Tag: the Cross

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The Amazing Benefits of the Cross: Adoption (Gal. 4:4–5)

[Listen to an audio version here

What is my role in the world? Is it significant? Do I even matter at all? There is something about us that would make us think that we matter. We can think and see the world. We can survey the whole universe and consider it. Our own conscience judges our actions and tells us whether we have done right or wrong. We can connect with other human beings. We can think beyond the world and consider God. There is much that would make us say, we are significant.

On the other hand, there is much that would make us think that we are insignificant. We are a tiny speck in a tiny speck in the universe. We are one of billions of people on the earth at this time, and we are one of billions who have been born and died. It’s also easy to look at the little things we do like cooking, cleaning, going to work, or even doing a vacation and say, does this stuff matter at all?

Think of Josh Dobbs, the former UT quarterback who now plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It would seem that Ben Roethlisberger matters because he is the starting quarterback. He has won his team Super Bowl rings. But what about Josh Dobbs? Now, if you were to play Josh Dobbs in virtually any sport, you would probably say, this is the most amazing athlete I have ever seen. Yet, on the Pittsburgh Steelers, he is basically a practice quarterback. And most of us don’t get anywhere near that level of athletic glory! Do we matter at all?

One of the amazing benefits of the cross is that it tells us that we matter and matter more than we could possibly imagine. That’s what our passage teaches us. The cross tells us of our amazing identity and our amazing destiny. Let’s consider this passage more carefully.

Christ Sent into the World
Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” What we read here is that Christ was sent into the world. This means that Jesus existed before He came into the world. For all of us, we were conceived, and that’s when we started to exist. Jesus existed before He was even conceived.

Jesus Himself was conscious of having been sent into the world. Before He died on the cross, Jesus prayed, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5). He existed in eternal glory with the Father before He was ever born.

That same person who existed from all eternity became a human being in the fullness of time. He took on Himself a human nature without giving up His divine nature. That’s why the ancient Council of Chalcedon affirmed that Jesus is one person in two natures without mixture, confusion, division, or separation. That accurately sums up what we have in our text.

The next thing you will notice about Jesus’ entrance into the world was that it came at the right time. God knows how to tell time and in the right time or the set time or in the fullness of time, He sent His Son into the world.

How was it the right time? Religions throughout the world were looking for someone to bring salvation to the world. Many saw Caesar Augustus as the one in whom their hopes would be fulfilled. They were looking for a savior.

The Roman Empire controlled much of the world. They had brought a relative peace, order, and justice to the world that allowed for rapid and safe communication of ideas all over the world in a common language. A few centuries before Christ’s birth, this would not have been the case.

When it comes to the Jews, who were especially looking for a Messiah, their own hopes seem to be dashed. They had been in exile and returned. They had gained independence under the Maccabees but were now “slaves,” as they might put it, under the Roman Empire. Their hopes were exhausted. It was the right time for a savior.

What Christ Did in the World
So, what did the Son do when He was in the world? Our passage tells us. First, He was born. He became a real human being, as we noted above. He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her yet without sin. He became a real human being without giving up His divine nature.

Next, we read that he was born under the law. “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” Thus, His calling and vocation had a reference to the law.

We might not think God’s law is that important, but God doesn’t view it that way. He created this world as its Sovereign Lord and Judge. He gave a law that was to be obeyed. His holiness demands conformity with this law, and His justice will defend it. This is God as we have Him revealed in the prophets. For example, the prophet Habakkuk says, “You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing” (1:13a–14b). He says elsewhere, “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” (Hab. 2:20). He is the Lord to whom we must give account.

The amazing thing here is that Jesus became a human who had to give account to God. He who was God was also under God. He became a subject rather than the ruler. The Law-giver took his place among those who were called to be servants. He assumed the form of a servant obeying the law.

And what did the law require? If you go back to Galatians 3:10 and 12, you have the answer. The Holy Spirit teaches us, “The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, ‘The person who does these things will live by them’” (Gal. 3:12). In other words, the law doesn’t simply says, “believe, and you will have life.” It says, “Do what it says, and you will have life.” Well, how much do we have to do? In Gal. 3:10 we read, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” The law cannot exempt anyone. It can’t say, “it’s OK that you broke the law.” It just tells us, “you’ve broken the law and now must suffer the penalty.”

