GRATITUDE FOR THE GRACE GEMS OF REDEMPTION AND JUSTIFICATION
And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified freely by His graceG5485 through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:22-24
Redemption (salvation) and justification go hand in hand. If you are redeemed, you will be justified; and when you are with the Lord for eternity, you will be glorified. We are not made righteous because of our efforts to do the right thing. —God declares us righteous—justified or acquitted—because we have been redeemed through faith in Jesus. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians laid out his complete pedigree as a Jew, but then made it clear that being a Pharisee, being “blameless”, being circumcised, etc. is not what made him righteous:
Philippians 3:7-9 But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.
Salvation (redemption) and justification (righteousness) are not the same thing but are interdependent: you cannot have one without the other. If you are “saved,” you are seen as righteous in God’s eyes. If you have been justified, it is because you have been redeemed. In fact, according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, “grace” is partially defined as this:
G5485 grace – charis – the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life: including gratitude: acceptable, benefit, favor, gift, gracious, joy, liberality, pleasure, thankworthy.
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
Charles Swindoll boils down the definition of salvation found in this passage to the following bullet points:
• Salvation is a transfer of righteousness.
• Salvation is a gift of grace.
• Salvation is a display of love.
• Salvation is a declaration of faith.
Charles R. Swindoll, Romans, vol. 6, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2016), 83.
When we are redeemed (saved) by God’s grace through faith in Jesus, His righteousness is transferred to our account. Redemption and justification are both gems of God’s grace given to us as gifts that cannot be earned or deserved. Have you expressed your gratitude for these gems recently?
Father, thank You for giving the greatest gift, Your only begotten Son, Jesus, to die in our place on the cross to redeem us. Thank you for transferring the record of Jesus’s righteousness to our account even though we could never be right with You by our own efforts. Thank You for showering us with glorious gems of grace!
Listen to Dottie Rambo share a testimony and her signature song “He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need”:
Here’s another version of Dottie’s song featuring Riley Clark with Mark Lowry and friends singing beautiful harmony on the chorus: