bvman5
THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF MAN
God is the source of salvation. “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9 KJV. See also Genesis 49:18; Exodus 14:13; I Sam. 2:1; I Chron. 16:23; II Chron. 20:17; Psa. 3:8; 9:14; 13:5, etc.). This is so because God is a God of love (Psa. 13:5; 85:7; 86:13; 98:3; 119:41). “God is love” (I John 4:8,16). This is not just an attribute of God; it is what God is in Himself. Before God ever created anything outside of Himself and thus created beings for Him to love outside of Himself, love existed in God. Since love is the choice of a person to do for another person that which is good for him, a person cannot love without another person to love. Love involves a relationship to another person. And since God has made Himself known as three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, there is another person in God for Him to love. These three persons of the Godhead love each other (John 3:35; 5:20; 15:9-10; 17:23-26; 14:31). And God is love in Himself because these three persons love each other. God created beings outside of Himself not because he needed objects for His love (these already existed within Himself) but because of the abundance of His love that existed within Himself. Love is creative and this is true in the supreme sense of God Himself. Creation and salvation are the overflow of the love of this triune personal God of love.
When man fell from the image of God because of sin, God provided a way to take away man’s sin and to restore him to the image of God. This involved God sending His Son to become man to die for him. But God raised His Son from the dead. And in this resurrected God-man, Jesus Christ, the Son of man, who is the image of God, man is being and shall be restored to the image of God. God provided this salvation because He is love. This so great salvation (Heb. 2:3) is the outflow of His superabundant love.
“9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
(I John 4:9-10 ERS)
The love of God is the source of our salvation from death and sin. God did not have to love; there was no nature or inner necessity that caused God to love. God has freely and sovereignly chosen to be love. His choice determined the good. The good is what God wills. And it is not whimsical or arbitrary because it is God who has willed it. “Thy will be done on earth as in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10, etc.) God’s will is not determined by His nature; His nature is His will; He is what he chooses to be (Deut. 32:39; Isa. 45:7; 46:8-11). And God has chosen to be love and He has revealed that choice in the history of children of Israel and supremely in Jesus Christ, His Son (John 3:16; I John 4:9-10). The true God is a God of sovereign love, not of sovereign justice. God does not have to fulfill any condition before he can act in His love to save us; God’s love is truly free and does not have to satisfy a supposed divine justice before He can act in love. God can freely forgive man’s sin because he is not bound by any prior conditions in his nature. And according to the scriptures He will forgive when a man will repent and turn from his sin (Ezek. 18:21-23,32; see also Ezek. 33:11).
The grace of God is God’s love in action.
“4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4-5 ERS).
God’s grace is more than His favor; it is His love acting to do something good for someone. Because God loves us, He has acted to save us. Salvation is by God’s grace. “The grace of God brings salvation” (Titus 2:11 KJV). What is salvation? Salvation is deliverance — deliverance from something bad. That is, salvation is deliverance
God was active in Jesus Christ, particularly in His death and resurrection, for man’s salvation (Acts 4:12; I Thess. 5:9; I Tim. 1:15; II Tim. 1:9-10; 2:10; 3:15; Heb. 5:9). The gospel tells us about God’s act of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:3-4; Eph. 1:13). God acted in Him to deliver man from death, from sin, and from wrath. But since wrath is caused by sin and sin is caused by death, salvation is basically the deliverance from death to life. Man cannot make himself alive. Only God can make alive for He is the living God and the source of all life. Because God loves man, He did not leave him in death but has provided for deliverance from death by sending His Son into the world.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 KJV)
Thus God in His love for man sent His Son to become a man — Jesus Christ, the God-man (John 1:14). He was the perfect man; He lived perfect fellowship with God and perfectly trusted God throughout His entire life (John 1:4; 8:28-29; 12:50; 16:32; 17:25). But He came not just to be what we should have been or to give us a perfect example. He came to die on our behalf in order that we might have life in Him.
“10 I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” (John 10:10-11 KJV)
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.” (I John 4:9).
He entered not only into our existence as man, but he entered into our condition of spiritual and physical death. On the cross He died not only physically but spiritually. For only this once during His whole life was He separated from His Father. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46 KJV) He was forsaken for us; He died for us. “Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us” (I John 3:16).
