By the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

“Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God” (Rom. 5:1), and even our consciences no longer accuse us. (See Rom. 2:15.) Judgment and justice now find in favor of the sinner instead of against him. Our memories look back on past sins with deep sorrow but without any dread of penalty to come, for Christ has paid the debt of His people to “the smallest letter” and “the least stroke of a pen” (Matt. 5:18). He has obtained a paid-in-full receipt, and unless God were so unjust as to demand double payment for the same debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as a substitute can ever be cast into hell.

One of the primary beliefs of our new nature is that God is just. At first this belief brings us great fear, but isn’t it wonderful that this same belief in God’s justice later becomes the very pillar of our confidence and peace! If God is just, a sinner without a substitutionary sacrifice must be punished, but Jesus stood in my place and has been punished for me. And now, if God is just, I ​—​ a sinner who stands in Christ — can never be punished. In fact, God would have to change His nature before one soul for whom Jesus died could suffer even one lash of the law.

Thus, since Jesus has taken the place of the believer — having received the full penalty for God’s divine wrath and having suffered all that His people should have suffered as a result of their sin — believers can shout in glorious triumph, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” (Rom. 8:33). Certainly not God, for He has justified believers. Certainly not Christ, for He died to pay the price — and “He has risen from the dead” (Matt. 28:7).

My hope is alive not because I am not a sinner but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died. My trust lives not because I am holy but because, being unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith rests not on what I am or will be, or on what I feel or know, but on who Christ is, on what He has done, and on what He is still doing for me.

The fair maiden of hope rides as a queen on the lion of justice.

By the pen of Jim Reimann:

The verse preceding today’s text is: “God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood” (Rom. 3:25). Some other translations use the word propitiation instead of “sacrifice of atonement.” This theological term means “the sacrifice that fully satisfies the wrath of God.” Since God is holy and just, sin had to be judged. Thus, the verse continues:

He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:25 – 26

This means God had to judge sin “to demonstrate his justice” and “to be just” — or to remain just. God “does not change” (James 1:17) and “cannot disown himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). Therefore, the Lord cannot disown His nature to be just.

“This is love . . . he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10 ESV).