Romans 3:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He did not simply say “purchase,” but “redemption,” so that we would not return again to the same slavery.

For this same reason he calls Jesus Christ a “propitiation.” He shows that if the type had such great power, the truth itself will have far greater effect.

Again, showing that this is not something recent and new, the Apostle says, “set forth beforehand.”

Having said “God set forth beforehand,” and having acknowledged this as the work of the Father, he shows that the same thing also belongs to the Son.

The Father set it forth beforehand, and Christ accomplished the whole work by His blood.

“To demonstrate His righteousness.” What does “demonstration of righteousness” mean?

The demonstration of wealth consists not only in being rich oneself, but also in making others rich. The demonstration of life consists not only in being alive oneself, but also in giving life to the dead.

The demonstration of power consists not only in being strong oneself, but also in strengthening the weak. So the demonstration of righteousness consists not only in being righteous oneself.

It also consists in instantly making righteous others who have decayed in sins.

Explaining this, the Apostle himself disclosed what “demonstration” means when he said, “that He might be righteous, and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Since its commandments were many, even a strict keeper of the law inevitably stumbled in something and became a transgressor of the law. That this was truly burdensome the divine disciples clearly confessed, saying, "Why do you now tempt God, wishing to put a yoke upon the necks of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" (Acts 15:10).

Therefore, when the Greeks were under sin, because they did not know the Creator, and the Jews were guilty of transgressing the law, those who dwell on earth necessarily needed Christ, who justifies. For we were justified not by works of righteousness which we had done, but according to His mercy (Tit 3:5).

He was the One who in ancient times spoke through the prophetic voice: "I Myself blot out your transgressions, and I will not remember them" (Is 43:25, abridged).

The grace that justifies extends equally to all, I mean to Jews and Greeks, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The glory of God may rightly be understood as both ignorance of transgressions and the natural inability to sin.

Yet creation, brought into being, falls short of the prerogatives of the Godhead, for even some of the angels slipped. Nevertheless, God was pleased to sum up all things in Christ (Eph 1:10).

He justifies freely by His grace, for He is set forth as a propitiation in His Blood through faith. Since His own Blood became the redemption of the life of all, He saved the world under heaven. He made the heavenly God and Father merciful and gracious toward us.

Therefore the grace of God is the first and chief cause of our salvation. As the cause of salvation, it is opposed to justice, which demands strict fulfillment of the laws.

“Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Through sin, men fell under the wrath of God and into slavery to the devil.

Men themselves could not satisfy God’s righteousness or buy themselves out of slavery to sin. The mercy of God came to their aid.

It found a means to give satisfaction to God’s righteousness and to deliver man from the power of the devil.

This satisfaction, this ransom of the sinner from slavery or of the captive from captivity, was given by Jesus Christ in His blood, as the Old Law required.

For “according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb 9:22).

Therefore it is said that we were redeemed not with corruptible silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a spotless and pure Lamb (1 Pet 1:18-19).

These sins were committed over millennia. Therefore some could have imagined impunity and a general violation of justice. But Christ shed His Blood on the Cross for human sins and bore punishment for them.

By this He manifested the justice of God and made possible the justification of sinners themselves, through their faith in Jesus Christ the Savior. On the Cross, in the prophet's words, "mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed."

"When the time of judgment came, evil had increased and sins had multiplied. Then God manifested His power," says Chrysostom, "so that you might understand what abundance of righteousness He possesses."

For those terrified by judgment, yet thirsting for salvation, it was very consoling to hear: now the righteousness of God has appeared. Yet their desire to know more precisely what this righteousness is, and wherein it consists, could only grow stronger.

And so the Apostle answers: "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ." That is, through faith in Jesus Christ. By faith in Jesus Christ he means the whole New Testament divine economy of salvation, appropriated by sincere, heartfelt faith in the Lord.

According to blessed Theodoret, "The Apostle Paul imitated the finest physician. First he shows the sufferers the severity of the disease, and only then offers the healing remedy as aid.

"So also he, after exposing lawlessness and showing that the lawless are liable to account and worthy of punishment, finally offers the remedy of faith. He reveals the love for mankind in the divine economy."

How the act of justification itself is accomplished through forgiveness of sins, and through the action of grace expelling sinfulness from the justified heart and implanting righteousness, the Apostle explains further on.

Everything previous is useless. The only effective thing is the justification by grace freely offered by me.

Here grace means goodness and love for mankind. There was no necessity on God’s part for this. Everything was arranged solely by God’s goodness.

We, humanity, for our part offered nothing, and could offer nothing, by which this wondrous justification could be deserved.

The infinitely man-loving God had compassion on us and freely arranged for us the means of justification.

Grace indicates the source or cause in God of the divine economy of our salvation. The means to it is redemption.

“Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Redemption, διὰ τῆς ἀπολυτρώσεως, means through ransom.

Redemption is the one means of justification. People are ransomed when money is paid for someone and he is freed from the bonds of slavery.

Through the fall of the forefathers, the human race fell into slavery to sin and the devil. They possessed it because of its guilt, which brought upon it and held over it the curse of God.

For its salvation it was necessary to remove the curse, giving a righteous foundation for clearing it of guilt. Then it was necessary to pour into it a new power for destroying the power of sin.

In this way the dominion of the devil would be repelled.

All this was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God and God.

He took human nature upon Himself and in it died on the cross, rose, ascended into heaven, sat at the right hand of the Father, and sent down the Holy Spirit upon the holy Apostles.

Through them He sent the Spirit into all humanity.

All this taken together is the divine economy of our salvation, or the redemption of the human race.

Those who approach it by faith receive forgiveness of sins, and then the grace of the Spirit through the mysteries. They appear not only cleared of guilt, but also righteous in their inward constitution.

Sometimes redemption does not signify the whole divine economy of salvation, but only one action within it.

This is that by His death on the cross the Lord delivered us from the condemnation that lay upon us and from the curse of God that weighed us down.

As ransom for us, unpayable debtors, He gave His blood. It cries out more powerfully than Abel’s, yet it does not call down punishment from above.

It calls down complete justification upon everyone who believes.