THE BOOK OF ROMANS CHAPTER 3:20-31
THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL OF GOD

These verses (Romans 3:20-31) are often incorrectly referred to as the heart of the Gospel of God. They speak to God’s gift of Justification with eternal life through Jesus the Christ. Correctly understood, these verses are foundational to the Gospel of God (Romans 1:1) as opposed to the heart of the Gospel. What the vast majority of Christians have been taught is that these few verses represent the completeness or the fullness of God’s Gospel Message manifest in Jesus the Christ. That supposed completeness being that we are “saved by grace” through Jesus Christ only and that without any works of our own. But this is just part of the Gospel of God. It is the foundation, not the fullness. Using these words alone (saved by grace) and declaring this revealed gift of God’s graciousness in justification, the majority of Christians claim that this gift in His grace also answers to sanctification, without any works. And furthermore, they wrongly appropriate unto themselves resurrection glory. The Grace message (Cheap Grace message) today teaches that justification, sanctification, and glorification are all imputed to those who are merely justified. 

The truth of Scripture reveals that the gracious and merciful gift of justification stands apart from the grace and mercy (power) unto sanctification, and the hope of glory. The fact that scripture holds forth the “hope of glory” and not the assurance of glory of the First Resurrection resists the idea that redemption justification assures the promise of glorification. (Romans 5:2; 8:30; Colossians 1:27; Philippians 3:11-14).

These verses speak about the hope of glory or the reward of being glorified. In Romans 8:30, the past tense is used when he says, “them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified”. This does not mean that all who are justified will be sanctified and thus glorified, as many Christians believe (as if it was a package deal). This verse speaks to God’s Sovereign will in having a People whom He has predestinated to be overcomers who will be justified and eventually glorified. His Sovereign will / His Boulema WILL be done, as opposed to His desired will (His Thelema) which man, by his free will can either choose to resist or yield to. As we walk in the wilderness of life and then fight spiritual giants to inherit the Promised Land, we are working out our sanctification in the present tense. But to Him, that verse is past tense/completed because it was predestined that He will have a People whom He will sanctify and glorify. As to whether we will be a part of that People, is up to us.

 The foundation of the Israelites’ Good News calling was redemption from Egypt, and that being without any works on their part. But the heart of their Gospel was God’s glorious inheritance which was held out for them; that inheritance which without works they would not inherit. In this example, we can see God’s order. First there is the one-time event of applying the Blood of Christ for our redemption/justification which is the foundation that we need to build upon. This is akin to God redeeming the Israelites by the shed blood of the lamb. Then, the Israelites had to fight/overcome the enemies that would keep them from entering into their inheritance. This answers to the ongoing process of sanctification which we engage in while alive (conforming to the image of Christ) in order to obtain the prize of a glorious inheritance which answers to eternal glory. The Israelites’ experiences serve as a good example not only for us to not make the same mistakes (1st Corinthians  10:1-12), but the order of the events serve as a great example in understanding the fullness of the Gospel of God/God’s Salvation Plan. 

There are 9 key English words used in verses 20-31, each requiring definition for clear understanding for rightly dividing the Word. 

