Romans 3:24

24. Being justified If at all justified.

Freely Gratuitously. For though the justification is conditioned upon faith, yet the faith is no compensation to God for it. Faith being the self-surrender above described has indeed a sort of merit. It has the merit of being a right and not a wrong thing, as unfaith is. It is a compliance with the divine command. It is intrinsically an excellent thing or act, the very best thing indeed possible in the case. It has the merit, too, of suitableness or congruity, being the soul’s putting itself into the proper position of accepting and receiving the blessed gift. The very fact that God selects faith as a condition, implies its excellence and fitness as a condition; otherwise God might just as well make blasphemy or murder a condition of salvation. Yet this implies not that there is in this faith any compensation to God, any merit adequate to the gift of eternal life, any thing that (apart from God’s promises) places him under obligation to confer wages or reward. A millionaire may bestow a fortune on a beggar simply on the condition of his coming, kneeling down, and stretching forth his hand to take it. There would thereby be no merit on the beggar’s part. There might be great demerit in his refusing, and turning his back and calling his benefactor a liar; but there would be no merit in his performing the condition and obtaining the grace. So the receptive faith by which the sinner yields to God’s mercy, though it be a condition, may have no merit.

From all this the reader may clearly see what a blunder it is to suppose that non-merited salvation must imply that the salvation is forced, or fixed, or fastened upon us without power of resistance on our part. Grace is grace without being irresistible, and without being divinely “secured not to be resisted.” The placing any value on man’s service, and therefor conferring pardon, happiness, and heaven, is of God’s free, spontaneous, unbought bounty.

Redemption The word signifies a ransoming, being derived from the word λυτρον , a ransom. (Note Matthew 20:28.) Dr. Hodge’s note on this word is very admirable: “The word translated redemption has two senses in the New Testament. 1. It means properly ‘a deliverance effected by the payment of a ransom.’ This is its primary etymological meaning. 2. It means deliverance simply, without any reference to the means of its accomplishment, whether by power or wisdom Luke 21:28: ‘The day of redemption (that is, of deliverance) draweth nigh;’

Hebrews 11:25, (and perhaps Romans 8:23; compare Isaiah 50:2:) ‘Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem?’ etc. When applied to the work of Christ, as effecting our deliverance from the punishment of sin, it is always taken in its proper sense, deliverance effected by the payment of a ransom. This is evident, (1,) Because in no case where it is thus used is anything said of the precepts, doctrines, or power of Christ as the means by which the deliverance is effected, but uniformly his sufferings are mentioned as the ground of deliverance: ‘In whom we have redemption in his blood;’ Ephesians 1:7; ‘By the means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions,’ Hebrews 9:15; Colossians 1:14. (2.) In this passage the nature of this redemption is explained by the following verse; it is not by truth, nor the exhibition of excellence, but through Christ ‘as a propitiatory sacrifice, through faith in his blood.’ (3.) Equivalent expressions fix the meaning of the term without doubt; 1 Timothy 2:6: ‘Who gave himself a ransom for all;’ Matthew 20:28: ‘The Son of man came to give his life as a ransom for many;’ 1 Peter 1:18: ‘Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ;’ etc., etc. Accordingly, Christ is presented as a Redeemer, not in the character of a teacher or witness, but of a priest, a sacrifice, a propitiation,” etc., etc.