Romans 3: 21-31
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
God's righteousness does not depend on any Law, the Law and the Prophets are witnesses of God's righteousness.
even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all
God does not exclude anyone of the human race; Jesus is our Christ for all people everywhere who would believe.
and upon all who believe; for there is no distinction;
And it falls on everyone who puts their faith in Jesus as their personal Sacrifice, no matter who they are, or where they're from, or who their parents and grandparents were, all have the same opportunity.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Every single person has failed to some degree to be perfect. Everybody admits that they aren't perfect, so they are admitting that they've missed the mark. The word "sin" is an archery term that means, "to miss the mark, the bull's eye." So all have fallen short of God's perfection. There is no difference, we all deserve death, we're all the criminals who deserve execution. It doesn't matter if our "arrow" hit just barelyoutside the center, or if it missed the whole target all together, we are all guilty, and need forgiveness and Redemption.
being justified as a gift by His grace through the Redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
We can't earn this Redemption, it's only received as a gift from God, in realizing that Jesus took our place in death, paying our debt, out of the goodness of His heart.
whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His Blood through faith.
God the Father had His Son to be sacrificed publicly, in full view of the crowds, letting His own Blood splatter the sides of His altar, the Cross, as our personal Sacrifice. That's why God saves us one-by-one, individually.
This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
This was a public demonstration of God's righteousness in punishing sin. All the sacrifices before this could not take away the debt, but only pay the interest on the principle, which still remained until Jesus' Blood paid it off.
So God passed over all those previous sins, letting them be covered by the animal blood of the sacrifices under the Law, and forgave the people. But they still went to the same Sheol where everyone went when they died.
Until Jesus fulfilled those sacrifices, as the Lamb of God.
for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time,
God always does everything at the right time.
so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
God's justice demanded His wrath be poured out on sin, and when Jesus "became sin" He took upon Himself our own human, sin-nature, and endured the wrath of God for each one of us, in our place. This shows us how sinful sin really is.
Now that Jesus has paid our debt, God can now justify us as His gift, forgiving us and cleansing us so pristine it's like we'd never sinned, and then to live inside each of us in the Person of His Holy Spirit.
Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
So can anyone say they deserve or have earned Redemption by anything they have done? No. We only can have this as a gift from God, by believing that He has done this for us. Faith is trusting. And we put our faith, our trust in God to be True.
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
So we can only be justified from our sins by faith, not by anything we can do to follow a rule.
Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is One.
God gave the Law to the Jews, but He made all the human race to be His children, not just one group. So He saves Jews (the circumcised) by their faith in the God who gave the Law, and He saves the rest of Mankind (the uncircumcised) through faith in God the Creator; but He is still only one and the same God over all.
Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.
Our faith in the God who created all things and gave His Law to teach us who He is, is one God over all. And to know Him and to learn His ways, establishes that His Law is a good rule to live by, as that's how He planned for us to live here.
So the Law God has placed in our hearts now, the principles of loving God and loving one another, don't go against the written Law He gave Moses. It covers it all, and goes beyond.
O my Father, You are God, our strong and wise and clever Creator who has planned out everything You would do before you did any of it, like my son did since he was a tiny tot. You have made us in Your image, and even in our sinful state, we display some of Your characteristics.
Father, You made us because You Love us. And You gave us a choice, because You want us to want to love You back as Your children. And those of us who do, You have given us the gift of faith to believe You. And You have given us the gift of Your Holy Spirit, to live inside us, in our spirits, to birth us into Your family, Father, to live with You where You are.
Help us, Father, to see one another the way You see us, to love one another the way You have Loved us, and to serve You by serving our fellow man.
And send out Your workers into Your fields, Father, the fallow fields to receive Your seed of the Gospel, and the fields white to harvest, to reap Your crops into Your barn. That every lost sheep would be found, and every wayward lamb would be untangled from the briars, and all would be brought into Your One Fold with One Shepherd.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, the King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God our Father forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!
