#79. Romans 3:21 – Yet Now (Justification Series, Part II)

Part III: Our Justification, Confirmed

Yet now…

There is a great and overwhelming good that we all get to look forward to. From the lowest of us, to the greatest of us, this human race faces the just One. We are not in the hands of One Who clawed His way to power. He did not usurp the throne, He did not manipulate the Lannisters. He did not, as His disciples requested, reign fire upon those who rejected Him.

This One rather died for our sakes. God, through Jesus, recognizes that the threat is not us, but sin which abuses us. He knows that we are under the thumb of an unjust master: Death. Death has retained control of our flesh since Adam’s life became limited. This One saw the danger and faced it head on. He went into that death, as the only Just One in the universe, with the purpose of returning.

He planned on being the first. Yet this necessarily indicates that there would be more to follow. He was first – but only the Beginning. The crucifixion of Christ is the centerpiece to creation. His death, while the greatest tragedy, serves as the greatest blessing for all. Creation groaned under the threat of death – yet the death of Christ begins the great reversal of the curse! Those who are given Paul’s message – imparted justification, in grace, through Christ’s faith – are being called by God (cf. Rom. 1:6, 8:30.)

The evangel is of God. It is caused by God, sourced in God, and effected by God. It acquaints us with God (Rom. 3:26,) enabling a peace toward God (Rom. 5:1.) In learning of the blessings He imparts to the race through Christ’s death, even knowing of all sin, we become acquainted with the true heart of El. This is not a Deity Who delights in your sin, but shows a love for you, the sinner, by yanking up sin from its roots. God confronts the source – doubt (cf. Rom. 14:22, Gen. 3:1-5.) By placing belief in you, He gets to the heart of the issue by resolving the disbelief demonstrated in Eden. This begins the reversal upon which all blessings which follow are based.

The reversal of the death process upon creation will be a monumental day. The time is not yet right for this to occur, for all injustice has yet to be set right. There are lessons still to be learned! But God is already ushering sin out the door. Sin’s days are numbered. In due time, Sin will receive the stage direction, “Exit, stage right,” and will have no choice but to comply. At that time, the death process will be absolved, and all will indeed be made new (1 Cor. 15:26-28.)

The Bridge

Let the phrase “Yet now” be represented by a marble bridge, firmly wedged between two pointed cliffs. From the vantage point of Romans 3:20, the bridge almost looks like a joke. That? Hanging above… what? The naked eye may struggle to see through the foggy abyss below.

But the bridge is still standing. All who stand on its opposite openly attest to its strength. “It will never waver,” they say. Well… possibly. But what if you’re the straw that breaks the camel’s back? What if the bridge buckles after you cross? Would there be any way to return to familiar ground?

“You will never need to,” they cry. But they don’t look like they make the best decisions. In fact, it looks rather like they make poor decisions. If these make poor decisions, how is their word credible?

There is one other option: ask the Engineer.

“Sure,” the Engineer says. “You can cross this bridge just fine, and your feet will remain planted, even when the ground appears uncertain.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” you may retort. “All proud creators will vouch for the work of their hands, yet this does not make them all truthtellers!”

But the Engineer would laugh, and shake His head. “Please,” He gestures, open-palmed, at His bridge. “Why do you doubt? You have no issue standing on your side of the bridge! Yet the ground you stand on is My work as well. You are so certain that the ground beneath you will remain! Why does your faith waver because of appearances? Are you so focused on your immediate surroundings that you forget their temporary nature? Neither the cliff or the bridge will remain before long – neither, especially, will the body you walk in. So please – trust Me, as you are already doing, and have subconsciously done your entire life, when breathing the air I orchestrate, and enjoying your loved ones I provided.”

The Crossing

Let us consider this gentleness – for God is not all anger and criticism. There is a reason we still stand, and it is not because God hopes we change, or fights further for our freedoms. It is because, at some point in the vast majority of our lives, we look up to a dark blue sky, just beginning to bleed purple, under the haze of brilliant red and yellow clouds. It is because we may look atop a large monument or mountain at midday and find a breathtaking horizon, full of hills and landscapes, or organized city streets. It is because, on winter nights, there is a campfire, some surrounded by families huddled against a nipping cold. It is because of the sweet acoustics of Eric Clapton’s guitar, or Aretha Franklin’s pitch-perfect harmonies. It is in the calm breeze one feels at the moment their world seems to collapse. It is because of the steady rise and fall of a sleeping lover, breath tickling the crook of your arm.

