Romans 3:21-22 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
In this context, Paul is writing concerning the law and how by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in God's sight. (Romans 3:19-20). However, in these verses were are given the answer. So we have two different ideas here. 1. The Law exposes that no flesh can be justified or "declared righteous by God". 2. God declares the sinner righteous by way of our faith in Jesus Christ. The "righteousness" of God in verse 21 is not talking about God's attribute of righteousness, but rather a righteousness that comes from God.
So God has let us know how we should live, but none of us can live up to His perfect way because we have all sinned. This makes it clear that we do not possess the ability in and of ourselves to attain salvation. This can only come from Jesus Christ. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ we are sealed in the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. This sealing has the idea of our salvation being purchased by the blood of God's son Jesus.
In other words, once you are saved you cannot lose your salvation. What you can do is be dumb and not follow or walk with God after you get saved which would be a good indicator that you don't really have the "faith in Jesus Christ" that Paul is talking about here. My pastor used to call this just buying the "fire insurance" but not actually attending your house in such a way that it never burns down. So the overall idea here is that we are only justified by "faith in Jesus Christ". That faith ought to produce conduct in our lives that reflect our position in Christ. Some pastors will argue that you "can" lose your salvation, but I haven't been able to find where this concept is backed up in scripture. What we do need to be very aware of, is that we do not want to continue the same things we did in our old lives that Jesus saved us from.
The New Testament gives us a bunch of things about conduct that would be indicators we are walking with God. If we want to follow up with the next 2 verses Paul expands on the ideas presented. Romans 3:23-24 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,. Paul goes on to talk about not boasting in works because we are justified apart from them.
Application - Faith in Jesus Christ alone saves us. We can not work our way into heaven. The law was never going to be enough for us to be righteous. This is why you can meet someone doing all the right things, but if they don't have Christ, it does not have eternal value for that person. It is great to be around people doing the right things, but far better to be around those who are pursuing Christ and then out of that love for Him, operating in such a way that brings glory to Him.
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