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The Key, the Truth that Transforms

Read Romans 3:21-31

Those of you who have been following our series on Romans, Be Transformed, will know that we are seeking to understand what it is that we are to be transformed by and what we are to avoid being conformed to (Romans 12). We have spent most of our time this far on the things that we need to avoid being conformed to; whereas, today we will turn to the basic truth that has the power to transform our lives completely.

Many a theologian and commentator on scripture has said that Romans 3:21-31 is the very heart of the gospel. Some have gone so far as to say that this is the most important chapter in the entire Bible. The key, if you will, that unlocks all the meaning of all scripture. Having worked to describe the downfall of all people and the reason that the wrath of God is warranted, Paul turns to the good news for the first time in this letter.

“But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe;”

Paul is picking back up the other theme laid out in parallel to the wrath of God being revealed, namely, that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel (Romans 1:17) and this righteousness is the very power of God for salvation. He makes it more explicit. The righteousness has been revealed apart from the law though the proof of it can be found in the law itself and in the prophets. Paul means to say that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very thing to which both the Law and Prophets point toward. Paul has come to understand that all the revelation that God has provided for the Jew makes sense only when viewed through the Christ event.

“for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 3:23)

Many people know this verse; and many people assume that the sins involved are the “Big 10” found in the law. While those are certainly a part of the problem of sin, there is much more to our sinful nature. Our fallen-shortness includes those famous “thou shalt nots” but is more inclusive. Our pettiness, our selfishness, our gossiping, and peevishness are also included. Our idolatries, manifold as they are, also keep us short of the glory of God. Still there is more, because the wrath of God is not coming for those things alone, but also because of our ingratitude.

“For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks…” (Rom 1:21)

When my kids were younger, I would sometimes say to them “dogs gotta bark, fish gotta swim, and birds gotta fly. You need to figure out what you gotta do.” It was shorthand for do the stuff that needs to be done and learn how to be a person. When asked about it more specifically, I would tell them that everything that has been created has a purpose and a thing that marks them as different from the other things. People also have an attribute and a purpose that goes beyond what we do for a living. All of creation gives glory to God by being true to their creation and their purpose.

People are unique amongst animals because we are moral creatures with real options. We do not operate on instinct alone. As such we are able to acknowledge God as creator and render true thanks and praise.

Spoiler alert: We don’t.

No seriously, besides all the other ways in which we sin, we fail to be thankful for all the blessings that God provides for us. As Jesus himself said, the Father makes the rain to fall on the wicked and the good. The dependability of sunshine and rain, harvest time, the wonders of childbirth and parenting, the companionship of pets, the love of kith and kin, even the simple fact that there is a morning and a night every day are reason enough to praise God. Most of time we are so caught up in ourselves that we miss the chance. I live in Texas and people here complain about the heat in the Summer but beg for it in the winter. We complain that there is no rain and then grumble when the rain comes in buckets. I suspect that people are this way everywhere. Never thought of those things as elements of sinfulness, have you? Honestly, neither had I until I started studying and praying through Romans. None of us should be surprised; after all, for our fallen-shortness runs deep:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom 3:23)

We have been living into this fallen-shortness since the beginning according to Genesis. Have you ever read through Genesis beyond the creation story and the flood? The story of Abraham’s family begins with chapter 12 and the whole rest of Genesis could be subtitled: As the World Turns! For those of you reading this post from a foreign country, As the World Turns was the title of a long running soap-opera on American television. To this problem of rampant sinfulness, Paul says that God has revealed His solution in Jesus Christ.

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; (Rom 3:21-24)

This is the gospel in a nutshell, the very gospel that Paul said he was not ashamed of because it was the very power of salvation for the Jew and the Greek. This is the good news of our God. We have been given a free and wondrous gift, a justification and redemption through Christ Jesus that is available simply because God is gracious. Let’s take a moment to break down those two terms for the fuller picture that Paul is illustrating.

Justification means that we were guilty (all have sinned) but we have been pardoned. Consider for a moment in English we say that someone can justify their actions. The notion being that when sufficient reason is given, we can understand and approve of a decision a person makes even if it caused us harm. For example, a “justified” killing might be one in which a person was defending their child from a predator. In Paul’s day, both in the Old Testament usage and especially in the context of the Roman Empire, the word had a forensic overtone, forensic meaning that it was the language of the law courts. Justification meant being decreed not guilty regardless of the truth of what you did.

