Romans 3:24-26 - What was Accomplished at the Cross? (Justification Series, Part II)

  Part III: Our Justification, Confirmed

Being justified gratuitously in His Grace, through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus…

Those that realize God’s righteousness, in complete contrast to their unrighteousness, displayed through Christ’s faith in God on the cross, are justified. Now, when you’re looking up the meaning of each word here in Scripture, you may be surprised to find that the simple definition of “righteousness” is just. This is the first major quality of God that is “manifested” (3:21,) shown through our lies (3:4.) In being justified, then, we are being made righteous.

Yes, you heard me correctly. This means what it says – a “justification” is not a “pardon.” A “pardon” is to say, “you did wrong, but you’re excused.” To be justified is to, literally, be made righteous in the eyes of God. “You are righteous, in my eyes,” says God to man. Whatwhatwhat?? Say that again? To us liars, He says… you’re justified. That is, you are… made righteous in the eyes of God!!! Man has no justification for its present insubordination – but God does.

Incredible. Can you comprehend this grace? The notion that we are literally made righteous in the eyes of God? Until this point, in all of Scripture, but especially in Romans, man has been painted like a fly caught in a trap, or a bear caught in a trap, or an Elvis caught in a trap, that we can’t walk out of. Yet God not only provides the antidote to the prevailing issue, but then seemingly overcorrects in making you completely righteous, that is, as if you had never sinned in His sight.

There’s nothing we can do, in this dynamic, but He makes it apparent that He has. We’re failures, and He knows this. We cannot achieve anything for Him, and He knows this. We did not actively seek Him out, and He knows this. If we were already righteous, or hell, even respectable in terms of our relationship to God, He wouldn’t need to justify believers, because we’d already be there. But we aren’t (Rom. 4:5.)

Notice how our faith has not been our Savior! The evangel is delineating between believers and unbelievers, believers being justified by the faith of Christ, His Son. This is God’s power, His wisdom – brazenly justifying the condemned, when we all but deserve His indignation.

We are justified in that we are no longer dealing with the indignation (Rom. 5:9.) Let’s double check Rom. 1:18-19 and see who is receiving indignation:

“For God’s indignation is being revealed from heaven on all the irreverence and injustice of men who are retaining the truth in injustice, because that which is known of God is apparent among them, for God manifests it to them.”

This is true – but not for justified people. If you are justified, by definition, made righteous, you are no longer retaining the truth in injustice, now, are you? Again, there’s nothing the believer has done, here – he hasn’t baptized himself, he hasn’t prayed really, really hard, and in fact he hasn’t even accepted anything, but realized something about the true relationship between his and Christ’s faith (that it’s not his own, and that it’s Christ’s faith from God, and his faith is effectual, not a cause – Rom. 1:5, Eph. 1:17, 2:8-9, Col. 1:6, 9-10, 1 Tim. 2:4.)

This is the fourth time that the word “grace” has appeared in the evangel, but if this is your first read, it’s the first time that the term “grace” holds a real weight to it. Now we can look back at the previous uses of grace and go, “oh, oh ohhhh. Thaaaaaat makes sense…” In 1:5, Paul states that he has obtained grace and apostleship through Jesus Christ. Make more sense now? Furthermore, in 1:7, he says, “Grace to you and peace from God.” The grace is presented here, in justification (so you could take a guess at what the following teaching will be, hmmm?) And in 1:11, Paul says he longs to share spiritual grace with Rome – which, through this letter, he is now doing, both with them, and with you and me. God’s heart is filled with this grace, this willingness to, against all logic, just justify the likes of you and me! His only reasoning here, is, “for My name’s sake,” in Rom. 1:5! You know how, when something annoys you, you go, “Oh, for God’s sake!” Well, when something annoys Him, He justifies it and says, “Oh, for My sake!”

