I want to start this article with a powerful quote from Dean Hough:
“Either Paul is evangelizing justification as God’s achievement through His Son’s death on the cross, or as our achievement by our believing in Christ. It is one or the other, not partly one and partly the other (no matter how little our part may be). Either justification reveals God’s righteousness in making all humans right by not sparing His own Son but giving Him up for the sake of all humanity (both sinners who presently listen and sinners who do not yet believe) or there is no evangel whatsoever.”¹
The points made by Dean Hough are the points I hope to reinforce in this article. One is the point that the salvation of all (the constituting just, or making righteous of all) is inherent in the evangel (good news) that the apostle Paul was chosen to share. The second is that because the salvation of all is inherent in the evangel, the constituting just of all is the achievement of God through Christ’s death on the cross, not because one believes. I also hope to bring some clarification to what Paul means when he says that believers are being justified.
Paul starts his explanation of the evangel in Rom. 3:21 after describing why this evangel is necessary and coming to the just verdict of vs. 20, that “by works of law, no flesh at all shall be justified in His sight, for through law is the recognition of sin.” Rom 3:21-23: “Yet now, apart from law, a righteousness of God is manifest (being attested by the law and the prophets), yet a righteousness of God through Jesus Christ's faith, for all, and on all who are believing, for there is no distinction, for all sinned and are wanting of the glory of God.” The evangel reveals God’s righteousness (Rom 1:17) and this righteousness of God is revealed through Jesus Christ’s faith. Through Jesus Christ’s faith, which led him to die on the cross in obedience to the will of God (Luke 22:42, Phil. 2:8), God’s righteousness has been procured for all, as all have sinned and are wanting of the glory of God, and God sent Jesus to die for all sinners (Rom 5:8, 1 Timothy 1:15). This righteousness is on all that believe the evangel, and believers are displays of this righteousness in the current era (Rom 3:26).
What evangel are believers believing? Paul lets us know in Rom 3:24: “Being justified gratuitously in His grace, through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus.” This is a different way of expressing the evangel that Paul explicitly states in 1Cor 15:3-4: “For I give over to you among the first what also I accepted, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was entombed, and that He has been roused the third day according to the scriptures.” The deliverance which is in Christ Jesus is His death for our sins and subsequent entombment and resurrection; through this deliverance God graciously and gratuitously justifies. This evangel is a proclamation of an achievement, not a conditional invitation.
In Romans 4, Paul puts Abraham up as an example of one that believed God’s promise to him, and God reckoned that belief unto righteousness. Abraham did not believe the same good news/promise that is Paul’s evangel. The promise made to him by God was that Abraham (then Abram) would have seed (heirs) as numerous as the stars (Gen. 15:2-5), and that he would be a father of many nations (Gen. 17:4). Even though at the time the promises were made Abraham had no heir, he believed God: Gen. 15:6 “Now Abram believes on Elohim, and He is reckoning it to him for righteousness.” When we believe God’s promise to us, we believe in the same way Abraham did. It is in this sense that Paul says we as believers in the evangel are “of the faith of Abraham” and he is the “father of us all”: Rom 4:16-17 “Therefore it is of faith that it may accord with grace, for the promise to be confirmed to the entire seed, not to those of the law only, but to those also of the faith of Abraham, who is father of us all, according as it is written that, a father of many nations have I appointed you -- facing which, he believes it of the God Who is vivifying the dead and calling what is not as if it were - -”
“Calling what is not as if it were”… In believing God when He says He will justify us gratuitously, we are believing that He will constitute us something that we are not, which is righteous. Rom 4:5: “Yet to him who is not working, yet is believing on Him Who is justifying the irreverent, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” God promises to justify all sinners through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus. All sinners are inherently irreverent, but God promises to justify all of them gratuitously in His grace. The word gratuitously means “unwarranted, freely, without a cause”. We can get a good idea of what this word means from John 15:25: “but it is that the word written in their law may be fulfilled, that they hate Me gratuitously.” Those that hated Jesus hated Him without a cause, there was no reason at all to hate Him. In like manner, there is no reason inherent in ourselves why God should justify us, but God promises to do so. When we believe the evangel, we are believing like Abraham: Rom 4:20-22 “yet the promise of God was not doubted in unbelief, but he was invigorated by faith, giving glory to God, being fully assured also, that, what He has promised, He is able to do also. Wherefore, also, it is reckoned to him for righteousness.” We believe that God will gratuitously justify all sinners (make them right, constitute them righteous, Rom. 5:18-19) through the deliverance in Christ Jesus. Our faith in this promise is reckoned to us for righteousness.