Many years ago, OJ Simpson was found not guilty by a court of law for a double homicide. Most of the world was convinced that he had in fact murdered the two people in question. Point of fact a civil trial later held him liable for damages caused by the deaths. This civil trial judgment had no bearing on his freedom because the trial court had declared him not guilty. Not declared him innocent mind you, but not guilty. This was his status before the magistrate. No matter what anyone else thought, no matter whether or not he had committed murder, he had the status of a free man. This is the exact thing that Paul is saying is true for all of us because of Christ. Thoroughly guilty (all have sinned) and ongoingly guilty through our fallen-shortness nature we are in fact justified(!) declared to be free from the guilt of sin before an Almighty God through what Christ has done. For those who thought OJ was a murderer, the verdict not guilty was a scandal. Welcome to the scandal of you! God, the Almighty, Just Judge of all has declared your status to be not guilty. You are in fact righteous (in right standing) before God when you believe in Jesus Christ. It was a scandalous idea then, and it is equally scandalous now.

Redemption is a different thing altogether. For years when I taught young people about redemption, I used the example of redeeming a used-up glass bottle for five cents (ten in Michigan) or how a coupon is redeemed for something that you purchase for all or part of the total cost. After working through that concept, I would tie the concept to Christ’s blood being the means of redemption. His blood pays a price that you owe. I am not going to now say that this isn’t true. I am going to say I had a very narrow idea of what redemption meant.

In the Old Testament, redemption is used to describe deliverance from the bondage in Egypt, from the captivity in Babylon, from evil, and the ultimate setting to right of the world for the people of God in the eschatological future. In short redemption meant freedom from current enemies and the ultimate total freedom that is promised when God brings in the new creation at the end of time. Truth be told, in my coupon illustrations, I had short-shifted the meaning of the word making it synonymous with justification when in fact Paul was declaring two very different very grand accomplishments of God through Jesus Christ.

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; (Rom 3:21-24)

What Paul is saying is that because of Jesus Christ, those who are sinners can be granted the status of innocent before God, not only this but that they are also set free from the bondage of the great enemies of sin and death. Many first century Jews believed that at the end of time there would be a general resurrection of all, some to eternal life and some to final judgment. You can see this in Martha’s response to Jesus (John 11) that she knows her brother will rise on the last day. This general resurrection is also mentioned in Daniel. Paul believed that the resurrection of Jesus was proof that this event would happen. God had brought the not yet of the future resurrection into the now of the first century and demonstrated the faithfulness of God to his eternal promises. When you read Romans the passage carefully you can see that the last phrase (being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus) is explaining what Paul means in the first clause (here and in Romans 1:17) that the righteousness of God (his unending, eternal faithfulness, has been manifested in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Our translations start a new verse in Romans 3:25, but the opening of that verse is actually the completion of the sentence begun in the passage above and when you put them together Paul explains how the justification of the sinner is accomplished in Christ dying on the cross. Together it reads this way:

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith.

That word propitiation is crucial. Propitiation is the word that the Greek translators of the Old Testament used predominantly to translate a particular Hebrew word kapporet. The word literally means lid, derived from the root word “to cover” or “to make atonement” and is used to describe the lid over the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat. The mercy seat was where the presence of God was present in the tabernacle and later in the first Temple until the Babylonian exile. The mercy seat was where the High Priest would (once a year on the Day of Atonement) sprinkle the blood of an unblemished lamb to take away the sins of Israel. The lamb’s death and blood were symbolic of the payment of death that the people of Israel were due because of their sins. That action occurred in private as the High Priest was the only one allowed to enter the Holy of Holies and stand in the presence of God as the representative of the people.

“But now”, Paul writes, God has acted in full view of everyone by lifting Christ up on a cross where his blood is the final sacrifice for the sins of the entire world (as John the Baptist prophesied when he called Jesus the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world) and Christ himself is now the very mercy seat. The High Priest having completed the action would declare the people righteous before God. In Christ, through faith, anyone can now be declared righteous before God. A new, permanent status of not guilty (justified) is available to all.

When you put all of this together you can understand the gospel as Paul understood the gospel. The final judgment of God, expected on the last day, has been rendered now in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And all who have faith in Jesus, and what he accomplished, have access right now to a judgment of not guilty and eternal life. The future is now, in other words, for all who believe.

