God passed over former sins? (Romans 3:25)

According to Romans 3:25, God’s righteousness is demonstrated in his “forbearance” or “merciful restraint,” “through the forbearance of the sins previously committed.”¹ Does this mean God “waited patiently to deal with sins committed in the past” (ISV), or he “let the sins previously committed go unpunished” (NASB 2020, NIV, NLT), or he “passed over” former sins (ASV, CSB, ERV, ESV, NASB 1995, NET, NKJV, N/RSV, WEB, YLT), or does this involve “remission”/ “forgiveness” (Douay-Rheims, NAB, KJV)? 

While God’s holiness demands punishment for sin, his forbearance has withheld the full extent of his wrath (cf. Acts 14:16; 17:30) until his justice could be satisfied in the sacrificial death of his Son, enabling sins (past, present, future) to be forgiven (cf. Gal. 4:4-5; Heb. 9:15, 26).²  Continuing the “covering” sense (cf. 4:7) of the mercy seat analogy (see previous post), this is not ignoring sin but providing a means of redemption without compromising or violating the holy and just nature of God. The point is “God’s ‘consistency’ in always acting in accordance with his own character.”³ Divine forbearance affords not only the opportunity but the incentive to repent (2:4).  

Paul continues in v. 26, resuming the “but now” of v. 21, noting that God’s righteousness apart from the Law, consistent with his just character and justifying activity, is demonstrated “at the present time”⁴ toward the one, not necessarily “who has faith in Jesus” (ESV), but the one “out of” [ek] the “faith of Jesus” [písteōs Iēsoû], i.e., characterized by and benefitting from Jesus’s faith(fulness). 

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

     ¹ Unless noted otherwise, scripture quotations are the author’s own translation.

     ² Foreshadowing the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, persons were saved under the old Jewish Law by God’s grace through faith (Rom. 4:3-16; cf. 3:25; 9:31-32), and “the only faith that counts for anything is a faith that responds to whatever God says (Rom. 10:17)” (Gary Workman, “The Nature of the Gospel,” in The Book of Romans 85).

     ³ Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans. NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996) 240. 

     ⁴ On the timing of God’s justifying work through Christ, see esp. Rom. 5:6; Gal. 4:4; also 2 Cor. 6:2; Eph. 1:10; 1 Tim. 2:6; Tit. 1:3.

Related Posts: All Have Sinned (Rom. 3:23), Jesus Our Propriation/ Expiation

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