A Word in Season: The Just Justifier (Romans 3:26)

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When David awoke to a proper sense of his own sinfulness, he cried out to God, Against you, you only have

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I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge.

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God is just. He always deals with sin as it deserves.

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Sin can never just be swept under the carpet, can never but just be brushed away, ignored or overlooked.

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Sin deserves punishment. But in Romans chapter 3 and verse 26, the

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Apostle Paul first acknowledges the justice of God and then calls him the

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Justifier, and he joins those two things together. God is just.

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God will punish sin. None of it will be excused or swept away.

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But God is also the Justifier. What does it mean for God to be the Justifier?

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Justification is a legal or forensic term. It means for the

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God of heaven to declare us to be righteous in his sight, to say in effect that something is now true of us that means that we are no longer exposed to the punishments which our sins deserve, that the judge of all the earth has exonerated us in the lights of his justice, that we are no longer liable to punishment, but actually now we are entitled to favor, that we've come into a state not just of neutrality, but of real peace with God, that we are now accepted by him.

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Now how can God be just on the one hand and the Justifier on the other?

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And it's not that he justifies those who are already righteous. He justifies the ungodly, which seems like the height of injustice.

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How then do we reconcile what Paul says about the justice of God and the justifying statements of God?

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Well, he reconciles those in Romans 3 and verse 26 by telling us that God is just and the

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Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. You see, the faith that God gives lays hold of Jesus Christ in his righteousness.

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It's the very essence of his saving glory, that in him there is a perfect righteousness which is entirely acceptable to God.

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It is spotless, complete, pure and perfect. And faith enters into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

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Faith lays hold of him. It is God's appointed means of our obtaining union with the

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Lord Jesus Christ as sinners. So when a sinner like me or you, acknowledging our sins, accepting

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God's justice, comes and puts our faith in Jesus Christ, when we trust him and rest upon his atoning blood and his perfect righteousness, the

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Just Judge of all the earth not only can but must then say that looking upon us in Christ Jesus, we have become righteous in his sight.

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The provision that he has made for us in our sins has been entirely effectual on our behalf.

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And so it is through faith in Jesus Christ that sinners like us can be justified.

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God's justice is honoured. He has not ceased to deal with sin as sin deserves because he has dealt with that sin in the person of his

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Son, Jesus Christ. But he is also a justifier. His saving mercy is equally demonstrated and magnified in the fact that it is us who deserve his judgments who have now been brought into a relationship of peace to him.

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And it is always and only through Jesus Christ. If you and I would have peace with God, if you and I would be cleansed of our sins, if you and I would know what it is to have sin put away righteously, then the only way and the only one by whom we can come to God is

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Christ Jesus. And when we trust in him, God will prove himself again just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ.