The Church Is Entrusted With the Gospel

If you were to ask me, “What is the most important doctrine in the Bible,” I would probably say, “The Gospel.” The Church lives and dies on whether it gets the Gospel right. The Gospel is the foundation on which Jesus is building the church. The church has been entrusted with defending and proclaiming the Gospel, and one of my favorite passage of Scripture to talking through the message of the Gospel is Romans 3:21-26.

Romans 3:21-26 is the Gospel. It is the Gospel the church is to preach. It is the Gospel the church is to defend. It is the Gospel the church is to cherish. It is the Gospel the church is to get right. Romans 3:21-26 is a Gospel presentation, and if you struggle with knowing what to say when given the opportunity to share the Gospel, either memorize this passage or get very familiar with it.

What makes this passage a good Gospel text?

First, this passage shows us man’s sin problem (vs. 21). Everyone is under sin, not seeking God and has no fear of God before our eyes (Romans 3:10-18). Bondage to sin, slavery to sin, enemies of God, instruments of unrighteousness, filthy rags, condemned already, dead in trespasses and sins – all of these are biblical descriptions of us and what we are before Christ. No one can claim innocence. There is none righteous, no not one of us as we grow up.

And every single person has broken God’s law (James 2:10), and God is just and must punish sin (Exodus 34:7b).

Second, this passage shows us how God made righteousness available to man (vs. 22a). It is through “faith in Jesus Christ that the Gospel is made available to all of us. Christ becomes the object of this faith! Faith is only as good as its object; all of us trust something or someone.

This means that we can be made right with God, because of Christ. Jesus’ righteousness is imputed to us. Imputation is a theological term that refers to His righteousness being credited to us. For the Christian, in other words, when the Just Father looks at us, He doesn’t see our unrighteousness, He sees Christ’s righteousness. He sees His Son! (II Corinthians 5:21).

Third, this passage shows us the Gospel is offered to all men (vs. 22b-23). Paul says every man can be saved; every man can be made righteous in God’s sight because every man is unrighteous. God can and does save all kinds of people – atheists, agnostics, slanderers, murderers, apathetic, religious, etc.

Fourth, this passage shows us the Gospel is offered graciously (vs. 24). Justification is a legal or forensic term that means “to declare righteous.” It refers to the idea of being pardoned from the penalty and guilt of sin and having His righteousness to ourselves. Justification is declaring a sinner righteous. It is clearing our debt (Isaiah 53:4-5; I Corinthians 1:30; I Peter 2:24).

Then, there is redemption. This word gets its root from an ancient background of prisoners released or slaves made free. To redeem someone was to pay their debt – their ransom. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by paying our “sin debt” to the Father (I Peter 1:18-19).

Justification is a gift; redemption is a gift. They are both offered freely. As the line from “Rock of Ages” rightly says, “Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling.” We don’t bring any of our own righteousness. He offers it all to us freely – we are “justified by grace as a gift.”

Fifth, and finally, this passage shows us how the Gospel answers God’s justice (vs. 25-26). The word “propitiation” refers to appeasement or satisfaction. The demand that the Father made on humanity – a sacrifice for sin – was met in Christ. Propitiation is the act by which someone becomes favorable before God. Through the blood of Christ, the wrath of God is removed.

Christ is the one who was perfectly righteous and the one who offered His righteousness to us through faith.

This is the Gospel:

Man sins.

God says, “You may have no sin for I am just.”

Man says, “I can only sin.”

God says, “I have a solution. Look at my perfect Son.”

Christ says, “I will die for man.”

God says, “My son’s death is enough to pay for sin.” Man’s guilt is erased.

God says, “Believe in me, repent of sin and you can be made righteous. You can be saved.”

That is the biblical Gospel.