[Romans 3] Verse 21: But now apart from law God’s righteousness hath been manifested,—borne witness to by the Law and the Prophets—
The first words, “But now,” should be hailed by us joyfully, as beginning an account of something heavenly different from our guilt and helplessness, detailed in the preceding part of the Epistle (1:18-3:20).
The next phrase is: “apart from law”—lay it to heart! Unfortunately, the King James Version misses the emphasis here. For the Greek puts to the very front this great phrase “apart from law” (chōris nomou), and thus sets forth most strongly the altogether separateness of this Divine Righteousness from any law-performance, any works of man, whatsoever. Luther’s rendering was, “without accessory aid of law.” In this revelation of God’s righteousness, law was left out of account. Righteousness is on another principle than our right-doing!
Now the great and most common error in setting forth God’s righteousness here, is, to allow law at least some place. Men cannot, it seems, get over reasoning thus: that since God once promulgated the dispensation of law, which called for human righteousness. He must thereafter be bound by it forever. And this despite Divine assurance, over and over and over, that the present dispensation proceeds on an altogether different principle; that there has been a
“disannulling of a foregoing commandment” (Heb. 7:18)
; for He who had the right to command had also the right to disannul. It was
“because of its weakness and unprofitableness—for the Law made nothing perfect,”
—that the “foregoing commandment” was set aside. It had served its purpose—to make the trespass “abound” (5:20).
It is not that God has not the right to demand legal righteousness from us: but that He does not do it. “Righteousness which is of God” speaks in a way diametrically opposite to man’s law—obedience, of any sort whatsoever.
Men who do not see or believe that the whole history of those in Christ ended at the cross (for they died there, with Christ) must hold that God is still demanding righteousness: for “the law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth!”
The “teachers of the Law” (I Tim. 1:7) say: “Behind God, as He talks with you in ‘grace’ is His eternal Law. And He must carry out what He has expressed in that Law. But, because you are not able to perform it, He has ‘graciously’ given Christ, to perform all its requirements for you. And the positive, or ‘active’ requirements are, the observance of all the commands of the Law to the letter,—which (these teachers say) Christ has by His perfect life of obedience to the Law on earth, furnished for you. And the negative, or ‘passive’ obedience, as they call it—that is, the penalty of death for your sins which the Law (say they) demanded, Christ has paid on the cross. So that, now your debts cancelled by Christ’s death, you have Christ’s legal ‘merits’ as your actual righteousness before God: for God must demand (they say) perfect righteousness from you, as measured by His holy Law,”—etc., etc.
This seemingly beautiful talk is both unscriptural and anti-scriptural.
God says that the believer is not under law, that he is dead to law,—to that whole principle, being in the Risen Christ; and Christ is certainly not under law in Heaven! Believers are “in Him”; they are “not in the flesh” (Rom. 8:9). They were formerly in the flesh (in the old natural life of Adam); but are now “new creatures” in Christ Risen!
If you put believers under law, you must put their federal Head, Christ, back under law; for
“as He is, even so are we in this world.”
To do this you must reverse Calvary, and have Christ back again on earth “under law.” For law, we repeat, was not given to a heavenly company, but to an earthly nation. Scripture says it was to redeem that earthly people (Israel) who were under law, that Christ was “born under the Law” (Gal. 4:4). You must thus, if you are “under law,” be joined to a Christ belonging to Israel, a flesh and blood Christ; and must consent to be an Israelite—to which nation He was sent. But alas! You find that such a Christ is not here! That He said He must “abide alone,”—like the grain of wheat unless it “fall into the ground and die.” To an earthly, Jewish Christ, you therefore cannot be united. And so your vain hope of having Moses and Christ is wholly gone. Therefore you must be united with a Risen Christ, or with none at all! But if to a Risen Christ, it is unto One who died unto sin (6:10); and those (Jewish) believers who were under the Law died with Him unto it (7:4). And you, if you are Christ’s, are now wholly, as Christ is, on resurrection ground. This truth will be brought out fully in chapters Six and Seven; we can but note it here.
