God's justice demonstrated
God’s motive for justifying sinners is grace; his method is redemption. His objective, or goal, for doing so is now described by Paul. It’s a twofold objective on God’s part: to demonstrate that he is just, and to demonstrate that he is a God who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
He did this [presenting Christ as a sacrifice of atonement] to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
God is just. His integrity requires a negative reaction to sin and disobedience. However, in his great patience and “forbearance,” he moves slowly in dealing with sinners. Often he moves so slowly, in fact, that sinners may get the idea that sin isn’t so serious; that God doesn’t really care all that much; and that, in the final analysis, he may not do anything about it at all. Past experience with God’s seeming inactivity could be misunderstood. Sins “committed beforehand” could appear to be left unpunished, because there has not been any open and obvious day of judgment.
Paul, however, leads us to understand that such a casual view of sin is dead wrong. If you doubt this, Paul says, then look at what God did to Christ because of sin. He required the lifeblood of his Son to pay the price for human sin. Sin is serious! It needs to be repented.
Paul preached the same message in Athens to people whom he called to repentance because of their worship of idols and false gods. He warns them, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30,31; for a similar statement, see Acts 14:15,16).
The same warning also fits us, who are all too prone to underestimate the seriousness of our sin and guilt. We would do well to heed the reminder from Thomas Kelly’s Lenten hymn:
If you think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great,
Here you see its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed;
See who bears the awful load—
’Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God (Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal [CW] 127:3).
Look at what God did to Christ, the sinner’s substitute, and know that God is a just God who punishes sin.
But God had another objective in mind when he made Christ a “sacrifice of atonement” (3:25). It was not only to “demonstrate his justice” but also to demonstrate that he is “the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”
Later in this epistle, Paul will write, “Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God” (11:22). Both of those qualities are clearly evident here. God’s sternness toward sin is shown by the severe treatment meted out on the Son for the sins that were laid on his innocent shoulders. But the payment for sin that Christ’s death achieved satisfied God’s justice. That was proven by the Father raising his Son from the grave on Easter morning.
In Christ, justice has been served. Now, without compromising his integrity as a just and holy God, the Father can show kindness to redeemed sinners, whose guilt has been pardoned and whose debt has been paid. In Christ, God can see the sinner as just and holy.
In this way Christ’s sacrifice of atonement does double duty. It demonstrates that God is just, but it also demonstrates that God is the God “who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”