The Greatest Paragraph Ever Written
- Scott Bullerwell
- 15 hours ago
- 16 min read
I once heard Haddon Robbinson say “Topical preaching can be Biblical, but it rarely is.”
Some might think Haddon was having a bad day when he made the statement. I mean, it sounds severe, doesn’t it? Still, I am starting to think that there is a certain nugget of truth in his hyperbole, because while topical preaching can certainly be exegetical – if the message is lacking in contextual exegesis, seldom unpacks the passage (including its complex ideas), randomly uses multiple disconnected texts, personal anecdotes and motivational self-help applications that lose the overarching narrative — then save me from its torment — PLEASE!
Oh, the bliss of a Sunday, or three, where the sermon is NOT topical; where I get to sit and listen to a preacher forced to capitulate to the enduring authority of the Word and make a robust statement about who God is and how He works —— compelling listeners to trust the Chief Shepherd rather than the voice of the under-shepherd. This is the advantage expositional preaching has over topical preaching. To sit under that kind of ‘meal’ on a Sunday would be like hoping to experience the thrill of watching the Toronto Maple Leaf’s get into the final round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs —— in my lifetime. Surely ONE of these two things is possible.
Does anyone know why it is that topical preaching has become a contagion in Pentecostal pulpits? I suppose I could guess – but few would like my answer. Why is it that our Christian Reformed, Presbyterian and Southern Baptist brothers are such good and gifted expositional preachers ... and Pentecostals seem so indifferent to it? How is it that one group consistently serves their people ‘meat’ and potatoes ... and we consistently default to tangled spaghetti noodles, with an occasional meatball tossed in? Save me the feigned shock!
Just as worship music has become more emotional,
less theological, Sunday messages have become
more practical, less doctrinal. Is this wrong?
No! Is this ‘shift’ market-driven? Yes!
Ok, so some might be thinking, ‘What brought this on?” Well, the catalyst actually has been Paul’s Letter to the Romans, which I have been cycling through lately. The more I read its 16 chapters, the more I am convinced that it is the sort of letter that deserves the serious attention of the exegete. Famously dense and theologically heavy, it handles some pretty profound, even intimidating, subjects, on so many levels. Indeed, it would be a shame to ruin this fine piece of Pauline theology with a topical sermon – when a text-driven approach could better promote spiritual literacy, teach listeners how to study the Bible, protect against personal bias (not a bad thing), and push the preacher to confront tough subjects (i.e. predestination, sanctification, justification) they might otherwise conveniently side-step.
The beauty in expositional preaching is that it is a peculiar act of worship, wherein the Biblical text,
not the preacher, has divine authority.
The stature of the Letter to the Romans deserves the full weight of the preacher’s attention, so that listeners leave Sunday morning with a spiritual sense of shock at the sense of God ... and some sense of the infinite weight of His work. An exegetical sermon would serve this need wonderfully!
For my purposes here I am going to parse Paul in chunks – and the chunk I am drawn to for the moment is Romans 3:21-26, surely one of the heaviest and more profound chapters in the entire Bible. 1 Indeed - it is the greatest paragraph ever written! But, before venturing into the text, I need to appeal first to the Gospel of Matthew to set us up.
There are times when the Scriptures make a statement, which though true, on the surface seems callous, cold and chilling. Mathew 27 is one of those scriptures. If Matthew 26 is the prelude to the death of Christ, then Chapter 27 is the main movement. In its description of the harrowing, cold-hearted sequence of events and the indifferent people surrounding Jesus, note a recurring phrase that fluoresces off the page for its starkness:
v. 26 “... handed Him over to be crucified;”
v. 31 “Then they led Him away to crucify Him.”
v. 35 “When they had crucified Him, they divided up His clothes by casting lots.”
v.38 “Two robbers were crucified with Him ...”
These simple phrases, brief as they are – hide the fact that crucifixion was anything but simple ... and most certainly never designed to be a brief execution for its victims. The repetition of “crucified” heightens the cruelty destined for Christ.
