Romains 3:24

Being Justified freely by His grace.

Justification

I. Its mode--“freely.” It is not a matter of wages, it is a free gift.

II. Its origin--“His grace.” God’s free good will inclining Him to sinful man to bestow on him a favour. There is no blind necessity here. We are face to face with a generous inspiration of Divine love.

III. The means. The deliverance wrought in Jesus Christ. (Prof. Godet.)

Justification

I. The benefit spoken of--Justification. In this there is--

1. The forgiveness of sins. “The remission of sins.”

2. A restoration to God’s favour.

3. A treatment of the pardoned and accepted person as righteous.

II. Its original spring, or first moving cause, and the free grace of God (Romains 11:6).

1. By God’s grace, which excludes all merit.

2. Freely, which excludes all conceit.

III. Its meritorious or procuring cause. “The redemption that is in Jesus Christ.”

IV. The ordination of God about it. He hath “set Christ forth to be a propitiation.” The word “set forth” signifies that--

1. God hath purposed in Himself that Christ should be a propitiation for sin (Éphésiens 1:9; 1 Pierre 1:18).

2. God has exhibited and proposed Christ to us to be a propitiation.

(1) He set Him forth beforehand, in the promises, types, and prophecies (Romains 3:21; Jean 5:46; Actes 10:43).

(2) And when the fulness of time was come, God actually exhibited Him in the flesh (Galates 4:4).

(3) Then the great decree broke forth, and the promised Saviour came to take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

(4) He is now set forth as a propitiation in the clear discoveries which are made of Him in the gospel (1 Pierre 1:20; Romains 3:21; Galates 3:1).

(5) And this is proposed to our faith for the remission of our sins and acceptance with God (Romains 1:17).

3. God has preferred Christ as a propitiation to all things else. The sacrifices under the law could not possibly take away sin. God did not take any pleasure in them for that purpose; but in Christ His soul is well pleased, and His offering is of a sweet-smelling savour to God (Éphésiens 5:2).

V. The way in which we are made partakers of this benefit--“through faith in His blood.” Conclusion:

1. This gives us a lively view of the great evil of sin and the exceeding riches of God’s grace.

2. Here is no room for any to encourage themselves with hopes of pardon and acceptance with God while they go on in sin.

3. Here is a blessed ground of relief for poor convinced sinners who are discouraged with fears, as if there could be no pardon for their sins.

4. Here are the richest consolations and the highest obligations to those who have obtained this blessing. (J. Guyse, D. D.)

Of justification

I. What it is to justify a sinner. Justification is a law term taken from courts of judicature, wherein a person is accused, tried, and, after trial, absolved. Thus it is opposed to accusation and condemnation (chap. 8:33, 34; Deutéronome 25:1). And so it is declared to be a sin to justify the wicked (Proverbes 17:15), not to make them righteous but to pronounce them righteous. Hence it follows that justification--

1. Is not a real but a relative change of the sinner’s state.

2. Is an act done and passed in an instant in the court of heaven, as soon as the sinner believes in Christ, and not a work carried on by degrees.

II. The parts of justification.

1. That we may the more clearly take up this matter, we must view the process of a sinner’s justification.

(1) God Himself sits Judge in this process. He gave the law; and as He is the Lawgiver so He is the Judge. And He only can justify authoritatively and irreversibly. For--

(a) He only is the Lawgiver, and He only has power to save or to destroy, and therefore the judgment must be left to Him (Jaques 4:12).

(b) Against Him the crime is committed, and He only can pardon it.

(2) The sinner is cited to answer before God’s judgment seat by the messengers of God, the ministers of the gospel (Malachie 3:1). Every sermon is a summons put into the sinner’s hand to answer for his sin. But, alas! sinners are so secure that they slight the summons and will not appear. Some keep themselves out of the messenger’s way; some never read the summons; others tear it in pieces, or affront the messengers (Matthieu 22:6). And so they act till Death bring them under his black rod before the tribunal in another world, where there is no access to justification.

(3) The Judge sends out other messengers who apprehend the sinner to carry him before the judgment seat. And these are, the spirit of bondage and an awakened conscience (Jean 16:8; Proverbes 20:27; Jérémie 2:27). They apprehended Paul, and left him not till he appeared and submitted himself. But some when caught are unruly prisoners, and strive against the Spirit and their own consciences (Actes 7:51); they go no farther with them than they are dragged. They get the mastery at length, and get away to their own ruin; like Cain, Saul, Felix, etc.

(4) When at length the prisoner, in chains of guilt, is brought to the bar (Actes 16:29), what fear and sorrow seize him while he sees a just Judge on the throne, a strict law laid before him, and a guilty conscience within!

(5) Then the indictment is read, and the sinner is speechless (Romains 3:10). And sentence is demanded agreeable to the law (Galates 3:10).

(6) Then the sinner must plead guilty or not. If he were innocent he might plead not guilty, and thereupon he would be justified. But this plea is not for us. For--

(a) It is utterly false (Romains 3:10; Ecclésiaste 7:20; Jaques 3:2).

(b) Falsehood can never bear out before God’s judgment seat. There is no want of evidence. Conscience is as a thousand witnesses, and the Judge is omniscient. The sinner then must needs plead guilty.

(7) The sinner being convicted is put to it to plead, why the sentence should not pass against him. Shall he plead mercy for mere mercy’s sake? Justice interposes that the Judge of all the earth must do right. The truth of God interposes that the word already gone out must be accomplished--That without shedding of blood there is no remission. Whither shall the sinner turn now? Both saints and angels are helpless. So--

(8) The despised Mediator, the Advocate at this court, who takes the desperate causes of sinners in hand, offers Himself now, with His perfect righteousness, and all His salvation. The sinner by faith lays hold on Him, renounces all other claims, and betakes himself to His alone merits and suretyship. Now has the sinner a plea that will infallibly bring him off. He pleads, he is guilty indeed; yet he must not die, for Christ has died for him. The law’s demands were just, but they are all answered already.

(9) Hereupon the judge sustaining the plea passes the sentence of justification on the sinner, according to the everlasting agreement (Ésaïe 53:11), who is now set beyond the reach of condemnation (chap. 8:1).

2. This great benefit consists of--

(1) The pardon of sin (Actes 13:38). Here I shall show--

(a) What pardon is. It is not the taking away the nature of sin; God justifies the stoner, but will never justify his sin. Nor is it the removing of the intrinsic demerit of sin; it still deserves condemnation. Nor is it a simple delay of the punishment; a reprieve is no pardon. There are four things in sin:--Its power, which is broken in regeneration (Romains 6:14); its blot and stain, which is taken away in sanctification (1 Corinthiens 6:11); its indwelling, which is removed in glorification (Hébreux 12:23); its guilt. Now pardon is the taking away of guilt, the dreadful obligation to punishment. Pardon cuts the knot whereby guilt ties sin and wrath together, cancels the bond obliging the sinner to pay his debt, and puts him out of the law’s reach.

(b) Its properties--full (Michée 7:19; Colossiens 2:13); free; irrevocable (Romains 11:29).

(c) Its names discovering its nature. It is a blotting out of sin (Ésaïe 43:25), an allusion to a creditor who, when he discharges a debt, scores it out of his count book; a not imputing of sin (Psaume 32:2), a metaphor from merchants, who, when a rich friend undertakes for one of their poor debtors, charge their accounts no more upon him; a taking of the burden of sin from off the sinner (Psaume 32:1; Osée 14:2); a washing of him (1 Corinthiens 6:11; Psaume 51:2; Ésaïe 1:18; 1 Jean 1:7); a dismissing or remission of sin (Matthieu 6:12; Romains 3:25), as the scapegoat bore away the iniquities of the people; the dispelling of a thick cloud (Ésaïe 44:22), which pardon, like the shining sun, breaks through and dissolves, or, like a mighty wind, scatters; a casting of sin behind the Lord’s back.(Ésaïe 38:17); a casting it into the depth of the sea (Michée 7:19); a covering of sin (Psaume 32:1); a not remembering of sin (Jérémie 31:34).

(2) The acceptation of the person as righteous in the sight of God (2 Corinthiens 5:2 l; Romains 4:6; Romains 5:19). There is a two-fold acceptation which must be carefully distinguished. First, of a man’s works as righteous (Galates 3:12). Works in a full conformity to the law are thus accepted. But since God’s judgment is according to truth, He cannot account things to be what really they are not; it is evident that even a believer’s works are not righteous in the eye of the law. So that this acceptation has no place in our justification. Secondly, of a man’s person as righteous (Éphésiens 1:6). This may be done, and is done, to the believer. This is an unspeakable benefit; for thereby--

(a) The bar in the way of abounding mercy is taken away, so that the rivers of compassion may flow towards him (Romains 5:1, etc.; Job 33:24, etc.)