But God raised Him from the dead. He entered into our death in order that as He was raised from the dead we might be made alive with and in Him (Eph. 2:5). Hence Christ’s death was our death, and His resurrection is our resurrection (II Cor. 5:15). He became identified with us in death in order that we might become identified with Him in His resurrection and have life. He became like us that we might become like Him. As Irenaeus said,
“…but following the only true and steadfast teacher, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.” [1]
He tasted death for every man (Heb. 2:9).
“14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him that has the power of death, that is the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.” (Heb. 2:14-15).
He acted as our representative, on our behalf and for our sake.
“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for (on the behalf, huper) all, therefore all died,” that is, in Christ who represents all (II Cor. 5:14).
Adam acting as a representative brought the old creation under the reign of death. But Christ acting as our representative brought a new creation in which those “who have received the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness” will reign in life (Rom. 5:17).
“21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (I Cor. 15:21-22)
“Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.” (II Cor. 5:17)
(Jesus said) “Because I live ye shall live also.” (John 14:19 KJV)
Acting through our representative, God has reconciled us to Himself through Him, that is, God has brought us into fellowship with Himself.
“18 But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ … 19 to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.” (II Cor. 5:18-19; see also Rom. 5:10-11; I Cor. 1:9; I John 1:2-3).
This representative work of Christ should not be understood as a vicarious act instead of another, but as a participation, a sharing in the act of another. Christ took part or shared our situation. He entered not only into our existence as a man, but also into our condition of spiritual and physical death. On the cross He died not only physically but also spiritually (Matt. 26:46). We were reconciled to God through the death of Christ because He shared in our death (Rom. 5:10; Heb. 2:9). But He was raised from the dead, and that on behalf of all men (II Cor. 5:15). He was raised from the dead so that we might participate in His resurrection and be made alive with Him (Eph. 2:5-7). His resurrection is our resurrection. He was raised from dead for us so that we might participate in His resurrection and life, both spiritual and physical, in Him. Since spiritual death is no fellowship with God, being made alive with Christ we are brought into fellowship with God. Hence we are reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10; II Cor. 5:17-19). Reconciliation can therefore be defined as that aspect of salvation whereby man is delivered from death to life. The source of this act of reconciliation is the love of God. It is a legalistic misunderstanding of reconciliation which says that God was reconciled to man. The Scriptures never say that God is reconciled to man but that man is reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10; II Cor. 5:18-19). The problem is not in God but in man. Man is the enemy of God; God is not the enemy of man. God loves man, and out of His great love He has acted to reconcile man to Himself through the death and resurrection of Christ. It is true that God in His wrath opposes man’s sin, but in His grace He has provided a means by which His wrath may be turned away. But this aspect of salvation is propitiation, not reconciliation. Reconciliation should not be confused with propitiation. God in reconciling man to Himself has saved man from death, the cause of sin, and hence has removed sin, the cause of His wrath — no sin, no wrath. Reconciliation is salvation from death to life. Salvation may be viewed in three different ways.
1. From the point of view of family, it is the new birth. We have been born into God’s family; we are now children of God (John 1:12-13).
2. Second, from the point of view of creation, salvation is new creation. We are now new creatures in Christ (II Cor. 5:17).
3. Finally, from the point of reconciliation, salvation is new life, resurrection from the dead. We who were dead are now alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:5) and are now alive in Him. We have been raised from the dead with Christ. Because He lives, we are now alive (John 14:19). Life is not a “thing,” but it is a person — Jesus. Jesus, God’s Son, is the life (John 14:6). And to know Him personally is to have eternal life. Jesus prayed, “This is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). To know Him personally is to have Him. And “he that has the Son has life and he that has not the Son has not life” (I John 5:12). If we have God’s Son, we are alive to God; we have eternal life; we have been raised from the dead with Christ; we are reconciled to God and spiritually we are saved from death.
Salvation is basically from death to life. And being made alive with Christ, we are new creatures in Christ and have been born again into God’s family.
God not only acted in Jesus Christ to reconcile us to Himself, that is, to deliver us from death unto life, but also to redeem us from sin. “In Whom [Christ] we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7; see also Col. 1:14). The redemption that is in Christ (Rom. 3:24) is deliverance from sin by the payment of a price which is the blood of Christ, that is, His death. The price is the means by which the redemption is accomplished.
“18 Knowing that ye were redeemed not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; 19 but with the precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.”
