This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our daily drive-time devotions to the book of Romans. This week we
are in Romans chapter 3 together. And today as we look together at Romans
chapter 3 verse 21, the verdict about sin comes in.

This is a major turning point in the book of Romans. The verdict is
righteousness. Romans 3, 21, "But now a righteousness from God, apart from the
law, has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify.

" Those first two words, "but now" in verse 21, those are the words, those are
the hinge that Romans swings on. Those are powerful words. But now.

That is a powerful phrase in the New Testament. Let me show you that phrase in a
couple of verses in the Bible. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 13, the Bible says,
"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near
through the blood of Christ.

" In Ephesians chapter 5 verse 8, the Bible says, "For you were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord, live as children of light. " Colossians
chapter 1 verse 22, "But now God has made you his friends again. He did this
through Christ's death in his body, so that he might bring you into God's
presence as people who are holy, with no wrong, and with nothing of which God
can judge you guilty.

" 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 25 says this, "You were like sheep that wandered away,
but now. But now you have come back to the shepherd and protector of your souls.
" And I think my favorite is John chapter 9 verse 25.

The man whom Jesus healed of blindness said this, "I once was blind, but now I
see. " To change history, we have to understand sin and the truth about sin. And
we've looked at that these last few chapters together.

But that's not the only truth you have to understand in order to change history.
You have to understand more than the problem. You have to understand the
solution.

You have to understand the truth about not only sin, but the truth about
salvation. And so with these two words begins the next major section of the book
of Romans. Here we turn the corner.

You want to understand things, you want to change things. You have to understand
sin, but you also have to understand salvation. And then understand God's
sanctification, his growth of us, his sovereignty, his power over this world,
his direction in this world, and our service.

That's what we're going to look at as we walk through the book of Romans. But
now we're looking together at Romans chapter 3 verses 21 to 26. These verses
have been called by Leon Morris, possibly the most important single paragraph
ever written.

Incredibly important words, incredibly important verses, incredibly important
truths that God gives to us. Today we're going to look at these verses with a
telescope and the next few days with a microscope. This is such an important
paragraph.

Let me read you the rest of that paragraph beginning in verse 22. This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no difference.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him
as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to
demonstrate his justice because in his forbearance he had left the sins
committed beforehand unpunished.

He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time so as to be just and
the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Let's take the macro view
of what these verses teach us about righteousness, which is simply a right
relationship with God that enables us to live in the right way and have the kind
of relationships that we've been looking for all of our lives. There are seven
truths about righteousness in these verses that change everything.

These verses remind us, number one, that righteousness is from God. It's not our
invention. It's not our discovery.

It's not like I can become some spiritual Columbus discovering righteousness on
my own or some spiritual Edison inventing it on my own. It is from God from
first to last. Number two, righteousness is apart from the law.

We're going to come back to that again and again. It is apart from the law.
Incredibly important truth.

Number three, this plan that God had for righteousness is not a surprise. You
notice in these verses it says that all through the law and the prophets, we
knew what God's plan was. We had promises.

We had pictures. We had examples that this was God's continuing plan. Number
four, we're reminded here that this righteousness comes through faith.

This right relationship with God comes through faith. It comes through faith in
the blood of Christ. It comes through faith in a person.

Always watch out for the mistake of putting faith in faith. You don't put faith
in faith. You don't put faith in your feelings.

You don't put faith in yourself. You put faith in a person in Jesus Christ. And
also watch out for the mistake of thinking that we can't have faith.

Every day we exercise faith in thousands of ways. If you're driving your car
right now, you're exercising incredible faith in everybody who's driving around
you and even in your ability to drive. If you're sitting in a chair right now,
you're even exercising faith in the strength that that chair has to hold you up.

There's a difference between just simple faith and saving faith. Saving faith is
when we place our eternity, our trust, ourselves in the hands of Jesus Christ.
These are verses about saving faith.

Seven truths about righteousness. It's from God. It's apart from the law.

It's not a surprise. It's through faith. And then number five, it is for all.

This is not a plan of God that's just for a few people, just for a subset of
people that maybe he loves more. This is a gift that's offered to all. Number
six, it is offered by Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the center of this gift that God wants to give. And then number
seven, righteousness means that we are justified. That word justified is used
often in these verses and we're going to come back to it again and again the
next few days.

Warren Wiersbie has said, "Justification is the act of God whereby he declares
the believing sinner righteous in Christ on the basis of the finished work of
Christ on the cross. " You see, justification is an act, not a process. There's
no degrees of justification, "Oh, I'm partly justified.

I'm on the way to justification. " Either you are or you're not. Either you're
declared not guilty or you're not.

You see, it's a legal matter. God puts the righteousness of Christ on our record
in place of our own sinfulness. And then no one can judge that record because
everything has changed.

The gavel falls. The verdict is given, righteous, justified. And everything
changes.

Justification, you may have heard this before, but it's worth remembering means
that God looks at me just as if I'd never sinned, justified, just as if I'd
never sinned. It's the opposite of condemnation. And C.

H. Hodge said, "To condemn is not merely to punish but to declare the accused
guilty or worthy of punishment. And justification is not merely to remit the
punishment but to declare the punishment cannot be justly inflicted, that you're
unworthy of being punished because of the worthiness of Jesus Christ.

" You want to live with a new sense of power, a new sense of passion, of
persistence, of peace this week, and say this to yourself each day, "I am
justified freely. And I am justified by grace. I don't have to purchase my
justification by anything I do because Jesus paid the cost on the cross.

And I am justified by grace by the gift of God. It came at great cost to God. It
may be free, but it is never cheap.

" I'd like to take some time right now together in prayer to praise God. You
know the difference between prayer and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is thanking
God for what he has done.

Praise is just telling God you are grateful for who he is. I spend a lot more
time in thanksgiving than praise. And so sometimes it's good just to say I'm
going to focus my mind simply on praise.

Let's do that for a few moments. Focus your heart on God and say to him, "God,
thank you for who you are. Thank you that you are a God who is willing to
justify me.

You're a God of love. You are a God of sacrifice. You are an unselfish God and a
holy God.

You are a God who is worthy of my praise. And so right here, right now, I want
to tell you how grateful I am for who you are. In Jesus' name, amen.

" Tomorrow, we're going to continue our look at this incredible paragraph of
Scripture, Romans chapter 3, verses 21 to 26.