(b) He is adjudged to eternal life (2 Thesaloniciens 1:6; Actes 26:18).

(c) The accusations of Satan and the clamours of evil conscience are hereby to be stilled (Romains 8:33). (T. Boston, D. D.)

Justification: a change of state accompanied by a change of character

There may amongst men be a change of state without any change of character. A prisoner may be dismissed from the bar, acquitted of the charge; or he may be convicted, but pardoned; but he may go with all the principles of wickedness as strong as ever within him. His condition is changed, but not his character. But it is never so in God’s dealings with men. In every case in which there is justification, sanctification accompanies it. Wherever there is the change of state there is the change of character. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)

Justification by grace

I. The redemption that is in or by Christ Jesus. When a prisoner has been made a slave by some barbarous power, a ransom price must be paid. Now, we being, by the fall of Adam, virtually guilty, Justice claimed us as his bond slaves forever unless we could pay a ransom. But we were “bankrupt debtors”; an execution was put into our house; all we had was sold, and we could by no means find a ransom; it was just then that Christ paid the ransom price that we might be delivered from the curse of the law and go free. Note--

1. The multitude He has redeemed, “a multitude that no man can number.”

2. This ransom was all paid, and all paid at once. The sacrifice of Calvary was not a part payment. The whole of the demands of the law were paid down there and then. So priceless was the ransom one might have thought that Christ should pay it by installments. Kings’ ransoms have sometimes run through years. But our Saviour once for all gave Himself a sacrifice, leaving nothing for Him or us to do.

3. When Christ paid all this ransom He did it all Himself! Simon, the Cyrenian, might bear the cross, but not be nailed to it. Two thieves were with Him there; not righteous men, lest any should have said that their death helped the Saviour. He trod the wine press alone.

4. It was accepted. There have been prices offered which never were accepted, and therefore the slave did not go free. But this was accepted, and the proof of that is--

(1) His resurrection.

(2) His ascension into heaven.

II. The effect of the ransom “being justified freely by His grace.”

1. What is the meaning of justification? There is no such thing on earth for mortal man, except in one way--i.e., he must be found not guilty. If you find him guilty, you cannot justify him. The Queen may pardon him, but she cannot justify him. It remained for the ransom of Christ to effect that which is an impossibility to earthly tribunals. Now see the way whereby God justifies a sinner. A prisoner has been tried and condemned to death. But suppose that some second party could be introduced who could become that man, he, the righteous man, putting the rebel in his place, and making the rebel a righteous man. We cannot do that in our courts. If I should be committed for a year’s imprisonment instead of some wretch who was condemned yesterday, I might take his punishment, but not his guilt. Now, what flesh and blood cannot do, that Jesus by His redemption did. The way whereby God saves a sinner is not by passing over the penalty, but the putting of another person in the rebel’s place. The rebel must die. Christ says, “I will be his substitute.” God consents to it. No earthly monarch could have power to consent to such a change. But the God of heaven had a right to do as He pleased.

2. Some of the characteristics of this justification.

(1) As soon as a repenting sinner is justified, remember, he is justified for all his sins. The moment he believes in Christ, his pardon at once he receives, and his sins are no longer his; they are laid upon the shoulders of Christ, and they are gone.

(2) But what is more, he becomes righteous; for in the moment when Christ takes his sins he takes Christ’s righteousness.

(3) This is irreversible. If Christ has once paid the debt, the debt is paid, and it will never be asked for again; if you are pardoned, you are pardoned once forever.

III. The manner of giving this justification.

1. “Freely,” because there is no price to be paid for it; “By His grace,” because it is not of our deservings. If you bring in any of your deservings, or anything to pay for it, He will not give it. Rowland Hill at a fair noticed the chapmen selling their wares by auction; so he said, “I am going to hold an auction too, to sell wine and milk, without money and without price. My friends over there find a great difficulty to get you up to their price; my difficulty is to bring you down to mine.” So it is with men. If I could preach justification to be bought, or to be had by walking a hundred miles, or by some torture, who would not seek it? But when it is offered freely men turn away. But may I not say, “Lord, justify me because I am not so bad as others”; or “because I go to church twice a day”; or “because I mean to be better”? No; it is “by His grace.” You insult God by bringing your counterfeit coin to pay for His treasures. What poor ideas men have of the value of Christ’s gospel if they think they can buy it! A rich man, when he was dying, thought he could buy a place in heaven by building a row of almshouses. A good man said, “How much are you going to leave?” “Twenty thousand pounds.” Said he, “That would not buy enough for your foot to stand on in heaven; for the streets are made of gold there, and therefore of what value can your gold be, it would be accounted nothing of, when the very streets are paved with it?”