(I Pet. 1:18-19; see also Heb. 9:14-15).
According to the English translation of Eph. 1:7 and Col. 1:14, redemption is equivalent to forgiveness of sins. But the basic meaning of the Greek word translated “to forgive” is “to send off or away.” Hence to forgive one’s sins is send them away. Hence redemption is sending away sin. And this was accomplished by the death of Christ, “through His blood”; He sent away sin by bearing them in HIs body on the cross.
“And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross. that we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness; for by His wounds you are healed.” (I Pet. 2:24 ERS; see Isa. 53:5, 11-12).
Jesus was “manifested in order to take away sins” (I John 3:5). He is “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Salvation is not just forgiveness; it is basically deliverance from death; it is the resurrection of the dead. Forgiveness of sins is not enough; man needs to be made alive to God because he is spiritually dead. And he is dead not because of his own sins but the sin of another, Adam. So the forgiveness of a man’s sins does not take away spiritual death because the spiritual death was not caused by that man’s sins. Removing his sins does not remove the spiritual death. But the removing of spiritual death removes his sins. Salvation as resurrection from the dead is also salvation from sin and thus is also the forgiveness of sins. Thus to be alive to God means that sins are forgiven.
This redemption from sin was accomplished by the death of Jesus Christ because His death is also the means by which we were delivered from death, the cause of sin. Since spiritual death leads to sin (Rom. 5:12d ERS), sin reigns in the sphere of death’s reign (Rom. 5:21). And since Christ’s death is the end of the reign of death for those who died with Christ, it is also the end of the reign of sin over them. They are no longer slaves of sin, serving false gods. We were all slaves of sin once, serving our false gods when we were spiritually dead, alienated and separated from the True God, not knowing Him personally. But we were set free from this slavery to sin through the death of Christ. For when Christ died, He died to sin (Rom. 6:10a) as a slave master. Sin no longer has dominion or lordship over Him. For he who has died is freed from sin (Rom. 6:7). That is, when a slave dies, he is no longer in slavery, death frees him from slavery. Since Jesus died for all, then all have died (II Cor. 5:14). His death is our death. Since we have died with Him and He has died to sin, then we have died to sin. We are freed from the slavery of sin and are no longer enslaved to it (Rom. 6:6-7). But now Christ is alive, having been raised from the dead, and we are alive to God in Him. His resurrection is our resurrection. “But the life He lives He lives to God” (Rom. 6:10b). This is the life of righteousness. And so we who are now alive to God in Him are to live to righteousness. For just as death leads to sin, so life leads to righteousness.
“And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (I Pet. 2:24).
Having been redeemed from the slavery of sin through the death of Christ, we who are now alive in Him have become slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:17-18). Redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness.
Now that God has redeemed us from sin, we also are delivered from the wrath of God. Salvation is not only deliverance from sin but also deliverance from the wrath of God (Rom. 5:9). God put forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation through faith in His blood (Rom. 3:25). The death of Jesus Christ is a propitiation because it is the means that God has appointed for turning away His wrath from man. While God in His love could have mercy on man and turn away His wrath from man (Psa. 78:38; Exodus 34:6; Numbers 14:19-20), He has appointed means whereby His wrath will be turned away. In the Old Testament God’s appointed means for turning away His wrath were the sacrifices and offerings. When these sacrifices were offered in true repentance and faith, they were an atonement or propitiation. But the Old Testament sacrifices could never take away sin (Heb. 10:4, 11). On the contrary, there is in those sacrifices a continual remembrance of sin year by year (Heb. 10:3). That is, the worshippers, not having been cleansed of their sins, still have a consciousness of sin (Heb. 10:2). Therefore, those that draw near could never be made perfect by those sacrifices (Heb. 10:1). But Christ has put away sin once for all by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb. 9:26; 10:12), and has made perfect them that are being sanctified or set apart to God (Heb. 10:14). Now there is no more remembrance of sins (Heb. 10:17) since those drawing near having been cleansed from their sins have no more consciousness of sins (Heb. 10:22). It was to accomplish our cleansing for sin that Christ “gave Himself for our sins” (Gal. 1:4) and “died for our sins” (I Cor. 15:3). God acted in Jesus Christ to to redeem us from sin.