The Romans did not invent crucifixion. According to Herodotus the Greek, the Persians were the first to use it (Herodotus 1:128.2; 3:125.3; 3:132.2; 3:159.1) and on one occasion, in about 519 B.C., its king, King Darius, crucified some 3000 Babylonians (4:43.2,7; 6:30.1; 7:194.1). The Roman statesman Cicero called it "the most cruel and disgusting penalty" (Verrem 2:5.165), and "the most extreme penalty" (Verrem 2:5.168). Chilling! But perhaps Seneca, the philosopher and advisor to Nero, said it best:
“Can anyone be found who would prefer wasting away in pain dying limb by limb, or letting out his life drop by drop, rather than expiring once for all? Can any man by found willing to be fastened to the accursed tree, long sickly, already deformed, swelling with ugly wounds on shoulders and chest, and drawing the breath of life amid long drawn-out agony? He would have many excuses for dying even before mounting the cross.” (Dialogue 3:2.2).
Crucifixion is not just any execution. It is the obscenest, the most horrific form of execution invented. So, it escapes me then as to why so many folks choose to hang such a symbol of wretchedness around their necks.
“Let the Bible talk!”
J. I. Packer, Prof of Theology, Regent, B.C.
A few Decembers back, when I was doing ‘the man thing’ and shopping for a present for my wife, I dropped by several jewelry stores. In one shop, while searching through the glass-enclosed counters, well - “Shiver Me Timbers” – I saw more gold and “pieces of eight” than the Pirates of the Caribbean and Kermit on Muppet Treasure Island combined.
I also spotted something I might like, located right next to another guy busy making a purchase. Gregarious, that I am, I congratulated the young man on his choice of a gift – an elegant and expensive cross necklace. The conversation went something like this:
“Buying that for your wife or girlfriend?” I asked. “Girlfriend,” he replied.
“Are you a Christian?” I probed, as unassumingly as I could.
“No, I don’t go to church,” he answered.
“Your girlfriend goes to church then?” I pressed.
“No,” he said ― and by now he looked clearly mystified by my line of questioning. “Why do you ask?” he asked inquisitively.
“Well, I’m just trying to figure out why non-Christians buy crosses, that’s all.” He mumbled something about nice jewelry ... our conversation ended ... and my wife got a cashmere sweater that year.
Now, isn’t that an interesting point of view - through the lens of someone who is not a follower of Christ? Still, even if you are a follower of Christ, I wonder how often ‘nice jewelry’ trumps ... “I’m buying it because I want to let my light shine” as a selling point?
Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not suggesting you cannot or should not wear a cross. To be honest you can wear a necklace made of pop-corn, a dog bone, or a live rodent if that’s what turns your crank ... although I suspect wearing a live rodent is a bit problematic!
Writing to the Church at Rome, Paul has the ‘Cross’ on his mind ... rather than around his neck. However, instead of using the familiar term ‘Cross,’ he prefers to link the cross to other metaphors like the justice of God and the righteousness of Christ, which is what we will see here in this passage in a moment.
So, on the surface, even though the phrase in Matthew 27:26: “... handed over to be crucified” seems calloused, cold and chilling - even frosty, fiendish and flippant - there is a significance that emerges in the Romans 3 passage, as Paul the Pastor expresses (1) the impenetrable mystery of God’s merciful righteousness towards you and me, and (2) the unfathomable, deep gift of Christ’s atonement on our behalf.
The Roman poet Horace’s advice to writers was:
“Do not bring a god onto the stage, unless the problem
is one that deserves a god to solve it.”
Paul follows this advice in Romans perfectly!
Why did Jesus submit to being “crucified”? What was it that made Christ purpose to step across the planets and the stars and surrender His life on a cross, an object of scorn? Romans 3:21-26 provides at least three answers in his pericope for us to consider.
# 1. The Cross Reveals a Righteousness from God (vv. 21-23)
The opening words of Romans 3:21 begin: “But now ...” You can almost hear a sigh of relief from Paul. Why? Because, earlier in chapters 1 and 2, we read nothing but unrelieved gloom and damnation. Things are indeed hopeless.
