Martin Luther depicted Roman epistle as “truly the most important piece in the New Testament,” “the purest Gospel,” and he highly esteemed the letter insomuch that he wrote, “It is well worth a Christian’s while not only to memorize if word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul.” Foundational, vital, Christian subthemes are within Romans that are under the overarching theme of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of these themes is one that Protestants, including Martin Luther, love: Justification by Faith. Throughout the book of Romans, Paul stated that the definition of justification is the act of God seeing an individual as just, the basis of justification is Jesus Christ, the means
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Whereas the Old Testament has mentioned justification in Hebrew, where 70 Greek translators translated it into a Greek compilation that is known as the Septuagint, the New Testament used justification in the Greek, and it used the same word that the Greek translators used in the Septuagint. According to J. I. Packer, justification’s definition, both in the Greek and the Hebrew, is “to pronounce, accept, and treat as just, i.e., as, on the one hand, not penalty liable, and, on the other, entitled to all the privileges due to those who have kept the law.” Therefore, when Paul spoke in Romans 3 concerning justification, he meant that God has pronounced, accepted, and treated the individual as just. In addition, in Romans 8:33, Paul explicitly revealed that God is the one who justifies. Ergo, the definition of justification, within the context of Romans, is that justification is accessible by all, provided by God, and when an individual accesses it through faith, God pronounces, accepts, and treats the individual as …show more content…
Without the work of Christ, the justification would be invalid. In support of this argument, in Romans 5:9, while he wrote concerning the Gospel, Paul stated, “[B]eing now justified by his blood.” Since Jesus Christ took the sins of humanity, humanity may now be just in the eyes of God. Stephen Chester, while elaborating on the writings of Martin Luther, stated that God can view humanity as just because the blood of Jesus cloaked them. His blood served as a covering for all sins. Now, whenever God views a believer whom the blood has covered, He does not see the sins of the believer; rather, He recognizes the sacrifice Jesus Christ paid. Therefore, He is able to view the believer as righteous, rather than as a sinner or as a convicted felon. Moreover, this possible since, as Chester added, since a “joyous exchange” occurred, whereby what pertained to humans now is His, and what pertained to Jesus, now may pertain to humanity. That is, humanity’s sin transferred to Jesus, and Jesus’s righteousness transferred to humanity. Cohesively, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” Although He did not sin, although He was perfect in every way, He became sin since He took upon
Whereas the Old Testament has mentioned justification in Hebrew, where 70 Greek translators translated it into a Greek compilation that is known as the Septuagint, the New Testament used justification in the Greek, and it used the same word that the Greek translators used in the Septuagint. According to J. I. Packer, justification’s definition, both in the Greek and the Hebrew, is “to pronounce, accept, and treat as just, i.e., as, on the one hand, not penalty liable, and, on the other, entitled to all the privileges due to those who have kept the law.” Therefore, when Paul spoke in Romans 3 concerning justification, he meant that God has pronounced, accepted, and treated the individual as just. In addition, in Romans 8:33, Paul explicitly revealed that God is the one who justifies. Ergo, the definition of justification, within the context of Romans, is that justification is accessible by all, provided by God, and when an individual accesses it through faith, God pronounces, accepts, and treats the individual as …show more content…
Without the work of Christ, the justification would be invalid. In support of this argument, in Romans 5:9, while he wrote concerning the Gospel, Paul stated, “[B]eing now justified by his blood.” Since Jesus Christ took the sins of humanity, humanity may now be just in the eyes of God. Stephen Chester, while elaborating on the writings of Martin Luther, stated that God can view humanity as just because the blood of Jesus cloaked them. His blood served as a covering for all sins. Now, whenever God views a believer whom the blood has covered, He does not see the sins of the believer; rather, He recognizes the sacrifice Jesus Christ paid. Therefore, He is able to view the believer as righteous, rather than as a sinner or as a convicted felon. Moreover, this possible since, as Chester added, since a “joyous exchange” occurred, whereby what pertained to humans now is His, and what pertained to Jesus, now may pertain to humanity. That is, humanity’s sin transferred to Jesus, and Jesus’s righteousness transferred to humanity. Cohesively, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” Although He did not sin, although He was perfect in every way, He became sin since He took upon