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“We judge thus: that is One died for all, then all died…Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is now a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5: 14, 17)

We are made righteous “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). That is, through the purchasing power that is in Christ Jesus, or through “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8). This is the reason why it comes to us as a gift.

Someone may say that everlasting life in the Kingdom of God is too great a thing to be given to us for nothing. So it is, and therefore it had to be purchased. But since we had nothing that could buy it, Christ has purchased it for us and He gives it to us freely in Himself.

But if we had to purchase it from Him, we might as well have bought it in the first place, and saved Him the task. “If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain” (Gal. 2:21). “You were redeemed with corruptible [margin, “perishable”] things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. (1 Pet. 1:18,19). The redemption that is in Christ Jesus is His own life.

Christ is the one whom God has set forth to declare his righteousness. Now since the only righteousness that is real righteousness is the righteousness of God, and Christ is the only one who has been ordained of God to declare it upon men, it is evident that it cannot be obtained except through Him. “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

The scene on Calvary was the manifestation of what has taken place as long as sin has existed, and will take place until everyone is saved who is willing to be saved: Christ bearing the sins of the world. He bears them now. One act of death and resurrection was sufficient for all time, for it is eternal life that we are considering. Therefore it is not necessary for the sacrifice to be repeated. That life is for everyone everywhere, so that whoever accepts it by faith has all the benefit of the entire sacrifice of Christ.

Waggoner on Romans, p.72; Waggoner, The Glad Tidings, p. 47

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“I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you,…think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3)

There is comfort in all God’s exhortations and commandments, since He does not expect us to act in our own strength but in His. When He utters a command, it is but the statement of what He will do in and for us, if we yield to His power. When He reproves, He is simply showing to us our need, which He can abundantly supply.

Pride is the enemy of faith. The two cannot live together. A man can think soberly and humbly only as the result of the faith that God gives. “Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4). The one who has confidence in his own strength and wisdom will not depend upon another. Trust in the wisdom and power of God comes only when we recognize and acknowledge our own weakness and ignorance.

That faith which God deals to us is indicated in Rev. 14: 12: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” God does not give faith to the saints only, any more than He gives the commandments to them alone; but the saints keep the faith, and other do not. The faith which they keep is the faith of Jesus; therefore it is the faith of Jesus that is given to us.

“Man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ” (Gal. 2:16).

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 178-179

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“Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness…that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:24-26)

A propitiation is a sacrifice. The statement here is simply that Christ is set forth to be a sacrifice for the remission of our sins. “Once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26).

Of course the idea of a propitiation or sacrifice is that there is wrath to be appeased. But take particular notice that it is we who require the sacrifice, and not God. He provides the sacrifice. The idea that God’s wrath has to be propitiated in order that we may have forgiveness finds no warrant in the Bible.

It is the height of absurdity to say that God is so angry with people that He will not forgive then unless something is provided to appease His wrath, and that therefore He Himself offers the gift to Himself, by which He is appeased.

The heathen idea, which is too often held by professed Christians, is that men must provide a sacrifice to appease the wrath of their god. All heathen worship is simply a bribe to their gods to be favorable to them. If they thought that their gods were very angry with them, they would provide a greater sacrifice, and so human sacrifices were offered in extreme cases. They thought that their god was gratified by the sight of blood.

Ecclesiastical leaders imagine that salvation is by works and that by works we can atone from sin. This is but the out-cropping of the heathen idea of propitiation. The true God is not pleased with such sacrifices.

“The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with a wicked intent!” “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart-these, O God, you will not despise” (Prov. 21:27; Ps. 51:17)

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 72,73

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“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die” (Rom. 5:7)

Our English translation does not indicate the difference between the two words used here. The righteous man is the just man, the man who is careful to give everyone his due. The good man is the benevolent man, the one who has done us many favors, and who does for us more than we can we could justly claim. Now, no matter how just a man may be, his integrity of character would scarcely lead one to die for him. Yet it is possible that for a man of great kindness “someone would even dare to die.”

That is the highest measure of love among us. One may lay down his life for his friends, :but God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners [therefore enemies], Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

God does not need to be reconciled to us, but we need reconciliation to Him. And He Himself, in the kindness of His heart, make the reconciliation. We are “made near by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13). How so? Because it was sin that separated us from Him, and made us enemies; and “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:7). Being cleansed from sin, we must necessarily be reconciled to God.

In that Christ shed His blood for us, He gave His life for us. But inasmuch as the blood is applied to us, to cleanse us from all sin, He gives His life to us. In the death of Christ therefore we are crucified with Him. We receive His life as a substitute for our sinful life, which He takes upon Himself.

“From first to last this has been the work of God. He has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing [margin, “reckoning”] their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5: 18-20).

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 96,97

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“All alike have sinned, and are deprived of the divine splendour, and all are justified by God’s free grace alone, through His act of liberation in the person of Christ Jesus.” “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ” (Rom. 3:23,24, NEB, NKJV)

The great burden of the Epistle to the Romans is to show that so far as sin and salvation are concerned, there is absolutely no difference between people of all races and conditions in life.

People are fond of imagining that what are called “shortcomings” are not so bad as real sins. So it is much easier for them to confess that they have “come short” than they have sinned and done wickedly. But since God requires perfection, it is evident that “shortcomings” are sins. When perfection is the standard, it makes no difference in the result, how much or how little one comes short, so long as he comes short. The primary meaning of sin is “to miss the mark.”

