ROMANS ROAD
to RIGHTEOUSNESS |
Romans
1:18-3:20
|
Romans
3:21-5:21 |
Romans
6:1-8:39 |
Romans
9:1-11:36 |
Romans
12:1-16:27 |
|
SIN
|
SALVATION
|
SANCTIFICATION |
SOVEREIGNTY |
SERVICE |
NEED
FOR
SALVATION |
WAY
OF
SALVATION |
LIFE
OF
SALVATION |
SCOPE
OF
SALVATION |
SERVICE
OF
SALVATION |
God's Holiness
In
Condemning
Sin |
God's Grace
In
Justifying
Sinners |
God's Power
In
Sanctifying
Believers |
God's Sovereignty
In
Saving
Jew and Gentile |
Gods Glory
The
Object of
Service |
Deadliness
of Sin |
Design
of Grace |
Demonstration of
Salvation |
|
Power Given
|
Promises Fulfilled |
Paths Pursued |
Righteousness
Needed |
Righteousness
Credited |
Righteousness
Demonstrated |
Righteousness
Restored to Israel |
Righteousness
Applied |
God's Righteousness
IN LAW |
God's Righteousness
IMPUTED |
God's Righteousness
OBEYED |
God's Righteousness
IN ELECTION |
God's Righteousness
DISPLAYED |
|
Slaves to Sin |
Slaves to God |
Slaves Serving God |
|
Doctrine |
Duty |
|
Life by Faith |
Service by Faith |
|
Modified from Irving
L. Jensen's excellent work "Jensen's
Survey of the NT" |
BEING JUSTIFIED: dikaioumenoi
(PPPMPN): (Ro
4:16;
5:16-19;
1Cor 6:11;
Eph 2:7-10;
Titus 3:5-7)
(See Spurgeon's sermon
Justification
by Grace) (Justification
in Holman Bible Dictionary)
As Morris says, now Paul
moves from...
From tragedy to triumph. (Morris,
L. The Epistle to the Romans. W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press)
William Newell writes...
“We now come to the greatest single
verse in the entire Bible on the manner of justification by faith: We
entreat you, study this verse. We have seen many a soul, upon
understanding it, come into peace.” (Romans: Verse by
Verse)
Being justified
(1344)
(dikaioo
from dike = right,
expected behavior or conformity, not according to one’s own standard,
but according to an imposed standard with prescribed punishment for
nonconformity) (Click
for
more discussion of
dikaioo)
primarily means to deem to be right.
Dikaioo describes
the act by which a man is brought into a right state of relationship to God. Dikaioo is a legal term having to do with the law
and the the courtroom, where it represented the legally binding verdict of the
judge. This is the sense in which Paul uses dikaioo
in this section in Romans (Ro 3:21-5:11) in which he unfolds the doctrine
of justification.
The meaning of
dikaioo depends on the context and depending on which lexicon you
consult you will come up with a variety of definitions so the following
is an attempt as classifying most of the NT uses, but please be a Berean
and do you own study of this word.
(1) To cause someone to be in a
proper or right relation with someone else. This use corresponds to
the vitally important truth imputed righteousness and thus means to
justify or to declare righteous, which is only accomplished by faith and
not by works as explained in definition #2.
Romans 3:24
being
justified (declared righteous and in proper or right relation to
God) as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ
Jesus
Titus 3:7
that being justified (declared righteous and in proper or right
relation to God) by His grace we might be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life.
(2) To show to be right or righteous.
Matthew 11:19 "The Son of Man
came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a
drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!' Yet wisdom is
vindicated (dikaioo - shown to be right, proved to be in the right
and accepted by God) by her deeds."
Luke 7:35 "Yet wisdom is
vindicated (dikaioo - shown to be right) by all her children."
James uses dikaioo in this sense - to show to be righteous. And
so we see that Abraham's works show that he was righteous. He had been
declared righteous by faith in Genesis 15:6, but was shown to be
righteous in Genesis 22, which is the point that James is making in the
following passages.