This is where things can get confusing, and they have been for me. Believers are not currently constituted righteous, we are reckoned righteousness. God, through the evangel (that Jesus died for our sins, was entombed and resurrected) has promised to justify all mankind. In believing this promise, God reckons the righteousness He has promised to all mankind onto the believer’s account. We enter into enjoyment of this promise at believing it earlier than the rest of mankind, because we are able to reckon as God reckons. We are not justified because we believe, as God has already made the promise to justify gratuitously in His grace (unmerited favor) through the deliverance in Christ Jesus. Paul using the words “gratuitously”and “grace” removes the thought that one is justified because they believe, as then there would be a cause in the one believing to be justified and the favor would be warranted, thus, the words gratuitously and grace could not be used. God does not promise to justify if we believe He will justify us. It was the same with Abraham, God did not promise to make Abraham the father of many nations if Abraham believed God would make him such. In both Abraham’s case and in the case of the evangel, God has shared good news of something He will not fail to accomplish.
All will be justified by Jesus’ faith (Rom. 3:22, Gal. 2:16). It is because of this reason that I cannot agree with anyone that says the evangel is “justification by faith” unless the clarification is made that we are “justified by Jesus’s faith”. Jesus’ faith in obedience to His God and Father unto death for our sins on the cross is what justifies. Rom 4:24-25: “but because of us also, to whom it is about to be reckoned, who are believing on Him Who rouses Jesus our Lord from among the dead. Who was given up because of our offenses, and was roused because of our justifying.” God roused Jesus from the dead because of our justifying. Jesus died for our sins in obedience to God, and God, in lovingly providing Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins righteously accepts Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. Rom 5:8: “yet God is commending this love of His to us, seeing that, while we are still sinners, Christ died for our sakes.” God roused Jesus absolutely guaranteeing that Jesus’ sacrifice will accomplish what it was meant to, life’s justifying for all.²
Some may ask the question, or one similar to it, “if our faith does not save us or justify us, why did Paul say to the Philippian jailor in Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved…”” One of the things I love about the Concordant Version, are the study tools provided right in the text. In Acts 16:31 before the word “saved” a vertical stroke is seen, denoting that “saved” is in the action or incomplete verb form. I have attached a photo of the explanation of this verb form from the study tools in the CLNT:
In the case of Acts 16:31, the literal reading would be “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be being saved.” This corroborates what we have already covered, that hearing the evangel acquaints us with a promise of God, and believing that evangel allows us to reckon as God reckons, and we will be being saved/justified. The ACT verb form is also used in Rom 3:28 and can literally be read as “For we are reckoning a human to be being justified by faith apart from works of law.” Again, Paul uses the ACT verb form when writing about our being justified in Gal 2:16: “having perceived that a man is not being justified by works of law, except alone through the faith of Christ Jesus, we also believe in Christ Jesus that we may be being justified by the faith of Christ and not by works of law, seeing that by works of law shall no flesh at all be justified.” Believing the evangel is believing that one is not being justified by works of law but through the faith of Christ Jesus. One who is continually working to be justified is never being justified in their own mind. They are not trusting that their justification has been procured by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, and that God roused Him from the dead because of our justifying.
Because all will be justified gratuitously in God’s grace through Jesus Christ’s faith, boasting that we in ourselves have contributed in any way to our justification is debarred: Rom 3:26-27 “toward the display of His righteousness in the current era, for Him to be just and a Justifier of the one who is of the faith of Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is debarred! Through what law?” We, like Abraham, have nothing to boast in: Rom 4:2-3 “For if Abraham was justified by acts, he has something to boast in, but not toward God. For what is the scripture saying? Now “Abraham believes God, and it is reckoned to him for righteousness.”” If we were justified because we believe, we would have position to boast, saying I have believed and now God will justify me because of it. But the evangel itself debars this line of thought, as God has already promised to gratuitously justify in His grace through the deliverance in Christ Jesus.