The words hath been manifested (of verse 21) Conybeare lucidly paraphrases, “not by law but by another way, God’s righteousness is brought to light.” God had always dealt righteously, although His way was not as yet plain. He pardoned many, and He did not seem wholly to judge sin even in the unsaved world. But at the cross
“He spared not His own Son.”
Here was revealed, indeed, righteousness to the uttermost!
Borne witness to by the Law and the Prophets—by the Law, in its sacrificial offerings; by the Prophets, in direct statements:
“This is His name whereby He shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness” (Jer. 23:6)
; and again, “Thy righteousness”—21 times in the Psalms! as,
“I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only” (71:2, 15, 16, 19, 24)
; and Isaiah:
“By the knowledge of Himself shall my righteous Servant make many righteous” (53:11).
Yet it was not brought to light how this should be, until “the fulness of the time” came, and God sent His Son to
“suffer for sins, the just for the unjust,”to
“put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,”that God’s righteousness might be “manifested,” both in His dealing with sin, and in glorifying His Son in heaven, who had glorified His Father on earth.
It would have been righteous for God to smite Adam and Eve as He did the angels that sinned. He could have revealed Himself in righteousness of judgment in accord with His holiness and justice. He was not obliged to save any man. But it was God’s will to reveal Himself: for He is Love.
Therefore He now comes forth at the cross in love,—albeit He must there come forth also in righteousness,—for He Himself must righteously and fully judge sin upon the person of His own provided Lamb. The sword “awakened against His Shepherd, the Man who was His Fellow,”—the “fellow” of Jehovah of hosts! The Shepherd was smitten:
“He was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace [that would procure peace for us] was upon Him.”
God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up, and the penalty for our sin was visited upon Him, Jesus, God’s provided Sacrifice (Zech. 13:7; Isa. 53:5, 6).
God is able to come forth to us now in absolute GRACE, sending out His messengers
“preaching peace by Jesus Christ”
;—nay, preaching much more than peace. In effect, God says, “Utter and infinite oceans of grace shall roll over the place where judgment and condemnation were!” Forgiving us all our trespasses, He goes further: having raised up Christ from the dead. He says, I will now place you in my Son. I will give you a standing fully and only in Him risen from the dead! Not only did He bear your sins, putting away your guilt, but in His death I released you from your standing and responsibility in Adam the first. You who have believed are now new creatures in Christ: for I have created you in Him.’
And because this is so, it is announced further:
“Him who knew no sin, God made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
These astonishing words state the present fact as to all believers,—of all those in Christ: they are the righteousness of God in Him!
In the book of Romans, Paul is describing God’s action toward a believing sinner in view of the shed blood of Christ. It is as if God were holding court with the infinite value and benefit of the propitiatory sacrifice and resurrection of Christ only and ever before Him. No other apostle will be called upon to set this forth fully as does Paul. Of course it could not be stated by the Old Testament writers in its fulness and clearness; for our Lord had not then offered Himself, and all the Law and Prophets could do was to declare sin temporarily “covered” (Heb., kaphar) from God’s sight; and so the Old Testament believer was one who rested on what God would do, in view of these types and shadows and promises.
John the Baptist, however, pointing to Christ, said,
“Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,”
something that had never before been! Therefore, after the cross, it is written,
“Once in the consummation of the ages, hath He [Christ] been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”
In the Old Testament, we repeat, sin is covered,—which is the meaning of the word kaphar, “atonement,”—used only in the Old Testament, and there constantly (some 13 times in one chapter—Leviticus 16), to express the covering from God’s sight of sin: though the sin remained untaken away until Christ died. In the New Testament, therefore, sin is said to be put away by Christ’s sacrifice.
God can, therefore, not only forgive the sinner, but also proceed to declare the believing sinner righteous, not at all meaning that he has any righteousness of his own, or that “the ‘merits’ of Christ are imputed to him” (a fiction of theology); but that God, acting in righteousness, reckons righteous the ungodly man who trusts Him: because He places him in the full value of the infinite work of Christ on the cross, and transfers him into Christ Risen, who becomes his righteousness.
