Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (vv. 22-24)
In Romans 3:21, Paul told us how this righteousness does not come. It does not come through the deeds of the law, it is apart from the law. Now Paul tells us how this saving righteousness does come. It is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. The righteousness of God is not ours by faith; it is ours through faith. We do not earn righteousness by our faith. We receive righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other way to obtain this righteousness. This righteousness is not earned through obedience to the law; it is a received righteousness, gained through faith in Jesus Christ.
Few things of value are inexpensive, and fewer still are free. But salvation—the most important gift of all—is free. Unlike anything of material value, salvation is of infinite value, and yet, it is free. As the hymn Elvina Hall wrote while sitting in a choir loft in a Methodist Church in 1865 reminds us, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him we owe.”
Scripture tells us no one can earn salvation (Eph. 2:8-9). And we know from our text we need only to believe in Jesus to receive His free gift of eternal life that God offers through His Son. The paradox here is, while salvation is free to us, its cost to God was great – the sacrificial death of His Son. Oswald Chambers wrote, “Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary.”
It is the cross of Christ that bridges the gap we could never cross on our own, and justifies us by His grace to stand before a Holy God, sanctified. It is the cross that unites us as one body of believers in which there is no difference; Jew or Greek, rich or poor, male or female, blue collar or white collar. And as believers, we are of one family, adopted sons and daughters of God through the purchase of Jesus Christ at Calvary, justified by faith in Him.
The Truth: “For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are His.” (1 Corinthians 6:20)
