The Effect of Romans 3:24

"...being justified, by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus..." - Rom. 3:24

John Bunyan (Works, p. 39):
“…just then as I was walking up and down in the house in the most dreadful state of mind, this word of God took hold upon my heart: Ye are ‘justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 3:24). Oh, what a turn this made upon me! Oh what a sudden change it made!
It was as though I had awakened out of a nightmare. Now God seemed to be saying to me: ‘Sinner, you think that I cannot save your soul because of your sins; behold my Son is here and I look upon Him not on you, and I shall deal with you according as I am pleased with Him.’ By this I was made to understand that God can justify a sinner at any time by looking upon Christ and imputing His benefits to him.”

William Cowper:
“The happy period which was to shake off my fetters and afford me a clear opening of the free mercy of God in Christ Jesus was now arrived. I flung myself into a chair near the window, and, seeing a Bible there, ventured once more to apply to it for comfort and instruction. The first verses I saw were in the third chapter of Romans: ‘Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to manifest his righteousness.’ Immediately I received strength to believe, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone on me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement he had made, my pardon in his blood, and the fullness and completeness of his justification. In a moment I believed and received the gospel.”

The Justifying Work of Christ

This is a quote Jerry Bridges passed out to the Sovereign Grace Pastor's College today in class. I get updates every now and then from a friend who is currently going through the PC.

“Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. Many have so light an apprehension of God’s holiness and of the extent and guilt of their sin that consciously they see little need for justification, although below the surface of their lives they are deeply guilt-ridden and insecure. Many others have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for justification, in the Augustinian manner, drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience. Few know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude."

Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979, p. 101.