The Cross Demonstrates True Justice
God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Romans 3:25,26
These verses explain how God was able to redeem people in Christ (3:25a) and why He did (3:25b,26). The means of redemption was Christ’s sacrificial death. But in the verses before us Paul explains why God had to redeem people by the costly giving of His own Son as a sacrifice.
‘He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished’ (3:25b). This is a contrast between the past and the present, between God’s past forbearance that postponed judgement and His justice which demanded it, between the leaving unpunished of former sins, (which made God appear unjust), and their punishment on the cross (which fully demonstrated His justice).
God left unpunished the sins of former generations, letting the nations go their own way and overlooking their ignorance (Acts 14:16; 17:30), not because of any injustice on His part or with any thought of condoning evil, but in His forbearance (Romans 2:4). This was intentional because God always determined in the fullness of time to punish these sins in the death of His Son. This was the only way He could both ‘be just’ (and ‘demonstrate his justice’) and at the same time be ‘the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.’ Both justice (the divine attribute) and justification (the divine activity) would be impossible without the cross.
God accepts as righteous before Him sinful people who have faith, and He accepts sinners as righteous without violating His own character because Christ has fully satisfied His own demand that all who commit sin must die. By faith in Christ, we are joined to Christ. He becomes our representative and His death is credited to us.
There is nothing meritorious about faith. When we affirm that salvation is by faith and not by works, this is not substituting one kind of merit (faith), for another kind (works). Salvation is not a co-operative enterprise between God and us in which He contributes the cross and we contribute faith. The value of faith is not found in itself, but entirely and exclusively in its object, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. To say ‘justification by faith alone’ is another way of saying ‘justification by Christ alone.’
Justification (its source God and His grace, its ground Christ and His cross, and its means faith alone, altogether apart from works) is the heart of the gospel and unique to Christianity. No other system, ideology or religion proclaims free forgiveness and a new life to those who have done nothing to deserve it and a lot to deserve judgement instead. All other systems teach some form of self-salvation through good works, religious practice or self-righteousness. In contrast Christianity is the gospel, the good news that God’s grace has turned away His wrath, that God’s Son has died our death and carried our judgement, that God has mercy on the undeserving, and that there is nothing left for us to contribute. Faith’s only function is to receive what grace offers.