Justified Freely
Romans 3:24
“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”
The righteousness of God, which is the justifying righteousness of the people of God is unto all and upon all them that believe the good news concerning the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, who is both Lord and the Christ of God (Acts 2:36). Those who believe the gospel have life given them by the quickening power of the Holy Ghost. Faith is the evidence of that life which is the gift of God, as it is written: “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:47; John 5:21, 24; Ephesians 2;1). Eternal life is the reward of Grace which was given the children of the everlasting covenant before the world began (II Timothy 1:9). All the children of the covenant were chosen in Christ (Ephesians 1:4) and accepted in Christ (Ephesians 1:6) from eternity past and have fulfilled the law to its jot and title in Christ (Matthew 17-18) and have been crucified in Christ (Galatians 2:20) thus fulfilling the precept and penalty of the law of God to its full satisfaction.
Because the children of God are in Christ according to the everlasting covenant: God looks upon them as one with Christ in all that Christ Jesus did as God-Man Mediator and therefore looks upon them as having perfectly fulfilled all the righteousness of the Law of God. They are therefore righteous in His sight and accounted worthy of eternal life as doers of the law In Christ (Genesis 7:1; Leviticus 18:5; Galatians 3:12; Romans 2:13; 10:5; Luke 21:36). The everlasting union of Christ (who is “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”) and His body the church is the basis or ground on which the members of Christ are considered righteous in the sight of God. And the righteousness of God having been established by Jesus Christ (Romans 1:17; Daniel 9:24) and imputed to the children of the covenant is the ground of their being given eternal life and faith in Christ. Faith is not the cause of life in the children of the covenant but it is the instrument by which they understand their inheritance in God through Jesus Christ.
Being justified, Justification is the act of God, wherein God declares the members of the body of Christ righteous in His sight. Jesus Christ is the Head of the church of God, and the church of God is the body of Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:22-23, 5:30; Romans 12:5; I Corinthians 12:12-27). In the sight of the justice of God, the Head of the church and the body of the church are one. It is therefore just and right in the sight of the justice of God that the Head of the body should bare the sin of the body, as said the Apostle Peter: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24). And it is just and right in the sight of the justice of God that the body should bare the righteousness of the Head of the body, as said the Apostle Paul: “ For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (II Corinthians 5:21). Therefore the church of God is made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ and since the church in each of its particular members bares the righteousness of God by the imputation of God the Father through the finished work of Jesus Christ: the church in all its particular members is accounted worthy of eternal life through the finished work of Jesus Christ. In the sight of the justice of God and in the sight of God Himself, there is no sin in His church, because the church of God is in Jesus Christ, and “in Him is no sin” (I John 3:5). There is no sin in the church of God because Jesus Christ has by Himself purged the sin and sins of the church of God (Hebrews 1:3). Christ Jesus has “put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26). Christ Jesus has washed His church from her sins in His own blood, as it is written: “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Revelation 1:5).
Believers are righteous in the sight of God by a righteousness which they have no part in producing. The justifying righteousness of the church of God is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is the righteousness of God (Romans 1:17) and it is freely imputed to all who believe the truth as it is in Jesus. That is, the righteousness of God is freely imputed to all and everyone who believes the doctrine of Christ (II John 9-11). As it is written: “ I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The righteousness of the church is of God, as it is written: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD” (Isaiah 54:17). All the members of the church of God are the members of Jesus Christ. They are the spiritual seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, therefore: “Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory” (Isaiah 45:24-25). In the Lord Jesus Christ shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.
Being justified freely: All the members of Christ are justified with no cause of justification in or from them themselves. The Greek word translated freely is pronounced ‘do-reh-an’ and it means, gratuitously, without a cause, for naught. Christ Jesus is all the righteousness of all the saints of all ages, as it is written: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (I Corinthians 1:30-31). The righteousness of the body of Christ, the church, is “ Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).
Reader, consider the impossibility of any son or daughter of Adam being justified in the sight of God by their own works. From the book of Job we read: “Then Job answered and said I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand” (Job 9:1-3). If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse” (Job 9:20). “What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water” (Job 15:14-16). “Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places. Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise? How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?” (Job 25:1-6). How can a man be justified by his own righteousness when the man’s righteousness is as Isaiah said? “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6). Even the great Apostle to the Gentiles said “ For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:22-24). With these considerations in view, is any man so foolish as to seek to be saved (justified from all things Acts 13:39 ) by his own good works seeing that “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). “And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified” (Psalm 143:2).
Let all who read these lines know that the salvation of God is Jesus Christ, and all who believe Him are “justified from all things” as it is written: “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you” (Acts 13:38-41).
AJ Ison
See the writers blog at www.hebrews915.blogspot.com hear the true gospel preached at www.13thstbaptist.org webcasting live at listed service times.
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