James 2:21 Was not Abraham our
father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on
the altar? (Note: Do not misunderstand. James is not using
dikaioo in this context to say a Abraham was declared
righteous but that he was shown to be
righteous by his work - his willingness to offer Isaac. This "work" was
the visible manifestation to men of the fact that at some point in time
in the past -- Genesis 15:6 -- Abraham had been justified by faith and
declared righteous by God on the basis of his faith, not on the basis of
his works. This verse illustrates why it one has to be very careful to
observe the context when defining any Greek word. Many people read these
three passages in James and are confused because they read them in light
of definition #1 above which does not apply to this context. The New
Living Translation does an excellent job of accurately paraphrasing this
passage to give it the intended meaning...
James 2:21 Don't you remember
that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his
actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? (NLT)
James 2:24 You see that a man
is justified (shown to be righteous) by works, and not by faith
alone.
James 2:25 And in the same way
was not Rahab the harlot also justified (shown to be righteous)
by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by another
way?
In some cases dikaioo refers to Jesus or God Who are
demonstrated to be morally right (Divine vindication)...
Romans 3:4
May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be
found a liar, as it is written, "That Thou mightest be justified
(shown to be just) in Thy words, And mightest prevail when Thou art
judged." (quoting Ps 51:4)
1Timothy 3:6 (This description refers to Jesus) And by common
confession great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the
flesh, Was vindicated (dikaioo - shown to be right) in the
Spirit, Beheld by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in
the world, Taken up in glory.
(3) To make free, liberate, set free or release from
the control of . This meaning is similar to another Greek verb
eleutheroo.
BDAG explains that the idea is "to cause someone to be released from
personal or institutional claims that are no longer to be considered
pertinent or valid"
Romans 6:7
For he who has died is freed (dikaioo in the
passive voice
= has been released)
from sin (the power of
Sin to
which we were enslaved)
Acts 13:39 and through Him
everyone who believes is freed (dikaioo -
passive voice
= has been set free)
from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of
Moses.
(4) Acknowledging that someone is
just or right.
Luke 7:29 And when all the
people and the tax-gatherers heard this, they acknowledged God's
justice, (they acknowledged that God's way was right) having been
baptized with the baptism of John.
(5) Man declaring that he is just
or right. This is something man does and based on his standard of
righteousness (self righteousness) not God's standard.
Luke 10:29 But wishing to
justify (declare himself righteous) himself, he said to Jesus, "And
who is my neighbor?" (Comment: Notice that this young lawyer is
trying to limit the demand of the law by asking "Who is my neighbor?"
and by limiting it he would then show that he had fulfilled it. In other
words this man would judge himself by his own standard of righteousness
-- not God's perfect standard -- but he would not be justified in
the sense of definition #1)
Dikaioo is found 39 times
in the NAS, most often in Romans (Matthew
2x;
Luke 5x;
Acts;
Romans 14x;
1 Corinthians 2x;
Galatians 6x;
1 Timothy;
Titus;
James 3x)
and is translated: acknowledged...justice, 1; acquitted, 1; freed, 3;
justified, 24; justifier, 1; justifies, 2; justify, 4; vindicated, 3;
Dikaioo is found 28 times in the
Septuagint (LXX)
(Gen 38:26; 44:16; Ex
23:7; Deut 25:1; 2Sa 15:4; 1Ki 8:32; 2Chr 6:23; Esther 10:3; Job 33:32;
Ps 19:9; 51:4; 73:13; 82:3; 143:2; Isa 1:17; 5:23; 42:21; 43:9, 26;
45:25; 50:8; 53:11; Jer 3:11; Ezek 16:51f; 21:13; 44:24; Mic 6:11; 7:9)
To understand dikaioo, one needs to
understand the root work dike which originally meant
manner, tendency and with time came to refer to the designation for the
right of established custom or usage. Stated another way, the basic
meaning of dike involves the assertion by human society of
a certain standard expected by its people which, if not kept, can bring
forth ensuing judgment. Thus it can be said that díke is
expected behavior or conformity, not according to one's own standard,
but according to an imposed standard (here in Romans it is God's
standard of righteousness) with prescribed punishment for nonconformity.
Dikaioo ends in "-oo" which in Greek brings out
that which a person is. Therefore dikaioo brings out the
fact that a person is righteous. It means to declare the rightness of
something or someone.
Leon Morris
adds a note on dikaioo writing that...
