Romans 3:24

..being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus... Romans 3:24
In the first to chapters of Romans the Apostle Paul has laid the foundation to understanding the hope of the Gospel. He has driven home One: every man stands guilty before God with out any hope of gaining goodness and two God demands perfect righteousness from man in order for there to be fellowship between the two. If this is where Paul stopped man would be hopeless. He would be guilty with no hope of clearing his name therefore unable to fellowship with his Creator.

In verses 21-23 the hope is being revealed to us. First, the righteousness of God is made manifest in Christ. Second, that righteousness is given to all who have faith in Christ. Third, again it is iterated "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" we are in a hopeless position.

There are four key words in verse four that should be examined.

Justified - God has declared innocent/just those who have faith in His son Jesus Christ. He has not only forgiven, which is good and what we need, but has also declared righteous/ good.

Remember that we have no righteousness of our own. Never have never will but most often we believe in our "I'm a good person" religion. Think of it this way. I come up to you and ask you how I like my new coat. Truth is I don't have a coat on. You might smile and back away slowly thinking "you've lost your mind" maybe you'll say some polite lie about how much you like it. When we confess our self righteousness it as if we are going to God and saying "Do you like my new coat (righteousness)" and God isn't polite about it He comes right out and says " You don't have one. There is no coat on you body. I can't see any." It isn't there. You see there is no way that we can make our own coat. There is no way that we can come to God via our own works. (Romans 3:20) We are guilty before a holy God and there is NO GOOD IN US. (Romans3:10) But God can give us a coat. When we come to Him broken and understanding our sinfulness and our need for a savior God says " Look I have a coat for you. It is My son's. Take it and put it on by faith" When we do put it on God justifies us. He sees, not our sin, but rather the righteousness of Christ. He imputes to us the righteousness of His son and decrees us innocent.

Freely- a gift, without cost

We have been justified freely. It is a gift. God gives us that coat. When some one hands you a present in a sincerity do you smile and nod with your hands behind you back while you slowly walk a way? I know you talk of how nice the giver was in thinking of you and speak of how beautiful the presents wrapping is or, if you know what the present is, you speak of it's beauty right? What kind of psycho does that? No we reach out and grab the present and thank the giver. We don't just stand there. Nor do we try to give a twenty to the person who is trying to give the gift. To do so is to insult the giver! God has offered the present of His son. He doesn't want you to extol on the beauty of the idea of a savior, for you to tell Him that you believe that everyone should be saved, or that you go to church and believe Jesus. He wants you to take the gift. You also can't try to exchange works for the gift. You can't put so many hours of ministry into a box and try to swap presents with God. We have nothing to offer Him. Remember we need His coat!

Grace- God lavishes His blessings on those who don't deserve it

1) God's Grace is sovereign. He chooses whom He wills to draw and save and so pour out His grace upon.

2) His grace is unconditional. We can't attract God's attention to ourselves or make Him want to bless us. We don't deserve it. It's in the definition. The angels cannot understand the mystery of God's grace. They do not know why God would place such favor on sinful man. Angels understand hell. Were you to ask one about it they would tell you that it was an easy thing to explain. God is holy and just and we are sinners whose sin needs to be punished. God needed someway to punish sin so there is Hell. They just can't understand unconditional Grace.

3) God's grace is costly. Salvation is free to us but it cost Heaven's treasure, Christ. Jesus stripped Himself of His glory to live among sinful man and died a death worse than anything that we can fathom for us. The cost was great.

Redemption- to buy and bring home and embrace

God has bought us with His blood. He forgave us and then instead of leaving us to our own devices took us home and made us His children. Hosea and Gomers story illustrates God's redeeming love. God told Hosea "Get married". Hosea said "ok". God said " I picked a girl out for you. Her name is Gomer" Hosea was skeptical knowing that she wasn't a chaste woman but obeyed and married her. They had three children: Don't think she is mine, Pretty sure she isn't, and Definitely ain't my kid. Gomer ran away and Hosea looked and looked for her then one day in the market place Hosea saw her on the auction block being sold as a slave. She looked hideous. She had lived a hard life and had been with many men as a harlot. But God told Hosea to buy her. The cost was great. Hosea sold everything to get his wife back. God gave up His most precious possession to get us. He gave His son. We looked awful, we smelled, we had been with many other lovers yet God bought us and made us His children. He Redeemed us through Christ.*

God has justified us freely and lavished His grace upon us. He has bought us out of the gates of Sheol and sets us before His throne. Rather God is willing that the former should be Your story but if you have not come to the understanding that you are a sinner and you have no hope outside of Christ and have therefore bowed before the Creator of the universe and asked for His forgiveness and trusted Christ as your savior then all of this is foolishness to you and you need Jesus. Everything that I said about hell. It's true. All that about being guilty. It's true. You need Jesus to rescue you. Only He can.

*This blog post was based on a sermon my Dale Thompson preached Sunday, December 16,2007.