A Comprehensive Redemption

God established His brilliant plan of redemption through Jesus Christ and it is through Christ alone in which man is saved. Due to Christ's meritorious work as man's Substitute, God now has the legal right to give man eternal life. It is not based on what man can do to earn all the fullness of redemption, it is given by God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Every law, whether the law of Moses or the religious laws that man has placed in the church, are no longer a means of becoming righteous as we will see. "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets." (Romans 3:21) Up to this point in Romans, Paul has expressed and exposed to man his condition as a helpless sinner under wrath and judgment, unjustified, guilty, condemned, and under the death penalty. But now, Paul tums to what God has done for all mankind through Jesus Christ.

First, understand that man's basic need was and is righteousness, that is, the ability to stand in the Father's presence without the sense of guilt, condemnation, unworthiness or inferiority. The Apostle Paul declares that God has unveiled a new source of righteousness which is witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even though God has revealed His righteousness apart from the law, that righteousness is not contrary to the law or against it. As far as God is concerned, the Law, Prophets and Christ set forth His righteousness; "even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference." (Romans 3:22); "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:17)

Now we know where or to whom our faith is applied, Jesus Christ. This is very important to grasp. Why? The reality is, most believers tend to have more faith the day they received Christ than they have since. This may be the main reason why so many live under guilt, condemnation, unworthiness or inferiority. For believers to live free of these enemies, we must apply faith that what God said is absolutely true and then apply or act upon His Word. Notice: The righteousness of God is “to all and on all who believe.” This is an open invitation to the entire world, that is, to all people everywhere, who believe. This believing, or faith, in Jesus Christ is not just mere mental assent, or intellectual knowledge. To believe in or on the Lord Jesus Christ is; to adhere, cleave to, trust in, to have faith in, to rely on. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ give yourself up to Him, take yourself out of your own keeping and entrust yourself into His keeping and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31 AMP)
This applies across the board with every area of life as a Christian. 

Next we see, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) All have sinned; All are guilty; all have transgressed; all are lawless; all have fallen short; none measure up to the perfection of God, the glory of God and the divine standard of God's righteousness. However, "being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:24) Being justified freely by his grace. Justified means "made righteous, acquitted; made and declared right; freed from guilt and blame, and therefore, freed from the penalty and punishment of sin's guilt. At Calvary, the law was honored, sin was judged, death was dealt with, and pardon was made available. Therefore, we see that God is gracious without being unjust, and He is just without be ungracious. This redemption, this buy back, the purchasing of, has been provided in and through Jesus Christ. "whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed." (Romans 3:25)

God Himself had foreordained Christ to be the Lamb from and before the foundation of the world. Jesus was set forth to be a sin Substitute, on the ground of faith and His blood. God did this to show His righteousness because He had been passing over the sins of Israel for fifteen hundred years. Now it is demanded that the penalty be paid. Jesus met that penalty and paid or redeemed the promises that were made each year by the High Priest on the great Day of Atonement. In effect, Jesus cashed in 1500 years of promissory notes and brought redemption to every man who had been blood-covered under the First Covenant as we see, "Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." (Hebrews 9:12 ) Note that this redemption is an Eternal Redemption. When Christ carried His blood into the Most Holy Place of heaven and the Supreme Court of the Universe accepted it, man’s redemption became a completed, comprehensive and eternal thing.  

"For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:13-14 ) Notice that the blood of bulls and goats only cleanses the flesh, the outward man. It did not cleanse the heart. It did not make man a New Creation. "And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." (Hebrews 9:15) Jesus died for the sins of those living under the First Covenant that had been covered by blood from year to year, that they might have their share in the inheritance of redemption through Christ.

Finally, these things bring clarity to us in this, "He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." (Hebrews 9:26) Again, God has dealt with the sin problem. Therefore, the sin problem is ended and the sinner, Jew and Gentile, has the legal right to eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, because God so loved him that He gave him His only begotten Son. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:17-18) Note very carefully that in this New Creation, the man who accepts Christ receives eternal life. Spiritual death, the nature of the devil, is driven out. The believer is given a new nature, that is, his spirit is recreated and given God's nature. (Ephesians 4:24; 2 Peter 1:4) All of this is for this one purpose, "to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)

God is righteous and the righteousness of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. The only way that a person can become righteous in the eyes of God, is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and His blood. It is upon simple faith in Jesus Christ, that is, acting upon what God has said in regard to His Son. Now we can understand that we were justified, declared righteous, freely by his Grace, through the redemption God worked in Christ. So then, if Christ has fulfilled the law and the righteousness of the law, then whosoever believes and receives Christ, (in the biblical sense), the righteousness of the law is also fulfilled in him or her. Shout hallelujah!!!