(1) God is rightly angry and there is nothing we can do about it (vv9-20)
(2) Acquittal must be a gift (vv21-24)
(3) Justification is a gift at Christ's expense (vv24-26)
Lee was very helpful on the fact that all actions not done by faith in the power of the Spirit, however noble in some ways or no matter what social virtues they might embody have the nature of sin. There may be honour amongst thieves and privates might be clever and resourceful and so on, but that does not legitimise robbery or murder.
In due course, Alan Witchalls might post some fuller more diligent notes!
[Updated here 1/5/17]
Lee had some very interesting useful quotations from Augustine and Ambrosiaster on justification, which I wasn't necessarily quick enough to jot down accurately but he kindly shared then on The Facebook:
"The righteousness of God is not that by which God is righteous but that with which he clothes us when he justifies the ungodly." (Augustine) [Google suggests the quote is from De spiritu et littera Ch. 15 [IX]; NPNF 5:89; PL 44.209]
Believers are “are justified freely because they have not done anything nor given anything in return, but by faith alone they have been made holy by the gift of God.” (Ambrosiaster)
It appears the Ambrosiaster quotation can be found here, from his commentary on Romans 3:24.
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