Romans 3:24

δικαιούμενοι : grammatically, the word is intractable. If we force a connection with what immediately precedes, we may say with Lipsius that just as Paul has proved the universality of grace through the universality of sin, so here, conversely, he proves the universal absence of merit in men by showing that they are justified freely by God's grace. Westcott and Hort's punctuation (comma after τοῦ θεοῦ) favours this connection, but it is forced and fanciful. In sense δικαιούμενοι refers to πάντας τοὺς πιστεύοντας, and the use of the nominative to resume the main idea after an interruption like that of Romans 3:23 is rather characteristic than otherwise of the Apostle. δωρεὰν is used in a similar connection in Galatians 2:21. It signifies “for nothing”. Justification, we are told here, costs the sinner nothing; in Galatians we are told that if it comes through law, then Christ died “for nothing”. Christ is all in it (1 Corinthians 1:30): hence its absolute freeness. τῇ αὐτοῦ χάριτι repeats the same thing: as δωρεὰν signifies that we contribute nothing, τῇ αὐτοῦ χάριτι signifies that the whole charge is freely supplied by God. αὐτοῦ in this position has a certain emphasis. διὰ τῆς ἀπολυτρώσεως τῆς ἐν Χ. Ἰ. The justification of the sinful, or the coming to them of that righteousness of God which is manifested in the Gospel, takes effect through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Perhaps “liberation” would be a fairer word than “redemption” to translate ἀπολύτρωσις. In Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:15, it is equal to forgiveness. Ἀπολύτρωσις itself is rare; in the LXX there is but one instance, Daniel 4:29, in which ὁ χρόνος μου τῆς ἀπολυτρώσεως signifies the time of Nebuchadnezzar's recovery from his madness. There is here no suggestion of price or cost. Neither is there in the common use of the verb λυτροῦσθαι, which in LXX represents גָּאַל and פָּדָה, the words employed to describe God's liberation of Israel from Egypt (Isaiah 43:3 does not count). On the other hand, the classical examples favour the idea that a reference to the cost of liberation is involved in the word. Thus Jos., Ant., xii. 2, 3: πλειόνων δὲ ἢ τετρακοσίων ταλάντων τὰ τῆς ἀπολυτρώσεως γενήσεσθαι φαμένων κ. τ. λ.; and Philo, Quod omnis probus liber, § 17 (of a Spartan boy taken prisoner in war) ἀπογνοὺς ἀπολύτρωσιν ἄσμενος ἑαυτὸν διεχρήσατο, where it is at least most natural to translate “having given up hope of being held to ransom”. In the N.T., too, the cost of man's liberation is often emphasised: 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1Co 7:23, 1 Peter 1:18 f., and that especially where the cognate words λύτρον and ἀντίλυτρον are employed: Mark 10:45; 1 Timothy 2:6. The idea of liberation as the end in view may often have prevailed over that of the particular means employed, but that some means and especially some cost, toil or sacrifice were involved, was always understood. It is implied in the use of the word here that justification is a liberation; the man who receives the righteousness of God is set free by it from some condition of bondage or peril. From what? The answer is to be sought in the connection of Romans 1:17 and Romans 1:18 : he is set free from a condition in which he was exposed to the wrath of God revealed from heaven against sin. In Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14, ἀπολύτρωσις is plainly defined as remission of sins: in Ephesians 1:14; Romans 8:23; 1 Corinthians 1:30, it is eschatological.