Romans 3:21-26 | A Gospel-Centered Church

Introduction

Let’s open to the Bible to Romans 3:21-26.

Whenever we pick up a book, we want to know what that book is about. A novel isn’t about everything and it’s not about nothing. It’s about a specific something an idea, a theme—it has a point. A biography isn’t about everyone; it’s about someone. A textbook doesn’t cover the whole of school but only one subject. If a book is written well, we can funnel it down to the central point of the book from one paragraph—the center of it all. 

So, when we open the Bible, where do we go to find that paragraph? I’ve heard others put it this way. What’s the most important book in the world? The Bible. What’s the most important book in the Bible? The book of Romans. What’s the most important chapter in the book of Romans? Chapter 3. What is the most important paragraph in chapter 3? Verses 21-26.

So that makes our passage today the most important paragraph ever written in all human history. Now I know that sounds perhaps too much. But it’s really hard to argue against it. This paragraph holds within it the entire message of the Bible. It tells us who we are, what has happened to us, and what God has done to save us. The great Reformer Martin Luther said it’s “the chief point, and the very central place of the epistle, and of the whole Bible.”

So today I want us to look at this central passage and think about what implications it has for us as a church. Our church is not here because we have some good ideas we’d like to explore together. We’re not here because we want to do things “our way” in rejection of those others down the road. We’re not here because we’re looking for a new angle or a different path. We’re here because the gospel has been proclaimed, and the Triune God has gathered us as for one mission under one Savior, for his glory in our day. We aim to be a gospel-centered church—not the only gospel-centered church in town, but one of them. And we want to see one in every community throughout our region.

The gospel must be the biggest thing in the church because only the gospel is big enough for the church. It’s the only thing that will sustain us over the long haul. If we ever abandon the gospel as the centering point—no matter how good a thing we replace it with—we will have failed to remain faithful, and God must bring us to repentance or shut our doors.

After all, a gospel-centered church is really the only kind of church there is. A church without the gospel is something else—a social club or political action committee or a rallying point for pet projects or hobby horse hermeneutics. Those are man-centered things. And they can’t last. Every man-made institution ends in tears. But the gospel ends with a party. The gospel is good news of great joy. William Tyndale, the man who translated the Bible into English in the 16th century, said:

Evangelion (what we call “the gospel”) is a Greek word, signifying good, merry, glad and joyful news, that makes a man’s heart glad and makes him sing, dance and leap for joy.

I love that. That’s what we’re after at Refuge: deep happiness in God. Nothing takes us there but the gospel. We can’t add to it. We can’t improve it. We can only accept it and enjoy in it.

So in the time we have today, let’s consider what it means to be a gospel-centered church from Romans 3:21-26. Now, before we read it, let me just set the stage very briefly. The bulk of the first three chapters of Romans is filled with bad news. The Apostle Paul explains how everyone is a sinner. We all inherit sin from our parents, and we all add our own sins on top. We’re all guilty and accountable to God. We deserve judgement. But then, Paul explains what God has done for sinners like us. Let’s read it now.

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Let’s break this passage down into three points to see what Paul says about the gospel and draw some applications for us here at Refuge.

The gospel is the center of the Bible, so it must be our center too.

Look at verse 21: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it.”

It’s hard to read the Bible and not see that a major theme is the need for obedience to God’s law. In fact, many people boil it down to just that: God’s rule book. The law tells us what God expects and what happens if we fail to obey. It’s clear God calls us to righteous living, and he doesn’t leave it up to us to determine what that means. He tells us in his law. But the problem is we can’t obey as we ought. And so, a question remains: how will we get the righteousness God requires? Paul has an answer in verse 21.

