Therefore no one will
be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through
the law we become conscious of our sin.
There you have it…we are all doomed. There is not a single
one of us that can stand alone before God and say “I have been righteous God, I
am good and deserve your kingdom”. Romans 3:10 captures it well…”As it is written: “There is no one
righteous, not even one”. Talk about a heavy hitter to start the week! No
matter what we try, scheme, or devise, in God’s eyes, when we stand alone
before him on our own merits, we stand as convicted criminals, whole-hearted losers,
and complete failures. God said “here are my laws, follow them”…and with each
new day, we break them repeatedly. There may be some days where we think we
have done well and come close to following all of God’s laws…but close doesn’t
count when it comes to following his commands. But hold on…All hope is not lost!
For we know that when we admit that we are complete failures, we turn to God in
true repentance, and we genuinely believe that it is only through the sacrifice
of Christ Jesus that ANYONE can receive forgiveness and salvation, then we are
transformed before the eyes of God. We no longer stand alone as criminals and
sinners…rather we now stand before the Lord with Jesus at our side. And when God
looks at us, he sees the righteousness of Christ shining through us. Jesus says
“This one is with me…this one is a part of our family Father.” This truth is
captured in Romans 3:22-24, “This
righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There
is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” And there it is…the hope that we
cling to with each new day. Even though we remain as broken, sinful people, we
have the reassurance that through faith and repentance, the punishment for our
sins has already been handed down and that as believers, we have true peace and
rest in Christ. And the most incredible part of this is the underlined text
above…”justified freely”…God’s mercy
and grace is free to those who believe. May that be our motivation for today to
truly live for the Lord…and may we find true peace and rest in knowing that
through our faith, we are justified, redeemed, and rescued from this broken
world. To God alone be the glory!
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