Names of God: YHVH, part 11. The righteousness of God is a gift; Rom 3:21-26

Title: Names of God: YHVH, part 11. The righteousness of God is a gift; ROM 3:21-26.

 

 

This section of Heb 10 reveals the unfathomable riches of Christ that comes to the church age believer who can now behold His face every day and thus clearly see the attributes of Yavah.

 

I hope that you have come to see how great a gift that is. It is far more valuable than all the goods of the earth.

 

From here we turn to another key aspect of the NT scriptures in Rom 3.

 

What the law could not do, Christ did. Having the righteousness of Christ and being justified in Him, we can now see God face to face.

 

This is the section we are going to look at. It is one of the most amazing truths revealed to mankind.  

 

ROM 3:21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

 

ROM 3:22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;

 

ROM 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 

ROM 3:24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

 

ROM 3:25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;

 

ROM 3:26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

 

ROM 3:21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

 

This verse is the dividing line which separates the first two and a half chapters, which have been on the subject of man's complete ruin in sin, from the next section, which is occupied with God's perfect remedy in Christ.

 

Coming to the section beginning with "But now," we find the righteousness of God manifested in Christ. What could not be produced by man is here seen as provided for man. What could not come by law is presented as coming by grace. What could not arise from Moses can flow freely from Christ.

 

What could not be produced by man is here seen as provided for man.

 

Wherever there is heresy, men have departed from the idea that God is righteousness, and that therefore He must demand that righteousness of all His creatures; and, that since none can have it apart from Him, because His nature is also love, He provides His righteousness in His way.

 

Heresies arise from a distortion of God's perfect righteousness. We must be perfectly righteous and our works must be as well.

 

EPH 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;

 

EPH 5:2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

 

EPH 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

 

EPH 5:7 Therefore do not be partakers with them;

 

EPH 5:8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

 

EPH 5:9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),

 

EPH 5:10 trying to learn [proving] what is pleasing to the Lord.

 

Heresies are born from a distortion of God's love. Righteousness can only be a gift.  

 

1JO 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are.

 

1JO 3:16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us;

 

1JO 4:9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

 

1JO 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 

1JO 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

 

1JO 4:12 No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

 

GAL 3:1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

 

GAL 3:2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

 

GAL 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

 

Heresies are born from the distortion of these two attributes of God: righteousness and love. Some come to think that God is not perfect righteousness and that something less than perfect righteousness can therefore live with Him or be in fellowship with Him. So therefore, some system of morality or kindness or niceness is pleasing to Him. Nothing, nothing besides His perfect righteousness will do. Man cannot produce it, even if he kept the law. The law makes no one righteous.

 

A distortion of His love brings about the heresies of salvation by works. Perfect love freely gives divine righteousness to all who believe. And it is only from this gift of righteous that a believer can walk in righteousness. By distorting God’s love, false doctrines of God withholding grace, or a portion of grace, arise and people are told that they must earn whatever remains of God's favor.

 

But now the righteousness of God is manifest or made evident.

 

ROM 3:21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

 

The word manifest comes from two Latin words, mantis, "hand," and fendo, "strike," we can comprehend that a thing is manifest when it is as plain as a hand that seeks to strike you.

 

The Greek word used, phaneroo, means "to make visible, to uncover, lay bare, or reveal." Any covering over the righteousness of God, meaning any covering over all aspects of the Messiah, has been pulled away and He has been fully revealed. The true sacrifice has been uncovered and laid bare. The animals are gone along with the altar and the Tabernacle. The veil has been torn away and the Lamb of God has been fully manifest. Due to this, we can behold His face on a daily basis.  

 

Is it manifest that the hand of God is going to strike you? If Moses were to see the face of God then that is exactly what would need to happen. Moses would have been judged or judged.

 

Today, it is the hand of God that holds out the righteousness of God for you to see. You see a pierced hand = righteousness and love.