1. Follow along at www.armchairtheology.org

2. 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.

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

4. 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.

5. 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?

6. 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.

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

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31
How Do We Get this Righteousness?(v 22-25)
Verses 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.

11. How Justification Works: Romans 3:21-31
How Do We Get this Righteousness?(v 22-25)
Verses 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.”

14. 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.

15. Humor Break:

16. 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.

17. 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?

18. 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.

19. 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.)

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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)

23. 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.)

24. 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.

25. 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.”

26. 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.”

27. 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

28. 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.

29. 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.