Indicted by sin… Justified by a Savior.

…God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

Romans 3:30

There is one God Who is Lord of all and through the saving work of Jesus Christ, God provides salvation to all people. This was the great truth that Christianity brought to the world. It now is a faith to save the Jews from whom the Messiah came to redeem Israel. It is a faith to save the Gentiles for whom salvation has been offered apart from the covenant of the Law. Christianity preaches a saving hope for the entire world. And there is a way — the only way — to salvation: faith in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus.

We cannot do a thing to justify ourselves. Many people have a vain hope that salvation works like this: “When I face God after death, He will evaluate my good actions and judge my bad ones. And if I have just a little more good than bad, because God is mostly about fairness, I’ll be clear before Him.” But that is not how scripture says it works. We are all sinners. Romans 3 previously establishes that none of us do good to begin with in the eyes of a perfectly holy God:

• None is righteous. (Romans 3:10)
• Nobody understands holiness. (Romans 3:11a)
• Nobody seeks God. (Romans 3:11b)
• We all turn away. (Romans 3:12a)
• We are all worthless in terms of holiness (Romans 3:12b)
• No one does good. (Romans 3:12c)
• We speak evil. (Romans 3:13-14)
• We do evil. (Romans 3:15)
• We create ruin and misery. (Romans 3:16)
• We do not know peace. (Romans 3:17)
• We do not fear God. (Romans 3:18)

But even though we are all this bad, God has provided a righteousness for us. It comes exclusively through faith in Jesus Christ for all who will believe it (Romans 3:22). We all sin and fall short, but by faith can be justified through the gift of redemption in Jesus (Romans 3:23-24)! Thank God that He has made this way for us! In Jesus we all have hope. In Jesus, Christians find forgiveness and are made right to confidently stand forgiven and free.