Romans 3:21-31

The failure of Jew and Gentile alike is met by the new dispensation of the Gospel, with the condition it demands of man, faith. The argument having explained ‘the revelation of wrath,’ returns to the statement of Romans 1:16-17, and amplifies it in a series of summary propositions, which are developed and explained in cc. 5 ff. (21) Under the present dispensation, in the absence of law, there has been an open declaration of GOD’s righteousness, not in itself new because it is the same righteousness as the law and the prophets declare, but new in the clearness of the declared condition by which it is to be attained by man, i.e. faith in Jesus Christ, and in its extension to all who have that faith, without distinction of race or person; (23) for as sin is found in all and all fall short of that divine likeness which GOD propounds to man, (24) so all are now declared righteous, without merit on their part, by GOD’s free act of grace, by means of that redemption and deliverance which is in Christ Jesus. (25) He is indeed GOD’s appointed agent of propitiation, on condition of faith, by the instrumentality of His Blood, shed to exhibit GOD’s righteousness which His patient endurance of men’s sins through so long a time had obscured, as the characteristic message of the present season, that in the knowledge of all He may be righteous and declare righteous all who begin with faith in Jesus. (27) So there is no resting on privilege, where faith is the one condition of acceptance with GOD, (28) a condition open to all mankind (29) corresponding to the fact that there is but one GOD for all men, who from covenanted and uncovenanted alike demands nothing but faith. (31) This view of GOD’s revelation, so far from annulling law, alone establishes it.