Romans 3:24

Romans 3:24. Being justified. The present tense points, not to continuous justification of the individual, but to an action continuous as respects those spoken of in Romans 3:22-23. Because they are all in this condition (fallen snort of the glory of God), if they are justified it is in this way, namely, freely; as a gift, not by their own merit.

By his grace. God's grace, i.e., His unmerited favor. His love to the sinner, is the efficient cause of justification; this led to the objective means: through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The word ‘redemption,' meant first of all, release or deliverance of captives from a state of misery or danger by the payment of a ransom as an equivalent. This idea of a ransom price paid is the essential one in the figurative expression, and the connection not only forbids every attempt at explaining it away, but points to the historical Person who paid the ransom (Christ Jesus) as well as to the ransom itself (the death of Christ). Of course the widest sense of redemption includes a number of blessed truths; but the reference here is specific; and the idea of the payment of a price is confirmed by a number of similar expressions in the New Testament. Freedom from sin is the consequence of the ‘redemption' here spoken of, but the ‘redemption' itself is an essential part of the work of Christ. Hence the redemption is said to be in Him, not through Him; the next verse clearly shows that the reference is to His vicarious death. ‘Every mode of conception, which refers redemption and the forgiveness of sins not to a real atonement through the death of Christ, but subjectively to the dying and reviving with Him guaranteed and produced by that death, is opposed to the New Testament, a mixing up of justification and sanctification.' (Meyer.)