upon the 'grace' element of the gift.  Grace is of such a nature that it is

entirely vitiated by the intrusion of 'works' or 'wages':

'And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no

more grace.  But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise

work is no more work' (Rom. 11:6).

'Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of

debt.  But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that

justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness' (Rom.

'For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is aionion life

through Jesus Christ our Lord' (Rom. 6:23).

'For by grace are ye saved ... it is the gift of God' (Eph. 2:8).

Let not a crude theology rob us of the 'freeness' of

this gift of grace.  Romans 3:24 does say we are, 'being justified freely by

His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus'.  What it does not

say is that this freely given justification is through the fact that the Lord

Jesus earned a legal righteousness for us by His obedience to the law of

Moses.  Such an idea robs the gracegift of its glory, and brings God down to

the level of a bargainer with His Son, whereas it is God Himself Who loved

the world, God Who sent His Son, God Who justifies us freely, God Who

provided the ransom.

Where some schools of theology teach justification through the 'imputed

obedience', under law, of the Lord Jesus, Romans 3:24 declared that it is

through the 'redemption' that is in Christ Jesus.  The same truth appears in

Romans 5:8,9 where we read: 'Christ died for us.  Much more then, being now

justified by His blood', and again in Romans 4:25: 'Who was delivered up

because of our offences, and raised again because of our justification'.

Christ's death dealt with our sin.  His blood at once redeems, atones and

makes us nigh.  Redemption sets us free, and long before the dispensation of

grace dawned, David realized that God would reckon righteousness where He

forgave sin:

'Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom

God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they

whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.  Blessed is

the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin' (Rom. 4:6 -8).

It was necessary that sin should be righteously dealt with, and that

has been done, but it is the glory of the gospel that the same love that

prompted our redemption and our deliverance can provide gratuitously, freely,

and without cause (except in the great love of God Himself) 'a righteousness

of God apart from law'.

Shall we reject this loving gift because, forsooth, We do not see just

how God could give it to us freely and without some external moving cause?

We undervalue far too much the initial movement of God in our salvation.  Who

constrained God in the first place to provide a ransom?  What works of

righteousness were accomplished, and by whom, before He would send His gift

of love down to die?  Do we not see that in a sense more full than the

context allows, we may take the words of Romans 8:32: 'He that spared not His

own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also

freely give us all things?'  Here is God's own argument.  The 'free gift' of