As I write this the Christian world is preparing to celebrate Easter 2026. This passage in Romans is what Good Friday and Easter are all about. Christ Jesus has done the one thing that we all need, paid the wages of sin (death) through his blood, and his resurrection is proof that God vindicated him; and will vindicate all of us who cling to the promise of the faith of, in, and through Jesus. Because of Christ’s shed blood we can be declared righteous right now by God. Because of his resurrection we can live in a certain hope of our own resurrection to eternal life in the last day.

This is the most glorious truth ever; a truth that proves what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. A truth that enables us to be acceptable to God, a truth that when believed is our act of spiritual service of worship (Romans 12). A truth that is transformative.

He is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Hallelujah! Amen.

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Jesus Christ is Lord

Read Romans 1: 1-11

There are portions of the Bible that folks tend to read through quickly because they seem a little monotonous. The list of names in Chronicles or the dietary laws in Deuteronomy come to mind. Almost every letter Paul wrote to Churches begins with an introduction of himself that can seem “old hat” to the student of scripture. We allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of “heard this all many times before”.

When it comes to the Letter to the Romans, we would be wise to pay close attention.

Paul was last Apostle called directly by Jesus for the working of spreading the gospel. Not the last person called to this task only the last person whom Jesus spoke to directly. All the apostles before Paul had been called in a person-to-person conversation. Paul saw Jesus in a vision and heard him speaking to him directly. He begins this letter calling himself the bond-servant of Christ.

The real word is slave. Most modern English translations soften the language because of the long history of slavery in the Western World. While this is understandable something is lost even in this first verse because we do not understand the word the way Paul’s audience would have understood it. In the Roman Empire there were slaves of many types. The important thing was a slave was not thought of as property so much as the consequence of one group being dominated by another. Slaves were the people who had been conquered and now had to live out a life bound to the will of the family that they served. There was a Paterfamilias (the Parent of the Family) at the top that held the power of life or death over the slave. The Paterfamilias was also called by the title Dominus or the one whom had dominion. All of this and more can be read about in Wikipedia.

Reflect now on how the first listeners heard these words. In a few syllables, Paul communicates he was one who had been conquered by Christ Jesus, that Christ Jesus was the Paterfamilias, the Dominus, and Paul was slave to that household. Had they been aware that Paul was a Roman citizen the claimed status of slave would be even more striking. He goes on to say that his servitude was for the purposes of the gospel, to explain what that gospel message is about.

When was the last time you read the Old Testament? If it has been a while you may want to go back and dive in. Why? Because according to Paul the gospel is contained in the Old Testament. Check out the second verse (which in reality is a clause in a much longer run-on sentence that culminates at verse 7!): “which he promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures; concerning his son…“

Paul is not alone in saying that the message of the Gospel is found in what we today call the Old Testament. Twice, Jesus demonstrates this same truth. In Luke, the travelers to Emmaus encounter a stranger along the way who asks the question, “was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the scriptures.” (Spoiler Alert! the stranger is Jesus.)

Later he appears to the first disciples and says “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things are written about me in Law of Moses and the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

Jesus read the Old Testament. So should we.

The writer of Hebrews begins his great letter with no introduction but with these words: “God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the world…“. We will get back to that last part soon enough, but there it is again that the Old Testament contains the truth of the Gospel.

It was the Old Testament that Paul went back and studied after he regained his sight (figuratively and literally) to understand how it was that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth could be alive and speaking to him when he had traveled to Damascus. Luckily for us Paul gives us the shorthand version in the salutation of this letter.

“...His son, born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection according to the Spirit of Holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Here we see that Jesus is the promised Messiah (heir to the throne of David) and that after the resurrection he has been empowered as the Lord. (Jesus, the Christ, our Lord would be an acceptable alternative translation.) This is the shortest way that you can summarize the story of Jesus found in the Old Testament. A little longer way to flesh it out would be to say that Jesus is the one promised to Eve who will defeat Satan. Jesus is the heir of Abraham through whom all the people of the world shall be blessed. He is the heir promised to David who shall sit on the throne for all eternity. He is the one Jeremiah spoke of who would bring about the new covenant in which the law would be written on the believer’s hearts and God would remember their sins no more. He is the Suffering servant of Isaiah by whose stripes we are healed. The one who would be YHWH returning to his temple promised in Ezekiel. The son of righteousness rising with healing in his wings according to Malachi. (The list is virtually endless!)