So, when Christ comes, He obligates Himself to obey the law and suffer its penalty. But here’s the amazing thing. He does this not for Himself but for us. “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” He is our substitute and representative before God. He is born of a woman and born under the law not for His own sake but for our sakes.

Our text indicates that He redeemed those under the law. The word “redemption” means payment. What did He pay? He paid the debt of those who owed obedience to God and the suffering that resulted from not obeying the law.

Here’s what Paul says in Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole or tree’” (Gal. 3:12). Christ redeemed us by taking the curse that was due to us so that we would not have to face it. That’s the amazing benefit of the cross. We are all under the curse because of our sin, but anyone who believes in Jesus and wants Him as their Savior can have the curse completely removed.

But there’s much more. It is not as if Christ simply removes the curse and puts us back at square one. He not only removes the curse. He secures the blessing that God promised long ago would come to all nations through a descendant of Abraham. “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Gal. 3:14).

The Benefit We Get from Christ in the World
So, we have the curse due to us removed and now blessings are due instead of a curse. But there’s more. Christ merited for us not only a life of blessing. He merited for us the adoption to sonship. We actually become adopted children of God through what Christ did. “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Gal. 4:4–5).

Here’s what that includes. It means that we are legally adopted and called sons and daughters of God. It means that we receive the work of the Holy Spirit of adoption. “Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Gal. 4:6). We are not simply legally adopted, we have God’s Spirit who changes our hearts and enables us to look at God as a Father to us. It means that we are heirs of the entire universe. “So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir” (Gal. 4:7). The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We get an eternal inheritance in Christ!

Now, think of this. It is a truly amazing thing. If we who were criminals in God’s court and worthy of eternal punishment were pardoned and assumed the place of the lowest servants, we would be eternally grateful. How much more the fact that we are actually taken to the highest position and become the sons and daughters of God! That is beyond belief.

In the classic movie, Ben-Hur, Judah Ben-Hur is a wealthy Jewish merchant. He refuses to turn on his own people, and so he is framed by a powerful friend and sold as a slave. He ends up as a galley-slave where is forced to work at heavy oars day and night for three years to move a naval ship of the Roman Empire. That ship ends up being attacked and sunk. Judah ends up saving Quintus Arrius, the admiral on the ship, from death, and they return to Rome. Arrius is grateful for what Judah has done, and he eventually adopts him as a son.

Now here’s the amazing thing. We can see how out of gratitude for Judah saving him, he might adopt him as a son. But God saves us from death and then adopts us as His children! He does it all! He not only saves us, He saves us through the terrible death of a cross. He undergoes the severe punishment in body and soul that was due to us so that we might come to be adopted as children! That is an astonishing thing!

The Apostle John was captivated by this amazing benefit of the cross. He wrote, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). What an amazing thing that the God who created the universe and knows all the stars by name who has myriads upon myriads of angels at His service wants to call us His sons and daughters. If we could really get that, it would be the most astonishing and amazing thing we ever heard!

The philosopher Epictetus contemplated the fact that we are created by God. He said, “If only one could be convinced of this truth, that we’re all first and foremost children of God . . . I think one would never harbour any mean or ignoble thought about oneself” (Discourses, 1.3). No mean or low thoughts about ourselves! If this is true for us as created beings, how much more so is it true for those who have been redeemed and adopted into God’s family and are heirs of His eternal kingdom! God loves us more than we can imagine.

Conclusion
How do we know we matter and are significant in this world? God loved us so much He would send His own Son to die on the cross rather than see us perish. He also loved us so much that He adopts us as His children and heirs of the entire universe forever. That is our identity, and that is our destiny, all because of what Jesus did for us in the agonizing death on the cross. That is an amazing benefit indeed. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

What is my role in the world? Is it significant? Do I even matter at all? There is something about us that would make us think that we matter. We can think and see the world. We can survey the whole universe and consider it. Our own conscience judges our actions and tells us whether we have done right or wrong. We can connect with other human beings. We can think beyond the world and consider God. There is much that would make us say, we are significant.

