God's gracious sacrifice

Good morning brothers and sisters,
Today's reading is challenging, so if you can, read it through at least twice. In the first two chapters of this letter Paul argued that everyone sins; he reinforces that point here. We have all sinned, so we all need God's forgiveness, God's grace. Paul says until Christ our sin was in forbearance like a loan we couldn't pay. God wasn't collecting the loan; he wasn't demanding the penalty for sin, but the sin wasn't forgiven either.

Then, amazingly, God offers Jesus as a sacrifice for sin. That shows righteousness because the debt of sin is paid for rather than just overlooked, but the debt we couldn't pay is paid by God. By paying our debt God offers forgiveness to everyone: Jews and gentiles, the whole world. We join ourselves to Christ by faith and so we trade in our sin for Christ's righteousness. We can't boast about our goodness because God did it for us. Our role now is to accept God's amazing love, to let go of guilt and fear, and to make our lives shine with love and gratitude to the God who loves us so much.

Blessings on your day,
Sam

Romans 3:19-31

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 

²¹But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, ²²the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, ²³since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. ²⁹Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. ³¹Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.