From the text we learn that the glory of God is His righteousness. Notice the reason why all have come short of the glory of God is that all have sinned. Man in the beginning was “crowned with glory and honor” (Heb. 2:7) because he was upright. In the fall he lost the glory, and therefore now he must “seek for glory, honor and immortality (Rom. 2:7). Christ could say to the Father, “The glory which You have Me I have given them” (Jn. 17:22), because in Him is the righteousness of God which He has given as a free gift.

In Christ we are “being justified,” in other words, being made righteous. To justify means to make righteous. God supplies just what the sinner lacks. Let no reader forget the simple meaning of justification. Some people have the idea that there is a much higher condition for the Christian to occupy than to be justified. That is to say, that there is a higher condition for one to occupy than to ne clothed within and without with the righteousness of God. That cannot be.

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 70,71

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“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief” (1 Tim. 1:5)

The reason why “hope does not disappoint” is “because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5). Note that it does not say love for God, but the love of God.

What is the love of God? “This is the love of God, that we should keep His commandments” (1 Jn. 5:3). The Holy Spirit, then, puts into our hearts obedience to the law of God; and it is that which gives us boldness in the day of judgment, and at all other times. It is sin that makes us afraid. When sin is taken away, then fear is gone. “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Pro. 28:1).

“This man receives sinners” (Lk. 15:2). Strange that people will allow a sense of their sinfulness to keep them away from the Lord, when Christ came for the one purpose of receiving and saving them. He is “able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him” (Heb. 7:25); and He says that those who comes to Him He “will by no means cast out” (Jn. 6: 37).

It was when we were still without strength that Christ died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6), because He died for the purpose that we might be strengthened with might by the Spirit. If He waited for us to gain some strength before giving Himself for us, then we should be lost. When were we without strength? Just now; and even now Jesus Christ is set forth “evidently crucified” among us (Gal. 3:1 KJV). “Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength” (Isa. 45:24).

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp.95,96

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“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow…Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps. 51: 7, 10)

When Christ shed His blood for us, He gave His life for us inasmuch as the blood is applied to us to cleanse us from all sin. In the death of Christ therefore, if we are crucified with Him, we receive His life as a substitute for our sinful life, which He takes upon Himself.

Our sins are remitted through faith in His blood, not as an arbitrary act, but because by faith we exchange lives with Him, and the life which we get in exchange has no sin. Our sinful life is swallowed up in His boundless life, because He has life so abundantly that He can die because of our transgressions, and still live again to give life to us.

Christ did not go through the pangs of death for nothing, nor did He give His life for us for the purpose of taking it away again. When He gives us His life, He designs that we should keep it forever. How do we get it? By faith. How do we keep it? By the same faith. “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Col. 2:6). His life can never end, but we may lose it by unbelief.

Let it be remembered that we don’t have this life in ourselves, but “this life is in His Son.” We keep the everlasting life by keeping Christ. People sometimes say that they can believe that God forgives their sins, but they find it difficult to believe that He can keep them for sin. Well, if there is any difference, the latter is the easier of the two; for the forgiveness of sin requires the death of Christ, while the saving form sins requires only His continued life.

Think what was in the life of Christ. As we have the record in the New Testament, we shall know what ought to be in our lives now. If we allow Him to dwell in us, He will live just as He did then. If there is something in our lives that was not then in His, we may be sure that He is not living it in us now.

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp.96,97

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“Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jam. 4:4)

Righteousness is peace, because our warfare against God was our sins that we cherished. But God has promised to place an end to our warfare; to place enmity between us and our sins (see Gen. 3:15; Isa. 40:1,2).

God’s life is righteousness, and He is the God of peace. Since the enmity is the carnal mind and its wicked works, peace must be the opposite, namely, righteousness. So it is simply the statement of an obvious fact, that being justified by faith we have peace with God. The righteousness that we have by faith carries peace with it. The two things cannot be separated.

The question is asked, “Can one have peace with God and not have a feeling of peace?” What says the Scripture? “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God” (Rom. 5:1). What brings the peace? The faith. But faith is not feeling. If there must be a certain feeling with peace, then if we did not have that feeling we should know that we are not justified; and then justification would be a matter of feeling and not of faith.

Peace must come by faith. Peace that depends on feeling will depart as soon as we begin to feel tribulation. But nothing can make any difference with the peace that comes by faith.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33).

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 93, 94

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“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age” (Tit. 2: 11,12)

Everyone is exhorted to think soberly, because God has dealt to every person the measure of faith. Many people have a notion that they are so constituted that it is impossible for them to believe. That is a grave error. Faith is just as easy, and just as natural, as breathing. It is the common inheritance of all people, and the one thing wherein all are equal. It is as natural for the child of the infidel to believe as it is for the child of the saint. It is only when people build up a barrier of pride about themselves (Ps. 73:6) that they find it difficult to believe. And even then they will believe; for when people disbelieve God, they believe Satan. When they disbelieve the truth, they greedily swallow the most flagrant falsehoods.

We have seen that faith is given to everyone (Rom. 12:3). This may be known also by the fact that salvation is offered to everyone, and placed within his grasp, and salvation is only by faith. If God had not given faith to everyone, he could not have brought salvation within the reach of all.

The question is, in what measure has God given each one faith? This is really answered in the fact already learned, that the faith which He gives is the faith of Jesus. The faith of Jesus is given in the gift of Jesus Himself, and Christ is given in His fulness to each one. He tasted death for everyone (Heb. 2:9). “To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift (Eph. 4:7). Christ is not divided; therefore to every person is given all of Christ and all of His faith. There is but one measure.

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, p. 179