The word is a forensic or legal term
with the meaning “acquit”. It is the normal word to use when the
accused is declared “Not guilty”. We see its significance in an Old
Testament passage:
“When men have a dispute, they are to
take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting (or,
justifying) the innocent and condemning the guilty” (Deut. 25:1).
Here the legal meaning is plain, and
this remains with the word throughout the range of its biblical use.
Some argue that it means “to make righteous”, but this cannot be
demonstrated. The impossibility of making righteous is clear when the
word is used of God (see note
Romans 3:4).
It is plain also in the use of the future tense “will be justified”
(see note
Romans 2:13), for the reference is to Judgment Day and no one will be “made
righteous” on that day. Moreover, that passage refers to “the doers of
law” as “justified”, but by definition “doers of law” are righteous:
they cannot be “made” righteous. The declaratory meaning is clear.
It is to be inferred also from the fact that it stands in opposition to
condemnation. “To condemn” does not mean “to make wicked”, but “to
declare guilty”; similarly, “to justify” means “to declare just” (Morris,
L. The Epistle to the Romans. W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press)
Vine says that dikaioo means
"to show, or declare, to be right.” In the N.T. it mostly signifies
“to declare a person to be righteous before God." (Vine,
W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson
)
In simple terms dikaioo as used here in Romans means...
To
declare a person to be righteous or right
before God
Only God can declare
a man righteous and yet men continually seek ways to make
themselves righteous. For example, in the gospels we encounter a certain
lawyer (a scribe who was supposedly an expert in the law of God)
approach Jesus to put Him to the test asking
"Teacher, what shall I
do to inherit eternal life?" (Lu 10:25).
Jesus responded to the
question with another question for this one who knew the Law asking
"What
is written in the Law? How does it read to you?"
The lawyer answered
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind;
and your neighbor as yourself." (Lu 10:26-27)
This was indeed an
excellent answer, the lawyer summing up the requirements of the law
(Lev 19:18
D t6:5) exactly as Jesus Himself had done on another occasion
(see
Mt 22:37-40)
And so Jesus responded
"You have answered correctly;
do this, and you will live." But wishing to justify
(dikaioo) himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my
neighbor?” (Lu 10:28-29)
"Do and live" was indeed the
promise of the law (see
Lev 18:5,
Ezek 20:11). But since no sinner can
obey perfectly, the impossible demands of the law were always
meant to drive us to seek God's mercy (Gal 3:10-13, 22-25) and His
righteousness. The lawyer should have responded with a confession of his
guilt, rather attempting to justify himself with his
question "Who is my neighbor?"
The prevailing opinion among
scribes and Pharisees in Jesus' day was that one’s neighbors
were the "righteous" (at least those they considered "righteous").
According to them, the wicked, like tax collectors and especially
Samaritans—were to be hated because they were the enemies of God. They
cited (Ps 139:21, 22) to justify their position. Jesus teaching on the
familiar passage of the good Samaritan demolished any hope this lawyer
had to make himself righteous (dikaioo).
"Being justified" is an act of God (Ro 8:33) Who takes the initiative (cp
Ep1:4, 1Pe 1:2, 2Thes 2:13) and provides the means through the redemption which
is in Christ Jesus. The sinner who believes in Christ receives God's
gift of righteousness (Ro 1:17, 5:17), which then enables God to pronounce
him righteous (both Just & Justifier - Ro 3:26). This verse is perhaps the
most thorough soteriological (dealing with teaching on salvation) passage in the New Testament.
John MacArthur writes that
dikaioo
"means to declare the rightness of something or someone.
Justification is God’s declaration that all the demands of the law are
fulfilled on behalf of the believing sinner through the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. Justification is a wholly forensic, or legal, transaction.
It changes the judicial standing of the sinner before God. In
justification, God imputes the perfect righteousness of Christ to the
believer’s account, then declares the redeemed one fully righteous.
Justification must be distinguished from sanctification, in which God
actually imparts Christ’s righteousness to the sinner. While the two
must be distinguished, justification and sanctification can never be
separated. God does not justify whom He does not sanctify." (MacArthur,
J: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press)
In salvation dikaioo describes the legal act whereby God declares
the believing sinner righteous on the basis of the blood of Christ.