The righteousness of God—that is, “God’s way of righteousness”—has been manifested (revealed) to us. It’s been revealed “apart from the law.” What does that mean? Our path to righteousness isn’t and never could be obedience to the law. The law cannot save. It only shows how far we are from the perfection God requires. That doesn’t mean the law is bad; it’s from God, it can’t be bad. It just means we must, as Paul said in Galatians 3:24, see the law as our schoolmaster pushing us toward Christ. We’re justified not through obedience to the law but by trusting Christ, who is our righteousness, according to 1 Corinthians 1:30.

Now, all this comes as quite a surprise if you read the first two and a half chapters of Romans. Paul explained how everyone had fallen short of God’s holy standard. Reading Romans 1-3 leaves you breathless, totally exposed, without excuse. Some people go into self-justification mode, others into depression. But Paul wants to take us elsewhere. He wants to take us into the heart of God. He wants to show that the gospel is a glorious interruption. We’re headed toward hell, and we can’t blame anyone but ourselves, and then God breaks in. 

The gospel interrupts our regularly scheduled activities. Martin Luther experienced this. He was a monk in the 16th century, trying really hard to obey God but constantly failing. He read the Bible and all he saw were laws to obey. And he looked at himself and all he saw was disobedience. He tried to obey. He tried really hard. But he just couldn’t find any freedom. He always felt condemned, never forgiven. No matter how hard he tried to obey, he saw that there were new layers of sin in his heart. He confessed so often and to such minutia that his priest told him to go away and come back when he had real sin to confess. By outward appearances, he seemed obedient, but his conscience told him otherwise.

Then he started teaching through the book of Romans, and God interrupted his regularly scheduled thoughts. He saw with new eyes how God justifies. God didn’t justify based on Luther’s obedience. God justified based on Christ’s obedience. His heart was freed. He saw the Bible was not the story of God waiting on his people to get their act together but rather the story of God coming to us in Jesus to give us the righteousness we could not attain on our own. The Bible is God’s story about God’s actions for his people. God’s way of righteousness wasn’t in the law, though the law was good and reflected God’s glory. The way of righteousness was in himself, in Christ. Luther realized this is what the whole Bible is about. All along, God shows our imperfection so that we’ll trust his perfection. The law condemns us so that we’ll flee to Christ for rescue.

The Bible is not basically about us, but Jesus. It’s not the story of man reaching God but of God coming down to man. Jesus is the hero, and his gospel is the center. We see this everywhere from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus is the meaning of every miracle. He’s the redeemer of every rescue. He’s the Savior of every song. He’s the promise of every prayer. He’s the Christ in every crisis. We need to see that, rejoice in it, search for it, dig it out, and grab hold of it on every page. The Bible is about Jesus and the gospel he came to proclaim.

That changes absolutely everything, doesn’t it? It changes even what we say to ourselves. If the Bible isn’t about us but about Jesus, then when we say to ourselves, “I can’t be saved,” Jesus says to us, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28). When we say to ourselves, “Woe is me!” Jesus says to us, “If you confess your sins, I am faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). When we say to ourselves, “I’m too sinful” Jesus says to us, “I do not deal with you according to your sins, but according to my grace” (Psalm 103). When we say, “But Jesus, you don’t know what it’s like” Jesus says to us, “Oh, but I do. I can sympathize with your weaknesses and temptations; I was like you but without sin. I can save you though no one else can” (Hebrews 4:14-16). We can’t argue with him; we can only fall before him and worship him.

That’s a gospel-centered life. That’s a gospel-centered church. One where Jesus gets to set the rules. Where his story is the only story. Where his grace rules. Where his mercy reigns. Where his glory dwells. What more could we want? There are a lot of things a church could be about but show me something else that deals with sinners the way Jesus does, that brings the dead to life, that restores every broken heart, that redeems every wounded life.

Let’s be people about the gospel where the central story of the Bible is the central story of our life together.

When it is, we see yet another way the gospel changes us.

The gospel is honest with our sin, so we should be too.