1. Law- is descriptive of God’s Righteousness that condemns sinners. It is synonymous with the Righteousness of God. 
2. Justified- in legal terms, one goes before the Judge (God), Justice has been satisfied (Christ paying the price/penalty for us), one is acquitted, and free from the sentence (of eternal death attached to sin). The Greek holds forth 3 tenses in connection with JUSTIFY/(SAVED): WAS JUSTIFIED/ SAVED-in the past tense; that is justified by faith without works. BEING JUSTIFIED/ SAVED-present tense; through sanctification by faith with obedient works. WILL BE  JUSTIFIED/ SAVED/SALVATION-future tense; this to be determined at the Judgment Seat of Christ (read Matthew 12:36-37), where justification without works of righteousness will not prevail Romans 2:6. It is critical to understand the tense of the word justification or saved where used in Scripture, which should be understood generally by context. Paul speaks here of a past and present justification (that work shoulder by shoulder) by faith; whereas James speaks to a future justification by works in the day of our judgment for reward or punishment… “…you see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only”. [James 2:24]
3. Righteousness- as it relates to justification, it means to be declared in right standing with God, and that being from the outside. Righteousness is imputed when the debt of Justice against sin has been paid (there is a further righteousness that is not imputed and it is worked out on the inside.  More on that later in this Epistle from Paul to the Romans).
4. Faith- as it has to do with justification and its righteousness; this faith is in what He did, without any works on our part. This is enough for justification (the blood of the Passover Lamb on the doorposts). Faith– IN Him requires obedient works unto sanctification (that is to say the inside work; actively being conformed to the image of His Son; going from faith to faith… Romans 8:29; 1:16-17)
5. Grace-as it relates to justification, is power of regeneration. It is an undeserved provision of His Graciousness; but requires faith in what He did for anyone to draw on that provision. (Grace as it relates to sanctification is the provision of power in His Graciousness but also requires faith in Him, that can only be drawn upon by expressed obedience to Him; this grace only can answer to falling from grace).  
6. Redemption- is satisfying Justice by paying the penalty or debt. The ransom price, being redeemed is not being free, I am yet a slave/servant; now unto the King.
7. Propitiation-the offering to appease or satisfy God’s Justice and Wrath. 
8. Forbearance-a time of God’s long-suffering, passing by or looking away from sin, He does not forgive it or forget it. Now Jesus Christ calls all men to repentance and accountability in that He has set a day He will judge the World.  Acts 17:30… “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent…”
9. Gift/Freely Given- justification by way of gift in His Grace is a one-time event in the rebirth of our spirit. Here Paul has expounded upon God’s Righteousness and Wrath, that being upon all men, and His free gift of justification answers to their incapability to deliver themselves from the eternal death penalty due sin. (Sin is taken care of in justification. The sin nature is dealt with in the process of sanctification. Reward for obedience after redemption is not yet brought into view in these first three chapters.)  

VERSE 20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. God’s Law was manifest; it was to define godliness and righteousness, and demands godliness and righteousness, and declares with warning the penalties for not obeying its demands. God’s Law (Garden and Mt. Sinai is strict, not only strict but lethal, and that for the slightest of sins) as the Law is a reflection of His Righteousness. It considers and accounts words and deeds, and even beyond that; the intent of heart (thoughts) as nothing sinful may be eternal/enter into eternity.

The purpose and result of God’s Law being manifest is to reveal what sin is and show that every man stands condemned under the Law of sin and death. As there is no possible provision for a man under sin to satisfy God’s Righteousness through keeping the Law. It is impossible for anyone to be justified under the Law, that is, to satisfy its demands by doing its commanded deeds. If there could have been a statute in the Law which could have satisfied God’s Righteousness and given life; righteousness would have been by the Law (Galatians 3: 10,11,21). The Law is not a recipe for favor or justification with God but recognition of condemnation.

Therefore the Law opens every man’s ear and shuts every mouth that would defend itself against God’s declared Righteousness exampled in the Law. That is with the ONE EXCEPTION: the Second Adam. Was He guilty of breaking any of God’s Laws of Righteousness? NO! No man was able to convict Him of one sin….”Which one of you convinceth Me of sin?” [John 8:46] In all things of the Law He was declared sinless. He, being condemned only when all others’ sin were laid upon Him and He suffered God’s declared penalty for sin; ungodliness or unrighteousness; death, which must be eternal.