Justification is not doled out piecemeal over a period of time through
mediatorial agents and ritual observances. Stated another way,
justification is not a process but is an act. It is something God does,
not man. Furthermore, justification is not subject to recall
so that you have to get it over and over again (as in Radical Arminian
churches). Justification is not a change wrought by God in us, but a
change of our relation to God. Justification describes a person’s status
in the sight of the law, not the condition of his or her character. The
condition of one’s character and conduct is that with which
sanctification deals.
Wiersbe
says...
“Do not confuse justification and
sanctification. Sanctification is the process whereby God makes the
believer more and more like Christ. Sanctification may change from day
to day. Justification never changes. When the sinner trusts Christ, God
declares him righteous, and that declaration will never be repealed.” (Wiersbe,
W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor)
Being justified is once and for all time and as such
defines the believers permanent state. Just as you
may not be tried for the same crime again after being acquitted, God's
justification means you will never be tried or condemned by Him again
for your sins--past, present, or future. This is good news indeed.
It is important to note that justification is not an act of God that
makes us righteous but is an act
of God that declares us righteous.
MacDonald
emphasizes this distinction writing that...
To justify does not mean to actually
make a person righteous. We cannot make God righteous; He already
is righteous. But we can declare Him to be righteous. God does not
make the believer sinless or righteous in himself. Rather, God puts
righteousness to his account. As A. T. Pierson put it,
“God in justifying sinners actually
calls them righteous when they are not—does not impute sin where sin
actually exists, and does impute righteousness where it does not exist.”
(MacDonald,
W., & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments.
Nashville: Thomas Nelson)
At God’s Lighthouse Mission in Manhattan the men who attended services
in the ’50s were drilled nightly in Bible verses and in a particular
definition of “justified.” Justified, they were taught to repeat, means
“just as if I had never sinned in the sight of God.”
I was
taught this same phrase in Men's Bible Study Fellowship - "Justified" ~
"Just As If I Had Never Sinned". This teaching is not entirely accurate
for as discussed above dikaioo, means to be acquitted or to be pronounced righteous.
It is not “just as if I had never sinned” and does not go
far enough. More accurately it is
"just as if I had lived as perfect
a life as Jesus did!"
Once, when my normal green-tinted sunglasses were lost, I put on a
rose-colored pair. And everything I saw through them was rose colored. Justification is a little like this. God sees you and me through
Christ-colored glasses. When God looks at the person who believes in His
Son He sees the righteousness of Jesus Himself clothing that person.
When God justifies the believing sinner, He not only acquits him from
guilt but clothes him in His own righteousness and thus makes him
absolutely fit for heaven.
As someone has well said justification goes beyond acquittal to approval
and beyond pardon to
promotion. Acquittal means only that a person is set free from a
charge. Justification means that positive righteousness is imputed. It
is important to realize that justification is a reckoning that takes
place in the mind of God. It is not something a believer feels. The
believer can be certain
it has taken place because the Bible says so. Scofield expressed
it this way
“Justification is that act of God whereby He declares righteous all who
believe in Jesus. It is something which takes place in the mind of God,
not in the nervous system or emotional nature of the believer.”
Dikaioo in other
contexts can mean vindicated, proved, pronounced as, declared or shown
to be. For example, Paul in recording part of an early church hymn
describes Jesus as
"He Who was revealed in the flesh, was
vindicated in the Spirit." (NAS,1Ti 3:16 - note KJV reads "justified
in the Spirit" which is very confusing)
Vindicated is dikaioo and in this context is easier to
understand if translated as "declared (or shown)
to be righteous" (with respect to His spiritual nature).
Dikaioo is used in this way in Romans 3 where Paul writes
"let
God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written,
“That Thou mightest be justified (dikaioo - shown to
be right, proved to be right) in Thy words" (see note
Romans 3:4)
C H Spurgeon
writes
What is
justification? A. Justification is an act of God's free grace,
wherein he pardons all our sins (Ro
3:24;
Eph 1:7), and accepts us as
righteous in his sight (2Cor 5:21) only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to
us (Ro
5:19), and received by faith alone (Gal
2:16;
Phil. 3:9).
Note: This
discussion is not intended to be an exhaustive treatment of the verb
dikaioo or of the doctrine of justification. For a more exhaustive
treatment I would highly recommended Dr Wayne Grudem's work,
Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical
Doctrine (IVP; Zondervan, 1994)
(or
click here for Grudem's work in computer format).
