How God Justifies the Person with Faith
Understanding how Jesus resolved the tension between God's holiness and His desire to show mercy.
The death of Jesus as the propitiation or atoning sacrifice for God's wrath is the basis by which those who trust in Christ are justified.
Because of the cross, God can forgive sins without compromising His holy nature. Christ's sacrifice made forgiveness possible in a way that maintains both God's justice and His love for humanity. By satisfying the demands of God's justice through His death, Jesus resolved the tension between God's holiness and His desire to show mercy.
God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus, Romans 3.26.
We are only justified by what Jesus accomplished on the cross. His blood payment satisfied the wrath due for sin once and for all.
While Christ's atoning work was sufficient for the sins of the whole world, John 3.16; 1 John 2.2, this does not guarantee salvation for all. Justification comes not only by Christ's shed blood but also by personal faith, Romans 3.28; 5.1. The forgiveness purchased by His sacrifice is offered freely, but it must be received by trusting in Jesus and what He has done for them.[i]
Sadly, not everyone chooses to accept this gift. Eternal life is a gift to all who believe, not something automatically bestowed on all people. Christ died for the world, but salvation is appropriated only through our response by faith, repentance, and baptism.
This is as Packer[ii] writes, the real heart of the gospel: that Jesus Christ, by virtue of His death on the cross as our substitute and sin-bearer, is the propitiation for our sins. If we are in Christ, through faith, then we are justified through His cross, and the wrath will never touch us, neither here nor hereafter. Jesus rescues us from the coming wrath, 1 Thessalonians 1.10.
If we fail to understand the gospel of salvation from wrath, nor Christ’s achievement of the cross, we will never understand the wonder of the redeeming love of God.
[i] Cottrell, Jack. What the Bible Says About Grace, p. 185.
[ii] Packer, J. I., and Kevin J. Vanhoozer. Knowing God. Westmont, IL: IVP, 2023, p. 156.