On the other hand, there is much that would make us think that we are insignificant. We are a tiny speck in a tiny speck in the universe. We are one of billions of people on the earth at this time, and we are one of billions who have been born and died. It’s also easy to look at the little things we do like cooking, cleaning, going to work, or even doing a vacation and say, does this stuff matter at all?

Think of Josh Dobbs, the former UT quarterback who now plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It would seem that Ben Roethlisberger matters because he is the starting quarterback. He has won his team Super Bowl rings. But what about Josh Dobbs? Now, if you were to play Josh Dobbs in virtually any sport, you would probably say, this is the most amazing athlete I have ever seen. Yet, on the Pittsburgh Steelers, he is basically a practice quarterback. And most of us don’t get anywhere near that level of athletic glory! Do we matter at all?

One of the amazing benefits of the cross is that it tells us that we matter and matter more than we could possibly imagine. That’s what our passage teaches us. The cross tells us of our amazing identity and our amazing destiny. Let’s consider this passage more carefully.

Christ Sent into the World
Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” What we read here is that Christ was sent into the world. This means that Jesus existed before He came into the world. For all of us, we were conceived, and that’s when we started to exist. Jesus existed before He was even conceived.

Jesus Himself was conscious of having been sent into the world. Before He died on the cross, Jesus prayed, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5). He existed in eternal glory with the Father before He was ever born.

That same person who existed from all eternity became a human being in the fullness of time. He took on Himself a human nature without giving up His divine nature. That’s why the ancient Council of Chalcedon affirmed that Jesus is one person in two natures without mixture, confusion, division, or separation. That accurately sums up what we have in our text.

The next thing you will notice about Jesus’ entrance into the world was that it came at the right time. God knows how to tell time and in the right time or the set time or in the fullness of time, He sent His Son into the world.

How was it the right time? Religions throughout the world were looking for someone to bring salvation to the world. Many saw Caesar Augustus as the one in whom their hopes would be fulfilled. They were looking for a savior.

The Roman Empire controlled much of the world. They had brought a relative peace, order, and justice to the world that allowed for rapid and safe communication of ideas all over the world in a common language. A few centuries before Christ’s birth, this would not have been the case.

When it comes to the Jews, who were especially looking for a Messiah, their own hopes seem to be dashed. They had been in exile and returned. They had gained independence under the Maccabees but were now “slaves,” as they might put it, under the Roman Empire. Their hopes were exhausted. It was the right time for a savior.

What Christ Did in the World
So, what did the Son do when He was in the world? Our passage tells us. First, He was born. He became a real human being, as we noted above. He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her yet without sin. He became a real human being without giving up His divine nature.

Next, we read that he was born under the law. “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” Thus, His calling and vocation had a reference to the law.

We might not think God’s law is that important, but God doesn’t view it that way. He created this world as its Sovereign Lord and Judge. He gave a law that was to be obeyed. His holiness demands conformity with this law, and His justice will defend it. This is God as we have Him revealed in the prophets. For example, the prophet Habakkuk says, “You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing” (1:13a–14b). He says elsewhere, “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” (Hab. 2:20). He is the Lord to whom we must give account.

The amazing thing here is that Jesus became a human who had to give account to God. He who was God was also under God. He became a subject rather than the ruler. The Law-giver took his place among those who were called to be servants. He assumed the form of a servant obeying the law.

And what did the law require? If you go back to Galatians 3:10 and 12, you have the answer. The Holy Spirit teaches us, “The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, ‘The person who does these things will live by them'” (Gal. 3:12). In other words, the law doesn’t simply says, “believe, and you will have life.” It says, “Do what it says, and you will have life.” Well, how much do we have to do? In Gal. 3:10 we read, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” The law cannot exempt anyone. It can’t say, “it’s OK that you broke the law.” It just tells us, “you’ve broken the law and now must suffer the penalty.”