We may look at the term God’s righteousness from God’s own side; then from that of Christ; and, finally, from that of the justified sinner.
1. From. God’s side, the expression “God’s righteousness,” must be regarded as an absolute one. It is His attribute of righteousness. It can be nothing else. He must, and ever will, act in righteousness, whether it be toward Christ, toward those in Christ, or toward those finally impenitent, whether angels, demons, or men.
2. From Christ’s side, it is His being received by God into glory according to God’s estimation of His mediatorial work. Our Lord had said that when the Spirit would come, He would “convince the world . . . of righteousness, because I go unto the Father, and ye see me no more” (John 16); and He had said,
“I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work Thou gavest me to do. And now, Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory I had with Thee before the world was” (John 17).
In answer to this prayer Christ was
“raised from the dead through the glory of the Father” (Rom. 6:4)
, and was
“received up in glory” (I Tim. 3:16).
Now our Lord was man, as well as God. And when the Father glorified Him “with His own self,” with that glory Christ “had with Him before the world was,” it was as man that God thus glorified Him. So that, at God’s right hand, Christ set forth publicly the righteousness of God; for (a) as the slain Lamb He shows the holiness of God and God’s righteousness fully satisfied,—since God had “spared not His own Son” when sin had been laid upon Him. The truth of God as to the wages of sin had been shown in Christ’s death; thus the majesty of the insulted throne of God had been publicly vindicated, so that Christ’s being raised and “received up in glory” set forth the righteousness of God; for it were unrighteous that Christ should not be glorified! And (b) Christ not only thus set forth the righteousness of God, but being God the Son, as well as man, He was that righteousness! Christ dead, risen, glorified, is the very righteousness of God!
3. From the believer’s side, the justified sinner’s side, what do we see? The amazing declaration of God concerning us is,
“Him who knew no sin God made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21).
The saints are said to be the righteousness of God, in Christ. Of course self-righteousness simply shrivels before a verse like this! All is in Christ: we are in Christ—one with Him!
The expression “God’s righteousness” then signifies:
1. God Himself acting in righteousness (a) toward Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him as a man in the place of absolute honor and glory; (b) in giving those who believe on Christ the same acceptance before God as Christ now has, inasmuch as He actually bare their sins, putting them away by His blood, and also became identified with the sinner—was “made to be sin for us” and, our old man was thus
Just as it would have been unrighteousness in God not to raise His Son after His Son had completely glorified Him in His death; so it would also be unrighteous in God not to declare righteous in Christ those who, deserting all trust in themselves, have transferred their faith and hope to Christ alone.“crucified with Him.”
2. Thus Christ, now risen and glorified, is Himself the righteousness of believers. It is not that He acted righteously while on earth, and that that is reckoned to us. This is, we repeat, the heresy of “vicarious law-keeping.” He was indeed the spotless Lamb of God; but He had no connection with sinners until His death. He was “separate from sinners.”
“Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone.”
It is the Risen Christ who is our righteousness. “Christianity begins at the resurrection.” The work of the cross of course made Christianity possible; but true Christianity is all on the resurrection side of the cross.
“He is not here, but is risen,”
the angel said.
3. Thus Christians find themselves spoken of as the righteousness of God in Christ. Not as “righteous before God,” for that would be to think of a personal standing given to us, on account of Christ’s death, rather than a federal standing, as in Him, united to Him,—which we are! John Wesley said a wise thing indeed: “Never think of yourself apart from Christ!”
Now to be or become “righteous before God”; to have or obtain a standing that will “bear God’s scrutiny,” is the fond dream of very many earnest Christians. But however stated, and by whomsoever stated, that idea of our obtaining a “standing before God” falls short, and that vitally, of Paul’s gospel of our being made the righteousness of God in Christ. It denies that we died with Christ; and that we have been made dead to the whole legal principle in Christ’s death (7:4). Thus it leaves us under the necessity of “obtaining a standing” before God; whereas believers federally shared the death of Christ, and Christ Risen is Himself now our standing!
