But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. Romans 3:21-24
Wow! I have been chewing on this one passage for multiple days. Reading it, reading the passage before it, and reading it again.
The first underlined piece above comes right after Paul talking about those who are judged ‘under the law’…all of us. We are sunk in our sin that is defined by the law of Moses. There is no way to escape it! Until…the “BUT NOW”. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Meaning, following under the rule of the law was impossible. We sin and then the law just helps us see that we have sinned. There is no way for the law to save us because it is impossible for us to stay obedient to the law. “But NOW” there is a new way to receive the righteousness that only ‘following the law perfectly’ could produce before.
through the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for ALL who believe
For those who believe AND have faith in Jesus Christ, EVEN THOUGH they have ALL SINNED and fallen short of the glory of God, ARE JUSTIFIED by His GRACE as a GIFT, through the redemption that IS IN Christ Jesus.
This propitiation by His blood is ONLY received by FAITH. It’s all here —It’s amazing to me that it could not be any more clear but so many are still confused.
Tomorrow we are going to see how it is that God had passed righteousness onto people in the Old Testament through something called ‘Forbearance’.
APPLICATION
Oh, how grateful I am to the Creator God of all that we know and see, to provide us a way to receive His gift of righteousness we could never earn. My sin, even if it is small, is enough to separate me from God for all eternity…but no, in His love He manifested another way other than the impossible way of perfectly adhering to the Law…through faith in His Son, the Truth, the Life, and the Way. Thank you, God, Almighty for the gift of your Son!!