The Old Testament sacrifices could never take away sin (Heb. 10:4,11), that is, they could not bring about repentance and faith, because they could not make alive (Gal. 3:21). The Old Testament sacrifices could not reconcile man to God. But through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ man is reconciled to God and his sins are taken away. And since there are no sins to cause wrath, the wrath of God is turned away. No sin, no wrath. Thus Christ’s death is the perfect sacrifice for turning away God’s wrath because by it man is redeemed from sin. Christ’s death is a propitiation because it is a redemption; it is both a propitiation and a redemption. Redemption is the liberation aspect of Christ’s work of salvation and propitiation is the sacrificial aspect of Christ’s work of salvation. And it is a propitiation and a redemption because it is a reconciliation to God. Being made alive to God, death, the cause of sin, and sin, the cause of wrath, has been removed.
God has acted in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of man from death, sin and wrath. Since wrath is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18) and sin by death (Rom. 5:12d ERS), salvation is basically from death to life and then from sin to righteousness and then from wrath to peace with God. Reconciliation is salvation from death to life; redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness; and
propitiation is salvation from wrath to peace. These three aspects of salvation are accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Propitiation is the sacrificial aspect of His work of salvation, redemption is the liberation aspect of His work, and
reconciliation is the representative aspect of His work of salvation.
This threefold act of God for the salvation of man is the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God (salvation) has been manifested (publicly displayed) in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-26). The gospel tells us about this act of God, about this manifestation of the righteousness of God. But in the preaching of the gospel the righteousness of God is being continually revealed or actualized (Rom. 1:17). That is, God is exerting His power for the salvation of man in the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 1:16).
The gospel is not only about the righteousness of God manifested in the past on our behalf, but in the gospel the righteousness of God is being continually revealed in the present. “For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is being revealed from faith unto faith” (Rom. 1:17a ERS). Revelation in this verse is not just a disclosure of truth to be understood by the mind, but it is a working that makes effective and actual that which is revealed. Hence, the revelation of the righteousness of God is that working of God that makes effective and actual that which is revealed, the righteousness of God. In other words, the revelation of the righteousness of God is the actualization of God’s salvation. And the righteousness of God is revealed when the salvation of God is made actual and real, that is, when salvation or deliverance takes place. In the preaching of the gospel there is taking place continually an actualization of the righteousness of God. That is, salvation or deliverance is taking place as the gospel is preached. This is the reason that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. (Rom. 1:16. Compare Rom. 1:16-17 with Isa. 56:1 which is no doubt the source of Paul’s concepts and words in these verses.)
Faith is the actualization of the salvation of God. Faith is not the means nor the condition of salvation but is the actualization of salvation. Salvation is not a thing which is received by faith but is God’s activity of deliverance which produces faith and is accomplished in that faith. This is expressed by Paul in Romans 1:17 in a twofold way: “from faith unto faith”.
1. Faith is the source of the revelation of the righteousness of God: “from faith”. The revelation of the righteousness of God arises out of or comes out of faith. The righteousness of God does not come from faith; it comes from God. God is the source of the righteousness of God; it is what He does. But its revelation is from faith. That is, the actualization of the deliverance of God is the faith which the righteousness of God produces. The righteousness of God is revealed only when the one to whom the revelation comes has faith. Without faith there is no revelation, and only when there is faith is there a revelation of the righteousness of God. In this sense, faith is the source of the revelation of the righteousness of God.
2. Faith is goal of the revelation of the righteousness of God: “unto faith”. The revelation of the righteousness of God moves toward and is accomplished in faith. When a man has faith, the deliverance of God has reached its goal. Faith then is the goal of the revelation of the righteousness of God.
In salvation, God does not give us something but gives us Himself, and faith is not the receiving of something but is the receiving of Him. In salvation, God does not just reveal something about Himself but reveals Himself. Apart from this personal revelation, faith is impossible, but when this revelation take place, faith is possible. Since “faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17), faith is the product of God’s activity of the revelation of Himself. This revelation takes place in the preaching of the gospel. For the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). The gospel is not only about salvation (Eph. 1:13), but it is the power of God unto salvation. When the gospel is preached, God exerts His power and men are saved. This act of God’s power through the preaching of the gospel takes the form of the personal revelation of God Himself and His love. For He is love (I John 4:8, 16). Those who believe in response to this revelation are through this decision of faith realizing the power of God unto salvation, and in this decision of faith they are saved. To believe is to be saved, and to be saved is to believe.