Often, people point at the tragic aspects of life as a means of discounting or limiting its gentle undercurrents. While it is true that tragedy should not be brushed away, these two should not be treated as opposing forces of tension. Instead, treat them as two cliffs, separated only by a bridge.

To cross this bridge, let’s look at both cliffs broadly. Here is Romans 3:10-11, 18-26, paraphrased with special emphasis on “Yet now.”

“Not one is just” -- not even one. Not one is understanding. Not one is seeking out God. There is no fear of God in front of their eyes. Now we are aware that, whatever the law is saying, it is speaking to those under the law, that every mouth may be barred, and the entire world may become subject to the just verdict of God, because, by works of law, no flesh at all shall be justified in His sight, for through law is the recognition of sin.

Yet now:

apart from law, a righteousness of God is manifest… yet a righteousness of God through Jesus Christ’s faith, for all, and on all who are believing, for there is no distinction, for all sinned and are wanting of the glory of God. Being justified gratuitously in His grace, through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus… toward the display of His righteousness in the current era, for Him to be just and a Justifier of the one who is of the faith of Jesus.

When presented like this, the full force of “yet now” is demonstrated. In Paul’s conclusion, we read of the damning conclusion: that no flesh, by works of law, can be justified in His sight. Of our own works, then, there is no possible way for us to establish ourselves righteous before the righteous Judge. If God had followed through on His judgment sooner, or carried out the sentence after issuing the verdict, then I would not be here to write, and you would not be here to read. Mankind would be decimated. God’s goal with mankind would also fail. Of course, Christ, in Whom all is created (Col. 1:15, 1 Cor. 8:6,) would lose all so intimately brought into being through Him.

Thus God would not be a blessed Creator. He would be a distraught Loser. The human race – His creation – would cease to exist. Remember “the kindness of God?” “The forbearance of God?” “The patience of God?” The energy God used to be kind, to forbear, to be patient, would be a waste. The “oracles” entrusted to Israel would be of no value, for sin would have claimed all within His chosen people. The faithful promises would have been of no use or value, since those promises placed Israel prominently at the head of the nations’ table. With the just verdict enforced, there would cease to be a table, for no nations would exist to be governed.

Worse still, if God carried His sentence out without considering “Exhibit J,” His act of judgment, while still “just,” would simultaneously show that God has failed to successfully create humanity in His image and likeness, for we would all stay like sheep having gone astray. It would show God’s lack of foresight in regards to sin itself, displaying not only God’s failure to defeat sin, but His effectual sin in murdering His own Son with no positive results to speak of.

Yet now, God has crafted a method through which He can impart His righteousness onto an individual as He wills. God only argued Rom. 1:18-3:20 up to a verdict; not with a view to impose that verdict. A broad condemnation of the human race, while “correct,” is not on the heart of God, for He has been busy filing another piece of evidence. He calls this evidence “the evangel of God” (1:1.)

The evangel of God does not contradict the Character we have mapped so far. He is still angry at sin, He forbears His judgment, His judgment is impartial, and He is faithful to His promises. He is still the Creator, and still the Placer of all. The evangel of God further does not disregard the conduct of mankind as conveyed so far. The “unrighteousness” still exists. The evangel serves as the commendation of God’s righteousness which could not be without the unrighteousness of man (3:5.) With the unrighteousness of man fully revealed, the evangel has a premise on which the righteousness of God is too tantalizing to ignore.

Thus the evangel’s necessity has been fully realized: mankind is in need of righteousness. The evangel supplies that righteousness. It is not our righteousness, a righteousness that springs from within, but God’s righteousness, a righteousness that sprang from Him.

God’s righteousness is not a cop-out. The righteousness of God does not ignore sin (Rom. 2:5.) Justification necessitates that one is a sinner, for it could not be appreciated by its recipient otherwise. It is because Jesus died for those sins that God’s justification supposes that, in justifying you, Jesus Christ, our Lord, has handled the enmity in you.

