Summary of passage: All are sinners and are justified freely through God’s grace through Jesus’s work on the cross.
Questions:
6) We are all sinners. No one’s perfect. Paul is a great example. I think everyone knows they are sinners. This is not the hurdle to Christianity. The hurdle is admitting you need someone to save you from the sins we all commit. Overcoming pride and self-reliance.
7a) According to Webster’s Dictionary, justified means, “to prove or show to be just, right or reasonable; to judge, regard, or treat as righteous and worthy of salvation, to show sufficient.” Zondervan’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary has the definition as “judicial act of God by which, on the basis of the meritorious work of Christ, imputed to the sinner and received through Faith, God declares the sinner absolved from sin, released from its penalty, and restored as righteous. Simply put, being placed by God in a right relationship with himself.”
Justification is accomplished through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior when he died on the cross for our sins.. The Good News is you get to spend eternity with God! Link with previous post on in my blog.
b) Part personal Question. My answer: We were all fallen into Hell until Jesus came to pull us out with his death and bloodshed. He is full of grace and mercy.
8 ) Personal Question. My answer: We didn’t do anything to earn His gift. He has to have infinite love to bestow this upon us. Deeper gratitude.
Conclusions: Because Romans is such a short book we will probably be studying few verses every day. Which is good and bad. We will probably be answering several similar personal questions as well such as how these verses impact your thinking, response, etc.
End Notes: Paul uses 3 major themes in Romans which we see here in one verse: 1) Justification or the law 2) Redemption from slavery 3) Propitiation or atonement from the religious need for sacrifice.
Justification rids us of guilt. Redemption saves us from slavery. Propitiation ensues we don’t offend our Creator.
Justification is free. It is given to us as a gift by the desire of God.
Freely is the ancient Greek word dorean. It means with no strings attached.
We are only righteous through Jesus. Period.
Redemption: Jesus bought us with the cost of his life. Thus, we belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20).
Fun Fact: Paul uses the Greek verb for “justified” 27 times, mostly here in Romans and Galatians. It is translated “justify” in all cases except 2 (2:13; 3:20 where it is translated “declared righteous.” This describes what happens when people believe in Christ as their Savior: God declares them to be not guilty and righteous. He debits the guilt of their sin and credits righteousness (for all you accountants/finance/math people out there!).
Paul’s points: 1) No one lives a perfectly, good, holy, righteous life. (v 10). All have sinned (v 23).
2) Even though we are sinners, God declares those who trust in Jesus righteous. This is valid because Christ died to pay the penalty for our sin and because he lived a life of perfect righteousness he imputes (ascribes) that to us. THIS IS THE CENTRAL THEME OF ROMANS AS STATED IN 1:17.
Justification: the central thought of justification is albeit people clearly and totally deserve to be declared guilt (v 9-19), God declares them righteous because of their faith in Christ. Paul states this idea in several ways: freely by his grace (v 24) and faith (v 25).
Redemption: This word is from the slave market–basically obtaining release by payment of a ransom. It refers to release from guilt, judgement, and delivery from slavery to sin, because Christ in his death paid our ransom to set us free. Etymology: mid-14c., “deliverance from sin,” from Old French redemcion (12c.) and directly from Latin redemptionem (nominative redemptio) “a buying back, releasing, ransoming” (also “bribery”), noun of action from past participle stem of redimere “to redeem, buy back,” from red- “back” + emere “to take, buy, gain, procure”. The -d- is from the Old Latin habit of using red- as the form of re- before vowels.
Fun Fact: Paul is the one who formulates the doctrine of justification mainly in Galatians and Romans.
Breakdown of Justification:
- A declarative act by which the sinner is declared to be free from guilt and the consequences of sin
- A judicial act in which the idea of judgement and salvation are combined to represent Christ fulfilling the law on behalf of the sinner
- A remissive act in which God remits sin in complete forgiveness
- A restorative at by which the forgiven sinner is restored to favor through the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.
Faith is the condition of justification by which the meritorious work of Christ is accepted by the sinner. Christ’s work on the cross is sufficient.