The following quote is taken from his book and emphasizes the crucial
importance of an accurate understanding of dikaioo and the
doctrine of justification. Grudem writes that...
A right understanding of
justification is absolutely crucial to the whole Christian faith.
Once Martin Luther realized the truth of justification by faith alone,
he became a Christian and overflowed with the new-found joy of the
gospel. The primary issue in the Protestant Reformation was a dispute
with the Roman Catholic Church over justification. If we are to
safeguard the truth of the gospel for future generations, we must
understand the truth of justification. Even today, a true view of
justification is the dividing line between the biblical gospel of
salvation by faith alone and all false gospels of salvation based on
good works. (Systematic
Theology) (Bolding added)
|
JUSTIFY
by
Kenneth Wuest |
|
The words
justify, justification, righteous, righteousness, just, right,
meet, are all translations of the same Greek root. The verb justify is
dikaióō, the noun righteousness, dikaiosune, the
adjective righteous,
dikaios. This means that all these words have
a general meaning that is common to all of them, even though their
individual meaning may differ slightly. This again means that there is a definite and vital connection between the act of
justifying and the righteousness of the individual who has been
justified.
We will look first at the usage of these words in pagan
Greek literature.
“In pagan Greece the dikaios person is he who
does not selfishly nor yet self-for-gettingly transgress the
bounds fixed for him, and gives to everyone his own, yet still
desires what is his, and does not in the least withdraw the
assertion of his own claims.”
Paul uses dikaios in its purely
classical sense in
Ro 5:7. In the biblical sense, dikaios is “what
is right, conformable to right, answering to the claims of usage,
custom, or right.… The fundamental idea is that of a state or
condition conformable to order, apart from the consideration
whether usage or custom or other factors determine the order or
direction. Thus, dikaios is synonymous with agathos (good), only
that dikaios is a conception of a relation and presupposes a norm,
whereas the subject of agathos is its own norm.”
In
understanding the words justify and righteous, as they are used in
the New Testament, it should always be kept in mind that their
meaning is not a subjective one but an objective one. That is, the
content of meaning in these words is not to be determined by each
individual Bible expositor. If that were the case, what is
righteous one day, may not be righteous the next. The content of
meaning in that case would be dependent upon the fluctuating
standards and ethics of men. With the present trend towards the
teaching of the relativity of all truth, this method of
interpretation becomes a most vicious thing. What is right one day
may be wrong the next.
God is the
objective standard which determines the content of meaning of
dikaios, and at the same time keeps that content of meaning
constant and unchanging, since He is the unchanging One.
“Righteousness in the biblical sense is a condition of rightness
the standard of which is God, which is estimated according to the
divine standard, which shows itself in behavior conformable to
God, and has to do above all things with its relation to God, and
with the walk before Him. It is, and it is called dikaiosune theou
(righteousness of God) (Ro 3:21,
Ro1:17), righteousness as it belongs
to God, and is of value before Him, Godlike righteousness, see
Eph 4:24; with this righteousness thus defined, the gospel (Ro 1:17)
comes into the world of nations which had been wont to measure by
a different standard. Righteousness in the Scripture sense is a
thoroughly religious conception, designating the normal relation
of men and their acts, etc., to God. Righteousness in the profane
mind is a preponderatingly social virtue, only with a certain
religious background.”
Justification in the Bible sense therefore is the act of God
removing from the believing sinner, his guilt and the penalty
incurred by that guilt, and bestowing a positive righteousness,
Christ Jesus Himself in Whom the believer stands, not only
innocent and uncondemned, but actually righteous in point of law
for time and for eternity. The words justify, justification,
righteous, righteousness, as used of man in his relation to God,
have a legal, judicial basis. God is the Judge, man the defendant.
God is the standard of all righteousness. The white linen curtains
of the court of the Tabernacle, symbolized the righteousness which
God is, the righteousness which God demands of any human being who
desires to fellowship with Him, and the righteousness which God
provides on the basis of the acceptance on the sinner’s part, of
the Lord Jesus who perfectly satisfied the just demands of God’s
holy law which we broke. A just person therefore is one who has
been thus declared righteous (Ro 1:17). The word is used in its
non-legal sense in
Phil 1:7 and
Lu 12:57 for instance, where it
speaks of conduct that is conformable to what is right.
