Romans 3:21-31
“Therefore God is
not fair, BUT …”
Good News
1
Bad News
2
3
4
Chapters
Chapter 1:18-32 –
•God’s wrath is being revealed against the
sin of men : godlessness, wickedness,
sexual impurity, worship created things
rather than the Creator.
Good News
• God’s punishment on earth : God will
give men and women over to their sins
(lusts, depraved minds, all kinds of evil),
which will eventually ruin their lives.
1
Bad News
2
3
4
Chapters
On earth, God will allow
SIN to destroy the sinners.
Chapter 2
•God’s wrath and punishment will go
beyond this life.
•There will be a day of Judgment for
everyone (whether Jew or Gentile).
Good News
1
Bad News
2
3
4
Chapters
After life on earth, there will
be a DAY of JUDGMENT.
Chapter 3:1-20
•The conclusion is that there is really NO
ONE who is righteous, no one who can
pass God’s judgment – based on
Commandments (for the Jews) or
Conscience (for the Gentiles)
Good News
1
Bad News
2
3
4
Chapters
No one will pass;
EVERYONE will
face God’s wrath.
Really Bad News :
• “you have Stage 4 cancer, …”
• “your husband has been seeing someone,
…”
• “though you are a loyal and valuable
worker, you will be retrenched, …”
• “there has been a terrible accident on the
highway, and your son is in the most
damaged car, …”
Really Bad News :
• “you have Stage 4 cancer, BUT …”
• “your husband has been seeing someone,
BUT …”
• “though you are a loyal and valuable
worker, you will be retrenched, BUT …”
• “there has been a terrible accident on the
highway, and your son is in the most
damaged car, BUT …”
Good News
1
2
3
4
Chapters
Romans 3:21
Bad News
BUT
Chapter 3:21-22
Good News
1
BUT now a righteousness from God,
apart from law, has been made
known, to which the Law and the
Prophets testify. This righteousness
from God comes through faith in
Jesus Christ to all who believe. …”
2
3
4
Chapters
Romans 3:21
Bad News
BUT
1st Way – a Jew can be righteous if he/she
follows all the Commandments of the
Law.
2nd Way – a Gentile can be righteous if
he/she follows strictly to his Conscience
and the collective conscience of her
community (which is usually seen in the
moral and religious codes of one’s
culture).
Romans 3:1-20
“What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every
way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God. What if some did not have faith?
Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?
Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when
you speak and prevail when you judge.”
But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is
unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) Certainly not! If that were so, how
could God judge the world?
Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why
am I still condemned as a sinner?”
Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—“Let
us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved.
What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that
Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.
There is no one righteous, not even one
As it is written: “
;
there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together
become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their
tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not
know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth
may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we
become conscious of sin.
1st Way – a Jew can be righteous if he/she follows all the
Commandments of the Law.
2nd Way – a Gentile can be righteous if he/she follows
strictly to his Conscience and the collective
conscience of her community (which is usually seen
in the moral and religious codes of one’s culture).
3rd Way – Everyone / Anyone can Receive
God’s Righteousness through faith by
Believing in Jesus Christ.
Revelation 20:11-13
“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was
seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and
there was no place for them.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before
the throne, and books were opened.
Another book was opened, which is the book of life.
The dead were judged according to what they had
done as recorded in the books.
The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death
and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and
each person was judged according to what he had
done.”
“I had tried my best to live a good life,
surely God you can overlook my minor
faults.”
“We are only human which means I am not
perfect – so God You better not judge me
guilty ?”
The Jacket represents the
Righteousness of Christ, which
Christ can give to us if we want.
How do we get this
Righteousness ?
How did this Righteousness
come about ?
How do we get this Righteousness ?
We get it by Believing (Romans 3:22 “This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ
to all who believe.”) that
a)On our own, we will not survive God’s
judgment.
How do we get this Righteousness ?
We get it by Believing (Romans 3:22 “This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ
to all who believe.”) that
a)On our own, we will not survive God’s
judgment.
b)God has provided a 3rd way through
Christ to save us, to cover our sins so
that we will not be judged guilty.
How do we get this Righteousness ?
We get it by Believing that
a)On our own, we will not survive God’s
judgment.
b)God has provided a 3rd way through Christ
to save us, to cover our sins so that we will
not be judged guilty.
c)I want Jesus to cover my sins, to save
me.
How do we get this Righteousness ?
We get it by Believing that
a)On
our3:23-24
own, we will not survive God’s judgment.
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d)Christ’s redemption is COMPLETE and
FREE – we simply need to believe and
trust God at His word.
• Is there nothing I really need to do ? Shouldn’t
I do some good deeds ? Be good ?
• If I can easily escape judgment just by
believing in Christ, what is stopping me from
sinning over and over again, and then just
believing in Christ ? Is God condoning evil
through this 3rd way ?
• Isn’t it unfair that Christians who believe in
Christ, yet are sinning, will escape God’s
judgment while a relatively good nonChristian will face God’s wrath ?
How do we get this
Righteousness ?
How did this
Righteousness come about
?
How did this Righteousness come about?
