Romans 3:22 Commentary and Bible Study

Paul tells us more about this righteousness. It is a righteousness which is communicated to us so that we may call it our own, so that we may boldly present it to God, even though it is his gift to us and did not originate with us. It is ours by a legal transaction which no one in heaven or earth or under the earth can challenge. It is imputed to us, that is, it is credited to our account and we can now treat it as our own. We obtain this righteousness by faith – ‘faith of Jesus Christ’ is our faith in Jesus Christ, not his own faith or faithfulness – which includes repenting of our sins. Faith is the instrument or the hand that takes hold of God’s gift. If we call it a condition, it is an unusual condition, for faith itself is given to us by the Lord (Ephesians 2:8; Philippians 1:29), and we are not able to believe without the Spirit’s work in our hearts, and yet faith must be there, and all men and women are commanded to exercise faith in Christ (Hebrews 11:6). ‘Unto all and upon all them that believe’. The two prepositions are overlapping for the sake of emphasis. This blessing does not take account of how far or how long we have wandered away from God; it is guaranteed to all who believe. Our faith must be in Jesus Christ. That faith consists of knowledge – we learn who he is and what he has done to save us; of assent – we agree that he is who God says he is, the Son of God come down from heaven; and of trust – we deeply trust in him and rely on him to save us. When this ‘condition’ is met God credits righteousness to us, and we are justified in his eyes. It is as if we had never sinned, and had the very righteousness of Christ himself.The Son of God has been the Son from all eternity. As the Son he is not under the law, for he is himself the lawgiver, and a lawgiver is not under his own law. Only as man is he under the law, and he took human nature to himself, and was born under the law for this very reason. That was an act of humiliation on his part, and a voluntary step which was necessary to save his people. Only by being under the law could he take our place and earn a righteousness on our behalf which could be imputed to us. He became responsible for our obedience under the law. He alone was the sinless one (John 8:46; 2 Corinthians 5:1; Hebrews 4:15). Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, lived a perfect life, did only wonderful things, great miracles of compassion, gave His Word. He showed the righteousness of God. He was the righteous man. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, Moses spoke about this, all the prophets spoke about this, the coming Savior who would redeem us by making an atonement for us.