How To Be Right With God – Righteousness Is Built On Revelation & Is Acquired By Faith |
|
| Pastor Bill Farrow |
Romans 3:21b-22a |
 |
|
|
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; … Righteousness Is Built On Revelation (Verse 21b) - Before he presents the means for men to receive God’s manifested righteousness, however, Paul declares that it not only is apart from legalism but is also divinely revealed, both immediately and historically, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. Being witnessed - Being borne witness to. It was not a new doctrine; it was found in the Old Testament. The apostle makes this observation with special reference to the Jews. He does not declare any new thing, but that which was rally declared in their own sacred writings. The word means to give evidence or to bear testimony to the truth of a thing. The verb is a present passive participle; literally, “is having witness or testimony borne to it” or “is being attested” by the law and the prophets. The participle lends an active idea to the verb, that the witness of the Law and the Prophets is ongoing and continual. By the law - This expression here evidently denotes, as it did commonly among the Jews, the five books of Moses. And the apostle means to say that this doctrine was found in those books; not that it was in the Ten Commandments, or in the Law, strictly so called. It is not a part of “law” to declare justification except by strict and perfect obedience. That it was found “in” those books; the apostle shows by the case of Abraham; Rom. 4; see also his reasoning on Lev. 18:5; Deut. 30:12-14, in Rom. 10:5-11; compare Exo. 34:6-7. And the prophets – Generally speaking, this takes in the remainder of the Old Testament. The phrase “the Law and the prophets” comprehended the whole of the Old Testament; (Matt. 5:17; 11:13; 22:40; Acts 13:15; 28:23). That this doctrine was contained in the prophets, the apostle showed by the passage quoted from Hab. 2:4, in Rom. 1:17, “The just shall live by faith.” The same thing he showed in Rom. 10:11, from Isa. 28:16; 49:23; Rom. 4:6-8, from Ps. 32. The same thing is fully taught in Isa. 53:11; Dan. 9:24. Indeed, the general tenor of the Old Testament - the appointment of sacrifices, etc. taught that man was a sinner, and that he could not be justified by obedience to the moral law. That truth was obviously directed primarily at Jews, whose whole religion centered in the Law and the Prophets, a phrase commonly used to encompass all of God’s written Word, what we now call the Old Testament. In other words, the apostle was not speaking about a new kind of righteousness but about the divine righteousness that is spoken of throughout the Jewish Scriptures. Not only do the Law and Prophets proclaim God’s perfect righteousness but they affirm what Paul has just stated - that, without exception, men are unable to achieve that righteousness in their own way or power. We need, however, to remember that the key idea that Paul is proclaiming here is that this truth, though surely present in the Old Testament, was not clearly revealed in a general sense, there. There were those who understood its truth certainly and saw it sufficiently to become redeemed persons, but, generally speaking, regarding revelation, it not clearly explicated in the Old Testament. Paul is being used by God to clearly present this doctrine and it behooves and serves his case greatly to show that, even though it was not clearly put forth, it was definitely present there. The Jews had great reverence for their Scriptures, but most of them failed to realize that, although divinely revealed, those Scriptures in themselves had no power to save. “You search the Scriptures,” Jesus told a group of Jewish listeners, “because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me” (John 5:39). In other words, the Law and the Prophets did not show men how to achieve their own righteousness but pointed to the coming Messiah, the Savior and Son of God, who Himself would provide the righteousness that God demands of men. Although the full revelation of salvation through Christ was not given in the Old Testament, that had always been the way of salvation to which that testament pointed. The Mosaic laws were not given as a means of achieving righteousness but of describing God’s righteousness and showing the impossibility of men’s living up to it. We might also suggest that the Law was given as a means by which the sacrifices of God might be qualified for their offering on the altar of God’s choosing. The Mosaic sacrifices were not prescribed as a means of atoning for sin but of symbolically pointing to Jesus Christ, who Himself became the sacrifice for the sins of the people of God. The commandments, rituals, sacrifices, and godly principles taught in the Old Testament were, and still are, a part of His divinely inspired Word. But they could never remove sin, forgive sin, atone for sin, or give a new and righteous life to a sinner - no matter how zealously and sincerely he tried to abide by them. this was simply not their function, nor was it ever the intention of God