So, when Christ comes, He obligates Himself to obey the law and suffer its penalty. But here’s the amazing thing. He does this not for Himself but for us. “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” He is our substitute and representative before God. He is born of a woman and born under the law not for His own sake but for our sakes.

Our text indicates that He redeemed those under the law. The word “redemption” means payment. What did He pay? He paid the debt of those who owed obedience to God and the suffering that resulted from not obeying the law.

Here’s what Paul says in Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole or tree'” (Gal. 3:12). Christ redeemed us by taking the curse that was due to us so that we would not have to face it. That’s the amazing benefit of the cross. We are all under the curse because of our sin, but anyone who believes in Jesus and wants Him as their Savior can have the curse completely removed.

But there’s much more. It is not as if Christ simply removes the curse and puts us back at square one. He not only removes the curse. He secures the blessing that God promised long ago would come to all nations through a descendant of Abraham. “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Gal. 3:14).

The Benefit We Get from Christ in the World
So, we have the curse due to us removed and now blessings are due instead of a curse. But there’s more. Christ merited for us not only a life of blessing. He merited for us the adoption to sonship. We actually become adopted children of God through what Christ did. “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Gal. 4:4–5).

Here’s what that includes. It means that we are legally adopted and called sons and daughters of God. It means that we receive the work of the Holy Spirit of adoption. “Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father'” (Gal. 4:6). We are not simply legally adopted, we have God’s Spirit who changes our hearts and enables us to look at God as a Father to us. It means that we are heirs of the entire universe. “So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir” (Gal. 4:7). The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We get an eternal inheritance in Christ!

Now, think of this. It is a truly amazing thing. If we who were criminals in God’s court and worthy of eternal punishment were pardoned and assumed the place of the lowest servants, we would be eternally grateful. How much more the fact that we are actually taken to the highest position and become the sons and daughters of God! That is beyond belief.

In the classic movie, Ben-Hur, Judah Ben-Hur is a wealthy Jewish merchant. He refuses to turn on his own people, and so he is framed by a powerful friend and sold as a slave. He ends up as a galley-slave where is forced to work at heavy oars day and night for three years to move a naval ship of the Roman Empire. That ship ends up being attacked and sunk. Judah ends up saving Quintus Arrius, the admiral on the ship, from death, and they return to Rome. Arrius is grateful for what Judah has done, and he eventually adopts him as a son.

Now here’s the amazing thing. We can see how out of gratitude for Judah saving him, he might adopt him as a son. But God saves us from death and then adopts us as His children! He does it all! He not only saves us, He saves us through the terrible death of a cross. He undergoes the severe punishment in body and soul that was due to us so that we might come to be adopted as children! That is an astonishing thing!

The Apostle John was captivated by this amazing benefit of the cross. He wrote, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). What an amazing thing that the God who created the universe and knows all the stars by name who has myriads upon myriads of angels at His service wants to call us His sons and daughters. If we could really get that, it would be the most astonishing and amazing thing we ever heard!

The philosopher Epictetus contemplated the fact that we are created by God. He said, “If only one could be convinced of this truth, that we’re all first and foremost children of God . . . I think one would never harbour any mean or ignoble thought about oneself” (Discourses, 1.3). No mean or low thoughts about ourselves! If this is true for us as created beings, how much more so is it true for those who have been redeemed and adopted into God’s family and are heirs of His eternal kingdom! God loves us more than we can imagine.

Conclusion
How do we know we matter and are significant in this world? God loved us so much He would send His own Son to die on the cross rather than see us perish. He also loved us so much that He adopts us as His children and heirs of the entire universe forever. That is our identity, and that is our destiny, all because of what Jesus did for us in the agonizing death on the cross. That is an amazing benefit indeed. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

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The Amazing Benefits of the Cross: Justification (Rom. 3:19–26)

[Listen to an audio version here]

All around the world, wherever you travel, you will find a rather surprising symbol on the skyline. It is the symbol of the cross.