In this decision of faith, they who believe are saved from death to life. To have faith in God is to believe in Jesus Christ, His Son (John 14:1; 6:29; 8:42; 5:38). And to believe in Jesus Christ is to receive spiritual life. For Jesus is the life (John 5:26; 6:33-35, 38-40, 57-58).
“11 And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life” (I John 5:11-12).
To have life is to have passed from death to life. Jesus said,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life; he does not come into judgment,
but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).
The one who believes God who sent His Son has passed from death to life because he has in that decision of faith also identified himself with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ identified Himself with us in death; He entered into our spiritual death on the cross and died physically for us. His death was our death. In faith we accept His death as our death and identify ourselves with His death. But since God has raised Jesus from the dead, so also are we made alive with Christ. His resurrection was our resurrection. In faith, we identify ourselves with Him and His resurrection. To receive life in Christ is to be raised from the dead with Him. To pass from death to life is to have died and been raised with Jesus from the dead. We are now spiritually alive in Him. We have entered into fellowship with God and are now reconciled to God. As the gospel is preached, God exerts His power and men are made alive, raised from the dead.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25).
When the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus for us is proclaimed, God speaks to men, revealing Himself in Jesus Christ. Those who hear and believe in Jesus are made alive in Him, being raised from the dead. They are reconciled to God (II Cor. 5:20). They are saved from death to life.
But in the decision of faith, men are not only saved from death to life but also from sin to righteousness. To have faith in God is to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. In general, faith is not just belief that certain statements are true but is the commitment of oneself and allegiance to something or someone as one’s own personal ultimate criterion of all decisions, intellectual and moral. Saving faith in Jesus Christ is the commitment of oneself to Jesus Christ as one’s own personal ultimate criterion (“My Lord and my God,” John 20:28). The living person, the resurrected Jesus Christ, not just what He taught, becomes in the decision of faith our ultimate criterion. This decision of faith is a turning from false gods (idols) to the living and true God (I Thess. 1:10). Faith in the true God is righteousness.
“Abraham believed God, and it [his faith] was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3).
To believe God is to be righteous (Rom. 4:5). To acknowledge Jesus as Lord is to believe God that He raised Him from the dead (Rom. 4:22-24).
“9 That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; 10 for with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses unto salvation.”
(Rom. 10:9-10; ERS).
To believe God that He raised from the dead Jesus who in faith we confess as Lord is to be righteous. Thus, this decision of faith is salvation from sin to righteousness.
The revelation of the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:17) is also called justification (Rom. 3:24). As we have seen, the righteousness of God is the act or activity of God whereby God sets man right with God Himself. Hence the revelation of the righteousness of God is this act of setting right, and this act of setting right is called justification. Justification is not just a pronouncement about something but is an act that brings about something; it is not just a declaration that a man is righteous before God but is a setting of a man right with God: a bringing him into a right relationship with God. Justification is then essentially salvation: to justify is to save (Isa. 45:25; 53:11; see Rom. 6:7 where dikaioo is translated “freed” in RSV). This close relationship between these two concepts is more obvious in the Greek because the words translated “justification” and “righteousness” have the same roots, not two different roots as do the two English words.
There is a difference between justification in the Old Testament and that in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, justification is the vindication of the righteous who are suffering wrong (Ex. 23:7). God justifies, that is, vindicates the righteous who are wrongfully oppressed. Justification requires a real righteousness of the people on whose part it is done. In Isa. 51:7, the promise of deliverance is addressed to those “who know righteousness, the people in whose hearts is my law.” Similarly, in order to share in the promised vindication, the wicked must forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord (Isa. 55:7). However, in the New Testament, justification is not only a vindication of a righteous people who are being wrongfully oppressed but also a deliverance of the people from their own sins. Thus, Paul says that God is He “that justifies the ungodly” (Rom. 4:5). In the New Testament, justification is not just a vindication of the righteous who has been wronged (this view is in Jesus’ teaching in Matt. 5:6; 6:33; Luke 18:7), but also the salvation of the ungodly who is delivered from his ungodliness and unrighteousness. But justification not only saves the ungodly from their sins, it also brings them into the righteousness of faith. To be set right with God is to have faith in God.
“Abraham believed God, and it [his faith] was reckoned unto him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3,9; cf. Rom. 10:9; Phil. 3:9).
