What The Bible Says About FaithSample

Justification by Faith

Romans 3:21. The righteousness: The emphasis here is on the gift of personal relationship to God imparted to those who trust Christ (compare Romans 5:17). But now: Paul’s emphasis shifts to the new age or dispensation. He is not contrasting Jew and Gentile but the time when the law held sway and the present time when grace prevails.

3:22. Faith of [or “in”] Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ is the only valid object in which man must place his faith.

3:23. For all have sinned: The human need and the divine provision are alike applied universally. Come short of the glory of God: Man can exceed his own standards but never, left to himself, can he attain to God’s standard of righteousness.

3:24. Being justified (Greek dikaioumenoi) indicates being declared righteous. It signifies the believer’s judicial standing before God. Freely: There is no just cause in man to warrant justification. By his grace: Unmerited favor is bestowed through the redemption (release on payment of ransom). Christ’s death is the ransom. The sinner is released on the basis of the ransom’s having been paid. 

3:25, 26. Through faith: Christ’s death satisfies the Father’s righteous demands. Its benefits are appro­priated only through faith in His finished work. In his blood: The emphasis is not on the blood as it coursed through Christ’s veins, but as it was shed for our sins. This is how the propitiation was accomplished. Just, and the justifier: God can remain just (true to His nature) and still declare sinners to be righteous only because Christ has paid for sin and satisfied (propitiated) His holy law. The sinner is not rendered guiltless but pardoned. Christ has taken the sin on Himself and has   imputed His righteousness to the sinner.