Click or tap book name
Use <control> drag to
scroll
Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
About
Links
Home
"
Navigator
Romans 3:24
Comments
Just as there is no difference in our sinful state, there is no difference in the way of justification either. We must be justified freely, which means without paying for it by good works. Faith is the hand that grasps hold of Christ, but grace is the cause of salvation, the engine of salvation, the attribute of God most clearly on display in our salvation. Only grace could treat those who deserve to be punished with such kindness and mercy, and not exact revenge on them. Only grace could allow God to be so wronged so blatantly by our sin, and to absorb the hurt and not hit back with devastating force. Grace does not keep a record of wrongs done to it. It is ready to go on extending good will, when the opposite is what is deserved. It does not respond in kind, but shows unreasonable longsuffering and patience. Grace is God’s free bestowing of forgiveness and new life. Does that mean that grace abandons justice altogether? No, for God’s grace is willing to go so far that he will satisfy his own justice by punishing his own Son instead of us. Why should Christ be punished in place of his people? He should not be, but in his grace he is ready to accept the unfairness of this to him personally, while at the same time satisfying the justice of God by means of a substitutionary atonement. No wonder Paul talks about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace takes sin very seriously. The sinner views it as a minor thing, but grace considers the full horror of it, and then is willing to step in the way and bear its consequences for us.‘Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’ Redemption is a big word; it means through the payment made. Redemption speaks of a ransom or a payment made to God, and to his justice. This is in Christ Jesus. This is why he came into the world: ‘to give his life a ransom for many’ (Matthew 20:28). He redeems us from where the law would have sent us: to everlasting punishment in hell due to our condemnation.
Application
Let us to respond to God’s grace in the right way. Let no one use it as an encouragement to sin, thinking that they can take advantage of it to sin with impunity, and that grace can be exploited. Let us fear to do that, because grace is so undeserved and so unexpected, and to assume that it will continue when we abuse it is madness. Let us rather be deeply humbled by it, and come boldly to take advantage of it, and at the same time repent and turn away from our sin, asking God to give us new hearts.
Questions
Outline
Purpose
Introduction