We can’t argue with Jesus. He gets the final word. But that doesn’t mean he flatters us. Our problem usually isn’t our low thoughts of ourselves but our high ones. What most of us need to see before we come to Jesus is our utter need for salvation. The gospel is good news, but it includes some bad news. Paul puts it bluntly in verses 22-23.

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

That’s so offensive to our well-put-together ideas of ourselves, isn’t it? All have sinned (past tense) and fall short of the glory of God (present tense). We are all liable to divine judgment.

A proper understanding of sin is necessary for a proper understanding of the gospel. The gospel is good news, but it includes bad news. It tells us that without the Triune God’s intervention, we have no hope of heaven. We have no righteousness on our own.

The gospel makes us really honest people. We live in a city that likes to look good. From our dress to our cars to our homes, we’re all very Instagramable. But the gospel takes the filter off. It shows us who we really are. And when it does, we have a choice to make: we can be impressive or we can be known.

In a gospel-centered church, where the risen Christ’s good news is ever-present, we can take a risk of being known. We can trust Jesus with our sin, and we can trust his people to help us find forgiveness and freedom. The gospel says we aren’t impressive, and that’s embarrassing. But the gospel also says we’re known deeper than we thought possible and overwhelmingly loved by Christ. When we step inside that circle of honesty with Jesus, we actually become far more impressive than the best of this world. We radiate with the glory of Jesus. 

An important trait of a gospel-centered church is a culture of honesty before God and one another. Why? Because total honesty is the way we grow. When we get honest with our sins and struggles, we find help and freedom and forgiveness. Don’t we all want that? Don’t we know deep down that we’re just not okay? If we’ll just admit that and come to Jesus, we will find in him a friend who understands. He is a faithful and merciful high priest in the service of God. He is for you even when you can’t be for yourself. He has covered your sins and failures by his blood.

Here’s what Jesus is asking all of us. 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” You see, we have good arguments. Yes, we sinned but here’s why. But the truth is, there is no excuse good enough to explain our sinful hearts. Sin has no justification. And Jesus doesn’t want to hear our sob story for why we did what we did, or thought what we thought. He’s saying to us, “you can stay in the shadows and let me bring your sin into the light, or you can bring your sin into my light and let me hide is behind my cross.”

If we bring our sin into the light of Jesus, he will cleanse us. That’s what 1 John 1:7 says. Not he might cleanse us. Not one day he’ll cleanse us. He will cleanse us.

And all he’s asking us to do is walk out in his light, to trust him with all our life, and to find cleansing by his blood.

Now, that feels risky. It’s risky to live inside a gospel-centered church because it means we don’t set the rules. We can’t limit God. He can go to places in our heart that we’d be fine never entering. But what God wants for us is total renewal, and you can’t get there without him messing with you, opening you up, bringing you into his light where we can’t hide, but we can repent. And when we do, we find we’re not alone. In a gospel-centered church where we’re walking together into the light of Jesus, trusting him for cleansing, we find lots of friends because there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

When we allow God inside, we become new people. There is no place for boasting in a gospel-centered church. We boast only in Christ. We stop comparing ourselves to one another because we realize Jesus is our only hope. None of us are getting to heaven by being better than someone else. We’re getting to heaven by receiving the finished work of Christ on the cross.

The Devil would love for us to live in a constant state of comparison. If he can get us to do that, he can keep us far from God and the gospel. Satan can use pride just as well as he can use guilt. But God calls us all to humility because before him, we all fall short. But in him, we’re all one—righteous in Christ. A church can be a place of constant one-up-manship where no one is safe or it can be a place of constant safety where everyone, no matter how sinful and lowly, can find the Savior who died for them. As pastor Tim Keller says, “The church is not a museum for pristine saints, but a hospital ward for broken sinners.”

When God gathers a group of people and those people open their hearts before him and, by his grace, keep them open, nothing about anybody surprises us anymore. We realize we’re one before the cross of Christ—sinners in need of a savior, which leads to our third and final point.

The gospel proclaims salvation in Christ alone, so we should too.