Justification as God’s act of setting man right with Himself brings man into faith, which is to be set right with God. Thus justification is through faith (dia pisteos, Rom. 3:30; Gal. 2:16) and out of or from faith (ek pisteos, Rom. 3:26,30; Gal. 2:16; 3:8,24).
But justification as salvation is not only the deliverance from sin to righteousness but also the deliverance from wrath to peace and from death to life. Justification as deliverance from wrath to peace is set forth by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:24-25:
“24 Being justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood.” (ERS; see also Isa. 32:17)
Here, Paul connects justification with two of the aspects of salvation, redemption and propitiation. Redemption is the deliverance from sin by the payment of a price called a ransom which is the death of Jesus Christ. And propitiation is the deliverance from the wrath by the sacrificial death of Jesus (“His blood”) which turns away or averts the wrath of God through faith in that sacrifice (“through faith in His blood”). Christ’s death as a propitiation turns away God’s wrath from the one who has faith in that sacrifice. The wrath is turned away because the sin has been taken away (“redemption”) by the death of Christ as a ransom, by which a man is redeemed or set free, delivered from sin. When sin has been removed there is no cause for God’s wrath. No sin, no wrath. Man is saved from wrath because he is saved from sin.
“Being justified freely by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:1)
“Much more then, being justified by His blood, we shall be saved through Him from the wrath of God.” (Rom. 5:9).
Justification is also deliverance from death to life. Man is delivered from sin to the righteousness of faith because he is delivered from death to life. As sinners, we were enemies of God, but through the death of God’s Son we have been reconciled to God and are now no longer enemies. To be reconciled to God means we have passed from death to life and we are saved in His resurrected life (Rom. 5:10; see II Cor. 5:17-21). We are delivered from death by being “made alive together with Him” in His resurrection (Eph. 2:5). He was “raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). Thus justification is justification of life (Rom. 5:18 KJV). To be set right with God is to enter into fellowship with God. And this right relationship to God is life. Justification puts us into right relationship to God and hence is a justification of life. This right relationship to God is life, a personal relationship and fellowship with God. This fellowship with God is established when God reveals Himself to man and man responds to that revelation in faith. Life is a personal relationship between God and man that results from this revelation and the faith that responses to it. Apart from this revelation the response of faith is not possible, and this revelation is the offer of life and the possibility of faith. But life is not actual unless man responds in faith to this revelation of God Himself. Life is received in the act of faith. Since God’s act of revelation is first, and man’s response in faith is second and depends upon God’s revelation, life results in the righteousness of faith and man is righteous because of life. Justification as the revelation of the righteousness of God brings about life and the righteousness of faith.
Justification is the free act of God’s grace (Rom. 3:24; Titus 3:7). The source of justification is the love of God. And the love of God in action to bring man salvation is the grace of God (Titus 2:11). Hence justification is the true expression of the grace of God and the act of the love of God. Because justification is a gift (Rom. 3:24; 5:15-17), justification is free and is not something that can be earned (Rom. 4:4; 11:6). Being a free act of God’s grace, justification has nothing to do with the works of the law (Rom. 3:20,28; 4:6; Gal. 2:16; 3:11; see also Eph. 2:2-9; Phil. 3:9; II Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5).
The whole legalistic theology is a misunderstanding of the righteousness of God and justification by faith, and is therefore unbiblical and false. The Scripture nowhere speaks of the righteousness or merits of Christ and of justification as an imputation of the merits of Christ to our account. The introduction of such a legalistic righteousness, even if it means the merits of Christ, into the discussion of the righteousness of God and of justification by faith, obscures the grace of God and misunderstands the law as well as the gospel of the grace of God.
In principle, the grace of God has nothing to do with legal righteousness and merits. God does not give man His grace by faith so that he can earn merits to gain eternal life nor to declare that he is legally righteous before God by the merits of Christ that has been reckoned to his account. Jesus Christ did not satisfy in our place the demands of the law, neither in precept nor penalty. Christ fulfilled the law (Matt. 5:17), but not for us. Nowhere in the Scripture does it say that Christ fulfilled the law for us. Neither did he fulfill it legalistically. Not because Christ was not able to do it but because God does not in His love and grace operate on the basis of law or legal righteousness. Christ fulfilled the law by love, for “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:8, 10).