Part 6: Jesus Died to Forgive Us
“…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-24
God is a holy and just king who sits upon a throne ruling over creation and judging good and evil (Genesis 18:25; Psalm 50:6; 96:13; 2 Timothy 4:8). God deals with humanity through the rule of law to ensure justice and righteousness (these words are used of God some 227 times in the New Testament alone). This law of God is written both on our hearts (Romans 2:14-15) and in Scripture (Acts 7:53; Romans 2:12). His justice and righteousness distinguish God from false gods who are unjust, capricious, and therefore unloving and unpredictable. The great Old Testament word for law is torah, which is mentioned in reference to God some 203 times, in addition to 423 occurrences of various other words referring to God’s law scattered throughout the Old Testament. And God even speaks of our relationship to Him in the legal term of covenant.
However, everyone is an unjust, sinful lawbreaker—both in their external actions and internal motives (Luke 16:15)—who stands condemned before God (Psalm 51:4; Romans 3:8; 5:16, 18; James 2:10; 1 John 3:4). Our condition is so bad, the Bible teaches that we are sinful in our nature (Romans 8:4-5; Galatians 5:13, 16-24), totally depraved (Romans 1:26-29; 2 Timothy 3:8; 2 Peter 2:19), hostile to God (Romans 5:10; 8:7; Colossians 1:21), children of Satan (John 8:44), alienated from Christ (Ephesians 2:12-13, 19), and spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-2).
The question then begs to be answered: How could God possibly justify us and make us just without Himself becoming unjust by overlooking sin (Exodus 23:7; Proverbs 17:15)? Since all unrighteous people deserve judgment and wrath in hell, God could have simply declared that no one would be saved; because all are unrighteous sinners, God would have remained perfectly just in damning everyone who ever lived. And though God does indeed condemn some people justly, in His loving mercy He has also chosen to save some people justly through Jesus Christ (Matthew 25:31-33, 46; Romans 5:18; 8:33-34).
The Bible teaches that unjust sinners can be declared just or righteous in God’s sight by being justified, or obtaining justification (Romans 2:13; 3:20). This legal term appears some 222 times in various forms throughout the New Testament. Justification refers to a double transaction whereby God takes away our sinful unrighteousness through Jesus’ substitutionary death in our place, and imputes to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ thereby giving us positive righteousness (Romans 3:21-22; 4:4-6; 5:12-21; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:8-9; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). Justification is so vital that Christianity split into Catholicism and Protestantism over this very issue. John Calvin regarded justification as “the principle of the whole doctrine of salvation and the foundation of all religion.” Martin Luther rightly declared that the doctrine of justification is the issue on which the church stands or falls and that any church denying justification by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone can no longer be called Christian.
The Reformers were faithful to Scripture, which clearly states that we are justified by grace alone (Titus 3:7; Romans 4:2-5; 5:10-21), through faith alone (Habakkuk 2:4; Acts 13:39; Romans 5:1), because of Jesus Christ alone (Isaiah 53:11; Romans 5:16; Galatians 2:16-17), who justifies us by His death (Romans 5:9) and resurrection (Romans 4:25). In some instances Paul even packs these great truths of justification by grace through faith in Christ alone into one compressed section of Scripture (Romans 3:23-28).
To obtain this great gift of justification by grace through faith we need simply to repent of our sin (1 John 1:9) and believe in Jesus Christ (Romans 10:10). Among the innumerable benefits God bestows on us because of His gift of justification are forgiveness of all sins (Acts 13:38-39), peace with God (Romans 5:1), escape from God’s wrath and condemnation (Romans 5:9, 18; 8:1, 33-34), freedom from God’s law (Galatians 3:11, 24), ongoing sanctification (1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:13), Spirit-empowered enablement to do good works (James 2:24), and a final glorification (Romans 8:30).
Finally, perhaps the entirety of this incredible doctrine is illustrated most simply by Jesus’ parable, “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector” (Luke 18:9-14).