VERSE 21 is connected with verse 20. “But now (by the Lamb of God) the righteousness of God (in that His justice is being satisfied) without (or outside) the law is manifested, Being witnessed by the law (that which is predicted and written there…John 5:46) and (in) the prophets;  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ (now fulfilled)…” But Now… after having given the bad news in the first 3 and 1/2 Chapters of this Epistle of Romans, and establishing the unrighteousness of man and the sure sentence pronounced by the Law upon him, (and that without mention of Jesus, save in the introduction), Paul now brings Jesus forth in the foundational doctrine of the Gospel of God; on which all the salvation superstructure doctrine of God will rest. Jesus, through His death, is set forth as the means of justification which is to satisfy God’s Justice. Before, God could only forbear with sin, “But now…” He may forgive sin. And that of both Jew and Gentile; through faith in what Jesus did, here proclaimed to be the Christ. He is the Son of God, and God’s answer to sin. He is now to be distinguished above all men, in that in all points of the Law He was tempted and was found to be without sin. He was righteous from the inside out, without blemish, being a fit offering Who willingly died for the unrighteous held in bondage to sin. According to the Law, due its just sentence, and subject to its curse, He suffered and died to satisfy the Law and redeem us, that God might then be Just in that He may now declare us justified by the propitiation of the Righteous One. 

The Plan of ‘Salvation’ which was conceived by the Father, is being willingly worked out by the Son, and is applied by the Holy Spirit. This gift of the righteousness of God is discovered now outside anyone keeping the deeds of the law, for the mercy seat of God in Christ now is manifest. It was for a long time concealed in the Old Testament, but is now “revealed” in the New Testament. That which was obscure, hidden, and indistinguishable to both man and spirits (1st Corinthians 2:7-8) in the Torah can now be clearly seen in the Gospel Light,“…being witnessed by the Law (Torah) and the prophets…” That is to say that His merciful righteousness could be extended outside the keeping of the law is first seen with the sentence of God’s condemning justice on Adam and Eve. But then there was the merciful post-Garden blood offering. This was Torah’s witness that had a view towards Christ’s Redemption outside keeping the commandments of the Law. Again, in Moses’ Law, sin is being offset with blood sacrifice; especially seen in the Day of Atonement, which is even a clearer shadow of a future righteousness to be wrought outside the Law. 

As the Law’s Atonement covering of sin was something different than forgiveness of sin, the atonement instituted for Adam and Eve’s sin and the Mosaic Law atonement speaks to God’s dealing in forbearance with His people’s sin, in that this atonement fell short of propitiation before His Righteousness, and served as but a mere covering of sin but could not satisfy Justice for forgiveness. That is to say the blood atonement of an appointed innocent animal could never completely reconcile man with God back into His presence. (The animal’s blood was still a veil whereas Christ’s Blood on the Mercy Seat of Heaven is the veil torn.)

Now the Old Testament statement that “the just (justified) shall live by faith” is more akin or closer to forgiveness, and speaks promisingly of restored intimacy, of that which is more in harmony with the Garden intimacy in righteousness before the fall of Adam.  

VERSES 22-23 “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”  Paul now presents the Biblical solution to God’s problem having condemned all mankind… “for all have sinned and came short of the glory of God…” In that now He extends His mercy in Christ to redeem and justify all men, both Jew and Gentile; and that being by faith in what He had done. In that we might now see the age-old hidden part of the salvation plan of the just gift of righteousness outside the Law of His Righteousness, which had to answer to all its strict demands, all which Jesus the Righteous One satisfied, and that gift of imputed righteousness may be appropriated by faith.

Now, as we have said, faith in what Christ did is different from faith IN Him. We might say we have faith in Christ when we really mean we have faith in that which He is purported to have done. But that is not faith in Him, that is faith in what He has done. He cannot testify to your Faith in Him until you are willing to put something of value of yours into His hands (such as offering our bodies as living sacrifices… Romans 12:1). Abram went from faith to faith as he first had persuaded faith and came out of Ur and later he had fully persuaded faith in God which is discovered in his willingness to offer Isaac up to God. It was when God testified, saying; “Now I know” that you surely have faith in Me. Before that, God did not know to what depth Abraham’s faith would manifest. And as a consequence, Abraham will reap the reward of that great faith. For in Abraham, there is not recorded a greater expression of faith, and thus he was given the only irrevocable promise in the Bible. God’s other promises are conditional upon our choices. We can either yield or resist the persuasion of the Holy Spirit brooding on our hearts. Through our wills/our volition, which is the most noble part of man, we get to choose life or choose death.

