To redeem is to purchase back at a cost. We originally belonged to God but became lost through sin. The requirements of God's holiness, righteousness, and glory were so great upon us that it was impossible for us to fulfill them. However, God paid the price for us through Christ, repossessing us at a tremendous cost. Christ died on the cross to redeem us (Gal. 3:13; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18); His blood obtained eternal redemption for us (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

In the Old Testament, the propitiation place, the lid of the ark, as a type, was hidden in the Holy of Holies; in the New Testament, Christ as the reality of the propitiation place is openly set forth before all men.

Since Christ has paid the price for our sins and in His redemption has fulfilled all God's requirements on us, God, because He is just, must justify us freely. Such justification is by the grace of God, not by our works.

Justification is God's action whereby He approves people according to His standard of righteousness. God can do this on the basis of the redemption of Christ.

God's glory is God expressed. Whenever God is expressed, His glory is seen. Man was made by God in His image that man might express Him for His glory. But man has sinned and has contradicted the holiness and righteousness of God. Instead of expressing God, man expresses sin and his sinful self. Hence, man falls short of God's glory. This falling short of God's glory and expression is sin. Sinners are not only under the requirements of God's holiness and righteousness but also under the demand of God's glory. All have offended God's holy being and have broken God's righteous law, and all are short of God's glory. Therefore, all are under God's condemnation.

Or, faith in Jesus Christ. This faith refers to the faith of Jesus Christ in us, which has become the faith by which we believe in Him, as in v. 26; Gal. 2:16, 20; 3:22; Eph. 3:12 and Phil. 3:9.

Faith has an object, and it issues from its object. This object is Jesus, who is God incarnate. When man hears Him, knows Him, appreciates Him, and treasures Him, He causes faith to be generated in man, enabling man to believe in Him. Thus, He becomes the faith in man by which man believes in Him. Hence, this faith becomes the faith in Him, and it is also the faith that belongs to Him.

In God's New Testament economy, God desires that man believe in Jesus, who is God incarnate. If man does not believe in Him, he commits the unique sin before God (John 16:9). However, if man believes in Him, he is righteous to the uttermost before God, and God reckons this faith as his righteousness. At the same time, this faith brings its object, that is, this One who is God incarnate, into those who believe in Him. He is God's righteousness, and God has given Him as righteousness to those who are indwelt by Him (Jer. 23:6). All this is out of, and depends on, the faith that is in Him and of Him (Heb. 12:2).

The Jews sought the righteousness of God by keeping the law. However, they did not attain to it, for out of the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before God (v. 20). But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested to us through faith in Christ (Rom. 1:17).

See note Rom. 1:17^1a. So in the next verse.

God's righteousness, which is revealed in the gospel (Rom. 1:17), is the basis and foundation of His dispensing Himself into man in His New Testament economy. This righteousness has nothing to do with the law in His Old Testament economy (see Phil. 3:9 and notes there).

God's purpose in giving the law was to expose man, to subdue man, and to guard or keep God's chosen ones for Christ that they may be led to Christ (see notes on Gal. 3:23-24).

When we were sinners, we did not know the way of peace. Now, however, we have peace toward God (Rom. 5:1); that is, we are at peace with God.

Or, kindness.

The eternal judgment. See note Rom. 2:2¹.

In Greek the same word as for truth (reality). The word here and in Rom. 15:8 denotes genuineness, sincerity, honesty, faithfulness, and trustworthiness as one of God's virtues (see note 1 John 1:6⁶, item 7).

God must first convince us of His righteousness before we can repent and believe into Him. Thus, He is declared righteous by us before we are declared righteous by Him.

Lit., May it not happen. So throughout this Epistle.

The propitiation place is typified in Exo. 25:17 by the sin-covering lid on the ark. The ark was the place where God met with people. In the ark was the law of the Ten Commandments, which by its holy and righteous requirement exposed and condemned the sins of the people who came to contact God. However, by the lid of the ark, with the propitiating blood sprinkled on it on the Day of Propitiation, the entire situation on the sinner's side was fully covered. Therefore, upon this sin-covering lid God could meet with the people who broke His righteous law, and He could do this without, governmentally, any contradiction to His righteousness, even under the observing of the cherubim that bore His glory and overshadowed the lid of the ark. Thus, the problem between man and God was appeased, enabling God to forgive and be merciful to man and thereby to give His grace to man. This is a prefigure of Christ as the Lamb of God taking away the sin that caused man to have a problem with God (John 1:29), thus satisfying all the requirements of God's holiness, righteousness, and glory and appeasing the relationship between man and God. Hence, God could pass over the people's sins that had previously occurred. And, in order to show forth His righteousness, He had to do this. This is what this verse refers to.

The Hebrew word for the lid of the ark is kapporeth, from a root meaning to cover. In the Septuagint this word is translated hilasterion, which means the place of propitiation (implying to forgive and to give mercy — the word rendered propitious in Heb. 8:12 is the root of hilasterion, and the word rendered propitiated in Luke 18:13 is derived from this root). The King James Version adopts the rendering "mercy seat," referring to the place where God grants mercy to man. In Heb. 9:5 Paul also used hilasterion for the lid of the ark. Here, in Rom. 3:25, the same word, hilasterion, is used to show that the lid of the ark signifies Christ as the propitiation place set forth by God.

In addition to hilasterion, two other words derived from the same Greek word as hilasterion are used in the New Testament to show how Christ took away man's sin to appease the relationship between man and God. One is hilaskomai (Heb. 2:17), which means to propitiate, that is, to appease, to reconcile one by satisfying the other's demand; the other is hilasmos (1 John 2:2; 4:10), which means that which propitiates, that is, a propitiatory sacrifice. Christ made propitiation for our sins (Heb. 2:17); hence, He has become that which propitiates, the propitiatory sacrifice, between us and God (1 John 2:2; 4:10), and He has also become the place, as typified by the lid of the ark (Heb. 9:5), where we enjoy propitiation before God and where God gives grace to us.

During the Old Testament time, the sins of the people were not taken away but were only covered with the blood of the animal sacrifices, which were types of Christ. God passed over these covered sins until Christ came. He was the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world (John 1:29). By His death on the cross and the shedding of His blood for redemption, He carried away all the sins that had been previously covered and passed over. In passing over their sins, God demonstrated His righteousness to the Old Testament saints.

God's justifying the believers is with a view to the demonstrating of His righteousness to those in the New Testament time who are of the faith of Jesus.

Or, faith in Jesus. See note Rom. 3:22¹.

Lit., It is completely shut out.

Faith is the source out of which the circumcision, who already have the position as God's people, may be justified by God; hence, their justification is out of faith. But as to the uncircumcision, who are positionally far away and are not God's people, faith is the way for them to reach the position where they can be justified by God; hence, their justification is through faith.