1:18 The pagan is judged for their outright rejection of God and for suppressing the truth they fully know, for “The wrath of God is being revealed ... against all the godlessness and wickedness of people.” No analyzing sin here from a social perspective.
3:20 The religious person is judged for not following the Law of God—and the stunning conclusion is that “no one will be declared righteous [justified] in His sight.”
What is God’s appraisal of things? Answer! Our Total failure! That is why the opening words of v. 21 “But now” (Νυνὶ δὲ) marks a radical transition for Paul, because previously he said humanity is trapped in sin, unable to measure up to God’s standards. “But now ...” is a very bright light in what has been a very dark tunnel (3:9-20). In fact, those two words that begin this verse might well be the most important words in all the Bible.
Notice the progression between Chapters One and Three:
1:17 “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed ...” The tense is continuous here ― “is being revealed”. It is ongoing, not a single completed event.
3:21 “But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known ... [manifested] to which the Law and the Prophets testify.”
The controlling expression throughout vv. 21-26 is the righteousness of God, appearing four times in just six verses. This righteousness from God, says Paul, is being revealed (1:17) and this righteousness, said to be “apart from the Law” (3:21) has been made known ... yet the Law and the Prophets witness to it. What is Paul saying? He is saying, the Law and the Prophets witnessed to God’s righteousness being manifested. They have been looking forward to it ... anticipating it ... prophesying it ... pointing to it ― but they could not produce it themselves. So, if law-followers cannot escape God’s angry judgment, then the rest of us are damned.
Think of it this way. I go to an encyclopedia—and I look up the word ‘Perogies’ and learn that they are dumplings of unleavened dough. Baked or fried, usually in butter with onions – they are traditionally stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, ground meat, or cheese. You can even stuff them with strawberries or Saskatoon berries, peaches or plums ... and I suppose passion fruit, papaya, pears, persimmon, pineapples or pomegranates.
But are you any closer to getting your hands ... and especially your gums into a plate full of perogies? Nope! That’s because the encyclopedia is not meant to ‘manifest’ [make known; produce] a perogy; it’s only meant to ‘bear witness’ to the facts about perogies.
We cannot lean on our righteousness ...
and Christ’s righteousness,
for the two will not amalgamate. Choose one.
In the Old Testament do we ever see any evidence that there was a righteousness apart from the Law that was made known? Absolutely! In fact, there are a lot of passages that teach that righteousness came by the merits of a Redeemer who justified people by faith ...
Gen. 15:6 “Abraham believed the Lord and He credited it to him as
righteousness”
Hab. 2:4 “But the righteous will live by his faith”
Ps. 32:1-2 “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him.”
Isa. 8:14 “And He will be ... a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock
that makes them fall”
... and Paul makes use of these very same passages throughout the Book of Romans.
Romans 3:22 says that “This righteousness, apart from the Law, comes through faith in Jesus Christ” ... which is really a repeat of what 1:17 already told us. So, this righteousness of ours is a Faith Righteousness. It is given to everyone who embraces faith in Jesus Christ.
It can never be by our works because there is no difference in the sinner-hood of all people ... or as Paul puts it, “Between Jew and Gentile” (v. 22). You can be poor, prosperous, a poet or a pacifist. You can be a barbarian, bookkeeper, broker or a buffoon. You can be a friar, a feminist, a fundamentalist or a flight attendant - it does not matter! “All have sinned and fall short” (v. 23).
Interestingly, that verb in v. 23: “fall short” is in the present tense and refers to the present situation. In other words, we have sinned and we are constantly coming short of the glory of God. And what does it mean to fall short of the “glory of God”?
Some believe it means we have fallen short of the image of God;
Others ... fallen short of the original and future glory of God;
I think Wm. C.T. Shedd, a Reform theologian gets closer to the truth of v. 23 when he says we have fallen short of the “approbation (approval) of God.” ― we have not whole-heartedly acknowledged His existence, omnipresence, omniscience, His unerring justice, His condescending mercy. We have not given Him our singular attention or favour! We “fall short”!
