(A) Introduction. Read Rom3v21to31.

This passage is about the sinner's justification before God. In the time of Paul justification was a legal term. In the law court a judge justified the accused by declaring him in the right.

(B) The justification available from God.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and Prophets testify. v21.

We are all apt to justify ourselves, to put ourselves in the right. This was certainly the case with those I caught offending during my time as a school teacher. Some denied point blank that they had done anything amiss. Others claimed it was someone else's fault. Still others protested that there were pupils much worse than they were.

Most folk are prepared to admit that they are not perfect. They would have to agree that they did not consistently love their neighbour as themselves. But this would not stop them justifying themselves by saying:

• "I do my best."

• "I'm no worse than anyone else and better than most." Sadly we may be deluding ourselves rather like the vain young man who walked into a room looking for his friend. As he did so he passed two blond young women near the door who looked him over, smiled at each other and said simultaneously, ‘NINE’. The conceited young man smiled complacently as he walked over to his waiting friend. “You won’t believe what happened when I passed those two attractive blond women," he said, "they looked me over and rated me a NINE." His friend grinned and replied, "I hate to burst your bubble but those two women only speak GERMAN". NINE MEANS NO IN GERMAN.

• "I'm only human."

• "God made me the way I am."

• "I work hard, love my family and give to charity. What more could God want?" This is pretty much the approach of the Pharisee who thanked God he was not as other men were. See luke8v9to14. See exposition on the Pharisee and the Publican.

There are indications in the Old Testament on how sinners might be justified by God.

First of all there is repentance. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm51v17.

This truth is reinforced by Jesus in his parable of the Pharisee and Publican. He said of the Publican who prayed: "God be merciful to me a sinner." .... this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. Lk18v13and14.

As a teacher I found it a lot easier to forgive a wayward pupil who was genuinely sorry for his or her misbehaviour.

Secondly there is a clear acknowledgment in the Old Testament that men and women would break the ethical and ceremonial law. God did not ignore sin and guilt but made provision for a kind of justification. He specified that a price be paid, a sacrifice offered, which he in grace accepted for the forgiveness of sins.

Lev6 is very instructive. It deals with the guilt offering. This was both an expression of sorrowful repentance and also a sacrifice offered to the LORD. God made the wonderful promise: "And he (the offender) will be forgiven for any of these things that made him guilty." Lev6v7.

(C) Justification through faith.

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

God decided before the foundation of the world to declare righteous, to justify, all who believe in Jesus.

It seems rather strange to mention faith before Christ's saving work and God's grace. However, the fact is most people come to Jesus for a variety of reasons - not always because they have much knowledge of Christ's redeeming sacrifice. But no one becomes a Christian without submitting to Jesus. People cry out to Jesus in despair; plead for help because their lives are in such a mess; reach out to him as their last best chance to escape from a destructive life style. Such people do not understand what justification, atonement or redemption are. They do know that their lives are in ruins; they are desperately unhappy; they are as low as they can get and all other remedies have failed. So finally they hand themselves over to Jesus.

We need to remember the unconditional promise in John's gospel: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him. Jn3v36.

Jesus himself is the narrow door through which all must enter to be declared righteous. We must depend on him, and him alone, for justification. Salvation is something we receive but can never earn. We receive it by faith and not by good works. It is God's free and gracious gift and not a legal entitlement.

This is hard for many to accept. That is why Jesus is a narrow door that so many ignore. Very many folk are like the rich, young ruler who approached Jesus and asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life." The young man whom Jesus loved wanted to do something to merit eternal life. Jesus had to teach him that the price would always be too high for anyone opting to take this route to into the kingdom.

We have to come to Jesus for life. We have to acknowledge that we cannot pay for it. All we can do is repent of the way we are and trust Jesus to make something of us. We have to throw ourselves upon his mercy and rely upon his competence as Saviour of the World.

(D) Justification by grace.

There is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. v23and24.

(1) We can only be pronounced righteous by the grace of God because, in one way or another, we have all sinned. We fall short of being a credit to God notwithstanding the fact we were made in his image. God's image has been tarnished by our own actions.

We can, perhaps, get an insight into our condition if we imagine a world class violin player taking on a promising pupil. The famous violinist teaches the pupil all he knows. He passes on the technique and touch that has made him the greatest violin player in the world. But the pupil becomes lazy and disinterested and is but a pale shadow of the maestro. How disappointed the master must be.

Some people are undoubtedly better than others but none is sufficiently good to satisfy God. Consider two men in a lifeboat: One cannot swim but the other won a long distance swimming event in the last Olympics. However, the lifeboat is many thousands of miles from shore. The expert swimmer has no more chance of making land than the non-swimmer. Both need to be rescued.

(2) God's grace sent Jesus, his Son, into the world to be the ultimate sacrifice for sin. The sacrifice of Jesus was:

(a) Redemptive. We tend to use the word now, of someone who redeems himself. So an English cricketer after a run of poor scores finally scores a century and finds redemption. Ultimate success redeems, or makes up for, the several failures and justifies the selectors in keeping faith with him.

We cannot redeem ourselves for failing God because our failures are ongoing! The sacrificial animals of the old covenant were at least without spot or blemish. Never a day passes when we are without sin!

Jesus was the only son of Adam whose life was unspoiled by sin. In this he was truly unique. So Jesus, and only Jesus, could pay the price to redeem us from the consequences of sin. On the cross he offered himself as a redemptive sacrifice for sin, a sacrifice that is made effective because God in grace accepted it.

