Romans 3:24

“ Being justified as a pure gift by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. ”

The participle δικαιούμενοι, being justified, takes us by surprise. Why give this idea, which is the principal one in the context, a subordinate place, by using a participle to express it? To explain this unexpected form, it must be remembered that the idea of justification had already been solemnly introduced, Romans 3:21-22. Romans 3:23 had afterward explained it by the fact of the fall; and now it can reappear as a simple corollary from this great fact. We might paraphrase: “being consequently justified, as we have just declared, freely”...The present participle (δικαιούμενοι) refers to every moment in the history of mankind when a sinner comes to believe. There is no need therefore to add, as Ostervald and others do, a new conjunction: “and that they are justified.” Neither is it necessary to take this participle, with Beza and Morison, as the demonstration of the fact of sin, Romans 3:23. It is impossible that the essential idea of the whole passage should be given in proof of a secondary idea. The most erroneous explanation seems to us to be that of Oltramare, who here begins a wholly new period, the principal verb of which must be sought in Romans 3:27: “Since we are justified freely...is there here, then, any cause for boasting?” The most important passage in the whole Epistle, Romans 3:24-26, would thus be degraded to the rank of a simple incident. And, moreover, the asyndeton between Romans 3:23-24 would be without the slightest justification.

This notion: being justified, is qualified in three directions: those of the mode, the origin, and the means. The mode is expressed by the adverb δωρεάν, gratuitously. It is not a matter of wages, it is a free gift.

The origin of this gift is: His grace, God's free goodwill inclining him to sinful man to bestow on him a favor. There is no blind necessity here; we are face to face with a generous inspiration of divine love. The means is the deliverance wrought in Jesus Christ. The Greek term ἀπολύτρωσις denotes etymologically, a deliverance obtained by way of purchase (λύτρον, ransom). No doubt the New Testament writers often use it in the general sense of deliverance, apart from all reference to a price paid; so Romans 8:23; Luke 21:28; 1 Corinthians 1:30. But in these passages, as Morison observes, the matter in question is only one of the particular consequences of the fundamental deliverance obtained by Christ. The idea of the latter is usually connected with that of the ransom paid to obtain it; comp. Matthew 20:28, where it is said that Jesus gives his life a ransom (λύτρον), in the room and stead (ἀντί) of many; 1 Timothy 2:6, where the term signifying ransom forms one word with the preposition ἀντί, in the place of (ἀντίλυτρον); 1 Peter 1:18: “Ye were ransomed as by the precious blood of the Lamb, without spot.” This notion of purchase, in speaking of the work of Christ, appears also in 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Corinthians 7:23; Galatians 3:13. It is obvious that this figure was most familiar to the apostle's mind; it is impossible to get rid of it in the present passage.

The title Christ is placed before the name Jesus, the main subject here being his mediatorial office (see on Romans 1:1).

After thus giving the general idea of the work, the apostle expounds it more in detail by defining exactly the ideas he has just stated. That of divine grace reappears in the words: whom he had set forth beforehand, Romans 3:25; that of deliverance, in the words: to be a propitiation through faith; that of Christ Jesus, in the words: in His blood; and, finally, the principal term: being justified, in the last words of Romans 3:26: the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus. This conclusion thus brings us back to the starting-point of the passage.