2. But how is it to be got? By faith. There is a story told of a captain of a man-of-war whose little boy ran up the mast till at last he got on to the main truck. Then the difficulty was that he was not tall enough to get down from this main truck, reach the mast, and so descend. He was clinging to the main truck with all his might, but in a little time he would fall down on the deck a mangled corpse. The captain shouted, “Boy, the next time the ship lurches, throw yourself into the sea.” The poor boy looked down on the sea; it was a long way; he could not bear the idea of throwing himself in. So he clung to the main truck, though there was no doubt that he must soon let go and perish. The father, pointing a gun at him, said, “If you don’t throw yourself into the sea, I’ll shoot you!” Over went the boy splash into the sea, and out went brawny arms after him, and brought him on deck. Now we, like the boy, are in a position of extraordinary danger. Unfortunately, we have some good works like that main truck, and we cling to them. Christ knows that unless we give them up, we shall be dashed to pieces. He therefore says, “Sinner, let go thine own trust, and drop into the sea of My love.” We look down, and say, “Can I be saved by trusting in God? He looks as if He were angry with me, and I could not trust Him.” Ah, will not mercy’s tender cry persuade you?--“He that believeth shall be saved.” Must the weapon of destruction be pointed directly at you? Must you hear the dreadful threat--“He that believeth not shall be damned”? You must let go or perish! That is faith when the sinner lets go his hold, drops down, and so is saved; and the very thing which looks as if it would destroy him is the means of his being saved. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The mode and means of pardon

I. Justification.

1. Negatively is not declaring just--

(1) By proof that sins so called were no sins; they are as abominable as ever.

(2) By proof that sins in the accusation were never committed; all are proved and confirmed.

(3) By proof that such sins do not involve the sinner in guilt and condemnation; wrath is revealed against them to the uttermost.

2. Positively. It is a declaring just, while pardoning, by proof that the necessities arising in the case, for the maintenance of law and exhibition of justice, are satisfactorily met by other means than the culprit’s punishment. Pardon is not slovenly and careless mercy, and it does not come through the hushing up or cloaking under of the sinner’s sin.

II. Is a freely gracious act and gift.

1. It is not purchased by the offender.

2. It is not procured by any means that recompense the Pardoner.

3. It is not constrained in Him by any interested motive; He has no peril from the guilty or gain from the pardoned.

4. It is not begrudged, delayed, sold, or bartered.

III. Comes through Christ’s redemption, or paying of a price.

1. Not to conciliate Satan or sin.

2. Not to conciliate God in His manner of feeling towards us.

3. Not to give to the Pardoner an equivalent in value for the pardon.

4. But paying down His own life, as that which the Kingly Judge required, ere as a Kingly Father He could permit His willing mercy to flow--a payment which has all the effect, and something of the nature, of a ransom price paid for a lawful captive.

IV. The redemption is effected by the setting forth of Christ a propitiation (Romains 3:25). Christ is set forth--

1. In His Divinity, as all in all, and all-sufficient.

2. In His humanity, as one with us in nature, sympathy, and devotion to us.

3. In His spotless purity and innocence, as owing nothing to justice, and having a precious life to give.

4. In His propitiatory work, as being sacrificed, as accepted of God, as exalted where the redemption in Him affects all the Divine counsels and administrations. His propitiation does not appease any ill-will or thirst for vengeance in God, for none existed; it meets those requirements that justice dictated. Thus God is not made propitious in His feelings; but being already propitious in Himself, He can now be propitious in His Kingly actions.

V. This propitiation is effectual towards and upon us, through faith in Christ’s blood.

1. That blood is the central thing in the propitiatory work; for the blood is the life, and in it that life was poured forth which was accepted in the place of our forfeited life.

2. That shed blood is the basis of the promise of pardon.

3. Faith that it has been shed, shed for me, and that it does acceptably propitiate, brings to me the pardon for which it provides.

VI. The express purpose of the propitiation is the declaration of God’s righteousness.

1. To show while He pardons that He was in earnest in His condemnation of sin and sentence of death, and that He has unexceptionable grounds for pardoning sin.

