LINK
FREE GOSPEL FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL NO COPY RIGHT
God cannot deviate from his claim to perfect justice.
Since no human being has the ability to appear righteous before God, God himself had to arrange a righteousness that he could subsequently bestow and appropriate on people with whom he wanted to have fellowship.
From Romans chapter 3 onwards, Paul tells how God has provided a righteousness that he freely bestows on those who believe in his Son, Jesus Christ. BEING RIGHTEOUS MEANS THAT WE STAND PURE AND HOLY BEFORE GOD AS IF WE HAD NEVER SINNED.
We are not just pardoned, but declared guiltless.
WHAT GRACE! Romans 3:
V 21 BUT NOW THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IS MANIFESTED WITHOUT THE LAW, WITNESSED BY THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS,
Since the law could not provide us with the necessary righteousness that God required, God himself had to provide a righteousness that was not based on our works and efforts. The righteousness that came with Christ was foretold by both the law and the Old Testament prophets.
Thus the law itself testified that it was not able to make men righteous.
The bloody sacrifices for sin required by the law were a type of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who was to make the final sacrifice once and for all. David and the prophets (not least Isaiah) had told in detail how God would bring about a justice by an innocent taking on the judgment and punishment of sinners. V 22 THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST TO ALL WHO BELIEVE. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE;
Now the righteousness from God is not based on works (in fact it never did, cf. Abraham's righteousness), but on faith. Not a general belief in God, but specifically in what Jesus did on the cross.
Regardless of race, background, and past events, everyone has the same access to God's righteousness in Christ. V 23 FOR ALL HAVE SINN AND HAVE LOST THE GLORY FROM GOD,
Paul emphasizes that everyone is in the same hopeless situation before God because of the fall in the Garden of Eden. But at the same time, there is hope hidden in these words.
God has reset all of us, so to speak, whether we have lived a nice life or not. No one starts with a minus in the new life in Christ, and no one starts with a plus. We are all standing right from the start of the new life.
Thus God once again shows his justice.
Because some come from bad upbringings and hopeless circumstances, while others have had an excellent past from a human point of view. But our past is a finished chapter when we accept salvation in Christ. So no one has an advantage and no one has a handicap, spiritually speaking. V 24 AND UNDESERVING THEY ARE MADE RIGHTEOUS BY HIS GRACE THROUGH REDEMPTION IN CHRIST JESUS.
We cannot provide the necessary justice by ourselves, therefore God had to intervene and provide the required solution. It is by grace through faith that we are made righteous, for what was to be done, Christ accomplished on the cross. There his redeemed us. Redemption speaks of both a birth and a payment. We are born again to a living hope, and we are redeemed from the power and consequence of sin by the blood of Jesus.
God's grace and our faith in Christ are the only prerequisites for this miracle to happen.
AMEN
