I have been floored all week by John Murray’s profound comment on the phrase “justified freely by His grace” in Romans 3:24
“No element in Paul’s doctrine of justification is more central than this. God’s justifying act is not constrained to any extent by anything we are or do which could be esteemed as causing God to act. And not only is this the case that nothing in us or done by us constrains Him to this act but all that is ours compels the opposite judgment – the whole world is guilty before God. This action on God’s part derives its whole motivation, explanation, and determination from what God himself is and does in the exercise of free and sovereign grace.”