The cross is God’s way of justifying us by faith.

So here is the progression of thought we’re working with from Romans 3:21-26:

• God is wrathful because God is righteous. There are some things that make His blood boil — because He is a righteous God.
• But because God is righteous, God is also just. A God who isn’t indignantly opposed to evil would be an accomplice to injustice. And that is not our God.
• And because God is just, He is qualified to justify us — to give us right-standing before Him.

This is what happens at the cross. We are justified, delivered from the wrath of God by the blood of Jesus.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

Romans 5:9

At the cross, God pronounced judgment upon Sin once and for all. No longer does Sin have the power to enslave us and hold us back. Sin has been judged as a vicious taskmaster, bent on our destruction. And we were not made for destruction. Remember 1 Thessalonians 5:9, For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

He declares that we now have right-standing because of Jesus: because of His faithfulness, because of His atoning death.

This is why we remember Him. He is our Savior.