JUSTIFICATION BY GOD'S GRACE: Romans 3v21-31.
"But now a righteousness of God apart from law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets."
The first thing we have to note is. it is not "the" righteousness of God, because God could not give us His own righteousness, it is "a" righteousness which is given to us to cover our failures; but what does this all mean? There is no point in us reading this important Divine communication unless we understand what we are reading. There is no more misunderstood scripture than this one, and yet, in the proper understanding of it there is much blessing. What is it that has now been manifest, or made plain? What does the phrase "a righteousness of God" mean? This is an age old problem, spoken by others in the past.
"How can mortal man be right with God?" Job 9 v 2
"What is man that he should be clean? and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous, behold He putteth no trust in His saints. Yea the heavens are not clean in His sight. How much more abominable is man who drinks iniquity like water?" Job 15 v 14-16
This question has vexed the greatest of minds in human history. Socrates. a Greek philosopher is reputed to have written to his contemporary Plato saying "it is possible that Deity can forgive sinful humanity, but I confess I don't know how." The age old problem, man's sinfulness and God's holiness, how can they ever be brought together, or is humanity destined to be "God forsaken" for all eternity? Now this is a very fundamental question, and it is this which is addressed here.
What is this "righteousness of God" that He is offering to all as a gift? It is in understanding this that we can proceed, and enter into the wonder of God's salvation.
Before we delve into the deep meaning of this word, let us take on board the fact that it is now here, it is now a fact, it is now a Divine revelation to all humanity, and we should understand what it is that is being said to us. God's righteousness to us as a gift is freely available. So what is it?
To understand this word righteousness, we have to think of it in terms of three metaphors, three different word pictures, which when merged together give us the whole story.
- From the world of CONSTRUCTION
- From the world of ACCOUNTING
- From the world of the JUDICIARY - LAW COURTS - CRIMINALITY
Taken from the world of construction, the word for "righteousness, righteous, justify, justification, occurs approximately 140 times in the new testament and almost 40 in the Roman epistle. The root of the word was originally taken from the tall reeds which grow in the Mesopotamian rivers, which were so tall, and so straight, that they were used in the construction industry for buildings walls, gates etc Because such a tool had to be accurate the word used to describe it meant "straight." The idea being communicated here is that, as we have already seen human beings are anything but straight with God, God has now provided a way in which we can be "straight " with Him, right with Him. This "righteousness" is God's way of making us right with Himself.
Accounting
When God speaks of justification, or making people righteous, He uses another very important word, which is "reckon" or "counting" e.g. the greatest example in the Bible of God making a man right with Himself was Abraham of whom it was said "Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness" Genesis 15 v 6. This word appears in the authorised version of our Bibles sometimes as "imputed", it just means reckoned or accounted. The significance of this is truly amazing and will be immediately recognised by all those who are in the world of accountancy. What it means is that God, treating our sins as debits alters the heavenly records of our lives and changes them to credits. We need to take this slowly; He takes what was against us and turns them for us, not only does He erase the debts in total, presenting a picture that we never had any debits, instead marks against us only credits. This means that not only have we never committed any sin, but we have lived our lives in perfection since the day we were born. This righteousness of God alters the heavenly record totally in our favour! How can He do this when He has already stated "there is none righteous no not one?" He can do this because there was ONE RIGHTEOUS - JESUS CHRIST. 1 John 2 v 1. Because of sin, God demanded a blood sacrifice, a sacrifice "without blemish and without spot." Only one person fitted that requirement and so He enacted what Paul later describes in chapter 5 of this epistle "the one accomplished act of righteousness." This took place when Jesus was crucified and so here is the result of the Divine manipulation of the heavenly records against mankind. He took all our debits and transferred them to Jesus Christ, and He took all the credits of Jesus Christ and transferred them to us. This stunning fact is summed up by Paul in another epistle "He (God) made Him (Jesus Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we (all believing humanity) might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5 v 1
Judiciary
We come now to the world of the judiciary, and in the supreme court of the universe, God the judge of all is now able to make, and has made a declaration which ought to fire the imagination of every human being alive today; and it is this; that through the sacrifice of His own Son at Calvary, God can now declare men and women to be righteous in His sight and at the same time He retains all His eternal perfection in doing so. In the language of Romans chapter 3, which we will see later, He can be "JUST AND THE JUSTIFIER OF EVERY ONE WHO BELIEVES IN JESUS." This is a legal declaration which cannot be altered, because there is no higher court in the universe and when God declares a person to be right with Himself, He acquits him of all wrong doing past, present and future and credits him with all good, in such a way that nothing and no-one can override this Divine declaration. It is a lot to take in but it is gloriously true. God, being perfect never changes His mind!
Just before we leave this, let us make clear two important clarifications as follows:
This is a judicial (legal) declaration only. It does not change God, it does not change me. God's attitude to sin remain constant, and at the point of me receiving this righteousness from God, there is no actual moral change in me. Justification does not make a bad person good, justification simply makes a wrong person right with God. God then sets about a work of sanctification, but if justification takes just a moment of time to effect, sanctification will take a life time. Justification is the beginning of a life with God, but without it I can't even begin.
We have a long road to travel in this journey but incredibly it all begins just by believing what God says. What He is saying here is staggering and it is against all nature for us to believe something like this, but this is the truth of the gospel. GOOD NEWS IDEED! From now on, whenever we think of righteousness or other associated words we will think of the threefold meaning........God making us right with Himself, by transferring all our guilt to Jesus, who transfers all His goodness to us and God declares us righteous!! Marvellous, glorious message REJOICE!
Tomorrow d.v. we continue on the same theme.
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