The Justice of God

We have already seen strong and repeated evidence that Paul taught the following: the justification announced by Christ — received personally through faith — comes to humanity through Christ’s death on the cross. Christ willingly gave His life at God’s direction, and this extraordinary act was necessary because of human sin. Paul also described Christ’s death as the ransom-price that secures salvation, emphasizing just how costly that salvation is and how absolutely essential Christ’s death was as the only way to achieve it. Alongside this, Paul spoke of Christ’s death as a propitiation for sin, linking it with the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant, where animals were slain to deal with guilt.

Taken together, these ideas make something very clear: apart from Christ’s death, salvation would have been impossible. Only through that death could humanity be freed from moral bondage, and only then could people escape God’s anger toward sin.

As we continue this exploration, we will see that Paul understood the one who died on the cross to be no mere prophet or teacher, but God’s own and only Son — the eternal companion of God’s glory, the Creator, and the future Judge of the world. If that is so, then the means of salvation is unimaginably costly — beyond anything the human mind can fully grasp. When we stand before the cross, we are silenced by awe at the love that led the Father to give His Son for humanity. At the same time, we bow our heads in shame at the guilt that made such an infinite sacrifice necessary.

And yet the question returns, pressing and unavoidable. Why was such a costly method required? Why could God not simply forgive by royal decree? Why not overpower rebellion by sheer authority, or enlighten rebels through divine truth and lead them peacefully back to obedience? Paul’s answer is unambiguous: this was not possible. He repeatedly insists that salvation comes only through Christ’s death, and that God gave His Son precisely for this purpose. Love does not demand unnecessary sacrifice. If the sacrifice had not been needed, it would have lost much — if not all — of its value as an expression of divine love. No one desires a costly gift that accomplishes nothing. So once again the question confronts us: Why was such a costly means of salvation required?

"Whom God hath 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; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." — Romans 3:25-26 KJV..

To answer this, Paul takes us back to his own core theological writings. In Romans 3:25–26, while explaining “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” Paul states that Christ’s death — His blood offered as a propitiation — was intended to demonstrate God’s righteousness. This demonstration was necessary because God had previously shown patience, apparently overlooking sins committed in earlier times. The ultimate goal, Paul says, was that God might be both righteous and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

This means that without the propitiation (ἱλαστήριον) accomplished through Christ’s death, God could not have remained fully just while also forgiving guilty people. The alternative would have been unacceptable: either God remains just but does not forgive, or God forgives but compromises the demands of justice. Paul insists that neither outcome was possible. God gave Christ to die so that He could remain fully just while still extending justification to believers. In short, the necessity of Christ’s death lies in the justice of God.

This conclusion cannot be softened by suggesting that Paul merely meant God appeared righteous. Paul explicitly says that the proof of God’s righteousness was required. Divine justice had been obscured by God’s former patience toward sin, and during this new era of full forgiveness, justice itself demanded to be openly and unmistakably affirmed. Human governments help make this clear: justice requires not only that what is right be done, but that it be done publicly and unmistakably. Paul’s point is that God gave Christ to die in order to bring the justification of believers into full harmony with God’s own justice.

The language Paul uses supports this reading. In Greek, the phrase translated “that He might be just” (εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν δίκαιον) always expresses intentional purpose, not mere result. When Greek writers mean “result,” they use different constructions. Even if we did read Paul as describing a result, the conclusion would be the same: something that would otherwise have been unjust — and therefore impossible — became just and real through Christ’s death. Such a result cannot exist without deliberate divine intent. The outcome reveals the purpose.

Once we understand this, Romans 3:26 becomes a key that unlocks not only the surrounding verses but Paul’s entire teaching on Christ’s death — and indeed the teaching of the New Testament as a whole. Scripture repeatedly insists that Christ’s death was absolutely necessary for salvation. Paul now explains why. Forgiveness without Christ’s death would have violated God’s justice, and God cannot be unjust.

Therefore, what was otherwise impossible became reality through Christ’s sacrifice. In this sense, Christ’s death truly was a redemption price — not a transaction paid to someone, but a costly means required to achieve salvation. That is how the word “price” functions in everyday human thought.

The same is true of the term propitiation. By taking upon Himself the penalty of sin, Christ shields the sinner from the punishment rightly deserved. In this way, the meaning of redemption and propitiation comes into focus, clarified by what follows.

Paul’s teaching here also means, in a real and meaningful sense, that Christ died in our place — a truth echoed throughout the New Testament (2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; 1 Tim. 2:6; Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45). This explains why Christ’s death is so prominent in apostolic teaching. Romans 3:26 truly stands at the center of New Testament theology on the cross.

Interestingly, no other New Testament passage so explicitly links Christ’s death with God’s righteousness. However, several passages closely connect it with God’s Law — which is itself the formal expression of divine justice.

In Romans 7:4, Paul compares believers to a woman released by death from the law that bound her to her husband. Through Christ’s death, believers have died to the Law that condemned them and thus are free to belong to Christ. This means that Christ’s death removed a legal obstacle to salvation — an obstacle rooted in God’s Law, which expresses God’s justice. Romans 7:4, then, restates Romans 3:26 in legal terms.

Paul makes the same point in Galatians 2:19: through the Law, believers died to the Law. Being “crucified with Christ” is the means by which this release occurs. Galatians 3:13–14 states it even more plainly:  

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us... in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (NRSV.)

Similar ideas appear in Paul’s later letters. In Colossians 2:13–14, Paul describes forgiveness as the canceling of a written charge against us, nailed to the cross. In Ephesians 2:14, Christ breaks down the dividing wall created by the Law and reconciles humanity to God through the cross. In each case, Christ’s death removes a barrier rooted in divine justice.

Taken together, these passages show how firmly this idea shaped Paul’s thought. Christ’s death removed the obstacle to salvation that arose from God’s Law — and because the Law embodies God’s justice, the cross is the means by which justice and forgiveness are brought into perfect harmony.

This understanding of the cross, grounded in Romans 3:26, is not a peripheral idea. It is central, consistent, and everywhere present in Paul’s teaching. The documentary evidence is overwhelming: Paul firmly believed and repeatedly proclaimed that God gave Christ to die so that sinners could be justified without compromising the justice of God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

This post is based upon Lecture XVIII from J. A. Beet's book Through Christ to God: A Study in Scientific Theology (1893), re-written with the assistance of Microslop CoPilot. The original text may be found at the Internet Archive here: Through Christ to God.