Alive: Grow in Your Relationship With Jesusናሙና

As people created in the Image of God, justice matters to us. So when I think about things like an innocent person declared guilty or a guilty person left to roam free, I have a hard time deciding which is more egregious (both?). One of the themes of the Bible is God’s Justice, and nowhere do we see that more clearly than at the Cross, where our Innocent Savior, Jesus Christ, is declared guilty so we, the guilty party, can be free.

This is the Gospel message in a nutshell. What might seem egregious to us—this innocent-for-guilty transaction—is actually quite glorious. It’s a beautiful picture of the Heart of our God, the Just Justifier.

This week we’ve been studying the transformation that happens when a person becomes a Christian—the incredible shift from death to life, broken to restored. We looked briefly at the book of Romans earlier in the week, and today we’ll spend time studying Romans 3–5. But first, some context!

One of the reasons Paul wrote to the church in Rome was to ask them to help fund the cost of his trip to Spain as he traveled around telling people about Jesus (see Romans 15:22-24). But before getting to his request, Paul clearly and carefully explained the Gospel message to them—the Good News of Jesus’s Work on their behalf—and helped them understand how to live now that they were followers of Christ.

At the start of his letter, Paul described the Gospel as “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). Paul used the term “Greek” here to refer to anyone who was not Jewish. Another term you might have heard is “Gentile.” One of the earliest tensions among Christians centered on the conflict between Jewish Christians and Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians.

Since the days of Abraham (see Genesis 12), the Jews had been the Chosen People of God. This is the history of the Old Testament. That all changed with Jesus, but it seems from Paul’s letter that some Jewish Christians wanted to hold on to their religious traditions and customs and continued to see themselves as favored in God’s Eyes.

In teaching extensively about the Gospel, Paul leveled the playing field between Jews and Gentiles. In Romans 1:18-32, he presented evidence of the Gentiles’ sin against God. In Romans 2:1–3:8, Paul presented evidence of the Jews’ sin. In Romans 3:9-20, he made his closing arguments, deeming both parties guilty.

While Paul’s closing arguments concerning our sinful and guilty condition are true, God gives the final verdict.

For even the most seasoned Christian this section of Paul’s letter can be hard to wrap our minds around. But the heart of Paul’s point is this: In Christ, God declares all who believe in Jesus, “Not guilty!” What Amazing and Undeserving Grace! Despite our undeniable guilt—the sin nature we were born with—God freely wipes away our sin.

Since some keywords in this passage aren’t commonly used, let’s consider their definitions.

Righteousness (Romans 3:21): To be in right relationship with God through faith in Christ (3).

Justified (Romans 3:24): To be acquitted of guilty charges and declared innocent and righteous before God (4).

Atoning sacrifice/propitiation/mercy seat (Romans 3:25): Through His shed Blood, Christ satisfied the Wrath of God and makes it possible for the guilty to be acquitted, forgiven, and declared righteous (5).

In Christ, we are no longer guilty sinners worthy of receiving God’s Wrath. Instead, because of Jesus and through relationship with Him, we are justified (made innocent), forgiven (made blameless), and righteous (made whole). God has displayed His Perfect Justice by presenting Christ as the Sacrifice for the world’s past, present, and future sins.

Though I have been walking with Jesus for twenty years, I still sometimes seek to earn favor or right standing with God through good works or behavior modification. However, my effort is futile and unfortunate, given the adequacy of Jesus's Work on the Cross. Only faith in Jesus makes me righteous. That is the point Paul drives home in Romans (4).

In Romans 3:21-26, Paul answers the question: What is justification, and who does it come from? In Romans 4:1-8, he explains how a person receives this justification from God. And in Romans 5:1-11, he shares why it was given.

The Gospel of God is Amazing. God, our Just Justifier, offers up His Son as an Atoning Sacrifice for sin so that guilty sinners, like you and me, can be declared righteous (justified) and be brought back into relationship with God. Through Jesus, we gain a relationship with our Heavenly Father that is marked by Peace, Forgiveness, Intimacy, and Love.

(3) Peter Toon, “Righteousness,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, electronic ed., Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996), 687.

(4) Leon Morris, “Justification,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, 441.

(5) Andrew H. Trotter Jr., “Atonement,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, 44.