Note: This lesson was created with much help from McKay Caston and Tim Keller's Gospel Christianity study.

Introduction.

Hypothetical issue: What would you say if the judge in the cop killer case in Athens were to serve the murderer’s sentence - which likely will be the death penalty? How would you react? That actually is what has happened in the gospel.

Romans 3:21-26

1. v.21-25 What can we learn from these verses about what this "righteousness from God" is and how we acquire it?

What it is:
-Right = legal term, having nothing against you (liabilities, etc).
-“Right with God” = no liabilities before God
-Righteousness = legal standing as a result of perfect behavior
-Religion says it must be earned/achieved
- The gospel says it must be received, not earned or achieved
- Righteousness in the gospel is result of someone else’s work.
- Jesus earned / achieved righteousness by keeping the law perfectly

How it is received
-Not faith in general
-Not faith in God
-IS faith “in Jesus Christ” and the work he did on the cross
-Not “a general admiration of him”
-Even more specific: “Through faith in His blood.”
-Faith in him as the basis for our legal standing before God.

2. v.24-26 Why does God only justify through his atoning sacrifice? Why can’t God just forgive us?

-Barrier between us and God
-He is love, but he is also JUST
-God must satisfy both his justice and his love [huge point!]

3. v.25-26 How can Jesus’ "atoning sacrifice" make God both "just" AND "the one who justifies" of those who believe?

-“Sacrifice of atonement” = propitiation
-“A turning away of wrath” [or, “to satisfy justice”]
-God sacrificed himself for us.
-“The Biblical doctrine of the cross is not about human beings trying to appease a begrudging, unwilling god, but about the Lord himself coming and voluntarily putting forth himself as the substitutionary payment”

-Satisfied both the wrath and love of God in the same action.

Augustine, "The cross did not secure the love of God; the love of God secured the cross."