The Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans is considered by many to be the Christian’s Magna Carta as a declaration of the believer’s right to ‘justification’ before God … by the Cross-work of Jesus Christ.

God chose Paul with his profound intellectual background and acumen to proclaim the gospel of “Christ crucified,” the “wisdom of God” as well as the plan and “power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16).

Paul was a gifted logician as well as a theologian, and nowhere is this more evident than in his epistle to the Romans, where by divine inspiration he presents the pure sequential logic of God’s ‘plan of salvation’ for lost mankind. Again, and again, throughout Romans, Paul uses a word that is so prominent in mathematics and logic in coming to a conclusion; the word “therefore.” The word ‘therefore’ is used seven times in these key verses from Romans that take a lost soul to eternal life and union with God Almighty.

1. To all men Paul writes describing the pitiful condition of lost unbelieving men, concluding;

“Therefore thou art ‘inexcusable’ …” (Romans 2:1).

2. Then Paul writes of what will not work for lost men in their effort to be self-justified.

“Therefore by the deeds of [keeping] the law there shall no flesh be justified [declared innocent] in His sight” (Romans 3:20).

3. Then Paul writes of how a lost person can be ‘declared innocent’… through “faith” in Christ’s substitutionary death of the Cross … for them … without their ‘meriting it’ at all.

“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested…. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified [declared innocent] by faith, without the deeds [good works] of the law” Rom. (3:21, 28).

4. Then Paul declares how that the newly ‘justified (saved) believer’ now has “peace with God” and “access” to God.

“Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access…” (Romans 5:1-2).

5. Then Paul declares how that a believer can never ever be condemned by God since Christ has justified us forever.

“There is therefore Now No Condemnation to Them Which Are in [union with] Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

6. What’s more, Paul declares that we owe nothing of this salvation to the self-effort of our good works.

“Therefore, brethren, [being liberated from ‘the power of Sin,’ cf. v10] we are debtors not to the flesh…” (Romans 8:12).

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Titus 3:5 (KJV)

7. Therefore, considering the foregoing truths, logic says; it is perfectly reasonable to present our “bodies as a living sacrifice” unto God.

“I beseech you therefore… that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).

It is an unchangeable law of God that ‘the sin of all men results in death.’

“The sting of [that results in] death is sin…” (1 Cor. 15:56)

However, in accord with God’s eternal plan and purpose in Christ’s Cross-death, the Lord Jesus Christ;

“who knew [did] no sin,” took our place. Being sacrificed For Us… paying our Sin-Debt. Christ “died for our sins” (1Cor. 15:3).

It is then also an unchangeable law of God that says;

“He that hath [union with] the Son hath life [Gk. zoé, which is Christ’s own resurrected ‘spirit of life.’] (1John 5:11-12).

“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life [zoe] is in his Son.

¹² He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life [Gk. Zoé, Christ’s own ‘spirit of life.’].

¹³ these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye May Know That Ye Have Eternal Life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:11-13)

Also note that the “The law of the Spirit” is “life [the eternal life that is] in Christ.”

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2 (KJV)

The very moment we trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior from Sin and its affects, Christ’s own resurrected “Spirit of life” is literally dispensed into our ‘spirit of man.’ Thereby we become “one spirit” with Christ (cf. 1Cor 6:17).

Thereby the believer then possesses THE One “Eternal life,” the very life of Christ, which is the Only Everlasting Life. Christ’s One “Spirit of life” is THE Eternal Life that is to ultimately be shared by all genuine believers of all ages (cf. Rom. 8:2; I John 5:12, 1Cor 6:17).

- Portions of this paper were largely adapted from Cornelius Stam’s daily emails of “Two Minutes in the Bible” -