DAILY TRUTH - Salvation Before The Cross explores justification by grace alone, asserting that Jesus serves as the propitiation satisfying God's justice through his substitutionary death. The speaker details how faith acts as the instrument to receive this unmerited favor, allowing God to remain holy while declaring believers righteous despite past sins committed before the cross. Citing examples like Abraham and David, the segment argues that Old Testament saints were saved by the same grace through faith in Christ's future messianic prophecies, whereas modern believers look back at fulfilled testimony. Ultimately, the cross represents the unique meeting point where God's uncompromising justice and mercy converge to save the unworthy. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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God Just and Justifier00:05:06
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Jesus said, Man cannot live on bread alone, but from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
You're listening to Daily Truth.
If anyone is to be justified, it must be done.
Not on the basis of merit in human effort or will, but rather justified by God's grace.
It's going to have to be an unmerited favor.
It's going to have to be an undeserved love.
So we must be, if we are to be justified by God, it must be by grace, because all of us have fallen short of his standard.
It must be done as a gift.
Through what?
On what basis?
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Now, what is it about the personhood and the work of Jesus that makes It is possible for you and I, who are wicked and deserving of punishment, to be justified, that is, declared righteous by grace.
Well, Jesus was put forward, verse 25, whom God put forward as a propitiation, means a pleasing sacrifice, as a sacrifice for sin, a payment, an atonement that was satisfying of God's justice.
And God put Jesus forward as his propitiation by his blood, meaning.
By his life.
That's what blood is referring to.
It's the source of life by his very life.
It cost Jesus his life.
To be received, how is it that some people are recipients of this grace that is afforded to us by the death of Jesus?
How is it that some receive this grace and others do not?
Well, justification is by grace alone, the free gift of God, but it is received through faith alone.
So we're not saved by faith.
We are saved by grace.
And there's a difference.
We are saved through faith.
Faith is the instrument which God gives us.
It's not something in and of ourselves that we conjure up, that we muster up.
You cannot work yourself into this kind of trust, this kind of belief.
So faith is a gift, and it's a gift that God gives us to be used as the instrument to lay hold of His gracious gift of justification, which is accomplished on the basis of Jesus' blood, His life, His substitutionary death.
Now, all of this.
Second half of verse 25 now was to do what?
It is to show, that is to prove, display God's righteousness, His holiness, the fact that He is uncompromising, He is perfectly moral and good because in His divine forbearance, that is, in His patience, His long suffering, His slowness to anger, He passed over.
There it is.
It's the same word that Nathan speaks, very similar.
The same word that Nathan speaks to David in 2 Samuel chapter 12 The Lord has put away your sin.
He has passed over, and what does it say?
Back to Romans 3, into verse 25.
In his divine forbearance, in God's patience, he put away former sins.
Former to what?
Former to the cross, which would be what?
Old Testament saints.
The sin of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David.
David.
Now, verse 26.
It was to show his righteousness at the present time.
Some translations say the proper time.
God would always plan to save a people for himself by grace through faith in Christ, so that he, he being God, might be, and I love this just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Now, just meaning so that he might be uncompromising, he might be holy and perfect, and justifier meaning the one.
Who graciously declares other people to be perfect, even though they don't deserve it.
So, what did God desire to do, and what did He desire to prove and show and display about Himself?
God desired to be both just and justifier.
Another way of saying it, justifier, meaning declaring someone else righteous who doesn't deserve to be declared righteous.
So, it's done on the basis of what?
Grace.
So, God desired to be just and gracious.
And I've often said, and I'll say it once more now, that the cross of Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the place where both the justice and the mercy of God.
Kiss the death of Jesus and his atonement, his substitutionary work on the cross for sinners, is the way that God is able to deal mercifully with wicked men without compromising his holiness and justice at the very same time.
The Cross as Answer00:01:40
And this is how all people have been saved.
So it's kind of a cheat answer, but it is the Bible's answer.
How were Old Testament saints saved?
The very same way that we are.
It's as though the cross of Christ is this.
This fountainhead that flows into two separate streams, one forward and one back.
The Old Testament saints were saved by grace through faith in Christ, looking forward through the messianic prophecies.
The very first one that we have is all the way back in Genesis 3 that through the woman's seed, speaking of Christ, that he ultimately, his heel would be bruised by the serpent, but he would crush the serpent's head.
How were Adam and Eve saved?
Certainly wasn't obedience.
They failed at that.
How were they saved?
They had faith in the serpent crusher.
Now, see, the difference between us is they looked forward, we're looking back, and as they were looking forward, the mystery of redemption was far more mysterious for them.
But they still saw a Redeemer, and they placed faith in that Redeemer.
And through their faith in that Redeemer, they received grace and forgiveness.
No one has ever been saved any other way.
You and I, the difference is we're looking back with more clarity.
Because of the testimony of the apostles, because Jesus has come in the flesh.
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