“Them He Also Justified”
Romans 8:30
All
who are called by the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ have been “justified freely by (God’s) grace through the redemption that is in
Christ” (Rom. 3:24). To be
justified is to be just as if I had never sinned. All who are justified have
been absolved of all guilt, forgiven of all sin, made righteous by divine
imputation, and accepted as perfectly righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ.
IN THIS TEXT PAUL ASSERTS THAT ALL WHO
BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WERE JUSTIFIED BY THE DECREE OF GOD FROM
ETERNITY. Notice the language used is past tense. Paul is talking about
God’s eternal purpose of grace. We were justified in the mind and purpose of
God at the same time we were foreknown, predestinated, called, and glorified
from eternity. In exactly the same sense that Christ, as the Lamb of God, was
slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), all God’s elect were
justified from eternity.
OUR JUSTIFICATION WAS ACCOMPLISHED IN TIME
AND PURCHASED BY THE BLOOD ATONEMENT OF CHRIST IN HIS DEATH AS OUR SUBSTITUTE (Rom.
3:24-26). God could not save his
elect without the satisfaction of his justice. He is “a just God and a Savior” (Isa. 45:21). The Lord Jesus, being the
infinite God, died in the place of chosen sinners at Calvary,
and thereby made an infinite, complete satisfaction to divine justice on our
behalf. He paid our debt. He put away our sin. And when the debt was paid, when
justice was satisfied, we were justified. He did not merely make justification
a possibility. He effectually accomplished it for us. The proof that our justification was accomplished by His death is our
Savior’s resurrection from the dead (Rom.
4:25). When our sin was imputed to
him, he died. When justice was satisfied and sin was put away, God verified it
by raising him who was made to be sin from the dead without sin! Our justification in Christ is a free,
complete, perfect work of God’s grace.
It is free, without cause in us (Rom. 3:24).
It is complete, including both the pardon of all sin and the gift of perfect
righteousness (Mic. 7:18; Acts 13:38-39). It is perfect and irreversible
(Eccles. 3:14; Rom. 11:29; I Cor. 1:30.
THIS FREE GRACE JUSTIFICATION IS RECEIVED
BY FAITH (Rom. 3:28). Faith has
nothing to do with the accomplishment of justification. When the Scriptures
declare that we are justified by faith, the meaning is that we receive complete
justification by faith in Christ who accomplished our justification.
THE RESULT OF THIS JUSTIFICATION IS “PEACE
WITH GOD” (Rom.
5:1). What a blessed word of grace! We are justified! Our sins are gone! Our
debt is paid! The curse is removed! Wrath is consumed! Judgment is over! And
God has imputed to us the very righteousness of Christ! Happy indeed are those
who can honestly call the Son of God - JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU
- THE LORD MY RIGHTEOUSNESS!
Don Fortner