Romans 3:21-26, Salvation is God’s Gift
Romans 3:21-22a But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe …
Romans 3:22b-26 … for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
From Romans 1:18-3:20, the Apostle Paul established the truth that whether Jew or Gentile, all men are under the bondage of sin. Man is helpless and hopeless without God acting to break the fetters of sin in his life. This is so true as we observe the life of unsaved men and women. They may be our loved ones, friends, colleagues, classmates. Our heart goes out to them as we see them struggle with sin in their lives without the power to break free from it.
The Apostle Paul now brings help and hope to the lost. In Romans 3:21-5:21, he revealed that God intervened in human history to save man from the judgement of sin (which is physical death and eternal condemnation in hell fire), through His Son, Jesus Christ. To help us understand the concept of God’s salvation, the Chinese people came up with the word for “righteousness” which explains exactly our text. The top radical is a lamb or sheep. And the bottom radical is “I” or “me”. The Lamb of God covers me giving to me this “righteousness”. It pre-figures the coming of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world (John 3:16-17). Jesus, indeed, as John the Baptiser declared is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
Swindoll said well, “Though we stand guilty, completely devoid of righteousness before God, we are declared just by means of a transfer of righteousness to our account from that of Jesus Christ.” This is the meaning of the word “redemption” in verse 24 which describe how the Christian receives salvation. It depicts how Jesus’ willingly went to the cross, shed His blood, which is the means by which we receive forgiveness of sins. This is the meaning of the word “propitiation” in verse 25.
It is by faith in what Jesus Christ had done on the cross that we can be justified before God and our soul will be translated to heaven immediately when we die escaping the eternal judgement of hell fire.
What a glorious gospel! It is freely given by the special favour of God, as a gift from God, appropriated by accepting this truth from the heart. May God help us to share this blessing with someone today. Amen.