Romans 3:21-26 (2)

God justifies or declares righteous the guilty through the cross of Christ.  We are reminded in v23 why mankind is in need of god’s righteousness: all people are sinners.  All have fallen short of god’s glory.  Man, being created by God (and in His image), should bear the glory of the Creator.  But all fall short.  They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible creatures (1:22).  But for those who know their guilt and seek to give glory to the Creator (2:7) God makes provision.

This declaration of God is said to be freely by His grace.  Men try to justify themselves (Luke 10:29).  They may deny or rationalize their guilt.  They may be satisfied being justified before men (Luke 16:15).  In fact, those who keep the law (whether the conscience or Moses’ law) will be justified.  But the law has made it clear: no one keeps it!  All are guilty.

Thus if God is to declare men righteous He will do this for the undeserving, because all are without merit.  Thus it is by grace.  Grace means unmerited favor.  Freely means as a gift.  What God does He does for those who have nothing to offer.  Thus His righteousness if offered as a gift to the undeserving.

We still wonder how God can do this and yet maintain His own righteousness.  The answer is found in two marvelous truths that are the work of Christ on the cross.

A. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

To redeem is to buy by paying a price.  The picture here seems to be that of a slave market.  Guilty mankind is found in sin and destined to pay the penalty of death (John 8:32-35; Rom. 6:16, 19-20).  For the slave Christ has paid the ransom, the required price, said to be His life blood (Acts 20:28; Eph. 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18-19).  As with Adam in the Garden of Eden the penalty for sin was the death of the sinner.  But god came to earth in the likeness of sinful flesh and was Himself sinless.  Not needing to die for His own sins God then accepted the payment of the Perfect One for the sins of those who believe.  In other words, He died in our place.

B.  Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.

Propitiation was foreshadowed in Leviticus 16 in the ritual for the annual Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).  A propitiation is a sacrifice of a qualified life that satisfies the wrath of god.  The Creator is right to be angry with His rebellious creatures.  But His anger has been appeased.  The Righteous One has taken the wrath of God on Himself.  He bore our guilt and our punishment.  The chastisement for our sin was upon Him (Isa. 53:5).  Thus when the penalty was exacted on One who was innocent, the ransom was paid and guilty men could be declared righteous.

Thus God could be both just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus (v26).  He has been declared righteous (v25).  God’s forbearance in passing over sins in the centuries before Christ is seen to be consistent with His righteous character as the cross has covered the sins of believers who looked forward as well as for those who now look back to the cross.  Let us give thanks that the angry God is also the gracious and merciful God!