that they should so do. Righteousness Is Acquired By Faith To avoid any possible misunderstanding, Paul mentions again that he is speaking of the absolute and perfect righteousness of God, not the relative and imperfect righteousness of human achievement. Having stated that the design of the gospel was to provide a revelation of the plan of becoming just in the sight of God; the Apostle proceeds here more fully to explain it. The explanation which he offers makes it plain that the phrase so often used by him, “righteousness of God,” does not refer to an attribute of God, but to the central pillar of his plan of making people righteous. Here he says that it is by faith in Jesus Christ; but surely an attribute of God is not produced by faith in Jesus Christ. It refers to God’s mode or mechanism of regarding people as righteous through their belief in Jesus Christ. (That the “righteousness of God” cannot be explained as merely of the attribute of justice, is obvious enough. It cannot be said of divine justice, that it is “unto and upon all them that believe.” But we are not reduced to the alternative of explaining the phrase, either of God’s justice, or God’s plan of justifying people. Why may we not understand it of that righteousness which Yahweh devised, Jesus executed, and the Spirit applies; and which is therefore justly called the righteousness of God? It consists in that conformity to the character of God which Jesus manifested in his atoning death, and meritorious obedience. His death, by reason of his divine nature, was of immeasurable value. And when he voluntarily submitted to yield a life that was forfeited by no transgression of his own, the Law, in its penal part, was more magnified than if every descendant of Adam had sunk under the weight of its vengeance. Nor was the preceptive part of the Law less honored, in the spotless obedience of Christ. He abstained from every sin, fulfilled every duty, and exemplified every virtue. Neither God nor man could accuse him of failure in duty. To God he gave his piety, to man his glowing love, to friends his heart, to foes his pity and his pardon. And by the obedience of the Creator in human form, the precept of the Law was more honored than if the highest angels had come down to do reverence to it, in presence of people. Here then is a righteousness worthy of the name, divine, spotless, broad, lasting - beyond the power of language to characterize. It is that everlasting righteousness which Daniel predicted the Messiah should bring in. Adam’s righteousness failed and passed away. That of once happy angels perished too, but this shall endure. “The heavens,” says Yahweh,” shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner, but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished,” This righteousness is broad enough to cover every sinner and every sin. It is pure enough to meet the eye of God himself. It is therefore the sinner’s only shield. His point here is that the perfect, saving righteousness of God not only is received apart from legalism and built on revelation, but is also acquired only by faith. That has always been the only way of salvation as far as man’s part is concerned. The very point of Hebrews 11 is to show that there has never been a means of salvation other than faith in the provision of the true God. That is also a repeated theme of this epistle. In chapter 4 he says, “To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (v. 5), and, “The promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law but through the righteousness of faith” (v. 13; cf. v. 20). He begins chapter 5 by declaring that “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” There is, of course, such a thing as false faith, even in the name of Christ. John reports that many people who had a superficial faith in Jesus did not have saving faith. “Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine’” (John 8:31). In other words, obedience to His Word is evidence of true faith, whereas continual disobedience is evidence of false faith. “Faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself,” James declared (James 2:17). In other words, disobedient faith is spurious faith. It is “by itself,” that is, unrelated to faith in God. False faith may be faith in good works, faith in ritual, faith in a religious experience or system, faith in one’s own goodness, or simply the nebulous faith in faith that is so common in our day. A person is saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone, apart from anything else. But Scripture makes it clear that saving faith is immeasurably more than simply making a verbal declaration of believing about Him. That is, it comes by the exercise of genuine faith in Jesus Christ. Thus, the expression, (Mark 11:22), “Have the faith of God”, means, have faith in God. So in Acts 3:16, the “faith of his name” means, faith in his name. In Gal. 2:20, the “faith of the Son of God” means, faith in the Son of God. This cannot mean that faith is the meritorious cause of salvation, but that it is the instrument or means by which we become justified. It is the state of mind, or condition of the heart, to which God has been pleased to promise justification. God has promised that they who believe in Christ shall be pardoned and saved. This is His plan in distinction from the plan of those who seek to be justified by works. The late A. W Tozer perceptively commented: Something has happened to the doctrine of justification.