ROMANS 3:24-25
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Each term used in this short passage is critical and gives us more detail and understanding.
(Vs 24.) Justified means to be declared righteous. Justify comes from the same Greek word as righteous. Being justified is more than just being innocent or forgiven. It means to be legally given the status of being in the right. In this case, it means that we have been "made the righteousness of God in" Christ, (IICor 5:21).
Our justification was proven by Christ’s resurrection from the dead, (Rom 4:25) All our sins were laid on Him, and if even one sin was left unpaid, Christ could not have risen from the dead. Remember that the wages of even one sin is death, (Rom 6:23). But since He did rise, proving that all our sins are paid, we can be sure that we will be resurrected from the dead too, (I Thes 4:13-18).
Freely: We know what this word means, but often don’t believe it. If we are justified "freely" then we do nothing to earn it. Yet in the minds of most people, you must do something - either to get saved, to stay saved, or to prove you are saved. Have you ever heard or thought, "He couldn’t do that if he was saved!"? We should guard the little word "freely". Eve forgot it when she answered the serpent in Gen 2:16 & 3:2, and landed everybody afterwards in a mess..
"By His grace": Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is favor that you don’t earn, that you can’t work for. It is the absence of works, and the opposite of works. So you can’t depend on grace and your own good works at the same time. It is either one or the other. Rom 11:6
God’s grace implies the same delight in giving that a parent or grandparent has in giving to a small child. The child can’t earn his way or pay anything back and isn’t expected to.
Redemption means the repurchase of captured goods or persons, a ransom paid to free a person. "The redemption that is in Christ Jesus" refers to the ransom God paid to get us back. Man was God’s creation, but came under Satan’s ownership when Adam and Eve sinned. Now because of Christ’s sacrifice, we can be justified and get back on God’s side. (Rom 5:8-10) ICor 6:20 & 7:23 say we are "bought with a price." I Tim 2:6 & Mat 20:28 say that Christ gave Himself as a ransom. Lev 17:11 says that our life is in the blood, so blood is the price required for ransom. I Peter 1:18,19 says man is not redeemed with money or religion, but with the blood of Christ. Eph 1:7 says we have redemption through Christ’s blood.
In the Old Testament law there were several requirements for a redeemer of land or people who had been sold. The redeemer had to be: (1.) near kin, (2.)had to be able to pay in full without compromising himself, and (3.) had to be willing. (That’s in Lev 25:25-55; Deut 25:5,6 and demonstrated in Ruth 2,3&4) Christ met all 3 requirements. He was made a man in all ways, but was sinless. (Heb 2:14-17 & 4:15). So He was kin to man, which is requirement #1. But if He had even one sin of His own, He would have had to pay for that, and could not have paid for ours. This is why His virgin birth is so important.(Luke 1:30-35). He had to be a sinless man. If He had a human father He would have had a sin nature, like the rest of us. Also, in order to be able to redeem man, Christ had to be God. (John 1:1,14 & 14:9; Col 1:15 & 2:9) Ps 49:7-9 says that no man can redeem another. Is 43:10,11 says there is only one God and He is the only Savior. So Christ, as a sinless man, and as God in the flesh, was able to redeem us, and fills requirement #2. And #3 requirement, Jesus willingly paid the price for us, (Mat 26:42,53-54; John 10:17,18; & Heb 12:2). Nobody could have killed Him otherwise.
There have been lots of people who gave their lives for someone else. What was different about Christ? What really happened on the cross? Jesus offered, not just His body as a sacrifice, but also His soul. ( Is 53:10-12) In the hours of darkness on the cross before He died, God’s wrath was poured out on His soul for our sin. He went through that destruction of the soul that He warned about in Mat 10:28 & Mark 9:43-48. He was forsaken by God the Father and the Spirit, and His soul became a "worm". See Ps 22:1-6-18 and Mat 27:46. After He knew that everything had been accomplished, He dismissed His spirit and died physically, (John 19:28-30). Physical death was not the issue. We still die physically. But Christ died spiritually for us. He experienced the second death of the lake of fire (Rev 20:14,15) so we will never have to. And because He rose from the dead, we can be sure that our sins are paid in full, and that we too will rise from the dead. Let’s always remember, our redemption is given to us freely, but it was not cheap! God paid an enormous price because of our sin.
(Vs 25.) Propitiation is that which fully satisfies justice and allows reconciliation, a fully sufficient sacrifice,
The same Greek word is translated as "mercy seat" in Heb 9:5. The mercy seat, inside the holy place of the temple, was where the priest put the blood of the animal sacrifice to cover the sins of the people. It sat on top of the arc which contained the law which the people had broken. God agreed to meet with Israel at the mercy seat, not at the law which condemned them. (Ex 25:21,22; Lev 16:15) The temple and mercy seat on earth were scale models of the real thing in heaven. Now, Jesus’ blood is in the real holy place in heaven for our eternal redemption,(Heb 9:11,12,22-28). Redemption accomplishes propitiation, in other words, it fully pays for our sin and satisfies God’s justice so that man can be reconciled to God. (II Cor 5:19-21; Col 1:21)
"Through faith in his blood" How do we appropriate Christ’s cross work? Through faith in what? Faith is not a work, (Rom 4:5). Faith is not a gift, (Eph 2:8 Salvation is the gift). Faith is a choice to rely on what God says to us, (Rom 4:21). He says His blood fully redeems those who believe in it.
"Remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God"; "Remission" means to forgive or overlook a debt. "Sins that are past" are the sins committed under the Old Testament, (Heb 9:15) . "Forbearance" is patience.
In the Old Testament, the blood of the animal sacrifice atoned for (covered) sin, but it never took sin away, never paid for it,(Lev 17:11; Heb 10:1-4) God patiently put up with sin because He knew that He was going to come and pay for it. He forgave people back then "on credit". Seeing this now "declares His righteousness" in not demanding payment for the sin of believers before Christ. Now sin is "put away by the sacrifice of himself", (Heb 9:26 &10:10-14).
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