Romans 3

Chapter 3 starts out answering objections to the universal guilt of both Jews and Gentiles under God's law. If the Jews were God's chosen people and they were just as guilty as the Gentiles, then why would God choose them in the first place? The answer is that God raised up the Jewish nation as guardians of his revealed word. But since the Jews did not even believe the words they were guardians of, does that mean that God failed? Not at all. God is faithful to preserve his word even if the trusted guardians don't keep it. The fact that God keeps his word even though the Jews failed to do so, demonstrates how faithful He is. The Jew would then argue that if their unfaithfulness serves to highlight how faithful God is, does that mean that He is is wrong to judge the guilty, unbelieving Jew? Of course not. All who sin under the law will perish under the law if judged by the law.

Paul summarizes this by saying that no one is righteous under God's law because all people sin by break His law. Paul is not picking on the Jews. He was a Jew and he includes himself and all Christians as also being guilty under the law as well. "There is no one righteous, not even one" (verse 10). Everyone is under sin (verse 9). The point of Chapter 3 is that there is no hope under God's law.

All this leads up to the good news of a new way of being righteous before God apart from having to perfectly obey God's law. The new way is that God gives right-standing to the one who believes in His Son Jesus Christ. And this right-standing is given as gift, received by faith. In verse 21 and 22, it says "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known...through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." It is not a righteousness that is of us or by us. Those who receive it are "justified freely by His grace" (verse 24).

In verses 23-26 it says: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." (verse 23-26)

This passage instroduces the atonement. Jesus shed his blood and died on the cross as "a sacrifice of atonement." To atone for sin means to make amends for it. Jesus' atonement and our being freely justified are strongly related. The second can not happen without the first. God does not give us the gift of righteousness apart from this atonement. Otherwise God would be unjust for not punishing sin. And he would be unfaithful to his word in which he promised that sin would result in death. Since God can not lie and can not be unjust, he had to provide a suitable sacrifice for sin. And Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. He was so pure and holy, his life so precious and his obedience so pleasing that it made up for the sin of all mankind.

The atonement answers the question of how God can pronounce someone not guilty who is guilty. It answers the dilemma of how God can be just and the justifier of sinners at the same time. It preserves God's purity yet demonstrates his loving mercy. It vindicates his holiness in forgiving sinners. It is a marvelous truth that God can freely pardon our guilt and remove our shame yet remain pure and holy! Therefore Jesus, God incarnate, laying down his life on our behalf glorifies God's grace. It takes away any grounds for us boasting of righteousness and it upholds the law by not ignoring our sin.