Paul, in his letter to the Romans, argues against those Jewish believers and their Gentile disciples ("the weak", 15:1), who see their righteousness maintained and progressed by obedience to the law of Moses. Up to this point in his letter Paul has explained that all humanity stands under the righteous judgment of God, irrespective of whether they submit to the law of Moses or not. Now Paul explains that the righteous blessing of God, his promise to gather a people to stand eternally right in his presence, is also "apart from the law." Right-standing in the sight of God doesn't rest on our faithfulness, but on the faithfulness of Christ - his sacrifice on our behalf. So therefore, all "boasting" about some special standing a person may have before God through their obedience to the law is "excluded" and this because all believers, those under the law (Jewish believers) and those outside the law (Gentile believers), stand approved in the sight of God ("justified") by faith apart from the law.

v21-22. Having established that right-standing before God cannot be maintained through obedience to the law, Paul announces that a "righteousness of God" (God's faithfulness in keeping his promises realized in his saving of a people to stand eternally right before him), of which the Old Testament scriptures testify, is available to all humanity "apart from law" (independent of obedience to the law). This "righteousness of God" rests on "the faithfulness of Jesus Christ" (not "faith in Jesus Christ") and is appropriated through a personal reliance on the promises of God in Christ ("to all who believe").

v23-24. Paul goes on to remind his readers that all people are rebels in the sight of God; we have all built our house on sand and await its destruction, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Yet, the equality of our condemnation images the equality of our justification. All (those who believe in Christ), whether they be Jewish believers under the law, or Gentile believers outside the law, can eternally share in the gift of a perfect righteous status in the sight of God through the sacrificial work of Christ on the cross.

v25-26. Awarding the sinner right-standing before God, apart from their own righteousness, seems to undermine justice. Yet, justice is satisfied in the sacrificial death of Christ (a propitiatory sacrifice, a sacrifice which diverts the wrath of God from the sinner to the sacrifice). God is a just God, and justice demands that sin is dealt with. Rather than deal with it in us, in a gracious act of kindness, God deals with it in Christ. Sin was punished in the person of Jesus who became the believing sinner's substitute. Therefore, God can justly approve the sinner who rests on the "faithfulness of Jesus" (his substitutionary sacrifice "in his blood").

v27-30. Paul now concludes his argument. He declares that any "boasting" about an assumed special standing before God on the basis of law-obedience is "excluded" and this because all believers, those under the law (Jewish believers) and those outside the law (Gentile believers), are justified by faith apart from the law.

The Baby Boomers have come of age and this was celebrated in the election, some years ago, of the first Baby Boomer US president, Bill Clinton. Strictly speaking, Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. They are the children of the prosperous post-war era, and today they are getting ready to retire. As a group, they are indulged; they were given all they wanted as children. They are individuals, highly educated, more refined than the "between the wars" children, wary of authority and form for form sake, into social justice and environmentalism. They are attention-seeks who like their ego stroked. They like to be seen as unique. Philosophically they are of a liberal humanist mould - egalitarian, but increasingly wary of scientific rationalism. They are no longer sure that the world can be understood and controlled by the application of rational thought.

In Western society, it is this group, more than any other in recent history, who have abandoned the Christian church. They might have been sent to Sunday School, but church has no relevance for them. In one sense this is good because it means that they have cast off the shackles of nominalism. Yet, it also means they have only rarely heard the gospel of God's grace in Christ. They have thrown out the baby with the bathwater of legalistic pietism, ritual, institutional power, manipulative marketing, dictatorial management.....

The gospel announces our eternal acceptance in the sight of God through a personal reliance on Jesus, an acceptance free from the clutter of piety and religiosity. This is the substance of Paul's exposition of the doctrine of justification in our passage for study. In our generation, we have failed to understand the substance of this doctrine and so have tended to muddy the waters for Baby Boomers. Too often we have presented commitment to Jesus in terms of ethical expectations, or denominational association. It is not too late to communicate the grace of God to Baby Boomers and certainly not to late with generation X and X+Y.

1. If God is a just God, how can he so easily ignore sin?

2. The evangelical revival constantly proclaimed "full justification." Consider the possibility that our failure to address the doctrine of justification may, in part at least, be responsible for the general apathy Baby Boomers have toward our gospel preaching.