Yes, it takes faith to believe the evangel that we will be justified through Christ's faith, but any faith we have to believe this evangel has been given to us by God. Before his in-depth explanation of the evangel begins in Rom. 3:21, Paul made sure to make known that all are under sin (miss the mark) and “that “Not one is just” -- not even one. Not one is understanding. Not one is seeking out God.” (Rom. 3:10-11). The fact that not one (of us humans) seeks out God under our own volition does away with the idea that one can choose to seek God or conjure up faith within ourselves to believe the evangel. Any faith we have is a gift from God: Eph 2:8-9 “For in grace, through faith, are you saved, and this is not out of you; it is God's approach present, not of works, lest anyone should be boasting.” Our faith is given to us by God, and it is given in different measures based on God’s plan for the individual (Rom 12:3).
When God gives us the faith to believe the evangel, He does so through His spirit: 1Cor 2:12 “Now we obtained, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we may be perceiving that which is being graciously given to us by God,” God’s spirit is what allows us to be able to perceive the truth of the evangel, the promise that He will gratuitously justify all in His grace. Unbelievers remain ignorant of this truth: Eph 4:18: “their comprehension being darkened, being estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the callousness of their hearts,” The promise that all mankind will be constituted just gratuitously in God’s grace is still true even though most remain ignorant of it (through God’s intention, of course). God designates beforehand those whom He is going to call to believe this evangel and become members of the body of Christ (Rom 8:29-30, Eph 1:5). There are absolutely no grounds for anyone to say they have a part in their own justification. All truly is of God (2 Cor. 5:18).
Tit 3:4-7: “Yet when the kindness and fondness for humanity of our Saviour, God, made its advent, not for works which are wrought in righteousness which we do, but according to His mercy, He saves us, through the bath of renascence and renewal of holy spirit, which He pours out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Saviour, that, being justified in that One's grace, we may be becoming enjoyers, in expectation, of the allotment of life eonian.” This passage is a great description of what we have been talking about, God’s kindness and fondness for humanity is revealed in the evangel, that promise that He will gratuitously justify all in His grace through the deliverance in Christ Jesus, not through works. God saves believers by pouring His spirit on us richly through Jesus Christ, so that being justified, reckoning as God does, we can enjoy in expectation the allotment of life eonian, which God promises to those who believe.
Romans 5:1-2 is similar to the passage in Titus 3 above, and comes right after Paul wrote that Jesus was given up because of our offenses and roused by God because of our justifying in 4:25: “Being, then, justified by faith, we may be having peace toward God, through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom we have the access also, by faith, into this grace in which we stand, and we may be glorying in expectation of the glory of God.” “Being, then justified by faith”… This literally reads “out of faith”, and it is out of Jesus’s faith, for our faith ( a callback to Rom 1:17³). We are being justified through belief in the evangel, and we may have peace toward God, through our Lord, Jesus Christ (not because of anything we have done, but because of the knowledge of what God has done through Christ). By faith (by believing) we have access to the grace (the promise which is the evangel) in which we stand (by believing), and we may be glorying in expectation of the glory of God (again, we can glory in expectation because we are believing God, that in His glory He will do what He has promised).
We have seen that the evangel is the good news that God will justify all in His grace through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus (Jesus’ death for our sins, burial and resurrection). This makes the salvation of all is indeed inherent in the evangel itself. The fact that the justification of all mankind is a foundational part of the evangel destroys any idea that one is justified because they believe. Like the quote from Dean I began this article with, it is either God’s achievement or ours, and it cannot be partly one and partly the other. The wonderful truth is that our justification is God’s achievement through Christ’s sacrifice. We have also seen what it means for a believer to be being justified in believing the evangel, reckoning as God reckons, as the evangel is out of Jesus’ faith for our faith. All are saved (absolutely) because of Christ’s sacrifice, believers are being saved currently through belief in the evangel and all will be saved (constituted just), with believers being vivified and constituted just earlier than the rest of humanity.
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1. This quote is from Unsearchable Riches Volume 116, pg. 185, in the article titled “The Evangel of Which Paul is not Ashamed”. You can read this article for yourself HERE by scrolling down and clicking on volume 116.
2. Rom 5:18-19: "Consequently, then, as it was through one offense for all mankind for condemnation, thus also it is through one just award for all mankind for life's justifying. For even as, through the disobedience of the one man, the many were constituted sinners, thus also, through the obedience of the One, the many shall be constituted just."
3. Rom 1:17: "For in it God's righteousness is being revealed, out of faith for faith, according as it is written: "Now the just one by faith shall be living.""
Drew Costen has a great article going into how “for our sins” phrase in the evangel proves that the evangel contains and promises the salvation of all, you can read it HERE.
All scripture is quoted from the Concordant Literal Version
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