It’s surprising because the cross was an instrument of a particularly brutal method of capital punishment in the Roman Empire. It does not seem like the sort of thing that you would put your hope in.

Yet there it is. Hundreds of millions of people around the world would say with the great preacher of the cross, the Apostle Paul, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). Astonishing words!

Why would so many people make their boast in this gruesome instrument of capital punishment? The reason is that it answers the basic questions of life that we all struggle with. In this big universe, am I significant? Do I matter? Am I accepted? Do I have value? Can I fulfill my destiny? What about life after death? In the cross we have all these questions answered.

As we consider the cross, I want you to think of the cross in terms of the benefits or blessings God gives to all who accept His message about the cross. All of these benefits answer some of the basic questions we have about our own life and about existence. These benefits are justification, adoption, sanctification, and preservation. We are going to look at these over the next few Sunday’s.

Today, we begin with justification. The question of justification arises for us when we start to ask, have I made of myself what I ought to have made of myself? What have I done with my existence? As soon as we seek to answer that question honestly, we face guilt. We have not become what we should have. We have not done what we should have. We have, in fact, done many things completely contrary to what we should have. We deal with this as individuals, and we deal with this as a society. We may think that guilt is not a big factor in human life, but, upon further reflection, it really is. As the theologian Paul Tillich noted, it is astonishing how much guilt comes out in psychoanalysis.

But the situation is actually worse than we think. The guilt we feel is sometimes misplaced. We feel guilty about things we should not and do not feel guilty about things we should.

Guilt is not a mere psychological phenomenon. We also have to give an account to God who judges justly and rightly and takes what we have done very seriously. We may not like this aspect of God, but, if we think about it, it’s quite important. Imagine a God who didn’t care about wrongs and injustices. Would we really want to worship such a God? Not at all. We also are opposed to injustices and wrongs but generally the ones that others commit. God is concerned about all of them, and He is no respecter of persons.

When we are dealing with justification, we are dealing with these questions. What does God do with evil and injustice? How does He evaluate it? And how does He evaluate me? This is the most central question of the cross and the most important doctrine of the Christian religion. As John Calvin said, “The subject of justification, therefore, must now be fully discussed, and discussed with the recollection that it is the principal hinge by which religion is supported, in order that we may apply to it with the greater attention and care.” So, with that in mind, let’s dive into this passage.

The Meaning of the Word “Justify”
The key to understanding this passage is to understand the meaning of the word “to justify.” Here is its most basic meaning, “to declare righteous.” It is not to turn someone into a righteous person or make them just. It is to declare someone righteous. When you justify someone, you say that they are a righteous person or have done what they were supposed to do. Got it?

Now, I’ll ask a question. Can you justify God? Think about it for a second. If you said, “no,” then go back to the definition. Can you declare God to be righteous? Of course you can. In fact, you not only can, but you should and must. In Luke 7:29 we read, “All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John” (Luke 7:29). The word translated here “acknowledged was right” is “to justify.” Same word as in our passage.

Now, here’s another question. Can you justify the wicked? Think about it for a second. Well, you can. You can declare them righteous, but you shouldn’t. God actually says that. The King James Version brings this out, “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.” To justify the guilty is to say that the guilty is righteous and to do that is to lie and bring about an injustice.

So, in light of all that, how can God justify the ungodly? Romans 4:5 says that He is the “God who justifies the ungodly.” He is the God who calls sinful, wicked, adulterous people perfectly righteous and completely innocent? How can He do that? It would seem to be a lie. It would seem to be a miscarriage of justice. It doesn’t make sense!

You can see that the weight of this question is evident in this passage. He presented Christ as “an atoning sacrifice” (Rom. 3:25) so that He might be “just and the justifier” of the one who has faith in Jesus. In other words, there was a question about whether God would be just in justifying a believer because that believer is not just. To declare him righteous would be wrong. So, how can we put these things together? Well, I’ve hinted at the answer here, but let’s take our understanding of the word “to justify” and plug it into this passage and see if we can resolve it.

