JUSTIFICATION IS FREELY OFFERED BY GOD'S GRACE Romans 3v23-24.
"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace...."
There is no break in the wording here, condemnation and justification in the same breath, The present tense is used - coming short ......being justified. In the flow of Paul's thinking he stands side by side the two positions before God, that of coming short or the other measuring up. The standard as we have seen is the glory of God; against that standard all of us come short, and only by God's justification of free grace can we measure up. God must provide the solution, if man is to be restored. The use of the present tense, the continuous present tense, means that this situation pertains at all times and is true in every generation, and is true now, and will be true tomorrow etc. Man is hopelessly short of God's standard and requires God's grace, there is no other way. As we were born, we were born under condemnation, the supreme consequence of this is death, the ultimate consequence is what the Bible describes as "the second death."
There is no one who escapes condemnation, and there is no one outside the scope of justification, all you have to do is accept it. Justification is a declaration by God that you are right with Himself, that your sins and transgressions and iniquities have been forgiven. That you have been acquitted of any guilt, that you have a right standing before Him, and the ongoing reality, a relationship with Him. In justification God's blessing becomes man's possession.
We focus now on two words freely and by His grace. The word used for grace is charis which conveys the idea of goodness, kindness, benevolence. It is a gift from God to the world and it is free, it cannot be bought, it cannot be earned, it is not deserved, it is the gift of God to all who will receive it. Whereas God would be righteous to condemn us all, and we must not ever think that God needs us in any way, instead He moves towards us with a kind disposition. This grace of God is the bestowal of the highest order, from the most high in all the universe, to the least deserving, and transferring them from condemnation to justification. IT IS ABSOLUTELY FREE - SO WHY DON'T YOU TAKE IT? It will cost you nothing but your pride. The Most High stoops to offer you the greatest gift that has ever been offered. Let us now step back from this for a moment, a free gift is offered to you by some retail establishment. Let's say Marks & Spencer's announce that tomorrow all their stores will be thrown open and everything offered free. What would you do? Would you say, there must be a catch, would you say, I don't like the crowds, would you say, I like to pay for my goods, no you wouldn't, you would take it with both hands. The God of heaven who does not need anything you have, who does not need to do other than condemn you, because of your sin is offering you freely the greatest gift on earth, the forgiveness of sin, a right standing with Himself. He is doing that to people who have blasphemed His name, to people who have criticised Him, to people who ignored Him, to people who have excluded Him from their lives, to people who have insulted Him, to people who have offended Him, to people whose ways are hateful to Him.
How do you act towards people who insult you, who do you wrong, would you offer such people kindness? I think we all know the answer to that! Yesterday we saw something of the glory of God, there is no greater glory than the glory of His grace. This grace is exemplified in the words of Jesus Christ while He hung upon a Roman cross "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Human words are quite inadequate to convey the depth of meaning here, but something amazing, something really special here is being offered to the rebellious sons of men, and we do well to respond to it. Will you spurn God's grace, will you refuse His free gift, is your horizon so small that all you are concerned about is getting by for the few years that you are here? The Majesty of heaven is offering you His blessing for all the unending ages of eternity and it is time to lift our eyes to the heavens and respond to the grace of God offered to underserving men and women. You say you love your children, yet you do not tell them of the greatest gift in life. Respond to this for yourself and tell your children so that they can tell their children that indeed the best things in life are free and the greatest thing in life is the free grace of God in Jesus Christ which is offered freely and without any cost to you.
Tomorrow d.v. we shall see that although it is free to you and me, it cost God everything, and if you turn away from this you are turning away from the very heart of God that has been open toward you.
This was accomplished at no cost to you, but at infinite cost to God.
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