Negatively, then (as Paul begins to declare in his first recorded discourse. Acts 13:39), “Every one that believeth on Him is justified from all things”;—
“justified in His blood” (Rom. 5:9)
; and
Positively, Christ was
“raised for our justification” (4:25)
: that we might receive a new place, a place in a Risen Christ,—and be thus the righteousness of God in Him, as one with Him who is that righteousness.
God declares that He reckons righteous the ungodly man who ceases from all works, and believes on Him (God), as the God who, on the ground of Christ’s shed blood, “justifies the ungodly” (4:5). He declares such an one righteous: reckoning to him all the absolute value of Christ’s work,—of His expiating death, and of His resurrection, and placing him in Christ: where he is the righteousness of God: for Christ is that!
Does Christ need something yet, that He may stand in acceptance with God? Then do I need something,—for I am in Christ, and He alone is my righteousness. If He stands in full, eternal acceptance, then do I also: for I am now in Him alone,—having died with Him to my old place in Adam.
Earnest and godly men, wonderfully used of God, have brought out, as did the Reformers, that we are justified by faith, not works: without, however, going on to show, as does Paul, our complete deliverance, in Christ, from our former place in Adam, and from the whole principle of law.
The Reformation statements were as follows:
Luther: “The righteousness of God is that righteousness which avails before God.” This means a “substantive righteousness,”—a quality bestowed which “avails.” But I am not in these words seen as dead, and now in Christ only.
Calvin: “By the righteousness of God I understand that righteousness which is approved before the tribunal seat of God.” Here again is a quality, not Christ Himself, who is made righteousness unto me, and I myself “of God,” in Him (I Cor. 1:30). And according to Calvin I must stand before God’s “tribunal”! But Christ at the cross met all the claims of God’s “tribunal,”—and that forever; and I am now in Christ Risen!
Again, Calvin, writing on II Cor. 5:21, concerning our being made or becoming “the righteousness of God in Christ,” says: “In this place nothing else is to be understood than that we stand supported by the expiation of Christ’s death before the tribunal of God.” Here is still the thought of a future (or present) “tribunal.” Only the negative side—expiation of guilt, is brought out. But this text in II Corinthians is positive: we are God’s righteousness in Christ! Believers are not seen by Calvin as having died with Christ, and having no connection at all with Adam’s responsibility to furnish a righteousness and holiness before God’s “tribunal.” Believers, says Paul, are not now “in the flesh” in their standing,—they are seen by God in Christ only! (Rom. 8:9). Calvin and all the Reformers, and the Puritans after them, placed believers under the Law of Moses as a “rule of life”; because they did not see that a believer’s history in Adam ended at the cross. But Paul, in Gal. 6:15, 16, says that those in Christ are to walk as “new creatures”: they are a new creation!
“And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them!”
This is God’s prescription for your walk, whatever men may teach!
We do quote Luther, that great man of God, in connection with Chapter Seven, in the expressions of his wonderful personal faith, as saying: “These words, ‘am dead to the Law’ (Gal. 2:19) are very effectual. For he saith simply, ‘I am dead to the Law’; that is, I have nothing to do with the Law . . . Let him that would live to God come out of the grave with Christ.” (Luther on Galatians; in which book is often shown a vigor and boldness of faith hardly to be matched since Paul!)
Dr. Scofield in his note on Romans 3:21, says that the righteousness of the believer “is Christ Himself, who fully met in our stead and behalf every demand of the Law.” Yet Scripture says that the Law was given to Israel; and that Gentiles are “without law,” as contrasted “with Israel,” who were “under the Law.” Paul’s words to us in Rom. 6:14:
“Ye are not under law, but under grace,”
do not mean that we were once under law (as were the Jews) and have now been delivered; but rather mean that we, having died with Christ (our old man crucified with Him, and our history in Adam closed forever before God), are not placed at all under law! It is unfortunate that Dr. Scofield goes on to quote beloved Bunyan: “The believer in Christ is now, by grace, shrouded under so complete and blessed a righteousness that the Law from Mt. Sinai can find neither fault nor diminution therein. This is that which is called the righteousness of God by faith.”
