1 Timothy 2:6
"Who gave Himself a Ransom for all, to be testified in due time."
The Bible makes redemption and justification simultaneous: “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). There are some today who say it does not matter when or where—they only want to talk about how. But can you separat them?
When were sinners redeemed? When was your sin debt paid, if you are the LORD’s? Was it not when Christ paid the price of redemption by His righteous obedience unto death? Redemption means that a ransom has been paid. Christ was that Ransom; He was the precious price of redemption for all His chosen ones, "…to be testified in due time.” “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by Whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
The redemption and the simultaneous justification (declaring righteous) occurred when the LORD Jesus paid the debt for HIS people. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7). Once the ransom price was paid to satisfy God the Father’s Law and Justice, all of God’s elect, from the beginning of time to the end, were then and there justified (Romans 5:9-11).
Yes, their justification was purposed in eternity and revealed by faith in God's appointed time, but it was accomplished when Christ, by Himself, purged the sins of His elect on the cross. “Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express Image of His Person, and upholding all things by the Word of His Power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3).
God could not and would not declare any sinner justified without first putting away their sin! Was sin put away before the foundation of the world, even before the fall? Was there not a time and place of sin imputed? Was it not when Adam disobeyed (Romans. 5:12)? Is there not a time and place of righteousness imputed? Was it not when the LORD Jesus obeyed? “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).
Where our redemption and righteousness are, there is our justification. Is not righteousness accomplished and the imputation of that righteousness the same? Did Christ finish the work of righteousness in His obedience unto death or not? Did He not cry from the cross, "It is finished’ (John 19:30)? If, as some promote, as soon as God purposed the salvation of the elect in eternity it was done, what then was there to finish? When and where did that imputation occur? Is it not when Christ finished the work? “Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25).
So complete was the work of the LORD Jesus in His life and death that there remained nothing but righteousness to impute to the spiritual account of God’s elect, there and then—one time, one place, one Sacrifice for the elect of the Old Testament and since the cross. “And for this cause, He is the Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the Pomise of Eternal Inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15).
If you are the LORD’s and Christ has paid your sin debt, you have already been justified freely at the cross. “Being justified freely by His Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24). There are no penalties or fees incurred in addition to what Christ paid. He paid the entire price in full, freely, even before you were born.
The glorious Good News is that when Christ Jesus the LORD paid the debt of sinners chosen by God the Father in eternity, He did so with His blood shed unto death on the cross at Calvary, on this earth, in time. There remained nothing but righteousness to impute to their accounts because the debt had been paid in full. “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Romans 5:9).
This is the message of the Gospel, the Good news. It's something so simple, yet it is hidden from the wise and revealed to the foolish.