“…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.”
Romans 3:23-24
If you grew up going to Sunday School, you know this one! “All have sinned.” All means all! Every. Single. Person.
God does not classify our sin as “felony” or “misdemeanor.” There aren’t big sins and little sins in God’s eyes. It’s all ugly. Sin is the bad stuff we do; it’s also the good stuff we fail or refuse to do. And sin brings an eternal verdict: guilty. The consequence is death.
We must first see ourselves as guilty to embrace with humble gratitude the blessing of being “justified freely by His grace.”
Justification is a concept we often hear in legal briefs or courtrooms.
In Roman times, the imperial governor would sit on a platform (called the bema, or the judgment seat). He would hear the charges, then render a verdict as to whether the accused was guilty or innocent.
In God’s courtroom, we are all guilty, yet we are justified by His grace. It’s a paradox. A blessing. And only possible through Christ Jesus.
Justification is much more than being forgiven. It’s much more than escaping consequences. To be justified is to be declared NOT GUILTY. In His love and mercy, God chooses not to give us what we deserve but what we do not deserve. We are justified FREELY. No merit on our part. No performance necessary (or even possible). We offer nothing to substantiate a “not guilty” verdict.
We are guilty, doomed, condemned … but through Jesus, declared NOT guilty. To fully celebrate and embrace the love and grace of God, we must first look in the mirror and see a condemned sinner. A guilty woman. We need to hear and see the proverbial gavel drop.
Only then can we with reverence, humility, and gratitude praise God that through Jesus Christ we not only escape sin’s consequences (death!) but our slate is wiped clean. Our file is expunged. We are justified freely by His grace.
Hallelujah!
Editor’s Note: Today’s passage is from Romans, Paul’s presentation of the gospel and what we call, “Christianity 101.” You can view our video teaching series on Romans here.
Laura originally developed our October bookmark to accompany the “Pearls of Grace” women’s retreat. If you are interested in having Laura present this teaching to your church, please reach out to us via email.
This week we welcomed another new teacher to our ladies Bible study: Mollie Duddleston, Director of Operations and Women’s Ministry at Cross Church Pinnacle Hills. This week’s passage was I Corinthians, chapter 3. In this chapter, Paul continues to address problems in the Corinthian church – namely, division that arose when church members in Corinth vegan to argue amongst themselves about which leader was the best. Some rallied behind Paul, some behind Apollos … but Paul reminded them who we are follow: Jesus!
Most of October still remains so it is not too late to download your free Write the WORD bookmark and join us as we study Pearls of Grace. Visit our Downloads page to find the free bookmark, S.O.A.P. study pages, and other helpful resources!
