Romans 3:21-24: Jesus to the Rescue

  • Lance Lefler
  • Mar 28, 2010
  • Series: the Gospel

If Romans is a great play, then Act 1 closes at 3:20 with the depressing review of man's hopelessly sinful condition.  But Act 2 opens in the next verse with the good news of God's saving action in Christ.

Maybe the most important paragraph in all of Romans, 3:21-26 contains pretty much everything Paul wants to say in the entire book!  Everything after this is an outworking of this paragraph.  Because of this, 3:21-26 is densely packed with theological treasures: the righteousness of God, grace, justification by faith, universal sinfulness of man, glory, redemption, propitiation, and the wonders of salvation by the gift of God's grace.

Theological treasures take hard work to mine.  We feel like we're in the dark at first because of the strangeness of words like propitiation.  But their study yields practical benefits: 1) understanding God better and therefore being able to worship him more deeply, to serve him more diligently, and speak of him and his work in your life more confidently; 2) understanding ourselves more deeply and being able to conquer sin and add virtue to our lives, and therefore glorify God more.

In other words, theology is thoroughly practical.  Deep study of God is the fuel for the Christian life.