Thus Romans 3:20 was an indictment, but it is Romans 3:20, not Romans 16:20. It is in the early portion of the letter, not the later. It is not Paul’s final word for the sinner, or for all creation. The verdict Paul gave in 3:20 considered all human conduct – but only human conduct. God did not weigh His side of the equation in the argument until Romans 3:21.

The first “cliff,” then, is a dead-end. It is just that – a cliff. There is no climbing gear, no way down, and too little time to return the way you came. Human activity places us at an impasse before God, ending in our permanent death.

For an all-knowing, just God, Whose heart is in love, and, for all His thunderous pomp, makes things like whippoorwills and fluffy bunnies, such a conclusion cannot rationally be appealing. The loss of most may suit the callous man, but God is not callous or unfeeling. He has already declared creation as good in His eyes (Gen. 1:31.) Thus Romans 3:20 cannot concern the consummation of creation, but the pretense on which salvation shines.

The Contrast

Let us consider the other side of the bridge. “Yet now” paves the way to salvation. We could only see works of law, yet now, we perceive an evangel that is apart from law. God’s judgment is just – but it could only be proposed in light of mankind’s irreverence, and was shown to be entirely contingent upon mankind’s actions (Rom. 2:5-10.) Yet God’s justification is imposed entirely apart from mankind’s actions. God does not need you to follow law in order to impart justification, and He could not impart justification if you were following law. The two are complementary in this fashion, and there is no overlap. Christ’s action, in contrast, of faith at the cross, is the exact presentation God needs to display His righteousness (this begs the question of how, which we will answer before the end of Romans 3:26.)

We could only see works of law, yet now, we perceive the belief of Jesus Christ. Instead of relying on our actions to light the way, we can recognize the perpetual faith of Jesus Christ, Whose act of faith under the worst possible situation is the only act we need to consider anymore.

We could only see the law, yet now, we can observe God’s grace. When under law, human unrighteousness was on full display. God did not place us under law for Him to recognize sin, but for us to recognize sin. It was only when we were placed under a righteous spotlight that our flaws became so apparent. Yet when God gave His Son, He subverted the transgressions of we sinners. The law, then, highlighted our transgressions (necessitating the value and importance of the Old Testament,) while the cross subverts those transgressions for the benefit of the unaware abusers.

We saw that no flesh at all shall be justified, yet now, we see that the righteousness of God will go into all. Not one is just, by works of law. Yet Christ died, not for one, or for some, but for all. The message Paul brings is for all – thus all must inevitably believe it for Christ to receive all that He has suffered for. Some may need to face the indignation of God and the judgment of God first – sadly, not through words on a page, but through a living experience of opposing the living God – but nowhere does this imply that they are beyond receiving the justification of God, since justification is contingent on God satisfying His righteousness in love.

We saw that no flesh is justified in God’s sight, yet now, we see that God’s righteousness is manifest. In the face of a just Judge, mankind must be condemned. But by dwelling on Christ’s faith, the manifestation of God’s righteousness becomes apparent, and the premise for our justification stands firm.

What are we to make of all this? Is not the other cliffside worthy of our consideration? It appears as though the second cliff, across the marble bridge, is not another dead-end, but a beginning. It does not appear to be a destination, but the next step in a much deeper journey.

Forward, march

So! You have crossed the bridge with me. That wasn’t so bad, was it? I saw the fear in your eyes! Do you regret feeling so afraid?

Yes… perhaps that is not a fair question. If all is true as I am telling you, then even the fear would have had a purpose. The fear may be unwarranted, but without that fear, you would not have appreciated the bridge or the cliffside.

Now that we have crossed “Yet now,” let us check our map. Romans 3:21 begins the most important section of the epistle. It consists of 135 verses, from 3:21-8:30. All other verses surrounding this one are not “unimportant,” of course, but they are all reactive to the information conveyed here.

The information itself could be summarized as “the salvation of the individual.” I break this massive argument down into two parts (“Justification” – 3:21-4:25 – and “Conciliation,” 5:1-8:30.) The evangel is discussed first, its effects thereafter.

Every journey begins with a step. With the prep work out of the way, we can take our first step into the evangel, and see what “salvation” is all about.

- GerudoKing