Theological Commentary: Click Here
When I read
Romans 3, it is easy to focus on the end of this passage. That makes it a great place to start. When it comes t righteousness, there is no
difference between Jew or Greek. In
other words, regardless of where we come from, we can be made righteous. Christ’s death can bring righteousness upon
any of us. We are saved by God’s act,
not by our own.
That’s a
good thing. After all, look at the
perspective of Paul in the section that immediately precedes the last
passage. Nobody is righteous. There isn’t even one righteous person. Our mouths are aced with venom. Our throats are open graves. Wee don’t know peace. We are quick to do evil. In case you are curious, Jesus Himself
teaches us that there is no one who is good except God alone. The reality is that we are not good. We cannot be righteous apart from Christ;
therefore it is a good thing that we have Christ so that we can be
righteous! That’s an important
perspective to have.
That leads
us up to the initial point of this chapter.
If righteousness comes through Christ and not through us, what is the
point of being a Jew? In the modern age,
we might say: “If I am forgiven and made righteous in Christ, why worry about
whether I sin or not?” This is an
important question to answer, and Paul gives us a great answer. The answer is that while our righteousness
does not come through our works, when we live in a righteous manner we put God’s
ways on display and show what living in His inheritance looks like.
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