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More Romans commentaries

Romans 1:1-7
Paul introduces himself to the believers in Rome

Romans 1:8-15
The secret of heart to heart ministry

Romans 1:16-17
Reasons for not being ashamed of the Gospel

Romans 1:18-23
What does the phrase, “wrath of God” mean?

Romans 1:24-32
A man becomes a slave to his idols

Romans 2:1-11
God’s Indictment of All Hypocrites

Romans 2:12-16
Not The Possession But The Practice of The Law That Counts

Romans 2:17-24
Religion Will Not Take You to Heaven

Romans 2:25-29
Mere Rituals Will Gain You No Favor in God’s Sight

Romans 3:1-8
God’s Judgment Defended

Romans 3:9-20
No One Is Good

Romans 3:21-31
God’s Way of Accepting People

Romans 4:1-8
Abraham Justified by Faith

Romans 4:9-25
The Promise for All Who Have Faith

Romans 5:1-11
What It Means To Be Acceptable to God

Romans 5:12-21
Death in Adam and Life in Christ

Romans 6:1-11
Death to Sin, Alive to God

Romans 6:12-18
From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God

Romans 6:19-23
It is Impossible to Be Neutral

God’s Way of Accepting People

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Romans 3:21–31
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Many people in our culture today don’t know what the cross means, or what Christians believe about it. A study was conducted about five years ago of people in Australia, Germany, India, Japan, England and the U.S. to find how much they recognized certain symbols. Ninety-two perce … More

Integrity
  1. Understanding God’s Integrity (vv. 21-22a) - How does the cross help us understand God’s integrity? That’s what we see in verse 21 and the first half of verse 22. The phrase “but now” marks a major transition in Romans, as Paul begins to speak of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as the turning point of human history. The death of Jesus opened a new chapter in outworking of God’s plan for the human race. But to understand God’s integrity, we have to understand who Jesus really is. This means understanding how Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection all fit together. Apart from understanding that we won’t be able to understand God’s integrity.
  2. Experiencing God’s Integrity (vv, 22b-26) - Now let’s look at how we can actually experience God’s integrity. Because of what Paul’s already said in Romans 1 and 2, we can see that there’s no distinction between religious people and non-religious people in terms of how they stand with God. Everyone has sinned. Both Jews and non-Jews, religious and irreligious, Greeks and Romans, Americans and Palestinians, all stand guilty before God. We can only experience God’s integrity when we EXPERIENCE THE BENEFITS OF CHRIST’S DEATH. We must never underestimate the effects of our sin and acknowledge that we are indeed deserving of eternal death. However, we are never too bad to be saved. The Lord Jesus has paid the price for our sin and there is nothing left to do, except trust Him.
  3. Living Consistently With God’s Integrity (vv. 27-31) - Now let’s look at how to live consistently with God’s integrity. Our tendency is to think we can live consistently with God’s character by trying real hard to be good, moral people. That’s how a lot of the religious Jews back then were. They thought that by keeping the 10 commandments and all the other laws they would live consistently with God’s integrity.

Application

We are living in an exciting time of history, especially if we have completely trusted Christ and His work on the cross for our personal salvation! We have all sinned and come short of God’s glory (v. 23). I will fall short if I try to make heaven by my own works. I must trust completely in Jesus to be justified before God (vv. 24-26).

Romans 3:21-31 (English Standard Version)

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one--who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

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