This is all through the deliverance of Christ Jesus. Now, this is a process, not just something God felt like tossing around one day. He started with, “man’s gotta fail,” so that “His Son can make a transaction on the cross,” so that “man is delivered through His faith from God’s indignation,” so that “He may reveal justification by His grace alone.” There’s nothing unrighteous about this. God’s Son, as God’s representative (2 Cor. 2:4,) suffers death the likes of which none of us have ever seen before, and here, it is revealed that one of the reasons for said dead is to justify our insubordination to Him. Through Christ’s faith, believers are delivered from wrath to righteousness – all in the span of a verse or two.

We will get to the “bonus,” if you will, that believers that endure any trials now will receive, but for now let’s enjoy the simple truth of the matter: Christ’s death spares us all the judgment that comes with law. This does not erase the law, by any means – that hasn’t been written, here. But we’ve moved from law to faith. It’s a revelation. Now revealed to us, was not before. The law will receive its day of indignation, and “The Unveiling” will still occur – but the time and context that Revelation occurs in has been completely shifted.

…(Whom God purposed for a Propitiatory shelter, through faith in His blood, for a display of His righteousness because of the passing over of the penalties of sins which occurred before in the forbearance of God)…

Propitiatory – win or regain the favor of

Here we have a nice parenthesis section. Paul does this sometimes where his next phrase likes to define, in great detail, what came before, to elaborate his initial point. I’d like to think that the CLV captures all of these? I’m carefully studying it all, here, so we’ll see.

This parenthetical is very telling. This word “purposed” in the first phrase here is protithemi, which is “BEFORE-PLACE.” It’s been used one other time so far, in Rom. 1:13, where Paul says he “purposed” to come to Rome. This looks past tense in English, but it’s that fancy “middle voice” we’ve talked about before. Paul set forth a plan, but it didn’t come to fruition. God, in the meantime, set forth a plan, and it has succeeded. Good difference between man and God, there – when God purposes, sets forth a plan, there’s no failure.

The term “propitiatory shelter” is a big fancy complicated word that, in all honesty, could be explained with a bit of elaboration, but Paul’s not about to do that. “Propitiatory shelter” is a mercy seat. Propitiation, which is to “reconcile” someone, is to literally avert man’s absolute condemnation. When God’s indignation comes down on the world, it is now, thanks to Christ, not a forever deal, the way we are often supposing, but a temporary deal, not even directed at the person, but the sin within the person, that the spirit is saved (1 Cor. 5:5.)

God is “winning our hearts,” here, or “wooing us” with His charm, in a fun way of putting it. He’s not a man, of course. He’s stating fact. It is through faith in His blood that this propitiatory shelter has any weight. Christ completely met God’s requirements in the law, making His murder a complete transgression, as Christ was innocent on all accounts (even the scummy Pilate knew this.) This faith is specific because, by all means, it is faith-obedience. You are becoming submissive to Him, understanding that you are now a propitiatory Victim – not in the way we “play victim” today, but in the sense that we – in effect of the realization of the truth of a measurement of Christ’s faith being manifested in us – can now accept that Christ has taken our penalty, and is satisfied with God’s judgment on our sin. This faith understands that we are justified through God’s view of Christ on the cross, saving us in His deliverance.

The reasoning given here is perfect, yet again: it’s to display His righteousness that He not only exonerates the sinner, but makes humans victims to the sin, that gives Him such quality as a divine Judge. No other being thinks this way.

Yet this verse goes even deeper than that, believe it or not! His leniency on sin seemed to make people go, “Huh, well, does God just not care?” People still believe this lie today, ignoring this verse, here. Forbearance is a literal passing over of sins with no infliction of the penalty. The world hates this idea – hates it with a passion. How many people do you see say today, “They’ll get what’s coming to them!” Even people that say they believe God say this, even though God is the exact opposite! “Get what you deserve” is the spiteful human term, disguised as fact. And it is fact, in the human community. Yet in the spiritual, through Christ, this idea is considered ignorant to God!

It follows, then, that those that hate this idea of passing over a permanent penalty are actively hating God.

