On The Sixth Day #15

Romans 3.21-31 God's Covenant Justice -

But now, quite apart from Torah, God's way of making people righteous in his sight has been made clear — although the Torah and the Prophets give their witness to it as well —and it is a righteousness that comes from God, through the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah, to all who continue trusting. For it makes no difference whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, since all have sinned and come short of earning God's praise. By God's grace, without earning it, all are granted the status of being considered righteous before him, through the act redeeming us from our enslavement to sin that was accomplished by the Messiah Yeshua.
God put Yeshua forward as the kapparah [mercy seat, place of mercy, lid/covering of the ark of the covenant; Gr.: hilasterios, LXX: Exodus 25.17-22; 31.7; 35.12; 37.6, 8-9; Leviticus 16.2, 13-15; Numbers 7.89; Ezekiel 43.14, 17, 20; Amos 9.1] for sin through his faithfulness in respect to his bloody sacrificial death. This vindicated God's righteousness; because, in his forbearance, he had passed over [with neither punishment nor remission] the sins people had committed in the past; and it vindicates his righteousness in the present age by showing that he is righteous himself and is also the one who makes people righteous on the ground of Yeshua's faithfulness.
So what room is left for boasting? None at all! What kind of Torah excludes it? A Torah that has to do with legalistic observance of rules? No, rather, a Torah that has to do with trusting. Therefore, we hold the view that a person comes to be considered righteous by God on the ground of trusting, which has nothing to do with legalistic observance of Torah commands. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, he is indeed the God of the Gentiles; because, as you will admit, God is one. Therefore, he will consider righteous the circumcised on the ground of trusting and the uncircumcised through that same trusting. Does it follow that we abolish Torah by this trusting? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, we confirm Torah.

• "But now …"!!! so far [1:1 – 3:20] what has been established?
  
  • the court was in session
    
  • everyone was accused and in the dock
    
  • everyone was guilty
    
  • everyone was to be condemned
    
• had God made big mistakes
  
  • when he created everything
    
  • when he promised Abraham and called Israel
    
• would he go back on his promise, his covenant
  
  • yes, the world was full of wickedness
    
  • yes, God as judge must judge rightly and impartially
    
  • but – the world was also filled with those
    
    • who were oppressed by the wickedness
      
    • who cried out to God for the vindication he promised
      
• God now faces the problem of his righteousness – sort of a "catch-22"
  
  • if some had behaved well and others badly – problem solved
    
  • if Israel had behaved well and the nations badly – problem solved
    
  • but the complexity is that
    
    • Israel was called to be the solution for the WHOLE world
      
    • Israel was unfaithful to its calling [commission]
      
  • justice demands condemnation for all wickedness – and all are wicked
    
  • covenant demands a way of salvation and his intended way [Israel] has failed utterly
    
• N Wright puts it this way:
  
  • in Genesis 12 God calls Abraham to undo the problem
    
  • caused by Adam in Genesis 3 and thereby
    
  • get the original project [Genesis 1 and 2] back on track
    
  • now, faced with a world gone wrong
    
    • God has made this covenant and
      
    • he must be true to it
      
    • but the covenant people have let him down completely by being just another part of the world that needs saving
      
    • he cannot save ONLY them without being accused of partiality and unfaithfulness to his covenant
      
• what should be done? – can anything be done? – by whom?
  
• if it were a question only of God's justice, the answer would be simple: utter condemnation and destruction
  
• but that covenant thing makes it a question of God's covenant justice – his covenantal righteousness
  
• so what does 'righteousness' mean in the context of covenant?
  
  • it includes all of the aspects of simple justice: punishment of the guilty
    
  • but also includes the way God is true and faithful to the covenant to 'put everything to rights'
    
    • human beings
      
    • the world – kosmoV
      
• v. 22 is Paul's declaration that the 'good news' of Jesus of Nazareth, Israel's Messiah, demonstrates how God has solved all these problems
  
• the faithful death of the Messiah unveils
  
  • God's faithfulness, his covenantal righteousness, his promise keeping
    
  • his way of reconciling the world gone wrong
    
  • his way of saving human beings lost in sin and guilt
    
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