The Bible says in Romans 3:24-26 –
this righteousness of God which He wants to
give to us
a)Comes from Christ’s sacrifice of
atonement
b)And His Sacrifice can somehow Redeem
us, and it is
c)Both Just and able to Justifies those who
have faith in Christ
“ATONEMENT”
[At-one (with) men]
Jesus took our sins and took the
punishment for those sins on His
person.
Jesus literally TOOK our sins,as if He
had committed them – that’s why He
was justly punished for those sins.
“For what the law was powerless to do because
it was weakened by the flesh, God did by
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned
sin in the flesh,”
– Romans 8:3
Romans 3:21-31
“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made
known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to
all who believe. 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. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his
forbearance he had left the 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. 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 a man is justified by faith apart from observing
the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles
too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify
the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same
faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we
uphold the law.”
Romans 3:29-30
“Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not
the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of
Gentiles too, since there is only one
God, who will justify the circumcised by
faith and the uncircumcised through
that same faith.”
Why is it that some people are certain
to face God’s wrath as it is very
difficult for them to make a choice for
Christ ?
Why is it that some people are certain to face
God’s wrath as it is very difficult for them to
make a choice for Christ ?
Type 1 :
Those who live in countries and places
where there is no church and there are no
Christians to share with them the Gospel.
Is God therefore UNFAIR ?
Why is it that some people are certain to face God’s wrath
as it is very difficult for them to make a choice for Christ ?
Type 1 :
Those who live in countries and places where
there is no church and there are no Christians
to share with them the Gospel.
Is God therefore UNFAIR ?
Type 2 :
Those who faithfully belong to other religions.
• Why must they become Christians before they
can be saved ?
• Why must they be punished simply because
they are born into non-Christian families and
cultures ?
• Why can’t God use other religions as ways to
reach Him too – after all most religions teach
people to do good ?
Romans 2:9-11; 14-15
““There will be trouble and distress for every
human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then
for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for
everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for
the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism. ...
(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law,
do by nature things required by the law, they are a
law for themselves, even though they do not have
the law, since they show that the requirements of
the law are written on their hearts, their
consciences also bearing witness, and their
thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
The instructions and commands
which we find in the books of
Exodus and Deuteronomy are
similar to what archaeologists
and scholars have found in
ancient Egyptian law codes that
pre-date the time of Moses.
Romans 2:7
“To those who by persistence
in doing good seek glory, honor
and immortality, He will give
eternal life.”
Romans 2:7
“To those who by persistence in doing good seek
glory, honor and immortality, He will give eternal
life.”
Does it mean, therefore, those relatives,
friends and neighbors of ours who are
faithfully practicing their religions will pass
God’s judgment and be with us in heaven
?
Romans 2:7
“To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory,
honor and immortality, He will give eternal life.”
Does it mean, therefore, those relatives, friends
and neighbors of ours who are faithfully practicing
their religions will pass God’s judgment and be with
us in heaven ?
NO !!
The problem is the human race, not the
religions.
Romans 3:20b
“… rather, through the law we become
conscious of sin.”
Why is it that some people are certain to face God’s wrath
as it is very difficult for them to make a choice for Christ ?
Type 1 :
Those who live in countries and places where
there is no church and there are no Christians
to share with them the Gospel.
Is God therefore UNFAIR ?
Type 2 :
Those who faithfully belong to other religions.
Actually God is both fair and unfair.
Fair :
God is FAIR (or not unfair) in treating all
peoples as they deserve – to be judged
according to what they have done.
God is FAIR in giving all peoples their
Conscience – to realize that we have missed
the mark.
Actually God is both fair and unfair.
God is FAIR (or not unfair) in treating all peoples as
they deserve – to be judged according to what they
have done.
God is FAIR in giving all peoples their Conscience
– to realize that we have missed the mark.
“There is no witness so dreadful, no accuser
so terrible as the conscience that dwells in the
heart of every man.”
– ancient Greek historian Polybius
Melchizedek in Genesis 14
– he was not related to Abraham but the
Bible calls him the priest of God Most
High.
Cornelius in Acts 10
– Roman centurion who sought the true
and living God, and God sent him a vision
and then the apostle Peter to bring him to
faith in Christ.
WHAT IF
upon death, Jesus Christ appears to
every person and tells the person what
He had done for him/her and offers
him/her the gift of forgiveness and
eternal life ?
Would God therefore be
FAIR ?
Therefore what needs to be
done is not done upon death
but in our life now.
Therefore God is unfair, but …
•it is not to the non-believers. Rather He
is unfair in NOT treating us as we
deserve.
•so are we – because we have kept
God’s blessings to ourselves when we
do not go forth to share with others.
Your Name :
Your Pastoral Care Group (if any) :
[write your group leader name if
you forgot your PCG name]
The 3 Names :
a)
b)
c)
Romans 3:21-22 –
“But now a righteousness from God,
apart from law, has been made known,
to which the Law and the Prophets
testify. This righteousness from God
comes through faith in Jesus Christ to
all who believe. …”
– Romans 3:21-22