I. The way of a sinner's justification before God —
The manner of our justification is here plainly de- clared—
[There seems indeed a senseless tautology in the expres- sions of the text ; but the words " freely," and " by grace," are of very different import, and are necessary to convey the full meaning of the Apostle.
"We are justified " freely," that is, without any cause for it in ourselves*: no works before our justification, no repentance or reformation at the time of our justification, no evangelical obedience after our justification, are at all taken into the account. There is no merit whatever in any thing we ever have done, or in any thing we ever can do. Our justification is as indepen- dent of any merit in us, as was the gift of that Saviour through whom we are justified.
Our justification also springs from no motive in God, except his own boundless " grace " and mercy. When speaking merely after the manner of men, we say, that God consults his own glory : but, strictly speaking, if the whole human race were punished after the example of the fallen angels, he would be as happy and as glorious as he is at present: just as the sun in the firmament would shine equally bright, if this globe that is illuminated by it were annihilated. We can neither add to, nor detract from, God's happiness or glory in the smallest possible degree. His mercy to us therefore is mere grace, for grace sake.]
Yet it is of great importance to notice also the means by which we are justified —
[Though our justification is a free gift as it respects us, yet it was dearly purchased by our blessed Lord, who " laid down his own life a ransom for us." There was a necessity on the part of God, as the moral Governor of the world, that his justice should be satisfied for our violations of his law. This was done through the atoning blood of Jesus ; on which account we are said to be "justified by his blood," and to be "redeemed to God by his blood." The Father's grace is the source from whence our justification flows; and " the redemption that is in Christ" is the means, by which God is enabled to bestow it consistently with his own honour.
In this view the text informs us, that " God hath set forth his Son to be a propitiation, or mercy-seatb, through faith in his blood." The mercy-seat was the place where God visibly
?wpt<()'. See John xv. 25. in the Greek. And for the truth of the assertion, see Tit. iii. 5.
b iKaarfipiov. See Heb. ix. f). the Greek.