GOD'S JUSTIFICATION ACCORDING TO THE BOOK OF ROMANS 3:24

GOD'S JUSTIFICATION

Justification is referred to as “remission of sin and absolution from guilt and punishment; or an act of free grace by which God pardons the sinner and accepts him as righteous, on account of the atonement of Christ.” (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary) Apostle Paul makes this statement to how our justification occurs. “[We] are justified freely by his grace” (Romans 3:24). In this verse, there three very important ideas to be understood by every Christian; these are words “freely”, “grace”, and the word “justified”.

Beginning with the word “freely” In IST, the righter says “He justifies us freely: This is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8) (Lasley 2015, 195) Paul says “Now to someone who works, wages are not considered a gift but an obligation. (Romans 4:4 ISV) So, we are treated as just not because of our works of law or any qualification, but because of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ our savior. We don’t pay anything for justification; it’s just to believe in Jesus Christ who took our sins on the Cross of Calvary.

It is by “grace” which means “unmerited favour from God”, is not by works of law. As Charles R. Erdman, in his Exposition of The Epistle of Paul to the Romans says, “This is due to no merit on the part of man. The source of this “justification” is the ‘unmerited favour of God’. Men are justified freely by His grace. However, this justifying act on the part of God is not due to any indifferent to sin, nor to his failure to observe moral distinctions. God has made it possible at infinite cost.” (Erdman 1966, 58)

            So, nobody deserves this justification on his own. It is God who declares us righteous after we have accepted Jesus Christ our savior. That is why Paul says, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but ‘by the faith of Jesus Christ’, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”  (Galatians 2:16 KJV)

To be “justified” in Good News Bible is translated as “to be put right with God” and as we have seen no one can be put right with God (or justified) by doing what law requires. It is through redemption that is in Jesus Christ. That’s why Paul concludes, “But by the “free gift of God's grace” all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people's sins are forgiven through their faith in him.” (Romans 2:23-25 GNB)

            Thus, Justification is by the ‘free gift of God’s grace’ and we are justified (put right with God) or God’s approval (GW) through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ (v.24). In Acts 13: 38-39 Paul says to the Jews, "that through him the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and that everyone who believes in him is justified and freed from everything that kept you from being justified by the Law of Moses.” 

Luther’s doctrine is one of unconditional justification based on the free grace of God through the creation of faith in the sinner who hears the Gospel and to whom Christ and his righteousness are made present in faith so that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to the believer. (Persons, Michael Jones, Keith G. 2012, 32)