… The faith of Paul and Luther was a revolutionizing thing. It upset the whole life of the individual and made him into another person altogether. It laid hold on the life and brought it unto obedience to Christ. It took up its cross and followed along after Jesus with no intention of going back. It said good-bye to its old friends as certainly as Elijah when he stepped into the fiery chariot and went away in the whirlwind. It had a finality about it. It snapped shut on a man’s heart like a trap; it captured the man and made him from that moment forward a happy love-servant of his Lord. The saving faith in Jesus Christ that the New Testament teaches is much more than a simple affirmation of certain truths about Him. Even the demons acknowledged many facts about Him. One of the demons who possessed the man from Gadara said to Jesus, “What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” (Mark 5:7). The demon who gave the slave girl the power of divination described Paul and his friends as “bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17). Saving faith inevitably results in a placing of oneself totally in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it has certain indispensable elements that the New Testament clearly teaches. Saving faith in Jesus Christ involves the exercise of will. Paul told the Roman believers, “Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed” (Rom. 6:17). Salvation begins (from the human standpoint) with a person’s willful obedience in turning from sin to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Saving faith also involves the emotions, because, as in the verse just mentioned above, it must come from the heart as well as from the mind. A person cannot be saved by good feelings about Christ, and many people throughout the ages and in our own day have substituted good feelings about Christ for saving faith in Him. But on the other hand, a person whose life is transformed by Christ will be affected in his emotions in the deepest possible way. Saving faith also involves the intellect. No one can think his way into heaven, but neither can he receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior without some comprehension of the truth of the gospel (see Rom. 10:17ff.). Jesus Christ is the very embodiment of God’s righteousness, and it is because of that truth that He can impart divine righteousness to those who trust in Him. During His earthly incarnation, Jesus demonstrated God’s righteousness by living a sinless life. In His death Christ also demonstrated God’s righteousness by paying the penalty for the unrighteous lives of every human being.
The seventeenth-century English minister Joseph Alleine wrote: All of Christ is accepted by the sincere convert; he loves not only the wages, but the work of Christ; not only the benefits, but the burden of Christ; he is willing not only to tread out the corn, but to draw under the yoke; he takes up the command of Christ, yea, the cross of Christ. The unsound closeth by halves with Christ: he is all for the salvation of Christ, but he is not for sanctification; he is for the privileges, but appropriates not the person of Christ; he divides the offices and benefits of Christ. This is an error in the foundation. Whoso loveth life, let him beware here; it is an undoing mistake, of which you have been often warned, and yet none is more common. Jesus is a sweet name, but men “love not the Lord Jesus in sincerity.” They will not have him as God offers, “to be a Prince and a Savior.” They divide what God has joined, the king and the priest; yea, they will not accept the salvation of Christ as he intends it; they divide it here. Every man’s vote is for salvation from suffering; but they desire not to be saved from sinning; they would have their lives saved, but withal would have their lusts. Yea, many divide here again; they would be content to have some of their sins destroyed, but they cannot leave the lap of Delilah, or divorce the beloved Herodias; they cannot be cruel to the right eye or right hand; the Lord must pardon them in this thing. O be carefully scrupulous here; your soul depends upon it. The sound convert takes a whole Christ, and takes him for all intents and purposes, without exceptions, without limitations, without reserve. He is willing to have Christ upon any terms; he is willing to have the dominion of Christ, as well as deliverance by Christ; he saith, with Paul, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Any thing, Lord. He sends the blank to Christ, to set down his own conditions. John Wesley died on March 2, 1791, at the age of eighty-eight, after having preached for about sixty-five years. One of his favorite hymns to sing on his deathbed was:
I’ll praise my Maker
while I’ve breath |
|