(Still) Justified Freely by His Grace

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

Dear fellow Redeemed, saved by grace alone, through faith alone, submitting to the Scriptures alone:

In life we usually classify people as "good" or "bad." We look at someone's actions and make an evaluation, either privately or publicly, as to whether that person is "good" or "evil." Jonas Salk, Mother Theresa, Princess Diana-we usually think of these people as "good." Adolph Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein-we usually think of these people as "evil." On Tuesday we will vote for the President of the United States. Depending on which ads you see, John Kerry and George W. Bush are considered "good" or "bad" depending upon which side of the political fence you sit on.

In today's text Paul makes clear to his Roman readers and to us here this morning that by nature in God's eyes we are all evil. Paul says: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." But all is not lost. Rather, Paul immediately follows up by telling us we are "Justified Freely by His Grace." Though we live under the Law, we have a righteousness apart from the Law. We have this righteousness because of the atonement of blood we are given through faith. Because we are given this atonement, we have no boast; boasting is excluded because of faith.

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