Follow along at www.armchairtheology.org

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Introduction Justification by faith alone is one of the most divisive doctrines in the church today. The Catholic Church declared at the Council of Trent that those believing in justification by faith alone should be excommunicated. Martin Luther insisted that this doctrine is the article upon which the church stands or falls. John Calvin stated that the doctrine of justification is the hinge by which everything else turns.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Introduction The crux of the issue here is:

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Introduction The crux of the issue here is: How are we saved? The answer to this question is critical to the life of a believer. A wrong answer to this question could result in eternal damnation.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Introduction R.C. Sproul postures that today, few professing Christians can even define the term justification. Let’s fix that problem right now, shall we?

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Righteousness & Justification (verses 21-22) Justification occurs when someone responds to God’s call in repentance and faith. God then forgives that person and applies Christ’s righteousness to that person.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Righteousness & Justification (verses 21-22) The “super-easy-Tim-definition” of justification is: judicial pardon.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Righteousness & Justification (verses 21-22) Justification is a legal declaration by God. Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God, in which He: Forgives our sins and applies Christ’s righteousness to us. Declares us to be “just” or morally righteous in His sight.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Righteousness & Justification (verses 21-22) So, after backing both religious and non-religious people into the dark corner of God’s wrath in verse 21, Paul begins to crack open the window of divine grace that lets in the light of salvation through the Righteousness that God Himself has provided.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 How Do We Get this Righteousness?(v 22-25) Verses 22-25 teach us four lessons about how righteousness comes to us: According to v22, it “comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” 2. According to v23, this righteousness cannot come through our own actions or efforts.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 How Do We Get this Righteousness?(v 22-25) Verses 22-25 teach us four lessons about how righteousness comes to us: 3. According to v24, this righteousness is given to us as a free gift. 4. Verse 25 tells us even more specifically about where we must place our faith.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 How Do We Get this Righteousness?(v 22-25) And so, “all who believe” (verse 22) are made Since, as v23 so clearly states, we are all sinners, we all need to receive Christ’s righteousness.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 How Do We Get this Righteousness?(v 22-25) D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “The man who has faith is the man who is no longer looking at himself. He no longer looks anything he once was. He does not look at what he is now. He does not look at what he hopes to be. He looks entirely to the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work, and he rests on that alone.”

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 How Do We Get this Righteousness?(v 22-25) How can God remain righteous and yet make sinners, who deserve justice, righteous? How can a just God justify justifying you and Me? Verse 24 answers these questions: Paul says that through Jesus, our Redeemer, to us who are slaves to sin, to those of us who have a debt that we could never pay, to us, that redemption (or freedom from that debt) has come.

Humor Break:

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 What are Former Sins? (Verse 25) The last two words in verse 25 are “former sins.” What did Paul mean by that? He is referring to sins committed prior to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. God had accepted Abraham, Moses, David, and all of the Old Testament saints when they repented and trusted His mercy, but He accepted them on the basis of the future work of Christ.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Boasting (Verses 27-30) What is Paul’s conclusion to the first three chapters of Romans? Look at verse 27 Why is Paul talking about boasting? What is boasting?

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Boasting (Verses 27-30) Boasting: self-congratulation with or without sufficient reason. We boast about what gives us confidence.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Boasting (Verses 27-30) We boast about what defines us; it is where we draw our identity and self-worth from. “The law of works puffs up and increases vainglory, for he who regards himself as just by fulfilling the law, doubtlessly has something of which he might arrogantly boast.” Martin Luther (This is the point in the lesson where Riley quotes Galatians 6:14. About 5 minutes before I get to it.)

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Boasting (Verses 27-30) The downside of boasting: Misplaced boasting can cause problems in society: Human divisions Denial Anxiety

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Boasting (Verses 27-30) In the gospel, boasting is excluded. (Phil 3:5-11) Before Paul became a Christian, he boasted in: Verse 5 Verse 6 Circumcision Being a Jew Being a Pharisee Obedience to the law Now, Paul considers them rubbish

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Boasting (Verses 27-30) We must give up all our sense of identity and security like he did. We are “justified by faith apart from observing the law.” (verse 28)

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Boasting (Verses 27-30) We exclude boasting when we realize that our best achievements have done nothing to justify us. If we understand the gospel of righteousness received, we will never boast in ourselves. We will boast in someone besides ourselves though: Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. (OK, Riley, go ahead and quote Galatians 6:14.)

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 Boasting (Verses 27-30) As Christians, our boasting is transferred from ourselves to our Savior, because everyone will always boast in the object of their faith.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 What About the Law? (Verse 31) We are discussing the moral law, since the letter to the Romans was directed to both Jews and Gentiles. “Through the law, God opened man’s eyes so that he sees his helplessness and by faith takes refuge to His mercy and so is healed.”

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 What About the Law? (Verse 31) We conclude that the law will not save us. The law gives us no grounds for boasting, self- worth, or confidence. God’s righteousness has been given to us “apart from the law.”

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 What About the Law? (Verse 31) The gospel does not declare that the law no longer matters, but that it matters very much. The law must still be kept. For those in Christ, it has been. Christ gave us His perfect obedience to God’s law, and we live through it. 2 Corinthians 5:21

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 What About the Law? (Verse 31) The key to this issue is that the gospel upholds the law by showing us that law-breaking is so serious that it brings death and judgment; and that law- keeping is so important that no one can pass through judgment without it being kept on their behalf. The law is upheld in Christ’s obedient life and death. The law is not nullified.

How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31 What About the Law? (Verse 31) The gospel frees us up to receive Christ’s right- eousness and at the same time to uphold the law.