Justified Freely by His Grace

“Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption

that is in Christ Jesus.”

(Rom. 3:24)

How can it be that a Just and Holy God can justify sinners and declare them righteous before Him? This was the question that Job pondered in God’s inspired Word, “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” (Job 25:4) Any whom the LORD has taught the answer by His Spirit still ponder, ‘How can it be?’

How happy and blessed are those sinners that God the Father purposed to justify from eternity and who, in time, did justify them once for all at the cross. We dare not confuse God’s purpose to justify with the actual justification of those sinners. It is “...through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” God being just, could not and would not justify any sinner until full payment to His law and justice was procured. When did that happen? Not in eternity past, nor especially when the sinner believes on Christ. The just payment was made when the ransom price was paid. So complete was that righteousness that the LORD Jesus came to earn and establish, that when He cried, ‘It is finished,’ that’s when He laid down His life and God the Father, having received just payment, then and there declared righteous, once for all, those sinners He gave to His Son from eternity. When were they justified? When He had by Himself purged their sins on the cross, Hebrews 1:3.

Who are these that God has justified? They are those who are the particular objects of His Grace. They are vessels of Mercy distinguished from those who are vessels of wrath, Romans 9:21. It is completely God’s sovereign choice whom He has appointed to this holiness and justice accomplished for them by the LORD Jesus. Those He appointed from eternity and sent His Son to save in time, He calls each one to Himself in Faith. However, let’s never forget Whose righteousness it is. The Scriptures don’t even call it Christ’s righteousness but rather the very righteousness of God, Romans 1:17. Yes, the LORD Jesus earned and established it but it was for the satisfaction of God the Father, therefore, it is God’s righteousness that He has imputed, once for all, to the spiritual account of each of the elect of God upon completion of Christ’s death on the cross. The Scriptures expressly call it the righteousness of God, (that one righteousness which God appointed, accepted and approved) which then is believed by Faith, (received by Faith which the LORD Jesus is the Author and Finisher, Hebrews 12:2.