Romans 3:24
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Truth to Learn
Through faith in Jesus Christ we are declared to be righteous.
Behind the Words
“Being justified” is translated from dikaioō. This is based on dikaios, which as we saw in verse ten means “meeting God’s standard of always doing what is right.” The oō ending of a verb generally indicates “bringing out something about a person.” The verb is expressed here in the passive voice indicating action done to someone. So, this word means that someone is being declared righteous.
The word translated “freely” is dorean, an adverb based on the noun dorea, which refers to “a gift.” Hence, dorean means “gratuitously” or “as a free gift.”
“Grace” is translated from charis, which refers to “a favor done without expectation of anything in return.”
The word “redemption” is translated from apolutrōsis, which is a compound word made up of apo, meaning “from or away from” and a form of lutron, which means “a ransom that is paid for someone.” It denotes the rescuing of captives (sinners) from captivity (sin) through the payment of a ransom for them.
Meaning Explained
Paul now continues on his statement of justification by faith, declaring to us that even though we are all sinners and have come short of God’s glory, we can be declared righteous (justified). Since we are all sinners, we need to be redeemed. So what does this mean? The fact that Paul used apolutrōsis instead of simply lutron implies that not only was a ransom paid for us (the blood of Jesus Christ) but, having paid that ransom, He also took us away from the captor (sin).
Here’s a deeper explanation of what this verse says.
Because of the faith spoken of in verse 22, because we believed in the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, even though we are sinners, we are justified (declared righteous by God) freely (without payment on our part, simply as a gift) by God’s grace (a favor done without expectation of return; the absolutely free expression of the loving kindness of God) through the ransom that was paid for us by Jesus Christ (His blood), and we have been taken out of our captivity by sin.
Wow! Read that again!
In his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul said almost the same thing in a slightly different way:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Application
Paul has shown us that there is no way we could earn the righteousness that we need to stand before Almighty God. He has also shown us that we can obtain that righteousness for free simply by believing in the blood of Christ.
If that doesn’t drive us to our knees in praise and adoration, nothing will!
In God’s service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.
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