Still, there is more in this quick summary than meets the eye. A long running argument (controversy, even heresy depending on how one views these things) exists in the Christian world about the divinity of Christ. In the earliest centuries of Church history, the argument took the form of adoptionism. The idea being that Jesus was just a man like any other until God chose to adopt him as his son. When the adoption took place was argued both at the baptism and after the resurrection. In more recent times the argument centers around when did Christians decide that Jesus was God. This controversy reignited late in the last century over the idea that there were so called gnostic Christians who were shut out by the orthodox but who had the right idea all along about who Jesus really was. Our enemy, the eternal liar, wants people to question the divinity of Jesus. A Jesus who is nothing special is a Jesus who can be ignored.

Some of those who argued for adoptionism pointed to this verse in Romans. To them, even Paul is suggesting that Jesus is appointed to his special role after the resurrection. This is a poor understanding of Paul and the early Christians. So as not to get bogged down into translation issues I will remind you of four different voices of the first generation of Christians who suggest otherwise.

We will start with Paul. To the Philippians he writes of Jesus, “Although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped but emptied himself taking the form of a slave being made in the likeness of man.”

Luke writes that the angel Gabriel told Mary, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; and for that reason, the holy child shall be called the Son of God.“

In Hebrews (continuing the passage quoted above), “and He is the radiance of His Glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power. When he made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High...”.

And our fourth witness is the Gospel of John where we read “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The Bible is quite clear that Jesus is God.

Paul is not saying that Jesus became the Lord after the resurrection but rather in the same way that a prince is always the king even before the coronation, Jesus is declared the Lord after the resurrection. He does not become it in that moment but is revealed as always having been that from the beginning. One needs to look no further, in my estimation, than the repeated use of Lord as a title for Jesus. Paul was a good Jew. A faithful well-educated rabbi. He knew that the word Lord was the word that the Jews had used for centuries to avoid saying the sacred name (YHWH) aloud. He would never have used the title lightly for Jesus.

Many scholars like to side-step this reality by saying that the use of Lord for Jesus was a political statement to draw the distinction between Jesus and Ceasar (the emperor cult in Rome was already, at this point, beginning to deify Caesar) who was known as Lord of the Earth. It is true that declaring Jesus as Lord was a political statement in that day (as it is in our own context), but that fact does not diminish the truth of who the first century Christians understood Jesus to be.

And if he is Lord, then he is worthy of our faith and obedience, which is what Paul says is the purpose of the preaching of the gospel. “Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the gentiles for His name’s sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.”

So, we can draw 3 conclusions from this short passage. First, that Jesus is the promised one of the Old Testament. Two, that Jesus is the Lord God. Three, he is worthy of our faith and obedience.

Wow. Isn’t scripture amazing?

If this is your first time to The Hypocritical Christian, welcome, I am glad that you are here. Honored that you would consider reading at all. Thank you for reading to this point in the post. We are in the midst of a journey through Romans, where we are seeking to understand how we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Rom 12:2). Along the way we are going to incorporate other portions of scripture from throughout the Bible but principally from Luke, Philippians, and Hebrews.

At the risk of going too long, I want to highlight briefly two words that will be essential to our understanding of Romans and Paul’s desire that we are not conformed but transformed (this I believe is the spiritual gift that Paul wishes to impart mentioned in Romans 1:11); flesh and spirit.

Paul, a good student of the Old Testament, believes that with Christ’s resurrection a new age has begun. This new age is the age of the Spirit. The Age of the Spirit (wherein believers exist in the power of the Holy Spirit) continues until the return of Jesus and the world is finally set to right again as described in Revelation 21-22. The age of the Flesh is how the world operated until the advent of Jesus and continues to operate for non-believers until the second coming of Christ.

For now, think of it this way. All of us exist in the sphere of the Flesh. We will spend the next several posts discussing the sphere of the flesh and the ways in which it manifests itself individually and collectively all around us. Then we will begin discussing how the age of Spirit, which has broken in, changes us as we become believers (or continue on as believers) and how the influence of that Age should impact our thoughts and behaviors.

This image can help us understand:

As believers we currently exist in a bifurcated world. We are perpetually influenced by both the world (Age of the Flesh) and the presence of the Holy Spirit (Age of the Spirit). To put it simply these two spheres are the influence which seeks to conform us and the influence that has the power to transform us.

But all of that is for future posts.

Peace to you on your journey. Vaya Con Dios!

Feel free to use this Bible Study for your own groups or discussion.  It is freely given. If you do I merely ask that you acknowledge where you got it and if you find it useful that you encourage others to seek it out. It is freely given and written with fear, foreboding, and prayer by a fellow hypocrite who is simply trying to figure out the road ahead.

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