God’s standard to get into heaven is nothing less than perfection, anything less is a failure. So even if you miss by an inch ... you might as well have missed by a mile. As Romans 2:13 reminds us “It is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight; but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.”
Our religion, culture, education, good works, and religious ordinances -- these are observances “to the Law” and they have no power to change our status before God. We are guilty! We are lost!
Thankfully, “But now ...” a “righteousness apart from the Law has been made known” and it comes through faith in Jesus Christ (v. 22). That is why Paul’s expression “But now” (v. 21) breathes fresh air into an otherwise dead tomb, because Paul says we can now receive not only knowledge of God’s righteousness but the actual imputation (transmitting) of that righteousness to our accounts ─ “through faith in Jesus Christ” (v. 22). The Cross Reveals a Righteousness from God.
# 2. The Cross Reveals a Righteousness by Grace (v. 24)
Our spiritual condition is dark and dismal. Our depravity and despair is hopeless and universal. It envelops one and all. Then suddenly, a light shines, hope is revived, and the righteousness of God comes to our rescue.
Paul writes in v. 24 that we are “Justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Justification is often said to mean “make righteous” or “to be righteous”. I am persuaded however that the word carries a far more forensic / legal sense here – as in “to declare righteous.” Like a judge pronouncing a decision in a public case, God, the Judge, because of the work of Christ on the Cross, declares the sinner acquitted and accepted by God ... and God’s righteousness is imputed (credited, ascribed, attributed) to us so that we are declared righteous, not made righteous. 2
Notice, according to v. 24 that all of this happens “freely by His grace.” The adverb ‘freely’ (dorean), emphasizes the grace that underlies God’s dealing with us in justifying us. It is the same Greek word used in John 15:25 where it says “They hated me [Jesus] without reason” or “without a cause”. Jesus was hated ‘freely’. So just as there was no cause that men should hate Jesus, so there was no cause that God should justify us either; yet God justifies us “freely,” without a cause. God gives away His justification freely. This should set our hearts to dancing, even if only metaphorically!
We cannot buy it with money, for it is “freely by His grace.”
We cannot work for it with our hands; it is “freely by His grace.”
We cannot receive it through some sort of church ceremony; it is “freely by His grace.”
It is useless to wait until we improve, because it is “freely by His grace.”
God’s righteousness is offered to us as a gift... and this righteousness is made available through Jesus’ sacrifice of His life. No wonder Charles Spurgeon famously called Calvary “the hill of comfort.”
Build your life on Romans 3.
Repeating a "Hare Krishna’ mantra cannot give it to us;
Mohammed cannot conjure it up and Buddhist monks cannot turn their prayer wheels and help us out;
Before we were justified, we were in a state of unrighteousness, and when we were justified, we were transferred to a state of righteousness. So justification then is a transition from a state of unrighteousness to a state of righteousness. And in the words of Romans 3:24, it came “by Christ Jesus.”
William Cowper (the 18th century English poet) had a miserable childhood. His mother died when he was six. He was put in a boarding school where he was bullied and beaten by older boys. He later tried to commit suicide twice, and finally at age 25, Cowper was committed to an asylum.
Cowper came under the care of a man named Dr. Cotton. Cotton was a Christian and introduced Cowper to salvation through Jesus Christ. Cowper himself tells of turning to the Bible for comfort. The first verses he saw were Romans 3:24-25. After reading these two verses, he wrote:
“Immediately I received strength to believe, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon in His blood, and the fullness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I believed and received the Gospel. Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I think I should have died with gratitude and joy.”
His life transformed by His encounter with God's grace, Cowper would later write:
“There is a fountain filled with bloodDrawn from Immanuel's veins:And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.” Acquitted ... by God’s grace! God has changed our judicial standing before Him by His grace.
We have been reinstated into the favor and fellowship of God by His grace! That’s who we are in Christ Jesus. The Cross Reveals a Righteousness by Grace.
# 3. The Cross Reveals a Righteousness Demonstrated (vv. 25-26)
Now if God justifies sinners freely by His grace, on what grounds does He do this? How is it possible for a righteous God to declare the unrighteous to be righteous without either compromising His own righteousness or accepting their unrighteousness? God’s answer is in verse 25 ...