Seriously, think about it. God says passing over, here. He’s not cancelling the debt, but choosing to let it slide. Example: in football, when a flag is called, the opposing team has the option to accept or ignore the penalty. If you were playing on God’s team, God would choose to always ignore the penalties of the opposing team!

This, obviously, looks stupid to the masses. They think God is stupid (1 Cor. 1:23.) To them, this idea invites anarchy and chaos. To them, establishing their own order would be more suitable than taking God’s method as proper. The world, particularly Christendom, wants the penalty now, without recognizing that they themselves will receive the blunt force of the indignation, in their ignorance toward God’s methods, here!

The unbelieving mass think that there is no justice with God, as a result of sin running rampant today. Yet God did judge sin, at the cross! The Man hanging up there on that stake? He received the individual indignation of this action! He took the complete punishment that comes with sin, though He had fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the law! The justice deserved with sin and ignorance against God’s peace, content instead in imperfection, is deserving, as God puts it, of that punishment up there, that we could not properly handle in the flesh. Is that what we are truly seeking?? For all of humanity to suffer so deeply a painful punishment such as that?? God is graceful in not giving such bloody punishment (which results in death) to the bulk of mankind.

Have you ever lost a son? I sure haven’t. I pray I don’t have to witness the death of my future child in any capacity. Yet God knows exactly what it’s like. It happened to Him, and not only that, but He had to use His Son to encapsulate death for those that absolutely don’t deserve it in any way, namely: you and me. This is the beauty of His righteousness: He puts the innocent, His Son Who had not come into contact with sin, on the cross. Right? And He knows that if you can follow the law, then you are righteous, thus can defeat sin, because law recognizes sin (3:20.) Right? It goes to follow, then, that He puts sin in its entirety on the cross, on Jesus, then in Jesus’ crucifixion, sin dies with Him. Then, God, in His grace, Resurrects His Son only, leaving the sin behind (note the lack of blood in His resurrected body.) He gives sin a taste of its own root – death. Sin receives the karma, here. He fights against this in His creation, not the person. Jesus’ flesh is destroyed here, that He Himself is vivified.

In this sense, God is taking the sin, and taking responsibility for it on His own account. “You owe Me? It’s fine – I’ll cover it, because sin drives your actions. If the sin is removed from the picture, you’ll find newfound shelter in My grace.” This is because, for your sake, He takes His son, and sends Him down to willingly die for the masses.     

…toward the display of His righteousness in the current era, for Him to be just and a Justifier of the one who is of the faith of Jesus.

It’s important to know that God is just, always has been, and always will be. The death of Jesus is a horrific act – now know the outcome. We are reading it now! He is just, and justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

This statement does not retcon the previous ones. Paul’s (and, in effect, God’s) still stand. God is still sovereign, and He is still the One telling the story as He delights! Those in Christ are exempt from the law. This is apart from law, remember? God sets the standard, tells you you’ll never achieve the standard, shows you explicitly how you cannot achieve the standard, and then exonerates you. You did not do anything in this chain of events – these are spiritual tidings that occur in the background. Judgment will still occur, again, as referenced in the Unveiling, but now this truth has been revealed on the world.

Goodness, imagine if He had really dished out this penalty to everyone! He would be considered just, sure, but to display grace would have been a lost cause, then. This way, He is just in inflicting the penalty (just not where humanity thought it would be,) and graceful in justifying the individual that hasn’t earned it. The rules of the law, in this sense, are thrown right out the window. Poof! Gone.

You can see, then, how we become justified, through this, right? In finally displaying His anger on the topic of “sin,” on the innocent, He can now properly display His love for His creation, as to Him, sin has no real weight to it. It’s dead. In this sense He has maintained and honored His law and its consequence, but also maintains His grace in giving the sinner a complete justification and righteous reconciling. The propitiatory shelter here literally becomes the faith of Jesus, on the cross. Yes; “faith of Jesus.” We are of the faith of Jesus, see? You are justified if you are a part of His faith, and not your own, because (take a wild guess, again) what’s the opposite of faith? I’ll let you think about that one for a while.

- GerudoKing