Romans 3:21-24

Romans 3:21-24 contains Paul’s essential points regarding the “good news” he proclaimed in 1:17. Martin Luther refered to this passage as the chief point, and the very central place of the Epistle and of the whole Bible. The letter’s first two and a half chapters (1:18-3:20) proclaimed that all human being are, without any exception, sinful, guilty, inexcusable and speechless before God. Yet these verses (3:21-26) are “the great turning point” in both the direction of the letter and God’s dealing with the human race.

Νυνὶ δὲ χωρὶς νόμουδικαιοσύνη θεοῦπεφανέρωται,μαρτυρουμένη ὑπὸ τοῦνόμου καὶ τῶν προφητῶν,δικαιοσύνη δὲ θεοῦ διὰπίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ,εἰς πάντας τοὺςπιστεύοντας· οὐ γάρ ἐστινδιαστολή· πάντες γὰρ ἥμαρτον καὶὑστεροῦνται τῆς δόξηςτοῦ θεοῦ, δικαιούμενοι δωρεὰν τῇαὐτοῦ χάριτι διὰ τῆςἀπολυτρώσεως τῆς ἐνΧριστῷ Ἰησοῦ·

My translation...

But now a righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, being witnessed by the law and prophets, a righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all those who believe. For there is no difference, for all sinned and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely in his grace, through the redemption which has come from Christ Jesus.

Key Points:

• This righteousness of God has been made available apart from the law
• This righteousness only comes to those who believe and have faith in Jesus
• Because no matter who we are we have all sinned... and are constantly falling short of God's glory
• But all those who believe have been justified freely through the grace which came to us from God through Jesus' redemptive act on the Cross.

Letter from my Sponsor Child

I received a letter from Ernry today - the first letter since the earthquake in Haiti.

Here's some of what he wrote (I've put it in straight as it was translated so the English is a tad rough).

On Tuesday, January 12, there is an earthquake that happened in Haiti. Many people died. The director of the project has two children and his mother who died. Those two children were my cousins. I ask you to help the project's director pray so that he can have strength and courage in these difficult moments.

My heart breaks to think of what Ernry has been through, but I praise God he was not hurt, and that he knows Christ.

Objectivity and Subjectivity of the Gospel.

“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:1-4 NASB).


The Gospel is objectively founded in the two facts, Christ died for sins, and He rose from the dead. By having faith in these objective truths one experiences many subjective truths, such as “I am forgiven” and “I am free”. These are truths known for the individual – that ‘I am free’ – as opposed to the objective facts which are universal truths regarding the entire population – Christ died for all sin. Yet even these subjective ideas have a firm known truth basis for “…[they have] been propositionally [sic] revealed to us in the Bible.”