Romans 4:24–25

Should we be satisfied with only admiring Abram and praising his faith, while we read his history as something that does not concern us? No. The gospel of the grace of God was no afterthought in God's mind. Moses wrote that chapter of Abraham's life by the Holy Spirit. Even then God was looking on to the death and resurrection of His Son, and to the coming of the Holy Spirit. After that, the gospel could be preached.

The same principles apply exactly. There is, however, one important difference. In Abraham's case he believed that God would raise up life out of death. We are not asked to believe that God will do it, but that He has done it, by raising up Jesus our Lord from the dead. How much simpler it is to believe that He has done it, now that He has done it. That is far easier than believing He will do it, while He has not yet done it.

The gospel is not promise, but accomplishment. It is so complete that if the work were not already done in the cross, in the death and resurrection of Him who hung there, it never can be done — not even by Him.

The same faith shall be counted to us also for righteousness: faith in God as the One who raised up Jesus from the dead. Faith here is not faith in Jesus, but in Him who came in power into the realm of death. Jesus lay there because of our sins, and God brought Him out by His power. This was the mighty activity of the love of God. Jesus had already borne all the punishment of our sins, and God brought Him out from under all their consequences. So by believing God who has done this, we take in the whole extent of His work, with the grace and power shown in it. We come to know God. Our God is the God who has done this.

I know the love of God in giving Christ. I know that all my sins are gone, and that God Himself is my Saviour. He is not here in the character of Judge. This is not faith in Christ before God. It is faith in God Himself, who has raised Christ from the dead. So it takes in everything between myself and God.

If we want settled peace, we must believe in God as the One who raised up Jesus from the dead. In doing so He proved Himself friendly to us. He also proved His infinite satisfaction in the work of the cross. Jesus was delivered up for our offences. He could not be where He now is if a single one of those offences remained unatoned for.

A person can be reckoned to be in a state that he is not in fact in. Even so, imputed righteousness does not mean a stock of righteousness lying outside him and credited to him. It means the state, in God's sight, of the person who is accounted righteous. To impute righteousness to a man is the same as to account that man righteous.

If righteousness is imputed, it needs no argument to prove that the one to whom it is imputed had no hand in it. It comes by faith, and not by works.

Now God Himself comes forth to raise from the dead the One who was, as believers can say, "delivered for our offences." By the very act of raising Him from the dead, God shows that our sins have been put away for ever… Believing in God, and receiving the testimony He gives to His beloved Son, we are justified. Faith is reckoned for righteousness. God not only clears away our sins; He also counts every believer as a righteous person. That is justification… Abraham was justified when he believed that God would do what He had promised. We are justified when we believe what God has done in raising Jesus our Lord from the dead.

"Was delivered": He was given up to death and judgment. Who delivered Him? God… It was an act of God on our behalf.

Propitiation is what we may call the Godward side of the death of Christ. It deals with the most basic matter of all: meeting God's claims against sin. Meeting the sinner's need must come second to that. So when Paul unfolds the gospel in his letter to the Romans, the first mention of the death of Christ is "a propitiation through faith in His blood" (Romans 3:25). We do not find substitution stated plainly until Romans 4:25, where we read of Him as "delivered for our offences."

Now let us ask, for what was the precious Saviour delivered? "For our offences." For how many? For all, most surely. When Jesus hung on the cross, all the believer's offences were laid on Him and charged to Him. Yes, all. Every one of them was still future when Christ bore them. Yet with Him who spans eternity as a moment, there is no such distinction as past, present or future… Christ forsaken on the cross because our sins were laid on Him. Christ crowned on the throne because our sins are put away.

The death of Christ paid the mighty debt of sin. God's raising Him from the dead is God's acknowledgement that the debt is paid. The resurrection of Christ proves to the believer that his sins are gone for ever, for He was "raised for our justification." In 1 Corinthians 15:17 we find the opposite: "if Christ has not been raised… you are still in your sins." It does not say, "If Christ has not died," but "if Christ has not been raised." But He is raised. Then what is the blessed conclusion for believers to draw? You are not in your sins.

As surely as He was nailed to that cross to bear our sins, for our offences, so surely God raised Him from the dead for our justification. (It is not correct to say on account of our justification. That would imply we were justified before we believed God. It would contradict the word, "all that believe are justified.")… The title deed of his justification is this: God raised up his Substitute from the dead, to be his righteousness and his justification.

"For our justification": these words give the bearing of His resurrection on us who believe. Keep in mind that He represents us, if you want to grasp their meaning. Has He come out free from the dominion of death? Then we are free. Is He cleared in triumph from the burden of our offences? Then we are clear — as clear as He is. We stand or fall by our Representative. His position is our position. If death and judgment are behind Him, they are behind us.