How can God remain just if He forgives sinners? Study Romans 3 with context, apologetic analysis, and cross-references.
Dr. Lucas D. Shallua Commentary · ROMANS 3 — ALL HAVE SINNED AND JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
He does so through the cross. God did not ignore sin; He punished it fully in Jesus Christ. Jesus satisfied divine justice as a substitute (propitiation), allowing God to be both fully just in punishing sin and the justifier of the believer. The cross is not a divine pardon that overlooks sin; it is a divine payment that absorbs it. God's justice and mercy meet at the cross.
No. Faith upholds the Law because Christ fulfilled the Law's requirements and bore its curse. The moral law remains as a guide for Christian living, though it no longer serves as the basis of condemnation for those in Christ. The ceremonial law is fulfilled in Christ. The Law's purpose was to reveal sin and point to the Savior.
It means that every human being, without exception, has fallen short of God's perfect standard. There is no one righteous by nature or by effort. This universal condition is the reason why salvation must be by grace through faith, not by works. The ground is level at the foot of the cross.
Redemption emphasizes the price paid to release us from bondage. Propitiation emphasizes the wrath appeased to satisfy God's justice. Both are accomplished by Christ's death on the cross. He paid the ransom and absorbed the wrath.
Romans 3 is the culmination of Paul's argument concerning human guilt, begun in Romans 1:18. After proving that the immoral pagan, the self-righteous moralist, and the religious Jew are all guilty before God, Paul introduces the apex of the gospel message in verses 21–26. This passage is one of the most important in all of Scripture for understanding the doctrine of salvation. It answers the question that the entire letter has been building toward: how can a holy God declare guilty sinners righteous?
Paul's string of Old Testament quotations in verses 10–18 demonstrates that the doctrine of universal human depravity is not a Pauline invention but a core, consistent witness of Hebrew Scripture. The prophets and psalmists repeatedly testify to the pervasive sinfulness of humanity. This continuity between the Testaments strengthens the reliability of the biblical message. The Law and the Prophets all testify to the same truth: humanity is lost and needs a Savior.
This study preserves the hard questions, explanations, context, apologetic note, and references from Dr. Shallua's Commentary.