(b) Atoning. During the period covered by the Old Testament a sacrifice was offered as a way of saying sorry.

Many years ago I was playing an evening game of cricket. Our fast bowler, Dean Sykes, was not performing to the best of his ability. I was keeping wicket at the time and may have shouted out a few words of advice! Anyway, when the batsmen blocked the ball and called for a quick single and I scurried forward to retrieve it Dean in a rare paddy came charging down the wicket intent on the same task. We collided! His knee caught me a fearful blow in the ribs. Two or three were cracked which put an end to cricket for three or four weeks. After a few days Dean turned up at my door with a bottle of port. It was his way of saying sorry - a peace offering. Needless to say I had grace enough to accept it! The bottle atoned for his recklessness.

A sacrifice is always only a token payment for sins committed or wrong done. The gift of a bottle of port depended upon my grace in accepting it as full payment for the considerable pain inflicted by Dean's knee. Jesus' payment, in spite of the great suffering he endured, could only be a token payment for the sins of the world. Christ's death on the cross could never have atoned for our sin but for God's grace in accepting it as sufficient payment for our iniquities.

(c) Life giving. This aspect of Jesus' sacrifice is not, perhaps, dealt with by Paul in this passage. However, it is true that when we exercise faith in Christ's shed blood, his redeeming and atoning sacrifice, we are given new life. This, too, is all of grace.

In this country men and women donate blood. They are not paid to do so. It is a free gift. A person who has a blood transfusion to save their life depends upon the grace of the donor. Their life is saved by grace. So our lives are saved, not for time alone but for eternity, by the shed blood of Jesus. It is not something we could ever buy, earn or merit. Yet by it, by the grace of God, we have life and have it more abundantly.

(E) Justification and God's justice.

He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. v26.

This is not all that easy to understand. It seems Paul is saying:

(1) God presented Jesus as an atoning sacrifice to demonstrate his justice.

God could not ignore mankind's sin as if it didn't matter. It did matter because it spoiled what God had created and as such was an offence to him. When I was a school teacher I would have been unjust to have disregarded breaches of school rules. Those who flagrantly break school rules ruin the education of others. If I was truly committed to education I had to do something to show how important I considered the rules. God could no more leave sin unpunished than I could leave unpunished those who flouted school rules.

Paul claims that God demonstrated his commitment to justice by calling for Christ's sacrifice. Jesus paid the price God demanded for the forgiveness of our sins. I have to say that this is not strict justice. Strict justice and grace are never going to be entirely compatible. Grace will always win out. However Jesus' death on the cross undoubtedly shows God's horror of sin.

(2) That up until Christ's death on the cross God in forbearance had not demanded the full price to atone for sin. He had accepted the very inferior payment of sacrificial animals.

(3) Christ's sacrificial death was the only way God could both demonstrate his commitment to justice and also achieve the justification of sinners.

So I emphasise again: our justification depends entirely upon our faith in Jesus. That is the basis upon which God chooses us for salvation, new life, membership of his family and eternal bliss.

Years ago William Cooper lost his mother at the age of six. He was put into boarding school where he was beaten and bullied by bigger boys. William lived in terror all day long. By the age of 25 he had twice tried to take his life and was eventually committed to an asylum. There he was put under the care of a man named Dr Cotton.

Dr. Cotton led William Cowper to faith in Christ. The poet began to go to the Bible for comfort during his bouts of severe depression.

One day Cooper turned to Romans 3:24-25, verses that transformed his life when he understood what the blood of Jesus Christ really meant. Later he was able to write:

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stain.

The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day:
And there may I, though vile as he
Wash all my sins away.

(F) Justification and its repercussions.

Paul answers a series of questions to emphasise three outcomes of justification by grace and through faith:

(1) It precludes boasting. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No but on that of faith. For we maintain that man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

The law is a bit like a thermometer. The thermometer can tell you how cold it is but it does not help you get warm. The law can tell you how bad you are without helping you to get better.

Our righteousness does not consist in keeping rules and regulations and acquiring brownie points with God. We are unable to impress God or put him under an obligation to reward us. There is absolutely no room for pride in the heart of a man or woman saved by grace. The Pharisees thought that their legalism merited God's esteem and it gave rise to a detestable pride that rejected Jesus and all he stood for.

We cannot pay our way to heaven. Salvation is a free gift we receive by faith. Faith is the means whereby we accept it - not earn it.

I think we can understand God's insistence on faith if we consider man's fall. Adam and Eve fell because of the pride and rebelliousness of their hearts. God requires the very opposite to what led to the fall. He insists on a faith that comes from ourselves - a saving faith that is essentially humble and submissive. It is the appropriate way to benefit from God's free grace.

(2) No one who exercises faith in Jesus and his redeeming work is excluded from justification.

Is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not God of the Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through the same faith. v30.

God is the God of all men and he made provision for us all in Christ. Nothing could be clearer than: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn3v16. The puritan Richard Baxter said he was overwhelmingly grateful for, God so loved the world. If he had read that, God so loved Richard Baxter, he would have thought it must be some other Richard Baxter but if God, so loved the world, then he could be sure it included him,

(3) The doctrine of justification be grace and through faith does not nullify the law. Paul wrote: Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather uphold the law.

Paul just repeats what Jesus said. Jesus stated that he did not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it. Jesus wonderfully fulfilled the sacrificial system. He was God's ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Christ has for sin atonement made:
What a wonderful Saviour!
We are redeemed the price! - the price is paid:
What a wonderful Saviour!

What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Jesus!
What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Lord.