Monday

Related Verses
Rom. 3:24, 26
24 Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
26 With a view to the demonstrating of His righteousness in the present time, so that He might be righteous and the One who justifies him who is of the faith of Jesus.

Acts 10:43
43 To this One all the prophets testify that through His name everyone who believes into Him will receive forgiveness of sins.

Isa. 61:10
10 I will rejoice greatly in Jehovah, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with the robe of righteousness; I am like a bridegroom who wears the headdress of the priest, And like a bride who adorns herself with her jewels.

Luke 15:22
22 But the father said to his slaves, Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.

Jer. 23:6
6 In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, Jehovah our righteousness.

Zech. 3:4
4 And He answered and spoke to those standing before Him, saying, Remove the filthy garments from him. Then He said to him, See, I hereby make your iniquity pass from you and clothe you with stately robes.

Related Reading
Justification is God’s action in approving people according to His standard of righteousness. His righteousness is the standard, not ours…How high is God’s righteousness? It is unlimited! Can you be approved by God according to your own righteousness? This is impossible. Although you may be right with everyone—with your parents, your children, and your friends—your righteousness will never justify you before God. You may justify yourself according to your standard of righteousness, but that does not enable you to be justified by God according to His standard. We need justification by faith. Justification by faith before God means that we are approved by God according to the standard of His righteousness.

How can God do this? He can do it because our justification is based upon the redemption of Christ. When the redemption of Christ is applied to us, we are justified. If there were no such redemption, it would be impossible for us to be justified by God. Redemption is the basis of justification. (Life-study of Romans, p. 49)

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Bible students have great difficulty with the phrase the faith of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:22). Some say that it means our act of believing in Jesus Christ. Others argue that it refers to the faith of Jesus, that the faith of Jesus becomes ours. I would put it this way: genuine believing is to believe in the Lord Jesus by His faith. We believe in Jesus Christ by His faith, for we have no faith of our own. Jesus is the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2)…The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law by our believing in Jesus Christ by His faith. We believe in Christ by His faith, not by our own. Christ is our faith. Never say that you cannot believe, for you can believe if you want to. Do not try to believe by yourself, because the more you try, the less faith you have. Simply say, “O Lord Jesus, I love You…You are so good.” If you do this, you will have faith immediately. We believe in Jesus Christ by His faith, and out of this faith and to this faith, the righteousness of God is revealed to all who believe.

According to our experience, it was not God who first approved us but we who approved God [Rom. 3:4]…We were rebellious and said, “I don’t like God. God is not right.” We all thought this way before we were saved. Many people speak against God, saying, “If God is right, why are there so many poor people on the earth? If God is right, why is there no justice among the nations?” They admit that there is God but claim that He is not righteous…God has been patient with us, doing many things for us until He finally convinced us of His righteousness. Who justified whom first? We first justified God. When we were convinced by God of His righteousness, we justified Him and wept in repentance, saying, “God, forgive me. I’m so sinful and unclean. I need Your forgiveness.”

God has justified us freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ and through the faith of Jesus (vv. 24, 26). Since Christ has paid the price for our sins and has accomplished the full redemption to meet all of God’s requirements, God, in order for Him to be just, must justify us. On God’s side justification is by His righteousness; on our side justification is by His free grace as compared with justification by the works of the law. To be justified by the works of the law, we need to work, but to be justified by the redemption in Christ, there is no need of our work; it is freely given by His grace. We do not deserve it. But God is bound by His righteousness to justify us because of the redemption of Christ, which meets all His requirements. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 55, 57-59)

Further Reading: Life-study of Romans, msg. 5