salvation must be something other than our merit. And we read in verse 24, we’re “justified by his grace as a gift.”

Fourth aspect of how the gospel forbids boasting is this, kind of building, these things kind of overlap and that’s okay. Justification is in Christ alone. Justification is in Christ alone. We saw, what we said, is the gospel forbids boasting because justification comes apart from any obedience to the law. Justification is needed by all without distinction. Justification is a gift of grace. Now we see that justification is in Christ alone.

 Salvation is completely humbling, because we, true salvation is found in someone else, not ourselves. Not even the strength of our own faith. The strength of our own repentance. Repentance is a gift that the Spirit of God works in our hearts. Faith is a gift that the Spirit of God works in our hearts.

 We don’t contribute faith as, as, our own independent contribution to save our own souls. It’s all the whole complex, the whole matrix, of it is all a gift that God does to unworthy sinners. And so salvation is utterly humbling, because we find everything about it outside of ourselves done by someone else, done by Christ, and we haven’t added a nickel to the value of it. We haven’t tossed in a few pennies that we can boast in. It’s in Christ, and it’s in Christ alone.

 Look at how Paul expresses this. Go back to verse 22. Where does this righteousness that God accepts? Where does it reside? Where is it found? Where is its source? Where does it come from? Verse 22, “The Righteousness of God through Faith in Jesus Christ.” Verse 24, “Redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Verse 26, “He might be just and the justifier or the one who has faith in Jesus.” Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus. Faith in Jesus.

 If we are to be saved, it comes only by what Christ has done apart from our contribution to it. Look, this is completely humbling. There’s, There’s, nothing to glory in self here. Acts 4:12 says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

 And so, if you are a real Christian, implicit in the seed of your faith, from the very beginning, was a reality, a spiritual recognition, a spiritual reality, a spiritual rest, a spiritual repose that said, if I am to be saved at all, it must be by what Christ does, because I cannot save myself. I have nothing to contribute. I have no good of my own to offer. I simply come to God as a guilty condemned sinner and in the spirit of the tax collector in Luke 18, “I say, God be merciful to me, a sinner!” I appeal to your mercy not on anything in me as a ground by which you would receive me.

 I remember clearly the moment of my salvation. I don’t expect everyone to be able to remember theirs. The Lord works in different ways. I remember the overwhelming fear of God and conviction of sin that came upon me. I remember crying out to Christ. And prior to that, looking back on it, as Travis talked about, you know, you see these things in retrospect. You see the glory of, the glory of, the cross in retrospect, not looking forward, looking back on it.

 There were, I, I was, I was, such a, I was I, I, I, I, hate the old Don Green. I probably said it here in times past, if the old Don Green ever walked into this room, I would find a ball bat and I would beat him to death, because I hate him that much. I want, I, I, never I, I, never want a, a, breath of life in the old Don Green ever again. The old Don Green boasted in self.

 The old Don Green boasted in the fact that he hadn’t committed certain sins at different points in his life, and found his righteousness in the things that he had not done, not recognizing that he was guilty because he did not love God with all of his heart, soul, strength, and mind. He did not love Christ. He did not love the word of God. And yet he boasted in himself, because he was a little bit more righteous on a comparative human basis with others that were around him.

 Then in a night of partying, he threw all that away, and he had nothing left. The Spirit of God said, so to speak, not in verbal audible voice, ‘You thought you were righteous. Look at who you are. Look at what you did last night.’ And I was utterly ruined and decimated. Knowing that I had nothing to claim before God, and under the work of the Spirit of God, I went and cried out to Christ to save me. The exact words don’t matter.

 But for the first time in my life, at that moment, under the leading and the illumination of the Holy Spirit, I understood that I had to rely on Christ alone for my salvation, and I had no righteousness of my own to contribute and, beloved, that’s the way it is for every true Christian.

 And so I have to ask you, in a room of this size, have you come to the end of yourself? Something like that. Where you realize that if God were to condemn you, it would be just. That not only do you not deserve to go to heaven, but that you, actually, deserve to go to hell. There’s a distinction there, isn’t there? Plenty of people say, oh, I don’t deserve to go to heaven, but to press the question and say, do you deserve to go to hell? That’s when you’ll get objections. Say well, no, that’s not fair. That’s not right. That’s somebody that hasn’t seen the gospel at all.

 The point is, is it justification is in Christ alone, and a Christian, a true Christian, rests and puts his faith entirely in Christ and in no way trusts in self. And that means all boasting is excluded. The theology of the cross, salvation in the cross, means that there’s no glory leftover for you and me.

 Now going on, justification is by the blood of Christ. Justification is by the blood of Christ. Now go back to Romans 1:18 for just a moment, here. Romans 1:18, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” It’s against all of us. And so somehow, somehow, we have to address the problem that that ongoing wrath against us has to be turned away and redirected away from us if we are to be safe and secure and not have our souls eternally condemned.

If wrath is against all men, including us, then that wrath has to be turned away. Look now at verse 25 in Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three, verse 25, he just said that the, “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood.” The word propitiation refers to a sacrifice that turns away divine wrath. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.”

Beloved, your blood is guilty. You couldn’t shed blood, your own blood, for your own sin. There’s no human being apart from Christ that could shed their blood to wash away your sin, because it takes a pure, spotless lamb to have that blood shed. “And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.” And so, it requires an innocent victim, as established by the pattern of the Old Testament sacrifices.

 God for millennia, established in their minds an understanding that there must be a substitute sacrifice where blood is poured out in death as a substitute for the guilty sinner. If that sinner is going to be able to stand before Holy God an innocent victim, and beloved, only Christ was qualified. Only Christ himself would suffice. And he hung on that cross in our place, bearing our sins in his body, and bore God’s wrath.

