In v25-26, Paul continues to explain what “justification” is. Justification puts God in an awkward, apparent tension of being unjust in which God can only be vindicated if Jesus was, in fact, offered as a propitiation sacrifice. A vindicated God is a God who is worthy of our worship and our full devotion.

I. Justification is received by faith alone.
II. But this does not answer God’s personal anger/wrath against sin.
III. Unless Jesus functioned as a propitiatory sacrifice
IV. Then God is both just and justifier of the one who has faith.

²¹But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—²²the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.