JUSTIFIED BY GRACE

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”

ROMANS 3:24 (KJV)

The prophets prophesied in the Old Testament that God was going to make all things new. This they spoke of with respect to how God relates with humans and the experiences of humans on earth. With the turn of the dispensation of Grace, God no longer relates with humans in the way he related with them during the fall; also no longer do men experience the limitations and oppressions they experienced during the fall. All these experiences can only be gotten through faith in Jesus Christ.

Our opening scripture lets us see that our justification from death which came as a result of sin was given to us freely by his grace through the substitutionary work of Jesus on the cross. We do not have to atone for our sins to be forgiven anymore: we were already forgiven in Jesus. Scripture reveals that we being justified by faith we have peace with God – no longer is God angry with you.

Our sins were forgiven in advance when Jesus atoned for us on the cross through the sacrifice of his life as there cannot be forgiveness of sin without a sacrifice for atonement – Jesus was that sacrifice. When a sinner comes to God, he doesn’t come to have his sins forgiven because they’ve been forgiven in Christ, he comes to receive the righteousness that Jesus got for him when he rose from the death. This is the very reason why righteousness gets imputed unto the sinner once he BELIEVES in Jesus.

The implication is this: our right standing with God is not on the basis of our “good or bad works”, it is on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness. This righteousness of Jesus is consistent unlike the righteousness of man that is inconsistent and so God has chosen to behold Jesus’ righteousness and qualify mankind based on Jesus’ righteousness once they believe in him. Paul said, “We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Lord.”

For the one who is a Christian, his consistent right standing with God is on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness and not on the basis of his good deeds. Should he fall, all he needs do is to acknowledge and confess Jesus as his righteousness as that was what he did in the first instance to become born again. We were justified freely by faith and we will stay justified freely by faith. It is all about Jesus!