Just and Justifier

In the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans, chapter 3 turns the corner from devastating problem to glorious solution.  Chapter 1 indicates that all people are guilty of sin.  Chapter 2 clarifies:  this includes the Jewish people.  Chapter 3 begins with the grave and pressing truth:  “None is righteous, no, not one” (3:10).   And we cannot appeal the verdict:  “every mouth is stopped” (3:19).

But in 3:21-26, Paul unpacks the most spectacular solution to our dreadful predicament:  people can be “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (3:24).

Justification involves being brought into a right relationship with God by having the perfect, sinless righteousness of Christ assigned to us—so that we can be declared “not guilty” before the Divine Judge.  And we receive this saving benefit as God’s “gift” to us—we don’t earn it or deserve it; it’s given through his grace and we receive it by “faith” (v 25).  Justification by faith alone!

But how can God clear the guilty without compromising his own just character?  How can he allow spiritual offenders like us to be let off the hook and go free?  Answer:  “propitiation” (v 25).  This rich word points to the work of Christ on our behalf to absorb the just wrath of God for us, so that we can be spared damnation!

In v 26 Paul himself marvels at the building blocks of the awesome good news: God accomplished our salvation (and that of believers “passed over” in Old Testament times) in such a way “that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

God is both just and the justifier.  Divine justice is upheld:  every sin ever committed is punished by a sentence commensurate with the crime.  And that punishment is borne either by guilty sinners themselves, or by Jesus Christ at the cross on behalf of all who cry out to him in faith.  Just think:  God has made a way for his love to rescue rebels from eternal condemnation without compromising his perfectly holy and just character.  Just and justifier. Amazing!