On this Resurrection Day we celebrate as we should every Sunday the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus, “…who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25) is still alive and well and coming again!
In order to save His people from their sins, Jesus died for their sins and rose again. He paid the penalty for the sins of all who believe in Him. But in order to save or justify us, He had to be raised from the dead. Paul was clear that without Christ’s resurrection, we could not be saved. “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” (1 Corinthians 15:17) In order to be saved, we needed to have our sins forgiven, and possess a righteousness in which we can stand before God acceptably. In fact, to be justified is to be declared righteous in God’s sight. God justified us on the basis of Christ’s death for our sins, and Christ’s righteousness which He gave to us as a gift when we believed. We read in Romans 4:24 that the righteousness of God is imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
The theme of Romans 4 is the justification of Abraham, who is the father of all of us who believe. Like him we believe in “God, who gives life to the dead.” (Romans 4:17)