To say one has faith in Him, without the required corresponding action, is actually little or no faith. It’s merely hearing that which He says. Merely believing who He is and what He has done, and what He has said, has no or very little merit at all (the demons do that). And it doesn’t answer to any of the necessities of the law of faith to faith. Now this statement by God that He didn’t know… but now knows (concerning Abraham) speaks to the error and attitude of the Church in declaring God “knows” everything; in that they say He knows already what you will do. But this is not true according to God’s own witness. He knows certainly what you could do, and the consequences of your actions in the course you choose, but He does not know what you will choose to do, since His thelema/desired will is not necessarily what we will choose to do. Although God is good at predicting what we’ll do, knowing our hearts, (as is satan who watches us) we, by our own volition, make decisions moment by moment. Our future is dynamic, not predestinated. Now an argument could be brought forth that God knew what Pharaoh was going to do and that would be true because God hardened his heart for His purposes. But that is a rare anomaly in Scripture. Without question, God could harden or soften every man’s heart and dictate his every move, but that resists the idea of man’s creation in the first place, in that God gave him intellect and free will to choose between the options presented him; as we see He did with the Angels before we were created. This answers completely to why God justly can and will judge a man and angel according to his words, deeds and thoughts.   

Verse 24  “Being justified freely by his Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” Being” (having secured) “freely” (a gift; without having kept the Law) justified” (acquitted; forever freed from eternal condemnation) “by His Grace” (His gracious power) “through the redemption” (in that Justice was satisfied, the debt was paid in full and redemption is the result), “that is in Christ Jesus”(by faith in His substitutionary work wrought upon the Cross… as opposed to those who would try to justify themselves Luke16:15;10:29). The Cross was the redemption purchase price. Now the Cross answers not only to the Love of God, but is the clear demonstration of His severe Justice due His Righteousness. In that punishment for sin incurred by man must be fully administrated to man, the Cross is the demonstration of His strict and severe Justice just like Noah’s flood and Sodom and Gomorrah were. And so it was, as the sinless Son of Man/Son of God, Jesus the Christ could bear the full demand of His Righteousness on the Cross for mankind. The work of the Cross only He could accomplish; to this work of redemption we could add nothing. Those who have exercised this faith in the Cross are justified redeemed slaves out from under sin and eternal death, and the king and master of sinners; satan, as he is the father of the flesh and sin. (Being redeemed does not mean you are your own, but His who purchased you… 1st Corinthians 6:19-20). This initial faith knows nothing of works, but looks entirely to imputed justification for right standing with God through redemption, by way of Christ’s Propitiation. But again, be sure that Scripture teaches a future great accountability for faith to work, now in service to God, after redemption’s justification has been received (going from faith to faith Romans 1:16-17), unto a judged worthiness or unworthiness at the Judgment Seat of Christ for a place in His Kingdom (more about that later in this Epistle, but here in these verses, Paul just speaks of justification).

VERSE 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.” ‘Whom’ is referring to Christ Jesus the anti-type, Who God ‘set forth’ as type and shadow in the Torah; in the offerings culminating in the Mercy Seat propitiation in Moses’ Law particularly on the Day of Atonement. Jesus Christ’s Blood is set forth now as propitiation to God, but that propitiation becomes most meaningful when man’s faith is aroused in response to what God’s testimony is about that Blood. Forbearance of God passed over or passed by sins, they were not forgiven; they were not pardoned. 