(Wuest,
K.
S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Studies in
the Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament: Grand Rapids: Eerdmans)
(This resource is highly recommended if you enjoy Greek word
studies) |
AS A GIFT: dorean:
It is not a matter of wages or merit
but is a free gift that originates in the grace of God.
It means being justified without any
prior conditions being met. We do not merit justification, but we enjoy
it.
Gift (1432)
(dorean) from dorea = a gift, something bestowed freely,
without price, or compensation, as in Jo 4:10; Acts 2:38; 2 Cor 9:15,
God is always Giver of dorea)
conveys the basic meaning of "for nothing". It pertains to being freely
given, given without charge or without payment. As a free gift or gratis.
Undeserved.
Dorean emphasizes the free
character of the gift, given spontaneously and without reference to
human merit.
Here in Romans 3:24 the prominent
thought is the grace of the Giver.
In some contexts dorean conveys
the idea of needlessly as in Gal 2:21
"I do not nullify the grace of
God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died
needlessly (or "for nothing", "not without impact").
In other contexts dorean means without a
cause, as when Jesus explained...
"But they have done this (they
have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well) in order that the
word may be fulfilled that is written in their Law, 'THEY HATED ME
WITHOUT A CAUSE.' (John 15:25)
Webster
says that a gift is something voluntarily transferred by
one person to another without compensation.
Dorean is
found 8 times in the NAS (Mt 10:8; Jo 15:25; Ro 3:24; 2Cor 11:7; Gal
2:21; 2Th 3:8; Rev 21:6; 22:17)
Dorean is
found 26 times in the
Septuagint (LXX)
(Gen 29:15; Ex 21:2, 11; Nu 11:5; 1Sa 19:5; 25:31; 2Sa 24:24; 1Ki 2:31;
1Chr 21:24; Job 1:9; Ps 35:7, 19; 69:4; 109:3; 119:161; 120:6; Isa 52:3,
5; Jer 22:13; Lam 3:52; Mal 1:10)
Dorean
means that God declares a believer righteous without any
cause or legitimate reason. In other words, there is nothing in mankind merits the declaration of
righteousness by God. Justification is a gracious gift which God extends to
the repentant, believing sinner, wholly apart from human merit or work.
That gift cost God the suffering and death of His own Son on the cross,
so that, for the believer, there is nothing left to pay. How fitting
that the Bible ends with God's invitation
"And the Spirit and the
bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the
one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life
without cost (literally "as a gift" = dorean)."
(Rev 22:17)
McGee
emphasizes this point writing that...
“Freely” is the Greek word dorean,
translated in John 15:25 “without a cause.” Our Lord Jesus said that
they hated Him freely, without a cause—there was no basis for it. Now
Paul is saying, “Being justified freely—without a cause.” There is no
explanation in us. God doesn’t say, “Oh, they are such wonderful people,
I’ll have to do something for them!” As we have seen before, there is
nothing in us that would call out the grace of God, other than our great
need. We are justified without a cause. It is by His grace, which means
that there is no merit on our part. Grace is unmerited favor; it is love
in action. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Nashville: Thomas Nelson)
Peter uses the verb form of dorean (doreomai) in
2 Peter 1:3-4 writing that
"His divine
power has granted (doreomai) to us everything
pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who
called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has
granted (doreomai) to us His precious and magnificent promises, in
order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust." (see
note
2 Peter 1:3-4)
Justification is not a wage that God owes us--the only wage he owes us
is death (Ro 6:23); it is a gift that he offers freely.
Justification is
not reward that we deserve; it is charity for the undeserving.
Justification is not based in any way on our moral improvement.
The forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of God are free gifts.
That means they cost us nothing because they cost Christ everything.
They cannot be earned with works or inherited through parents or
absorbed through sacraments. They are free, to be received by faith.
"Nothing in my hand I bring;
Simply to Thy cross I cling"
BY HIS GRACE: te autou chariti:
(Ro
5:9;
Isa 53:11;
Mt 20:28;
Eph 1:6,7;
Col 1:14;
1Ti 2:6;
Titus 2:14;
Heb 9:2-14;
1Pet 1:18,19;
Rev 5:9;
7:14)<