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Today’s passage is like the headline of headlines. It gives an idea about Jesus by tackling three important questions about salvation and how each question is related to Jesus.
1) Why has it gone wrong? All have sinned
Sin is the rejecting or ignoring of God in the world he created (1:20-21), rebelling against him by living without reference to him (1:22-23; 25), not being or doing what he requires in his law (1:26-28), that results in our death and the disintegration of all creation (1:29-32).
Sin is not just about the act that displeases God; otherwise, the solution would be asceticism and ritualism. But sin is, more importantly, the declaration of Independence from God and the lordship of self, the breaking in relationship that causes a separation between the Source and the creation, that eventually leads to the breakdown in relationship between the creature and other fellow creatures — the disintegration of all of creation.
2) How did God make right? God justified us through Christ
In English, “righteousness” (dikaiosynē) and “justification” (dikaioō) may carry two different connotations, but in the original language, they are the same word — one is a noun, the other is a verb.
Justification means to show or produce a performance result that qualifies someone for access.
No matter how hard we try, our justifications fail to show or produce a performance result that adequately qualifies us for access to God. The only PERFECT justification is through Jesus Christ, our God-man Redeemer.
HOW DID JESUS BECOME OUR FREE JUSTIFICATION? In Romans 3:25 the term “sacrifice of atonement” or literally translated as the “atonement cover” (hilastērion), refers to the “mercy seat” in the OT tabernacle, which is set as a cover/lid above the ark of the covenant. God presented Jesus as that “atonement cover” over mankind through the suffering of Jesus on the cross! It is so that the issue of sin can be dealt with once and for all, the broken branch is not connected back in union with Christ.
3) What should we do now? Repent and believe (Romans 3:27-28)
Unless mankind comes to grasp with this understanding of God giving us his righteousness by faith alone,
the branch cannot continue to live, let alone produce fruit, our works will be meaningless, our lives will
fall short of God’s glory, our preaching will be in vain. The Christian cannot continue to live by faith, let
alone last from faith to faith or even preach the gospel.
“Forgiveness says: ‘You may go: you have been let off the penalty which your sin deserves.’ But justification will say: ‘You may come; you are welcome to all my love and my presence.’”
Sir Marcus Loane, Archbishop of Sydney Australia, 1966-1982