 God treated Christ as though he had committed every one of your sins and poured out the full fury of his wrath as Christ shed his blood on the cross and, beloved, as it were, as it were, you and I stood by passively as that happened. We didn’t help Christ on the cross. We didn’t have anything to support him. We weren’t even there. He stood in our place, suffered the price, the price that he paid, and the fact that we could never have begun to pay it, is humbling, and that forbids all boasting in self. Do you see how every aspect of justification completely levels human pride to the glory of Christ and leaves us with no boasting?

 Sixthly, justification is received by faith alone. Justification is received by faith alone. Paul explains the plan of God in the next verse. The condemnation of the law. The sacrifice of Christ combined to show that we could do nothing, we did do nothing, to achieve salvation on our own, and if there is nothing that we can do, then how can we possibly be saved?

Paul explains the plan of God in verse 26 when he says, after having referred to the death of Christ on the cross, he says, “It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that God might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Well, whatever faith is, it’s pretty important to understand what it is.

 Again, the Shorter Catechism asks the question: What is faith in Jesus Christ? Question number 86. And there’s just, there’s two keywords in this that I want you to hear and retain. “Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as He is offered to us in the gospel.” We receive Christ and we rest in him. This is what faith is. Christ is offered to us in the gospel as the perfect God man, perfect life, perfect sacrifice offered to us freely for the forgiveness of our sins.

 The question is how do we appropriate that? We receive him. We yield to him. We give ourselves to him, and we rest upon him alone for salvation, meaning that we are no longer trusting in anything that we have done, anything that we will ever do. No commitments of our heart. No promises of our heart. We are resting alone in what Christ has done, and we receive him in the fullness of who he is, fullness of his Lordship, fullness of his role as savior, prophet, priest, and king.

 We receive him unconditionally for who he is, and we stopped there, and says my salvation is in Christ alone. We receive him and we rest in him alone for salvation. And that’s a gift, even that’s a gift of grace. Faith is something God gives to us, not that we give to God first. If our faith, rather than grace, distinguished us, we’d have something to boast in. I had faith, and the other guy didn’t. I’m better.

That’s not the point of the gospel at all. If we generated our own faith, it would be a ground of distinction before men and give us a ground for boasting. But faith itself is a gift of grace, simply the means by which we receive Christ, not an independent effort of our flesh. You must be born again in order to exercise faith.

Now, beloved, this is all good news for guilty sinners, those crushed under the weight of their sin, crushed under the weight of an accusing conscience, to realize that what God requires is not ritual, not new obedience from you, not promises, not tears. What God requires is faith in Christ. And since Christ obeyed the law, perfectly paid the full penalty for its violation, he satisfies everything that God requires. He did it on our, on our behalf, on your behalf.

 And so God can be just and uphold what the law requires and also justify us, declare us righteous through faith in his Son. The point is this. God has supplied everything in the gospel. God has supplied everything in Christ. And by faith, we merely receive what God offers to us as a gift. You know what that does? Start to see a theme here. You start to see a pattern here. It excludes all boasting. There’s nothing for us to boast about.

And that leads us to our final point for tonight. It certainly doesn’t exhaust the text, but justification forbids all boasting by man. Justification depends entirely on Christ and on his work on the cross. He made atonement for our sins by bearing the penalty of a sin on our behalf. He voluntarily gave himself for us.

 And here’s the conclusion that Paul comes to after having laid out all of this rich exposition and explanation of what Christ did for us. Look at what he says in verse 27. Look at how Paul applies it to his readers for all time. “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.” You could paraphrase it by saying, then where is the role? Where is the place for human pride in the gospel of God and in God’s salvation? It’s excluded. We have no grounds for pride in self in the gospel.

This way of salvation gives all the glory to God and none to us. Look at verses 27 and 28. “By what kind of law? By a law of works? Is it by obedience that we have done?” Paul speaking rhetorically here, he says, “No, it’s by the law of faith. For we hold the one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” Apart from your obedience, God has saved you and given you this righteousness.

And in this way God shows that he’s the God of the whole world and not only of the Jews. Verses 29 and 30, “Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who-will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.” And this way of salvation honors. It confirms the law. Everything that God requires is accomplished. Nothing about what the law has required from men. None of that has been set aside or abrogated.

All of the positive commands have been fulfilled in the obedience of Christ. All of the penalty that the law requires for our sin, paid in full in Christ. And so that’s why Paul can say in verse 31, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?” He says, “By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law.” The law is fulfilled in Christ, not set aside.

 God doesn’t lower the standard and then let us in. He doesn’t wink at our sin. He doesn’t say, “Well, you know, I was just kind of kidding with that. That was an empty threat, what the law said, I’ll just let it go. God didn’t just let our sin go.” The full price of sin was paid for by Christ on our behalf, and for that we give him all of the glory, all of our love, and reserve no boasting for ourselves.

 Saving faith no longer looks to self in any way to satisfy the law. Saving faith looks entirely and exclusively to Jesus Christ and his finished work. Saving faith rests in Christ alone. Everything about our salvation, everything about our justification is in Christ, and as a result, he alone gets the glory, and we get the cross. And we thank God for that.

 And so, my friends, in any way, after seeing what Scripture says, in any way, do you boast in self, in any way? Do you boast like I used to? I haven’t committed these certain sins. I’m better than so and so. I’m not that bad. I don’t deserve to go to hell. All of those are marks of someone still trusting in self and, and, boasting in self.

 And all of that, beloved, all of that wicked pride, has to be forsaken, and approach Christ as a beggar, giving him the glory alone. Apostle Paul said elsewhere in Scripture, he said, “Far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.