Sermons citing Romans 3:23–5:21

^3:25 God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.

^3:26 He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

^3:27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith.

^3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

^3:29 Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,

^3:30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

^3:31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.

^4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has discovered?

^4:2 If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God.

^4:3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

^4:4 Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation.

^4:5 However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

^4:6 And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

^4:7 “Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

^4:8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

^4:9 Is this blessing only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.

^4:10 In what context was it credited? Was it after his circumcision, or before? It was not after, but before.

^4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.

^4:12 And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

^4:13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

^4:14 For if those who live by the law are heirs, faith is useless and the promise is worthless,

^4:15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.

^4:16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may rest on grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

^4:17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.

^4:18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”

^4:19 Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb.

^4:20 Yet he did not waver through disbelief in the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

^4:21 being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised.

^4:22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”

^4:23 Now the words “it was credited to him” were written not only for Abraham,

^4:24 but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

^4:25 He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.

^5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

^5:2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

^5:3 Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

^5:4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.

^5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

^5:6 For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

^5:7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.

^5:8 But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

^5:9 Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!

^5:10 For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!

^5:11 Not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

^5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

^5:13 For sin was in the world before the law was given; but sin is not taken into account when there is no law.

^5:14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the way that Adam transgressed. He is a pattern of the One to come.

^5:15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many!

^5:16 Again, the gift is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment that followed one sin brought condemnation, but the gift that followed many trespasses brought justification.

^5:17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

^5:18 So then, just as one trespass brought condemnation for all men, so also one act of righteousness brought justification and life for all men.

^5:19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

^5:20 The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

^5:21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.