Romans 3:24-28 (KJV) Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (25) Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (26) To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (27) Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. (28) Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

What was God’s purpose when He created Adam and Eve, and placed them in a Garden East of Eden (Genesis 2:8)? The Bible says that God made man – male and female – in His image and in His likeness (Genesis 1:27). The Bible tells us that God is One (Galatians 3:20). Jesus said:

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord
(Mark 12:29)

God is ONE, but in three Persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. God is unified. God is family. God made the Family in the Garden. “God said, Let US make mankind in our image, in our likeness”. What God made was the family. The family was to follow God, and to rule the earth as stewards of what God had made. The family God placed in Eden was to heed God’s Word, not create their own word to follow. The family was placed under the leadership of Adam, but Adam was to follow God as Eve followed Adam.

Though theologians will tell you it is not proper to call GOD a FAMILY, in one sense God is the perfect picture of what a family should be. The Father, the Son, the Spirit are all separate and distinct Persons, but are all in perfect agreement with one another. There is no disagreement nor disharmony in God. Truly, “God is ONE”.

God created the family to rule creation,
not to be ruled by it.

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) by the Triune God (let US make man in our image). God designed the family. God gave the family a duty to fulfill. God gave the family a command. How did our fore-parents fulfill the command of God? Adam knelt down at the altar of self and, ignoring the Father of Lights (James 1:17) followed his wife in listening to Lucifer, that evil lord of darkness (2 Corinthians 11:14). Adam’s failure caused the condemnation of God to fall on all creation. Mankind came under the control of sin and Satan. The family that God originally created was fragmented, broken away from Paradise, separated from the Almighty by the consequences of sin.

God is pro-family. Satan and the world are pro-self. What the world calls love is mere self interest, making oneself god and goddess. God designed the family to work best when it operates in harmony with His Word and His ideal. It is the devil’s desire to fragment the family. As the family fragments, society fragments. Every nation that has collapsed has done so because the family disintegrated.

Adam and Eve fell from the Family of God,
Then their family fell.
Sodom and Gomorrah fell because the family fell.
Rome fell because the family fell.
Babylon and Assyria fell because the family fell.
America itself is falling because families are falling.

What is the solution to what ails us?

God Offers Us A Return To His Family

Romans 3:24-25 Being justified freely by His grace through the REDEMPTION that is in Christ Jesus: (25) Whom God hath set forth to be a PROPITIATION through faith in his blood ….

Every key word in this text:

JUSTIFIED
GRACE
REDEMPTION
PROPITIATION

emphasizes something that God has to do to bring you into His family. When Adam rejected the Word and Command of God, and ate that which was forbidden, his action misaligned himself and his progeny with God. The Bible says:

Romans 7:14 … the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Just as Esau sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a little soup, Adam sold his birthright – his place in the family of God – for a bite of forbidden fruit. We were as humans designed to be in alignment with God, to walk with God, to be blessed of God. But Adam’s sin misaligned us. We were no longer JUSTIFIED or in step with God. We are told in:

Romans 5:12 … by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned …

We are born in bondage to sin, an old sin nature. We need to be JUSTIFIED, that is, brought into alignment with our Heavenly Father. But we are SOLD UNDER SIN. We are born sinners, and we cannot justify ourselves. In John chapter 3 we see a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler among the Pharisees. He comes to Jesus at night because he has heard of the great things that Jesus had been both doing and saying. As this ruler, this powerful religious figure addresses Jesus very respectfully, Jesus interrupts him. Our Lord says:

John 3:3 (NKJV) Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

You may be religious. You may be proper. But you are born into this world in misalignment to God. You MUST BE BORN AGAIN (John 3:7).

The Lord must cause you to be JUSTIFIED. The Lord must bring you in alignment with Himself. You must be born again.

Is this something you can do? No. Look at verse 24 again:

by His grace through the REDEMPTION

You are born into this world “a servant or slave of sin”. Jesus said:

John 8:34-36 (NKJV)… Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. [35] And a slave does not abide in the house forever, [but] a son abides forever. [36] Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

We are born into this world chasing sin, SLAVES OF SIN. The slave cannot free themselves, but must be REDEEMED. It is Jesus Who gives us REDEMPTION. He redeems us from sin’s hold, and frees us so that we can be brought into alignment with God. This is offered “by His grace”. It is a free gift offered to whoever will turn their life over to Jesus. Again in verse 24:

by his GRACE through the REDEMPTION
that is IN CHRIST JESUS

God offers whosoever will entrance into His family through His Son, and only His Son.

Though it is a FREE GIFT – that’s what GRACE means – there is a cost to it. What is that cost. It is complete and utter surrender to Jesus. It is to take your broken and misaligned life, and give it utterly to the Lord Jesus. When the multitudes began to follow Jesus, our Lord turned and told them:

Luke 14:26-33 NKJV – If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. [27] And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. [28] For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has [enough] to finish [it]– [29] lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see [it] begin to mock him, [30] saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ [31] Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? [32] Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. [33] So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

The surgeon cannot fix your body while you demand to hold the knife. The plumber cannot fix your faucet while you command the tools he uses. The auto mechanic cannot repair your vehicle while you refuse to give him the keys. Even so, God cannot bring you into His family unless you surrender your life to Jesus.

Romans 3:24 Being JUSTIFIED FREELY

God will cause our new birth, He will bring us into alignment when we surrender our lives to Christ. We are JUSTIFIED FREELY. Surrendering to and giving your life to Jesus, the Father looks at you and says “you are now forgiven – your punishment paid”. Why would God do this?

