Romans 8:30 – Justification is only one of many blessings we receive at
salvation.
Rom. 8:33 – It is God that justifies.
Rom. 3:24 – We are justified freely through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus. Beginning in verse 10, Paul reveals how wicked all sinners
are. It is not by the deeds of the law that we are justified, but we are
justified without the law by the righteousness of Christ.
Because we are all totally depraved sinners, and cannot stop sinning,
Jesus justifies us (makes us perfectly clean – as if we had never sinned)
through the blood he shed at Calvary.
It takes more than love for a sinner to be saved. It takes a love that
is effectual. That is – a love that can do something about our sins. A
parent has love for their children, but they do not have an effectual love.
When a child is sick, the parent can do many things, but the parent cannot
make the child well again. Jesus can make the child well because he has an
effectual love. This doesn’t deny the love of the parents, or the love of
God, but shows more about what God did to gain our redemption. Effectual love
shows the power in the love of God that we do not have. True love always
produces that which is good.
Eph. 2:4,6 – But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love
wherewith he loved us … hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Rom. 5:8 – But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
While it is true that God loves sinners, what makes salvation effective
to us is not love, but blood. It is like this: God has more than one
attribute.
a. Love is only one of God’s many attributes.
b. While the attribute of love would long to pardon the sinner,
c. The attribute of the justice of God longs to judge and
pronounce sentence on the sinner,
d. While the attribute of the wrath of God longs to pour out
eternal wrath on the sinner.
e. In the middle of all these attributes, the attribute of the mercy
of God longs to pardon the sinner and set him free.
f. God’s compassion is also working, desiring that sinful men
would not go to hell.
g. For salvation to work, all of God’s attributes must fit together
in complete agreement.
The following verses in Romans show God’s part in redeeming the sinner
from eternal damnation.
a. 3:20 – the deeds of the law (works of the flesh) will not bring
salvation.
b. 3:24 – Our justification comes free to us by His grace, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
c. 3:26 – Jesus is the justifier of our sinfulness because He shed
His righteous (sinless) blood for us.
d. 3:28 – The above is concluded that we are saved by faith without
the deeds of the law.
e. 3:30 – The one God, who justifies all through faith, does not make
void the law, rather the law is established.
f. 4:2 – Abraham was justified when he believed God, and the
righteousness of God was counted (imputed) to him. (Gen. 15:6 takes place
some 11 years after Abraham leaves Ur. Abraham is probably about 86 years
old in Gen. 15.
g. 4:5 – The ungodly can receive the righteousness of God by
believing on him who justifies the ungodly (Jesus Christ).