Righteousness Declared!

Justification is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous in Christ on the basis of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Each part of this definition is important, so we must consider it carefully.

1: To begin with, justification is an act, not a process.

There are no degrees of justification; each believer has the same right standing before God.

2: Also, justification is something God does, not man.

No sinner can justify himself before God.

3: Most important, justification does not mean that God makes us righteous, but that He declares us righteous.

Justification is a legal matter.

God puts the righteousness of Christ on our record in the place of our own sinfulness.

And nobody can change this record.

Do not confuse justification and sanctification.

Sanctification is the process whereby God makes the believer more and more like Christ.

Sanctification may change from day to day.

Justification never changes.

When the sinner trusts Christ, God declares him righteous, and that declaration will never be repealed.

God looks on us and deals with us as though we had never sinned at all!

But, how can the holy God declare sinners righteous?

Justification Explained.

Romans 3:21–31 AV

21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

“But now the righteousness of God … has been manifested” (Rom. 3:21, literal translation).

God had revealed His righteousness in many ways before the full revelation of the Gospel:

His Law, His judgments against sin, His appeals through the prophets, His blessing on the obedient.

But in the Gospel, a new kind of righteousness has been revealed (Rom. 1:16–17); and the characteristics of this righteousness are spelled out in this section.

Apart from the Law.

Romans 3:21 AV

21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

Under the Old Testament Law, righteousness came by man behaving; but under the Gospel, righteousness comes by believing.

The Law itself reveals the righteousness of God, because the Law is “holy and just and good” (Rom. 7:12).

Furthermore, the Law bore witness to this Gospel righteousness even though it could not provide it.

Beginning at Genesis 3:15, and continuing through the entire Old Testament, witness is given to salvation by faith in Christ.

The Old Testament sacrifices, the prophecies, the types, and the great “Gospel Scriptures” (such as Isa. 53) all bore witness to this truth.

The Law could witness to God’s righteousness, but it could not provide it for sinful man.

Only Jesus Christ could do that (see Gal. 2:21).

Through faith in Christ

Romans 3:22 AV

22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Faith is only as good as its object.

All men trust something, if only themselves; but the Christian trusts Christ.

Law righteousness is a reward for works.

Gospel righteousness is a gift through faith.

Many people say, “I believe in God!”

But this is not what saves us.

It is personal, individual faith in Jesus Christ that saves and justifies the lost sinner.

Even the demons from hell believe in God and tremble, yet this does not save them (James 2:19).

For all men

Romans 3:22–23 AV

22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

God gave His Law to the Jews, not to the Gentiles; but the Good News of salvation through Christ is offered to all men.

All men need to be saved.

There is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile when it comes to condemnation.

“All have sinned, and are coming short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23, literal translation).

God declared all men guilty so that He might offer to all men His free gift of salvation.

By grace

Romans 3:24 AV

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

God has two kinds of attributes: absolute (what He is in Himself), and relative (how He relates to the world and men).

One of His absolute attributes is love: “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

When God relates that love to you and me, it becomes grace and mercy.

God in His mercy does not give us what we do deserve, and God in grace gives us what we do not deserve.

The Greek word translated “freely” is translated in John 15:25 as “without a cause.”

We are justified without a cause!

There is no cause in us that would merit the salvation of God! It is all of grace!

At great cost to God

Romans 3:24–25 AV

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

Salvation is free, but it is not cheap.

Three words express the price God paid for our salvation:

propitiation,

redemption,

and blood.

In human terms, “propitiation” means appeasing someone who is angry, usually by a gift.

But this is not what it means in the Bible. “Propitiation” means the satisfying of God’s holy Law, the meeting of its just demands, so that God can freely forgive those who come to Christ.

The word “blood” tells us what the price was.

Jesus had to die on the cross in order to satisfy the Law and justify lost sinners.

The best illustration of this truth is the Jewish Day of Atonement described in Leviticus 16.

Two goats were presented at the altar, and one of them was chosen for a sacrifice.

The goat was slain and its blood taken into the holy of holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat, that golden cover on the ark of the covenant.

This sprinkled blood covered the two tablets of the Law inside the ark.

The shed blood met (temporarily) the righteous demands of the holy God.

The priest then put his hands on the head of the other goat and confessed the sins of the people.

Then the goat was taken out into the wilderness and set free to symbolize the carrying away of sins.

“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12).

In the Old Testament period, the blood of animals could never take away sin; it could only cover it until the time when Jesus would come and purchase a finished salvation.

God had “passed over” the sins that were past (Rom. 3:25, literal translation), knowing that His Son would come and finish the work.

Because of His death and resurrection, there would be “redemption”—a purchasing of the sinner and setting him free.

Dr. G. Campbell Morgan was trying to explain “free salvation” to a coal miner, but the man was unable to understand it. “I have to pay for it,” he kept arguing. With a flash of divine insight, Dr. Morgan asked, “How did you get down into the mine this morning?” “Why, it was easy,” the man replied. “I just got on the elevator and went down.”

Then Morgan asked, “Wasn’t that too easy? Didn’t it cost you something?”

The man laughed. “No, it didn’t cost me anything; but it must have cost the company plenty to install that elevator.” Then the man saw the truth: “It doesn’t cost me anything to be saved, but it cost God the life of His Son.”

In perfect justice

Romans 3:25–26 AV

25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

God must be perfectly consistent with Himself.

He cannot break His own Law or violate His own nature.

“God is love” (1 John 4:8), and “God is light” (1 John 1:5).

A God of love wants to forgive sinners, but a God of holiness must punish sin and uphold His righteous Law.

How can God be both “just and the justifier”?

The answer is in Jesus Christ.

When Jesus suffered the wrath of God on the cross for the sins of the world, He fully met the demands of God’s Law, and also fully expressed the love of God’s heart.

The animal sacrifices in the Old Testament never took away sin; but when Jesus died, He reached all the way back to Adam and took care of those sins.

No one (including Satan) could accuse God of being unjust or unfair because of His seeming passing over of sins in the Old Testament time.