Romans 3:25 … Whom God hath set forth to be a PROPITIATION through FAITH IN HIS BLOOD …

Our faith is not in the LAW nor in our own supposed GOODNESS. We are born broken, enslaved by sin. The Bible says:

1 John 1:5 God IS LIGHT, and in Him is NO DARKNESS AT ALL.

God has not a trace of sin in Himself. We are born broken sinners. We cannot make ourselves aligned with God, we cannot cause ourselves to be born again. But God SET HIS SON FORTH to be a PROPITIATION, a SATISFACTORY PAYMENT for our sins.

Jesus freely died for our sins. The Apostle wrote:

1 Peter 1:18-20 (ESV) … knowing that you were RANSOMED from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

It is not by our efforts we are brought into alignment with God, but through Jesus.

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

When we surrender our lives to Jesus, the Father looks at our hearts, and says “I am PROPITIATED. I am SATISFIED that the punishment was paid”. The Bible tells us that:

1 John 2:2 (AP) JESUS IS THE PROPITIATION, the satisfactory payment for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD…

Our Lord Jesus died for all. There is no good in us that God finds commendable. If we will enter into His Family, then we must enter by His Grace. This Greek word, χαρις, charis, (pronounced khar’-ece), means a gift freely given. God offers entrance into His Family as a free gift given without a cause. We did not cause it, but His great love provided it. Pastor C.H. Spurgeon said:

“A sinner without grace attempting to reform himself is like {a man} rolling the stone up hill, which always comes down with greater force. A man without grace attempting to save himself, is engaged in as hopeless a task as {those who attempt} to fill a vast vessel with bottomless buckets. He has a bow without a string, a sword without a blade, a gun without powder. He needs strength. I grant you, he may produce a hollow reformation; he may earth up the volcano, and sow flowers around its crater; but when it once begins to stir again, it shall move the earth away, and the hot lava shall roll over all the fair flowers which he had planted, and devastate both his works and his righteousness. A sinner without grace is a slave: he cannot deliver himself from his sins.”

Jesus The Righteous Gave Himself
For The Unrighteous To REDEEM Us

What a great truth these words “through the REDEMPTION THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS” (vs 24). We sing the words:

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child and forever I am.
Redeemed, redeemed,
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed, redeemed,
His child and forever I am.

Jesus on Calvary paid the penalty of our sin. Receiving Him as Savior and Lord, we are REDEEMED FROM ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. Jesus paid the penalty. He died for me. We are REDEEMED FROM SLAVERY TO SIN. Sin is no longer our Master. Jesus is our Master and Lord – it is He we follow and glorify. We are REDEEMED TO ENTER THE FAMILY OF GOD. The Son of God left the splendor of Heaven and came to this earth. He became incarnate, took on Himself humanity, so that He could redeem those who believe in Him. God became incarnate, taking on Himself humanity, so He could deliver us from the slave market of sin, death, and hell.

Christian, you are redeemed from the law of God. The law was a harsh master who pointed out your every flaw, your every sin, your every failure in righteousness. Christ fulfilled the Law of God so that those who believe in Him stand before God clean and just. Is it our works that cleaned us up? Absolutely not. Look to the focal text:

Romans 3:27-28 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. (28) Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law

Does this mean that the Christian is lawless? Absolutely not! The Christian is not lawless, but under new management. Redeemed from the Law you now belong to God.

1 Corinthians 6:20 For ye are bought {REDEEMED} with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

You now belong not to Satan, nor to this world, nor even to yourself. You belong to God. You are redeemed from the Law so that you can freely serve the greater Master. We were under the Law:

Galatians 4:4-7 But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, (5) To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (6) And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (7) Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

The Christian is redeemed from the Law, from Sin, from Lawlessness. We walk in step with Christ, the Son, as sons and daughters of God. We are family. Again the Scripture says:

Titus 2:13-14 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; (14) Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

You were redeemed, purchased from the Law and from Lawlessness to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Show me a person who justifies sinfulness and I will show you an unsaved hell-bound person. The Scripture says:

1 John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

and again,

1 John 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments

Grace brings a person into the Family of God. Those in the Family walk with the Family. Those in the Family walk in unity with the Father, in the power of the Spirit, with Christ Jesus as our Leader and Guide.

Old time Pastor George Whitefield put it this way:

“You need not fear the greatness or number of your sins. For are you sinners? So am I. Are you the chief of sinners? So am I. Are you backsliding sinners? So am I. And yet the Lord (forever adored be His rich, free, and sovereign Grace), the Lord is my righteousness.”

Are you saved? If so, you will follow Jesus. Will you do so perfectly? No, none of us do. I ask you,

Do you love Jesus perfectly?

I think if we were honest, we would say “No, not perfectly”. So now I ask,

Do you love Jesus as much as you should?

Again I think if we were all honest, we’d say “No, not as much as I should. If I did, I’d love Jesus perfectly.” So now I ask simply:

Do you love Jesus knowing He is your only hope?

I believe this is where all Christians reside. We love Him, knowing what He gave for us. We love Him, for He first loved us, and gave Himself for us. We often hate ourselves and our failures. But we love Jesus, and love the family for His sake. Jesus is my Righteousness. Jesus is my Shield. Jesus is my Hope. Jesus is my Life. May you all come to surrender to and love Jesus.

Amen.