VERSE 26 “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Christ’s obedience and offering are the ground on which God’s Righteousness and the criminal’s righteousness meet. In it (Christ’s Atonement) is discovered both the strict Righteousness / Justice of God and the righteousness of man in Christ. God in Christ may now Righteously justify (or condemn as Judge). 

VERSES 27-28 The Law is excluded from justification. There are but two ways to justification into right standing with God…1) keeping the Law completely or 2) by Grace; the provision of power discovered in God’s Son’s Blood propitiation. The two are diametrically opposed to one another and cannot be mixed. The way to God has been standardized; there is only one way to God. Prideful boasting is associated with Law keeping, as we tend to justify ourselves in the keeping. Whereas in faith when we recognize that someone else satisfied our debt for us outside the Law, be he Jew or Gentile, and we are no longer subject to keeping the deeds of the Law for justification before God, we should be humbly grateful and there is no room for boasting.   

VERSES 29-30 “Is he God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith (His faithfulness) and un-circumcision through faith  (His faithfulness). This is the simple rendering we prefer…as the words ek and dia are so similar. Many respected scholars, greek expositors, and theologians have thought there to be no significant differentiation intended by Paul, for it was more about God’s faithfulness. 

But a further simple explanation could be: “Is he God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by (ek; from out of) faith (generally extended under the Law of Moses and advancing to one outside of the Law of Moses), and un-circumcision through (dia: arising from, through, by means of) faith (in the system or process outside of the Law of Moses by which one participates in what God is doing or saying). The distinction, (if there is any intended at all) is only from where they start, (one starts under the Law, the other starts outside the Law) that one God is faithful to all, is being advanced, and so justification for both is to be understood as the same. Paul has spent a great deal of effort, for three chapters, to establish the Jew and Gentile being on the same ground before God. He does not intend here to destroy critical truth. But if anything, perhaps he once again strikes that chord by removing the crutch of religious works for the Jew’ in which they would tend to boast, in stating emphatically they can be only justified by faith in Christ, not by keeping the Law. While on the other hand, this is not the issue with Gentiles. Paul relates the same justification for both, by One God, and that word through being in a more general sense.

VERSE 31 “Do we then make void  (GK. Katargeo: To render inactive, idle, useless, ineffective,) the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish (hístēmi: make  stand) the law.” Does God’s grace push aside His justice? Is His Law compromised? Is His Law made to accept that this faith in redemption answers to obedience? Paul is saying the Law is to be established in the Light of the Gospel. Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law; fill it with its true meaning, not destroy it (Matthew 5). Paul also wrote, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Does not love, filling up the meaning of the Law, render the Law idle while yet at the same time establish it?Can the Law be both established/ meaning to stand and annulled or abolished (katargeo) meaning to render inactive, idle, useless, ineffective at the same time? 

In 2nd Corinthians 3:12, it is Written… “Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished…” And Paul said in Ephesians, “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; (the law separating the Jew and Gentile) for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace…” The truth is found in Christ’s statement that He has come to fulfill the Law not destroy it, and goes on to say the Law would stand “…till all (the Law) be fulfilled.” So it is, that Jesus either in the establishing or in the abolishing; that is to say; making to stand or the rendering inactive/ ineffective, is but filling with meaning the Torah and its Laws. And that is until it is filled with further meaning in His Second Coming, when the New Covenant to the Jews will fill up the meaning of the Old even more completely. But the time in which the Law will pass away completely is when it will be completely fulfilled and filled with meaning. That time Christ declared to be when Heaven and Earth shall pass away Matthew 5:18. That is in the day of Revelation 21:1, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away…” Until then, the Law is relevant, being good and holy, and it will continue to do what it was designed to do; reveal sin, condemn and convict and point towards Jesus the Christ to fulfill the demands of the Law as it relates to him who puts his faith in Him and to obtain liberty from its curse; on all those who abide un-forgiven under its penalties must be punished accordingly. So it is, the Law is established, both on the condemned and the justified.