Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

3:21 The righteousness of God has been manifested now, i.e., in the period of salvation history inaugurated through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. On the righteousness of God, see note on 1:17. Here in ch. 3 it refers to the morally right character of God that is clearly shown in his saving action by which human beings may stand in the right before God as the divine judge. This righteousness has been revealed apart from the law, which means that it is not based on human obedience to the works of the law. Paul may also intend to say it is not based on the Sinai covenant. Even though God's saving righteousness is apart from the law, the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. In other words, the OT Scriptures prophesied this very way of salvation (see 1:2).

3:22 This right standing with God is available to all who believe, whether Jew or Gentile. On the righteousness of God, see note on 1:17.

3:23 No one can stake a claim to this righteousness based on his or her own obedience, for all people have sinned and fall short of what God demands (see 1:21).

3:24 Therefore, all are justified (declared not guilty but righteous by the divine Judge) only by God's grace (unmerited favor). The word redemption reaches back to the OT exodus and the blood of the Passover lamb (see Exodus 12-15), by which the Lord liberated Israel from Egypt; the exodus likewise points forward to the greater redemption Jesus won for his people through his blood by forgiving them their sins through his death on the cross (cf. Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). On justification, see note on Gal. 2:16.

3:25 Jesus' blood "propitiated" or satisfied God's wrath (1:18), so that his holiness was not compromised in forgiving sinners. Some scholars have argued that the word propitiation should be translated expiation (the wiping away of sin), but the word cannot be restricted to the wiping away of sins as it also refers to the satisfaction or appeasement of God's wrath, turning it to favor (cf. note on John 18:11). God's righteous anger needed to be appeased before sin could be forgiven, and God in his love sent his Son (who offered himself willingly) to satisfy God's holy anger against sin. In this way God demonstrated his righteousness, which here refers particularly to his holiness and justice. God's justice was called into question because in his patience he had overlooked former sins. In other words, how could God as the utterly Holy One tolerate human sin without inflicting full punishment on human beings immediately? Paul's answer is that God looked forward to the cross of Christ where the full payment for the guilt of sin would be made, where Christ would die in the place of sinners. In the OT, propitiation (or the complete satisfaction of the wrath of God) is symbolically foreshadowed in several incidents: e.g., Ex. 32:11-14; Num. 25:8, 11; Josh. 7:25-26.

3:26 Paul repeats again, because of its supreme importance, that God has demonstrated his righteousness, i.e., his holiness and justice, at the present time in salvation history. In the cross of Christ, God has shown himself to be just (utterly holy, so that the penalty demanded by the law is not removed but paid for by Christ) but also the justifier (the one who provides the means of justification and who declares people to be in right standing with himself) and the Savior of all those who trust in Jesus. Here is the heart of the Christian faith, for at the cross God's justice and love meet.