Romans 3:21-31

Romans 3:21-31

NT Wright (my paraphrase from his commentary)...
But finally God's faithfulness is revealed! It was announced in advance in the law & the prophets, but got caught in the confusion of covenant boundary markers. Rather than coming through Israel as an entire nation, God's faithfulness to the world is brought about by Jesus Christ the ultimate Israelite and received by all who believe. Yes, all! Since all have sinned and fallen short of God's intention, all are invited from the same position of weakness to be rescued by God. He is so gracious! God made Jesus the atonement day sacrifice and so perfect justice was done through the purity of His blood. Justice was demanded by the weight of human sin. The time for justice had come and is now available to Jesus' people because Jesus was faithful to His task.

So there is no room for boasting...

²⁷Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. ²⁸For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. ²⁹Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, ³⁰since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. ³¹Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

We were created to relate with God
We are now aimed in all the wrong directions
Even with perfect aim, we fall short

Sin results in death
Jesus paid that price for us

Sin results in failure
Jesus empowers us to succeed

We were created to relate with God
Following Christ, we are aimed in the right direction
With the saturation of the Spirit, we can hit the mark

The correct question was never:
“How can God justify punishing humanity?”
The correct question was always:
“How can God justify NOT punishing humanity?”
But In Jesus Christ God demonstrates His Justice