Just and the Justifier

Why did Jesus have to die? Perhaps the answer to that question is nowhere summed up so succinctly as in today’s passage. Paul tells us that the Father sent Jesus to the cross “that [God] might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Both of these twin reasons for Jesus’ death have to do with God’s desire, flowing out of His grace, love, and mercy, to reclaim a people for Himself out of the morass of sin into which the human race had fallen. If God had simply destroyed the human race, visiting His wrath on all people as they deserved, He would have been just but not the Justifier. On the other hand, if He had lowered His standards and received one or more unredeemed people into heaven, He would have been the Justifier (in a sense) but not just, and therefore not God.

In His incarnate life and His death on the cross, Jesus established a legal basis by which God maintains His justness even as He justifies sinful human beings. Jesus came into the world and lived as a man under the law of God, subject to all the temptations a human being can face, yet without sin. In living without sin, He compiled a record of perfect righteousness. He then proceeded to the cross and bore the wrath of God that was due for all the sins of God’s people, sins that had to be punished. Jesus’ accomplishment of these tasks enabled God to make a judicial declaration that involves a dual “imputation.” He imputes, or reckons, the sins of His people to Christ and Christ’s righteousness to His people. Therefore, those who trust Christ stand before God not simply cleansed of sin but clothed with the spotless righteousness of their Savior. They have been justified by the Justifier, declared righteous by the Righteous One. And the Justifier has in no way compromised His standards. He remains just even as He receives fallen human beings as a people for His own possession.

Again at the end of this verse, Paul reminds the Romans that faith is the key to this great salvation. It is those who have faith in Christ who are justified. Those who understand the facts of the Gospel, who accept the truth of the matter, and who place their personal trust in God to give them the benefits of Christ’s redemption and propitiation will be saved. The people of God, therefore, are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.