From Morning and Evening today, Spurgeon has thoughts on Romans 3:26. I need more context personally, so here's a newer translation of 3:25-26
Romans 3:25-26
25God put Jesus forth as the place of mercy, through faithfulness, by means of his blood. He did this to demonstrate his covenant justice, because of the passing over (in divine forbearance) of sins committed beforehand. 26This was to demonstrate his covenant justice in the present time: that is, that he himself is in the right, and that he declares to be in the right everyone who trusts in the faithfulness of Jesus.
Goldingay, J., & Wright, T. (2018). The Bible for Everyone: A New Translation (Ro 3:25–26). SPCK.
NPP
I'm not here to debate "faith in Jesus" vs "faithfulness of Jesus"... I feel so beyond debating semantics when either way it's Jesus who gives you faith and chooses in the first place
Spurgeon's meditation certainly resolves around Penal Substitutionary Atonement, a doctrine I have come to mostly reject, but I have plenty of common-ground with a conviction of PSA-subscribers and Spurgeon - and that's that we can trust, as chosen people of God, that "there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus"
Not only is there no condemnation, but on the contrary Jesus declares to be in the right everyone who trusts.
This is the great confidence of the Christian, and the source of my comfort - that even though there is sin in my past and future (and I pray sorrow over it), I can trust in God's unchanging nature. He says in effect "Out of my divine grace to call your name from the grave, by the covering of Jesus and the work of the cross, you are free. Free from condemnation, free from judgement, and today (and everyday) free from the yoke of sin"
Freedom... such an interesting word... It came up recently in my reflection---galatians-5-1 as well. I guess as I reflect here, freedom is about our behavior and what we do or don't do. But confidence is the partner of freedom. A child who has the freedom on the playground to play with whatever they want will sit in the corner if they are afraid of consequences of doing something wrong - this would come from a place of not trusting in the freedom they've been given. The child lacks comfort in their freedom to play with what they want unless the faithfulness and goodness of the one who gives the freedom is impressed into the child and they can exercise trust in that authority - which is manifest in their joyful play on the playground.
So for the Christian this obviously doesn't mean "free to do whatever I want", the metaphor isn't perfect (it's made better by aligning the walls around a playground with the boundaries of proper-human living)... Jesus actually gives me the freedom to do his will over my own, because apart from him I am not able to choose anything besides the sinful desires of my own heart.
But this morning, I think the full circle is that when I do choose my own desires, when I fall back into the "not yet", when I sacrifice my divine freedom on the altar of my own life for a cheap song, I can still have confidence that my God calls me right by the work of my Lord, Jesus
This great confidence can never excuse sin, can never justify the choice. But the reality is that a good God ordered and created the world, and he chooses whomever he chooses... By his graceful choice to adopt me, I have confidence in his Name that the sin I run to will not ultimately destroy me - because Jesus intervened and gives me new life everyday