Justification is not by the law, but freely given by God through His Son

Justification is not by the law, but freely given by God through His Son

“What things soever the law saith it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.” Rom 3:19.

What does the law declare? It declares the whole world guilty before God, and here's the conclusion, “therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

The law cannot justify you because the law exposes who you are. The law brings to light your condemnation and your guilt, and so, if God is to judge you according to your works by the law, He cannot justify you, He cannot declare you innocent, because the law declares you guilty.

Does this not fly in the face of all those who glory in the law? So many people take pride in how they adhere to the law, all in the name of honouring God. What honour are you then actually giving God? All you are showing, and glorying in, is your guilt! What you are actually doing is rejecting the righteousness that comes by His Son. By placing confidence in the law, you are denying the very thing that is to the glory and honour of God, His Son and the cross He bore.

So, the only hope that we have is for God to justify us by some other means, other than the law, or by our own merits. This is exactly what Paul now reveals in Romans 3:21 where he says, “but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Notice. Being justified freely by His grace. God, by His grace, chose to justify us freely. We could not be justified by the law, and had God chosen to do so, He would have condemned and destroyed us all. But God chose rather to justify us by another means. He chose to justify us by His own grace, that is available through His Son. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

This, dear reader, is the very declaration of God's righteousness, and people who cannot see this are either ignorant to the truth or too self-righteous to accept it. The Word says, “whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God”, which communicates how God had forbore and overlooked sin, ever since the fall of Adam, and gave remission of sins when Christ was set forth and declared by God as that propitiation, for the remission of all those sins that are past. Then Paul says in verse 26, “to declare I say at this time”, which is for now, at present, “His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

Do you see. It is God that justifies you, not the law or your failing attempts to uphold it. You don't have to worry about the law, or anything else! God has declared the availability of His righteousness through faith in His Son. The justification we receive through believing in the cross of Christ, is God’s work. It is God’s decree to freely justify you by the cross of His Son. “Therefore”, says Paul in conclusion, “we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Rom 3:28.

And what is the blessing and assurance of this justification? Paul answers this in the opening statements of Romans chapter 5, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Do you get that! Peace with God. Access to His grace. Rejoicing in the hope of glory. Is this too good to be true? It sounds like it, but it is true. The grace of God is freely provided to you through your faith in Jesus. Your salvation is settled because of the work of Christ done for you, on your behalf. God did this because we were utterly without hope. The law condemned every one of us. By grace God provides us a way of salvation in Christ. What a glorious God, and what a glorious gospel.

Does it stop here? No!! Your salvation is settled by the above, but this is only the beginning of your salvation. From here on we are to pick up the Bible and to learn what God’s salvation gives us. We are to learn of Christ. We are to be renewed in our minds. We are to allow the knowledge of the Word within us to mortify the flesh nature so that we can have the life of Christ flow out of us. We are to mature in Christ and become the adopted son of God in preparation for our eternal vocation in the ages to come. Justification is step one! Salvation is the whole journey. Step two is to be found in Romans chapters 6,7, 8 and 12. In essence, it is gaining knowledge of God’s Word, day by day, and allowing it completely overwhelm our minds, our speech, our actions and our life, to His glory. Amen.