God's Vindication

Despite the fact that we are sinful and worthy of condemnation through the law, God fulfills His promise to judge sinners and save His people by sending His Son to be the satisfaction for His wrath and for their guilt of sin, so that whoever believes in this Christ shall not be condemned by the law, but justified by faith and His imputed righteousness.

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Romans 3:1-26

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Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, x the Jews were entrusted with y the oracles of God. z What if some were unfaithful? a Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! b Let God be true though c every one were a liar, as it is written, d “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you e are judged.” But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict f wrath on us? ( g I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could h God judge the world? But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, i why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not j do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

To those entrusted with the law (Jews): you have been given every advantage to know God and to be blessed by Him through obedience to His commands, but you willingly spurned and disobeyed Him, and thus, He is just to punish you.

What then? Are we Jews 1 any better off? 2 No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both k Jews and l Greeks, are m under sin, as it is written: n “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” o “Their throat is p an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” q “The venom of asps is under their lips.” r “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” s “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and t the way of peace they have not known.” u “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever v the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, w so that every mouth may be stopped, and x the whole world may be held accountable to God. For y by works of the law no human being 1 will be justified in his sight, since z through the law comes knowledge of sin.

[FURTHERMORE] The law is to show us that no one is righteous in His own sight. In other words, the law proves that God alone is righteous and worthy, and that we, every single person, have sinned against His holy commands, and are worthy of His condemnation.

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But now a the righteousness of God b has been manifested

DESPITE ALL OF THE FOREGOING, God reveals how He shall vindicate His own name/reveal His righteousness

apart from the law,

IN OTHER WORDS, RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOT through the law

although c the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—

DESPITE the law and prophets being apart from the manifestation, it does still give testimony to it

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the righteousness of God d through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

BUT THROUGH belief in the atoning work of Jesus Christ

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e For there is no distinction:

WHAT I MEAN IS, Jews and Gentiles under the law (explicitly or implicitly) are the same:

for f all have sinned

MEANING, No one has followed the law

and fall short of the glory of God,

AND AS A RESULT, they fall short of the requirements set by God to be holy

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g and are justified h by his grace as a gift,

AND THEREFORE, any righteousness we have is given to us freely by grace

i through the redemption

BY bringing us back to what we were meant to be

that is in Christ Jesus,

IN Christ (His life, death and resurrection)

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whom God j put forward

IN OTHER WORDS, the God sent His only begotten Son to earth

as k a propitiation

FOR THE PURPOSE OF being our propitiation (satisfaction and atonement)

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l by his blood,

BY dying on a cross and shedding His own blood

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to be received by faith.

IN ORDER THAT we might be saved not by works, but through faith

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This was to show God’s righteousness,

TO CLARIFY, this manifests God's righteousness

because in m his divine forbearance

BECAUSE he, as God, waited patiently

he had passed over n former sins.

MEANING, he didn't punish sins right away

It was to show his righteousness at the present time,

IN ORDER TO display now the greatness of His holiness/righteousness

so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

MEANING, he is both able to satisfy His wrath over sinners through the death of Christ and save sinners through the imputed righteousness of Christ without contradiction

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