Look again at verses 23-26.

For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Since there is no distinction in terms of sin, there is, therefore, no distinction in terms of salvation. We are saved through faith alone by grace alone in Christ alone for God’s glory alone. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. No one is higher. No one is lower. No one is more saved than another. In Christ, we’re equally saved through him.

How does this salvation occur? Paul uses three words to explain it: justification, redemption, and propitiation.

Justification is a courtroom metaphor. It means God has declared us righteous, forgiven, acquitted of our crimes against him for the sake of Christ, given freely by his grace. God forgave us and set us right because he wanted to, not because we deserved it. Christ earned it for us.

Redemption is a word reaching far back into the Old Testament. It means a release from captivity, like what God did for Israel when he brought them out of Egypt. Our redemption is “in Christ Jesus.” We’re redeemed because God put us in Christ and carried us out of sin by his death and resurrection.

Propitiation is a great theological word. Tim Keller says it means “the Lord pays the debt to justice himself.” In other words, what we owe to God, God pays on our behalf in himself, in the person of his Son. God both offers the sacrifice and accepts the sacrifice. Christ’s death satisfies God’s wrath, meets his just requirements for sin, and offers the free gift of salvation to all who believe. 

In sum, here’s the logic of the gospel. All sinned and stood hopeless before God. But Jesus paid the penalty for those sins by his substitute’s death. Now, all who believe in his finished work are saved through him. This was the plan all along. Way back in Genesis, when Adam and Eve fell into sin, God promised to send a savior. That promise is reiterated throughout the Bible. That’s so important to see. God doesn’t ignore the sins of his people. He pays for them with Christ’s blood. God is both just and the justifier. He forgave sins in the past because Jesus was coming to set it all right. God doesn’t forgive by overlooking his law. He forgives by fulfilling it in Christ and offering his perfection for our imperfection. At the cross, Christ suffered what we deserved, in our place. On the cross, God exchanged our sin for Christ’s righteousness. Our moral debt was paid in full, and Christ’s perfect obedience was granted to us in full. Theologian P.T. Forsyth puts it well. “The prime doer in Christ’s cross was God. Christ was God reconciling. He was God doing the very best for man, and not man doing his very best for God.”

In verse 24, Paul calls this a gift. What do you do with a gift? Do you boast in it as if you purchased it yourself? No. What do you do? You receive it and rejoice in it. Think of a kid at Christmas. A gift is placed in his hands. He didn’t earn it. He just woke up and there it was, waiting for him. He tears the paper and there it is in all its glory. His eyes grow big. His mouth falls open. He’s speechless. Slowly, he starts smiling as he realizes what’s just happened. He’s beholding the gift, then he starts rejoicing in it. He shows it off to everyone in the room as if they didn’t just see him open it. He can’t get over it. He’s floored. Thanksgiving pours out of his heart. That’s who we are when the salvation of Christ is given to us. We’re overwhelmed with gratitude. We didn’t deserve this, but now, somehow, it’s ours.

Conclusion

So here we are at the end of my sermon, and I’ve said a lot of things and it’s all for me to say this one thing: All we must do to maintain and cultivate a gospel-centered church is to never get over the fact that we’re saved. Let’s just never get bored of Jesus. Let’s never let the scandal of salvation wear off. Let’s enjoy the gift together.

My friend Jared Wilson says, “What every believer in every age is challenged to do is resist the innate compulsion to flatten out the expansive love of God.” The gospel is big and deep, wide and expansive, rich and glorious. The gospel never gets old. It never goes out of style. There is grace for every need, mercy for every sin, forgiveness for every sinner, redemption for everything broken, restoration for everything taken, glory for everyone who comes. The further in we go, the bigger Jesus’s gospel gets. Like the ocean, we haven’t yet seen the bottom. Let’s keep going in, moment by moment, together. Let’s see just how far Jesus can take us. Let’s see the gospel deeps.

Let’s pray.