Romans 3:21-26, God's Perfect Justice

The Reason for Displaying His Righteousness from the Perspective of God (v. 25b–26)

Verifying His Perfect Justice (v. 26)

Again, just as the previous verses, this is still a continuation of a single thought in the Greek, but for English it is best to begin a new sentence. This verse repeats the main idea of the previous verse and adds the element of “the present time.” Verse 25b and verse 26 are really the same thought and both connect back to 25a, explaining why God displayed Christ: “So that He would be just and the justifier of the one (who lives)[1] in the faithfulness of Jesus.”

This serves as both a conclusion to Paul’s third point (see outline) and a summary of the passage as a whole, with the first point centering around God being the justifier and the third point centering on God being just (between them the point of contact in salvation from both man’s perspective and God’s: the cross of Christ).

God did not show His righteousness (v. 26a) in order to show that He is righteous and justifies (v. 26b), but rather He showed His righteousness in order that He might be righteous. What was at stake was not God’s being perceived as righteous but rather being righteous. Being righteous necessitates action. How marvelous then that God chose to act not in deservedly condemning all of humanity, but in providing a way for them to righteously receive mercy![2]

“God’s bearing the intolerable burden of evil Himself in the person of His own dear son is the disclosure of the fullness of God’s hatred of man’s evil at the same time it is real and complete forgiveness” (Cranfield, 214).

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[1] The phrase “who lives” needs to be supplied based on the translation of πίστεως Ἰησοῦ as “the faithfulness of Christ” as in verse 22 (see note 8). The one who is justified is the one who receives the faithful sacrifice of Christ through faith. In other words they now live in His faithfulness.

[2] δίκαιον καὶ δικαιοῦντα: it may be best to translate this καὶ as “even,” “That He would be just even in justifying…” i.e. that He might justify righteously without compromising his own righteousness. God would still be just if He did not justify sinners. Though no argument here is definite, this would also serve to intensify the wonder that God’s righteous action was a merciful one and not a wrathful one.