“It’s a Gift! The Rest of the Story”

Romans 3: 24, 25: “Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins preciously committed.” From a legal perspective every man was guilty before God (v. 23), but now we have received the gift of justification. This means, from the same legal perspective, justice has been done, the price has been paid – the price of Christ’s blood, paid at His crucifixion. This was paid publicly, outside the gates of Jerusalem on the busiest tourist day of the year, because all knew man had a long-standing bill (four thousand years long) due with God, and all needed to see it was being paid, to silence those who said that He didn’t care about it (Psalm 10: 11). We’ve all heard verse twenty-three over and over; now we know the rest of the story.