The Gospel
Raised because of our justification…Romans 4:25
When God declared His name to Moses He said, The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation, Exodus 34:6 & 7.
At first glance, Paul’s statement in Romans 3 seems to contradict Exodus 34. Romans 3:24 & 25: being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed…
Under the law, man had to offer an offering for his sin. Under grace, God gave His Son as the once-for-all offering for sin. Under the law, each sin required an offering. Under grace, one offering covered all sins. Therefore, sins once requiring an offering by a person are not paid by the single offering of God’s Son, Jesus.
But the law was not made void by faith. Romans 3:31: Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly Not! On the contrary, we establish the law. Faith does not negate the purpose of the law. Faith is the law by which all people are justified. For the just shall live by faith, Habakkuk 2:4 quoted in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10: 38.
Which brings us back to Romans, chapter 4. In chapter 4, Paul uses Abraham as an example of justification by faith. Abraham existed before the law. The law which was necessary to condemn man in his sin. Verse 15: because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore, verse 16, it is of faith that it might be according to grace…
For this reason, the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith, verse 13. Now verses 23, 24, & 25 make sense. Jesus died for our sins and was raised for our justification. This is the gospel!
