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Romans 3:22b–24
For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:22b–23).
In Friday’s study, Paul declared one of the greatest truths of the Christian faith: God has provided for His people a righteousness that they cannot secure for themselves. Now Paul expands on that truth, emphasizing that this righteousness is a gift of God’s grace.
The need for the grace of God in salvation is readily apparent from Paul’s teaching in Romans on the depravity of man. As we saw in Friday’s study, there is one way of salvation for everyone, and one way only—belief in Christ. No person or group of people can claim access to God by some private avenue. Indeed, as Paul has been emphasizing almost from the beginning of this letter, no one is fit to stand before Him. Jew and Gentile, wise and unwise, Greek and barbarian, slave and free, rich man and pauper—all are alike in their helplessness. “There is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Paul writes. His meaning is clear: We cannot merit the righteousness of God by anything we do.
That being the case, those who are saved are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Paul is saying that believers are justified, or declared righteous, not because of anything they do but because of something God does. In a gracious act that paved the way for even more grace, He came into the world to make “redemption” for the sins of His elect. Dr. James M. Boice defines grace as “God’s favor to us apart from human merit. Indeed, it is favor when we deserve the precise opposite.”
But when we speak of the grace of God, this undeserved favor, we do not speak of a decision by God to simply ignore sin. He was morally bound to pour out His just wrath against those who had offended His righteousness. Later in Romans (and elsewhere), Paul will state this principal in terms of a debt: “For the wages of sin is death.” Only God could rescue sinners from this condemnation. And so the Son became incarnate and made redemption for His people, paying the price to “buy them back” from sinfulness. Having expended His wrath upon Jesus on the cross, the Father graciously bestowed on His people the righteousness also achieved by Christ as He lived as a man under the law. Thus, the believer’s righteousness rests on Christ’s righteousness, the gracious basis for the ongoing grace of God.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Jesus’ redemption—His payment of our sin debt—was a mighty manifestation of God’s grace. But His grace toward us goes on and on. Because Jesus died in our stead, we enjoy “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). Thank God today for His grace to you two thousand years ago—and every moment you live.
For Further Study
- Mark 10:45
- Galatians 3:13–14
- 1 Timothy 2:5–6
- Hebrews 9:15