Now it is at once evident that such a statement as Bunyan’s leaves “the Law from Mt. Sinai” master of the field, lord over us. According to this the Law remains Inspector General of those in Christ! We are not “discharged” from it. We are still on earth, under legal trial, men “in the flesh.” The gospel, however, is that we are, in Christ, not under the law-principle at all!
“Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.”
Those who believe are not now under law, but under grace, being
We are now in a Risen Christ, who as such “lives unto God”; and it is unthinkable that He is under law! The Word of God says that Christ was “born of a woman,”—thus reaching the whole race; and “born under the Law, that He might redeem them that were under the Law,”—that is, Israel. But to maintain that the Risen Christ is “under law” in Heaven, is both to deny Scripture (Rom. 6:4) and also to close our eyes to the manner of His risen life (6:10). Christ in Heaven lives under no legal conditions, but freely, in love unto God. And God has sent forth “the Spirit of His Son”—mark that!—into our hearts. This means not only the witness that we are adult sons (huioi) of God, but that the very same emotions of relationship and nearness to the Father belonging to Christ, God’s Son, are ours—witnessed in our hearts by the Spirit of His Son!“in Christ.”
We find hardly any writers except indeed certain devoted saints among the “Friends of God” of the fourteenth century; and later, certain among the mystics like Tauler, Ter Steegen, Suso and the “prince of German hymnists,” Paul Gerhardt; together with many early Methodists; and in the nineteenth century, certain of those remarkable men whose followers were later called “Plymouth Brethren,” who have seen or dared believe our complete deliverance before God from Adam the First: that is, from our former place “in the flesh,” “under law.” The last, the Brethren, indeed speak with more Pauline accuracy. But these earlier saints, though much persecuted, exhibit marvelously in their lives and testimony that heavenly freedom of those taught of God their place in Christ! Hear one of them singing:
“Thou who givest of Thy gladness
Till the cup runs o’er—
Cup whereof the pilgrim weary
Drinks to thirst no more—
Not a-nigh me, but within me
Is Thy joy divine;
Thou, O Lord, hast made Thy dwelling
In this heart of mine.
“Need I that a law should bind me
Captive unto Thee?
Captive is my heart, rejoicing
Never to be free.
Ever with me, glorious, awful,
Tender, passing sweet,
One upon whose heart I rest me,
Worship at His Feet.”
—Gerhard Ter Steegen.
The Law was given to man in the flesh; not to those on resurrection ground. Our relationship now to God is that of standing in the same acceptance as Christ; and we have the same Spirit of sonship as Christ!
Now, Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, and the life that He now liveth, He liveth unto God. And He lives unto God as man. He is God; but He is also a Risen Man.
It is into this Risen Christ, thus glorified, that God has brought us.
We do not need therefore a personal “standing” before God at all. This is the perpetual struggle of legalistic theology,—to state how we can have a “standing” before God. But to maintain this is still to think of us as separate from Christ (instead of dead and risen with Him), and needing such a “standing.” But if we are in Christ in such an absolute way that Christ Himself has been made unto us righteousness, we are immediately relieved from the need of having any “standing.” Christ is our standing, Christ Himself! And Christ being the righteousness of God, we, being thus utterly and vitally in Christ before God, have no other place but in Him. We are
“the righteousness of God in Christ.”
Not to the cherubim, not to the seraphim, not to the elect angels, has been given such a place as this! They may be sinless,—they are. They may be holy,—they are. They may be glorious,—they are. But they are not “the righteousness of God”; for they are not in Christ. They were never cut off, as we have been, by a death that ended completely their former history and standing, and then placed in Christ!"
William R. Newell
Excerpt from Romans Verse by Verse
Chapter 3
William R. Newell
Excerpt from Romans Verse by Verse
Chapter 3
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