New Testament - Romans 3:21-31 - (Justification Explained) - CC Windward - Pastor Tim

New Testament - Romans 3:21-31 - (Justification Explained) - Calvary Chapel Windward - OAHU, HAWAII - Pastor Tim Newman - From Local Olelo / Oceanic / Time Warner Cable show "A View from Calvary" - Episode #: - Original Air Date: 04/14/2013 A.D.


PASTOR TIM's NOTES:

“Justification Explained”
Romans 3:21-31
1. Justification has been COMMUNICATED
Vs. 21-26
1) To begin with, justification is an act, not a process.
There are no degrees of justification; each believer has the same right
standing before God.
2) Justification is not sanctification.
Sanctification is the process whereby God makes the believer more and
more like Christ.
How was justification by faith being witnessed by the Law and the
Prophets?
In a very simple way we could say;
Under the Old Testament Law, righteousness came by man behaving; but
under the Gospel, righteousness comes by believing.
What does he mean by the word, Law?
How is that revealed? Or how is a witness by the law and the
prophets made?
The law and the prophets both speak of the sacrificial system.
2. Justification is in CHRIST alone
Vs. 22
It is by faith ALONE.
Faith is only as good as its object.
When Martin Luther translated this verse into German he felt the sense of
it so strongly that he added the word “alone”—“by faith alone!” Sola fide.
It is for ALL
 It is for ALL –Jew and Gentile
 It is for ALL – in the same degree of faith.
Why is this so important?
It answers the question; do some have more saving faith than
others? The answer is NO.
 It is for ALL – because all have sinned.
The glory is who God is.
None of us are God.
We all fall short in a very huge amount.
It is by his grace ALONE
We are justified freely by His grace
The Greek word translated “freely” is translated in John 15:25 as “without a
cause.” We are justified without a cause!
3. Justification is at a great COST
1) There was a PRICE that had to be paid.
Three words express the price God paid for our salvation:propitiation,
redemption, and blood.
Redemption is the forgiveness of sins
This means to send them away.
1 Peter 1:18-19
“Propitiation” was necessary
The same word is used twenty times in the Greek Old Testament to
denote the golden cover of the Ark of the Covenant, the so-called mercy
seat, the place where the priest sprinkled the blood of sacrifice to assuage
God’s just wrath on sin.2
The word “blood” tells us what the price was.
Jesus had to die on the cross in order to satisfy the Law and justify lost
sinners. Ex 25:22
Paul also uses the word forbearance.
Everything had to wait until Jesus Christ came.
2 Peter 3:9
2) There is the PRINCIPLE of justice that had to be met.
Justification must be just or fair.
A God of love wants to forgive sinners, but a God of holiness must
punish sin and uphold His righteous Law.
How can God be both “just and the justifier”?
The answer is in Jesus Christ.
4. Justification is CONFIRMED in the Law.
Vs. 27-31
Paul needed to show that the doctrine of justification by faith is not against the
Law, because it establishes the Law.
God does not have two ways of salvation, one for the Jews and one for the
Gentiles; for He is one God.
If salvation is through the Law, then men can boast; but the principle of faith
makes it impossible for men to boast.
2 Corinthians 5:21
Rom 8:3-4

2 2. F. F. Bruce, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans (London: The Tyndale Press, 1966), pp. 104, 105.