Justified By His Blood

Romans 5:9 reads, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” What does it mean to be “justified by His blood?” It means that Jesus Christ died for us who are “unlike” God. Verse 8 says, “But God demonstrates (or shows or proves) His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” We, being helpless in our sin is exactly why God sent Jesus to die (vs. 6).

In fact God made Jesus Christ, one who knew no sin, become sin for us so that we would become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Do you know of any other religious organization that has made such an offer? I don’t. And it was not through “gold and silver” or perishable things that we received our redemption, but rather the shedding of the precious blood of Christ that brought about our justified salvation. Take a look at First Peter 1: 18,19 “…knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” And First Peter 3:18 goes on to tell us that “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” Wow. Can you believe this? More importantly, can you deny this?

Today would be a good day to thank God for His great love as He sent His Son to bear your sins and mine in His own body and on an old rugged cross. Can you confess that Jesus Christ died for you on Calvary? Can you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead? If so, then you can, and will be saved.

I can remember someone making this statement when I went to seminary: Justified means “just as if I’d never sinned.” Jesus came into the world to save sinners and I’m so glad He did.

Just as kind of a “sidebar” of sorts, I did some research on the word Justification and found clarification as “Justification is the act of God by which we who are unrighteous in ourselves are nevertheless declared righteous before God. It is a judicial (legal) act of pronouncing one to be right in God’s sight”*

Even James, who stresses the works that flow naturally from saving faith, speaks of credited righteousness (called forensic righteousness)* in James 2:23 when he said “and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,’ and he was called the friend of God.”

*(Systematic Theology Vol. 3 by Dr. Norman Geisler)

Dave