Romans 3 & Justification
In Romans 3, we read that no one will be justified by the works of the law. We should read “works of the law” as doing of the law. Now, why would no one be declared righteous because they did the law. Is there something wrong with doing what the law says? Of course not! Normal justification would result from someone doing the law and being declared righteous on the basis of having done the law. They do what the law says, and then they are declared righteous.

So, why can’t anyone be righteous on the basis of doing what the law says? The answer is that we have not done what the law says. The law says to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. None of us have done this. In fact, we have done the opposite. So, when we hear the law, we do not hear it rightly, if we hear it saying, you have done all these things. Rather, “through the law we become conscious of sin.” That is, it tells us that we have not done these things.

We can’t be declared righteous on the basis of the law, because we’ve all broken the law. If God evaluates us on the basis of the law, then we will be condemned as guilty not justified as righteous.

So, what are we to do? There is another righteousness, a different sort. It couldn’t come from obeying the law. It came from God. Now note that the Law and the Prophets testify to it (Rom. 3:21). Here the word “law” does not refer to God’s commandments. It refers to the Old Testament. What Paul is saying is that the Old Testament showed that there was another way to be justified. Paul will elaborate on this method throughout the book. See especially chapter 4, where he shows how God justified ungodly Abraham and David.

Paul describes this righteousness by saying this righteousness is by faith. What this means is that it is a gift from God. Faith does not do for someone. Faith trusts what someone else will do. So, faith is a fitting virtue to be the recipient of another sort of righteousness.

This other righteousness is a gift from God that is given to anyone who believes. Being a Jew or Gentile gives no advantage in justification, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Everyone is condemned on the basis of the law. Everyone can be declared righteous on the basis of a righteousness from God, if they will only receive it by faith.

The question then becomes, how in the world can God simply declare people righteous who don’t deserve it? It would seem to be a lie. It would seem to be unjust. Imagine a professor giving a test. Some do not study and do badly. Others study hard and get an A. Then, the professor simply says, “I have decided to simply give everyone an A.” That would seem unjust.

So, how can God do it? Well, He satisfies the demands of the law on behalf of sinners. How? “All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). The word “redemption” means a payment. The law demanded that we “pay” righteousness and “pay” the penalty of death, if we did not give that righteousness. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Jesus paid the righteousness we owe and paid the punishment due to sin on the cross. That is what redemption is all about. The cross is payment for sin and the fulfillment of the righteousness we owed to God. So, we get declared righteous freely because Christ pays for us! He pays everything, and we get everything! That is an amazing deal. All we have to do is accept it. It’s a gift!

Paul drives this point home in verses 25–26. He says that there was a problem in the past. God declared people righteous, but no payment had been given. “In his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished” (Rom. 3:25). The Old Testament is full of sinful people, but God justified them freely by His grace, even though payment had not been given.

How could God do that? He knew that in the fullness of time, the Son would come and would redeem them through the cross. God presented the Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (Rom. 3:25).

In doing this, God demonstrated that He was and is righteous. Because Christ pays the just penalty of the law, we can be declared righteous. It is not our righteousness, it is Christ’s. As a result, God is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

If we believe in Jesus, then God declares us perfectly righteous, just as if we had been as righteous as Jesus and suffered all that He had suffered. That is the amazing benefit of the cross. We are justified, declared righteous, because of what Jesus has done.

Conclusion
Justification by faith alone is the foundation of our faith and of our faith in the cross in particular. I think you can now see why John Calvin said that this doctrine is the “principle hinge by which religion is supported.” It’s really essential. Martin Luther said that the church stands or falls based on this doctrine.

For us, as individual Christians, it is a foundation for unspeakable joy and peace, a refuge in the midst of the storms of life. It’s easy to see why Paul concludes his letter with a blessing of joy and peace by the power of the Holy Spirit. Justification by faith alone provides us a basis for that joy and peace (see Romans 15:13).

This is the amazing benefit of the cross. God takes sinful people, people who have ignored Him and flaunted His laws, people who have hated each other, and have misused all the gifts He has given us, and He declares them to be perfectly righteous forever because of what Jesus has done for them. That is an amazing benefit indeed. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.