July 21, 2025 - Romans 3:26 - One Time, One Place, One Sacrifice

Romans 3:26

"To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

It was always the purpose of God the Father to send His Son, in the fullness of the time, to pay the sin debt and at the same time justify those sinners whom He had eternally chosen to save. As it is written, "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law" (Galatians 4:4). Not only did this take place in time, but in one place—and by His one obedience unto death—the LORD Jesus Christ paid, once for all, the sins of all God's elect, from the beginning of time to the end… AT 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 promise of eternal inheritance.” (Hebrews 9:15) Those under the Old Testament were saved at the same time and in the same place as all of God’s elect—by the one sacrifice of the LORD Jesus Christ at the cross. The elect who lived under the Old Testament economy lived and died in faith, awaiting the redemption and justification that the LORD Jesus would accomplish on their behalf. As Scripture declares: “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:39–40).

Abraham, called the father of the faithful (Romans 4:16-18), believed God and rejoiced to see the day when the LORD Jesus would fulfill this work of redemption and justification before God: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56). Peter, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, affirms that the prophets of the Old Testament were “searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:11). Thus, the cross stands as the one place and one time in which the salvation of all God’s elect—both Old and New Testament saints—was perfectly accomplished.

    Moses also looked to the same Savior/Sacrifice, time and place, “A prophet shall the LORD your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear.” (Acts 7:37) As did Job, who declared, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” (Job 19:25) The latter day was when Christ came to fulfill God’s law and righteousness in His life and death. Upon completion of His redemptive work, God simultaneously imputed righteousness to the spiritual account of all His elect, there and then.

In glorious fulfillment of His eternal purpose, God declared at the cross that He is “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). There, in the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, the righteousness of God was revealed in perfect harmony with His mercy. Justice was not set aside but was fully satisfied in the death of the Substitute, the LORD Jesus Christ, Who bore the sins of His elect. God did not make salvation possible—He accomplished it. He did not merely offer righteousness—He imputed it. The cross was not a stage of potential redemption but the final, effectual act of justification for every sinner chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

Here is the unfailing anchor and sure foundation of every believer’s assurance of salvation: God has righteously redeemed those whom He chose in Christ, and they now stand complete in Him, accepted in the Beloved, justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus—to the praise of the glory of His sovereign grace.