NIV “God presented Him [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement.”
KJV “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.”
Another translation describes Jesus in v. 25 this way: "as the One who would turn aside His [God’s] wrath, taking away sin." That is what propitiation is. To propitiate is to turn aside or to appease or to pacify someone's wrath by a sacrificial offering. So, the blood of Christ satisfies the wrath of God against sin. Did you know that God’s wrath is mentioned over 590 times in the Scriptures? It is clearly an important word then.
God sets forth Jesus as the propitiation and
His death on the cross satisfied His justice and appeased His wrath against sin. God is therefore subject and object ... propitiator and the propitiated, while God, the Son, becomes the propitiation.
Am I suggesting that God is a peeved deity, a kind of cosmic, short-tempered being who indulges in violent, uncontrolled displays of temper? Not at all. God’s anger is never mysterious or irrational ... but always predictable. What arouses His anger is sin in all its forms and manifestations. And since we are born in sin and commit sin, we are regarded as enemies of God (Rom 5:10).
So how can we propitiate (turn aside/appease) God's anger today? We can't. There is nothing that we do. There is not the remotest possibility of us persuading, picketing, pirating or pacifying God to forgive us ― for we deserve nothing but judgment from His hands.
But here’s the good news: Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Here’s the good news: the judgment of God we deserved was removed. Like the innocent lamb on the mercy seat (Lev. 16:1-34; Heb. 9:5), the blood of Jesus, the substitute lamb, placed on the altar, turned aside the wrath of an offended God. So, God is propitiated (appeased) because Christ willingly became the agent of salvation and the cross the instrument of that salvation.
In explaining this business of propitiation,
God did it in the first instance NOT to save us,
though he did, He did it “... to demonstrate
His justice.” Why? Because in His forbearance,
He had let sins previously committed go unpunished.
Twice (not insignificant) we are told in verse 26, “He did this to demonstrate His righteousness ...” In other words, the cross was a demonstration of God’s righteousness. God in His forbearance (patience) ... had been forgiving sins, but no penalty had ever been paid. So this would make people wonder if God was in fact just.
“How can God forgive sins without penalty”, people thought? The answer is (v. 26) because it was God’s fixed intention in the fullness of time to punish these sins in the death of His Son.
When the great English preacher Charles Spurgeon was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, he said he had a clear sense of the justice of God and sin became an intolerable burden.: In his book All of Grace” ...
“All the while I had upon my mind a deep concern for the honour of God’s name and the integrity of His moral government. I felt that my conscience would not be satisfied if I could be unjustly forgiven. The sin I had committed must be punished. But then there was the question of how God could be just and yet justify me who had been so guilty.” (p. 29)
The answer to Spurgeon’s question is in this text, verse 25 – Substitutionary Atonement:
“Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow.”
God poured out His wrath on Himself so that He would not have to distribute it to us. To sum up Paul here, think of God’s work this way: the approximate end – was the forgiveness of sins; the final end – is the glory of God. He is both Just and Justifier (v. 26). He justly satisfies His own justice ... allowing Him to legally acquit ... and as justifier, He declares righteous anyone placing their faith in Jesus. THAT, is amazing, and the truth of what I just said ... should send happy tremors dancing through the Christian’s heart. Does it sound paradoxical? The theological answer is ‘No,’ but who cares. Embrace the fact: God saves sinners! Be encouraged ... and allow the truth of Romans 3 to warm your heart and stir your increasing affection for God ... and the truth of His Word.
I continue to find reading and preaching ‘inside the text’ much more edifying than wandering hither and yon about a passage, collecting verses like a magnet collects dust – assuming we have treated the Scriptures honourably. But I suppose that’s just me. “OnlySaying ...”
1. Romans 3 naturally divides into four ‘chunks” - 3:1-8, 9-20, 21-26, 27-31.
2. Read my blog (Aug. 2025) on the neglected dimension of divine forgiveness – the cosmic erasure of the legal charges against us, and you will understand the love of God in a way previously unseen. https://www.onlysaying.com/post/vertical-forgiveness
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