Romans 3.24a-Justification is Based Upon God's Grace
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday November 20, 2007
Romans: Romans 3:24a-Justification is Based Upon God’s Grace
Lesson # 100
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 3:19.
We are currently engaged in a study of the third major section in the book of Romans, which appears in Romans 3:21-5:21.
This section is divided into four parts: (1) Divine righteousness is imputed through faith in Christ (Romans 3:21-26). (2) Divine righteousness is available to both Jew and Gentile (Romans 3:27-31). (3) Justification by Faith: The Example of Abraham (Romans 4:1-23). (4) The Results of Faith (Romans 5:1-21).
In Romans 3:21a, Paul teaches that the righteousness of God as revealed by the Person and Work of Jesus Christ during His First Advent is manifested through the communication of the gospel of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.
Through the gospel, the Holy Spirit offers the unbeliever the gift of God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.
In Romans 3:21b, Paul states that this offer of divine righteousness through the communication of the gospel is attested to simultaneously by the Old Testament Scriptures.
In Romans 3:22, we noted that the righteousness of God can be received by anyone whether Jew or Gentile, through faith in Jesus Christ.
In Romans 3:23, we studied that the reason why anyone, whether Jew or Gentile can receive the gift of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ and be declared justified by God is that both groups have sinned and thus are always failing to measure up to the glory of God, who is Jesus Christ.
This evening we will study Romans 3:24a, which teaches that justification is based upon God’s grace.
Romans 3:19, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.”
Romans 3:20, “Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
Romans 3:21, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”
Romans 3:22, “Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe for there is no distinction.”
Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:24, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
“Being justified” is the verb dikaioo (dikaiovw) (dik-ah-yo-o), which means, “to declare or pronounce righteous.”
In Romans 3:24, the verb dikaioo refers to God declaring a person as righteous as He is as a result of God imputing or crediting to that person His Son’s righteousness, the moment they exercised faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
The word refers to the doctrine of “justification,” which by way of definition is a judicial act of God whereby He declares a person to be righteous as a result of crediting or imputing to that person His righteousness the moment they exercised faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Consequently, God accepts that person and enters that person into a relationship with Himself since they now possess His righteousness.
Justification is God declaring a person to be righteous as a result of acknowledging or recognizing His righteousness in that person, and which righteousness He imputed to that person as a result of their faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Justification causes no one to be righteous but rather is the recognition and declaration by God that one is righteous as He is.
To be justified by God through faith alone in Christ alone means that God can never condemn us for our sins.
It means that a believer can never lose his salvation because of any sin since God, who is a perfect judge, rendered a perfect decision when he declared righteous the person, who exercised faith in His Son Jesus Christ!
Thus, Paul declares the following in Romans 8:1:
Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
The mechanics of justification are as follows: (1) God condemns the sinner, which qualifies them to receive His grace. (2) The sinner believes in Jesus Christ as His Savior. (3) God imputes or credits Christ’s righteousness to the believer. (4) God declares that person as righteous as a result of acknowledging His Son’s righteousness in that person.
Romans 3:24, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
“As a gift” is the adverb dorean (dwreavn) (do-reh-an), which means, “undeservedly.”
In Romans 3:24, the adverb dorean means that the sinner who exercises faith in Jesus Christ as his or her Savior is declared justified by God as an unmerited gift or as an undeserved gift.
“Grace” is the noun charis (xavri$) (khar-ece), which refers to the sum total of unmerited benefits, both temporal and spiritual, imparted by God to the sinner who makes the non-meritorious decision to trust in Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.
Grace is all that God is free to do in imparting unmerited blessings to those who trust in Jesus Christ as Savior based upon the merits of Christ and His death on the Cross.
It is God treating us in a manner that we don’t deserve and excludes any human works in order to acquire eternal salvation or blessing from God.
Grace means that God saved us and blessed us despite ourselves and not according to anything that we do but rather saved us and blessed us because of the merits of Christ and His work on the Cross.
It excludes any human merit in salvation and blessing (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5) and gives the Creator all the credit and the creature none.
By means of faith, we accept the grace of God, which is a non-meritorious system of perception, which is in total accord with the grace of God.
Grace and faith are totally compatible with each other and inseparable (1 Tim. 1:14) and complement one another (Rom. 4:16; Eph. 2:8).
Grace, faith and salvation are all the gift of God and totally exclude all human works and ability (Eph. 2:8-9).
Ephesians 2:1, “Although, all of you were spiritually dead in your trespasses and sins.”
Ephesians 2:2, “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”
Ephesians 2:3, “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
Ephesians 2:4, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us.”
Ephesians 2:5, “even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”
Ephesians 2:6, “and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:7, “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
Ephesians 2:9, “not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
The unique Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on the Cross-is the source of grace (2 Cor. 8:9) and He is a gift from the Father (2 Cor. 9:15).
2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
Jesus Christ was full of “grace and truth” (John 1:17) and the believer receives the grace of God through Him (John 1:16).
John 1:16-17, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”
It is by the grace of God that Jesus Christ died a substitutionary spiritual death for all mankind (Heb. 2:9); therefore, the throne in which Christ sits is a “throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16).
The grace of God is extended to all men.
Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.”
The message of God's saving act in Christ is described as the “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24), and the “word of His grace” (Acts 20:32; cf. 14:3).
Grace is an absolute and is no longer grace if we are saved on the basis of human works (Rom. 11:6).
Therefore, since God has dealt graciously with the believer, the believer is in turn commanded to be gracious with all members of the human race, both believers and unbelievers (Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13; 4:6; 1 Thess. 3:12).
A Christian is someone who is a “partaker” of the grace of God (Phil. 1:7) and he is to live by the same principle of grace after salvation (Col. 2:6; Rom. 6:4).
Grace is the Christian’s sphere of existence (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; Col. 1:2) and the believer who rejects this principle is said to have “fallen from grace,” (Gal. 5:1-5).
God in His grace and love disciplines the believer in order to get the believer back in fellowship with Himself (Heb. 12:5-12).
He also trains the believer through undeserved suffering in order to achieve spiritual growth (2 Cor. 12:7-11).
The believer is commanded to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18).
We learn about the grace of God by listening to the Spirit’s voice, which is heard through the communication of the Word of God (Colossians 1:3-6) and experience the grace of God by being obedient to the Word of God.
The Christian life from beginning to end is built upon God's policy of grace (2 Cor. 6:1-9; Rom. 5:2; John 1:16).
Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:24, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
In Romans 3:24, the noun charis, “grace” is the sum total of unmerited benefits, both temporal and spiritual, imparted to the sinner through the function of the sum total of divine attributes of each member of the Trinity as a result of the sinner making the non-meritorious decision to trust in Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.
The word functions as an “instrumental of cause” indicating the “basis” in which God can justify the sinner who exercises faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Thus, God justifies the sinner who exercises faith in His Son Jesus Christ “based upon” His grace policy.
Titus 3:1, “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed.”
Titus 3:2, “to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.”
Titus 3:3, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.”
Titus 3:4, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared.”
Titus 3:5, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
Titus 3:6, “whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”
Titus 3:7, “so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”