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Scarcely any historian now seriously doubts that Jesus of Nazareth lived at the beginning of our era.
By the standards of historical certainty, his death on the cross can also be regarded as an assured nuclear fact. But for many, the question of the meaning of his death on the cross remains open.

Romans 3:25 Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.

The religious person doesn’t really find any help in religion, not even the Jews and their God-given religion. What Paul basically argues is that Jew or Gentile, it does not really make much difference, we are really all renegade lot. The apostle is not arguing that each person is as bad as he or she could be. However, whether we have the revelation from God in the law or whether we have the revelation that is stamped on our heart by virtue of the fact that we’ve been made in the image of God, we do not even do what we should do, let alone doing all the things that God wants.

Paul Concludes

No one will be declared righteous (just) in God’s sight by obeying the law, no one. Because the reality is that those who have the law do not always observe it.

We are justified because of the cross of Christ

This refers primarily to God’s justifying activity. God pre-pares us for His own standards. Across the sweep of re-demptive history, God has done a variety of things. Now, at this point in redemptive history, something had taken place apart from the Law, and that something is the Cross.

That does not mean a brand-new thing in God’s mind or a brand new thing in the Bible has come, something that was never thought of before. In fact, the Old Testament Scripture bore witness to it and they testified to it.

The Source of God’s Justice is Revealed in the Gracious Provision of Christ Jesus on the Cross

Bound up with our salvation is more than justification. This is because as God regenerates us, He also transforms us. Those who are truly justified will also be truly regenerated. There can be terrible backsliding and slips, that happens. However, the full course and tendency in the life of a regenerated believer must be in a certain direction toward obedience to Jesus. Otherwise, their actions place
a question mark over their regeneration.

God does stand against us in wrath, His wrath is principled Justice. Although God stands over against us in wrath, He loves us so much anyway that he sends his Son to bear our sin in our stead. By bearing our sin, He takes away the concern that His own justice has about our guilt.

God stands over against us in justice and, therefore, in wrath, because we are guilty. But he stands over against us in love because He’s that kind of God. That’s the glory of the gospel.

He does not come to us and simply say, “I forgive you,” without someone paying for it. That would be amoral.

Much of American Protestant preaching today puts emphasis on God loving us, forgiving us, making us feel good and telling us what wonderful people we really are deep down inside. It becomes a distortion of the full truth to the point that we lose, amongst other things, the sheer greatness and justice of God.

We Are Saved by Faith
Faith in What God Did to Satisfy Himself

Abraham is justified by faith before the Law is even given. If forgiveness comes from anything other than faith, then you get what you worked for—like karma, then you get what you deserve. Nothing more, nothing less. However, to the man who does not work for it, but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

At the time of the Reformation, there were Three Massive Alones:

 Scripture alone. In the dimension of revelation and authority, we bow quietly before neither tradition, (not even Baptist Tradition), but Scripture. That’s our binding authority.
 Grace alone. Because it is not based on works, it is of God’s goodness. The source of our redemption, the source of our justification lies in God’s goodness and nothing else.
 Faith alone. This describes the sole means by which we appropriate that grace, authority, source, and means.

What this text is saying at this point is that we must have faith alone, or ultimately grace alone is jeopardized. That is because if it’s faith plus works, then it is not grace that is actually giving it, it’s what we deserve. Whereas, if we receive God’s forgiveness and His justification by faith, then it is of grace. It’s not because we’ve deserved it, earned it, attracted it, or won it. Many stumble in this area. They are fooled into believing they can and should “work to become good enough” instead of accepting that will never be possible. It is actually idolatry, because it is rejecting that God has provided Christ, His Son, and He is the only way.

For Paul, faith is trusting the promises and provision of God in Christ Jesus. You trust the truth of the gospel. The whole purpose of the law was to look forward, or to testify to this culmination of God’s gracious self-disclosure in the gospel. Without the Cross of Christ we have no Hope. He alone is our hope, the answer to all.