Romans · chapter 3 of 16
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Romans 3 concludes that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are under sin and that no one is justified by works of the law. It then presents the heart of the gospel: the righteousness of God is revealed through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, and they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood.
Chapters 1 and 2 showed that pagans and Jews are guilty before God. In chapter 3 Paul answers the questions that argument raises, closes the case against all humanity with a chain of Old Testament texts and, from verse 21, presents the solution: the righteousness of God received by faith. Many consider this passage the center of the whole letter.
Paul asks what advantage the Jew has. He answers that it is great: the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. Their unbelief does not nullify God's faithfulness, and God remains true though every person be a liar. Paul rejects the objection that if our sin highlights God's righteousness, then God should not judge.
He then states that Jews and Greeks are all under sin. He backs this up with a series of quotations from the Psalms and Isaiah: no one is righteous, no one seeks God, all have turned aside, their throats, tongues and feet serve evil and there is no fear of God before their eyes. The law stops every mouth and holds the whole world accountable, because by works of the law no one will be justified; the law brings knowledge of sin.
Verses 21 to 26 bring the turning point: now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, to which the Law and the Prophets bear witness. It comes through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, without distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God put him forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith, to show his righteousness, because he had patiently passed over former sins, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Finally, Paul says all boasting is excluded, because justification is by faith and not by works. God is the God of Jews and Gentiles, and faith does not abolish the law but upholds it.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Paul begins his chain of quotations by stating that no one is righteous, not even one. The point is not that people do nothing good but that no one reaches the righteousness God requires.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is a summary of the human condition, with no difference between Jews and Gentiles, and it prepares the message that our only hope lies in what God gives.
Believers are justified freely by God's grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus. Three key words appear together: justified, a legal term meaning God declares righteous; grace, an undeserved gift; and redemption, a ransom paid by Christ.
God showed his righteousness so as to be just and, at the same time, the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. The cross solves the apparent problem of how a just God can forgive sinners: sin is judged in Christ and the believer is declared righteous.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: That they were entrusted with the oracles of God. — Romans 3:1-2
Answer: That unbelief does not nullify God's faithfulness; God remains true. — Romans 3:3-4
Answer: It stops every mouth and brings knowledge of sin, but it justifies no one. — Romans 3:19-20
Answer: Through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, without distinction. — Romans 3:21-22
Answer: Freely, by God's grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. — Romans 3:24
Answer: Because a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law, not by a law of works but by a law of faith. — Romans 3:27-28
Romans 3 brings us to the two most important questions: what we are and what God has done. Admitting that we have all sinned frees us from comparing ourselves with others and from the false security of our own works. In a class it can help to ask where we are still trying to earn God's approval.
The good news is that justification is free and within reach of all who believe. That gives us confidence to come to God without fear and, at the same time, humility to treat patiently those who do not yet know him. If God received us by sheer grace, we have no reason to boast.
Romans 3 declares that all are guilty and that the righteousness of God is received freely by faith in Christ, whose blood is the propitiation. Romans 4 supports this teaching with the example of Abraham and David, showing that justification by faith is not a novelty but was already in the Scriptures.
The Greek term refers to a sacrifice that removes wrath against sin and restores the relationship with God. Some translators prefer expiation, which stresses that sin is wiped away; others prefer propitiation, which stresses that wrath is turned aside. Both emphases express that Christ, in his death, bears the penalty of sin.
It is a courtroom term meaning to declare righteous, not to make righteous. God, the judge, declares the sinner who trusts in Christ to be righteous, because Christ's righteousness is counted in his favor. A transformed life then grows out of that declaration.
No. Paul says faith upholds the law. The law continues to expose sin and point to Christ, and believers, with the Spirit, begin to do what the law asked. What faith excludes is the idea of earning salvation by works.