2. To make such exhibition of His justice that sin may not seem to be encouraged or winked at.

3. To justify His seeming leniency in the long suffering and pardon shown towards sinners in the past, before Christ. To declare in all time present and to come, that while He justifies He is just. (W. Griffiths.)

Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Redemption

By an image, forceful, because true, Holy Scripture speaks of us “as slaves of sin,” “sold under it,” “slaves of corruption.” We were not under its power only, but under its curse. From that guilt and power of sin we were redeemed, ransomed, purchased; and the ransom which was paid was “the Precious Blood of Christ.” It has been said, “Scripture is silent, to whom the ransom was paid, and for what.” Scripture says “for what,” the forgiveness of sins. “In whom,” i.e., in Jesus, “we have redemption through His Blood, the remission of our sins, according to the riches of His grace.” It says, “from what.” For it says, “Christ purchased us out of the curse of the law.” It says to whom when it says, “ye were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.” For sacrifice was offered to God alone. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)

Redemption: setting free

On payment, or by payment of a price. It combines the ideas of liberation and price.

1. In some cases the context suggests the liberation of captives on payment of a ransom. But hero the next verse reminds us that the word was frequently used for those on whom the Mosaic law had a claim, but whom it released for a price or a substitute. E.g., God claimed the firstborn, but waved His claim on payment of five shekels apiece (Exode 13:13; Nombres 18:15). The word may also be studied in Lévitique 27:27; Nombres 3:46. Like most words which denote a combination of ideas, it is sometimes used where only one of the ideas is present, viz., liberation (Exode 6:6, Exode 15:13, etc.) But in the case of those whom the Mosaic law claimed, liberation was effected only by payment of a price. We therefore inquire whether it is so in this case. The words which follow, and the teaching of Paul and of the entire New Testament, give a decisive answer. We are constantly taught that salvation is by purchase; and that the blood and life of Christ are our ransom (1 Corinthiens 6:20; Galates 3:13; 1 Timothée 2:6; Matthieu 20:28; Apocalypse 5:9).

2. Again, the idea of a price is that of exchange. The price takes the place of what is bought. Therefore, that Christ’s life is our ransom is explained and confirmed by the passages which teach that He died in our stead (2 Corinthiens 5:21; Galates 3:13). Paul’s words therefore imply that in Christ there is a setting free brought about by someone or something taking our place. By this means believers are justified. (Prof. J. A. Beet.)

The cost of redemption

Yonder ermine, hung so carelessly over the proud beauty’s shoulder, cost terrible battles with polar ice and hurricane. All choicest things are reckoned the dearest. So is it, too, in heaven’s inventories. The universe of God has never witnessed aught to be reckoned in comparison with the redemption of a guilty world. That mighty ransom no such contemptible things as silver and gold could procure. Only by one price could the Church of God be redeemed from hell, and that the precious blood of the Lamb--the Lamb without blemish or spot--the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (T. L. Cuyler.)

Redemption: glory of

I can conceive that to the mind of God, looking upon a single soul, and unrolling it as it shall be disclosed through the cycles of eternity, there may come, in the far perspective, such a thought of the magnitude of a single soul, as that in the view of God that soul shall outweigh in importance the sum total of the governments and populations of the globe at any particular period of time. I can understand that God may sound a soul to a depth greater than earth ever had a measure to penetrate, and find reasons enough of sympathy to over-measure all the temporal and earthly interests of mankind. And I can conceive that God should assume to Himself the right to execute His government of love by suffering for a single soul in such a way as quite to set aside the ordinary courses of the secular and human idea of justice. This is to my mind the redemptive idea. I do not believe it is a play between an abstract system of law and a right of mercy. I think that nowhere in the world is there so much law as in redemption, or so much justice as in love. (H. W. Beecher.)

Redemption: gratitude for

Is there anything that is comparable with the love and gratitude of the soul that feels himself redeemed from death and destruction? With almost an agony of love, such an one clings to his deliverer. There be those that cling to the minister of Christ who, as an instrument and representative of the Master, has been the means of opening their eyes, and bringing them out of darkness into light. And there is nothing more natural or more noble than this instinctive desire of one that has been saved from ruin to be ever present with his benefactor. And when a soul is brought back from destruction, how natural it is that it should wish, and that it should pray, that it might be with Him by whom it has been rescued! (H. W. Beecher.)