Scripture Passage
We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. (Romans 3:22 NLT)
Observation
I wrote a paper recently for a class I was taking. My wife read it, and announced, “It reads like a college textbook!” She says she meant it as a compliment, but I have my doubts.
The book of Romans is like that. It’s the closest thing to a systematic theology from the Apostle Paul—and it reads like one. The brightest minds are challenged by its weighty precepts, and the implications of Paul’s weighty words have been debated for centuries. In matters like this, I’m just not that bright. I have to fall back on the simple, straight-forward statements like Romans 3:22:
“We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are” (Romans 3:22 NLT)
Is that not a statement both wonderful and remarkable? Everything Paul has written up to this point in Romans, I contend, paints the picture of our utter inability to restore our broken relationship with God. The Gentile has ignored the law of God written on the heart. The Jew has ignored the law of God given in Moses’ covenant. And no one lives perfectly enough to fulfill the law—much less undo the damage done by previous violations of it. But what we could never do, God did for us through Jesus Christ. And the restoration He provided is appropriated “by faith”—just like Abraham. “For the Scriptures tell us, ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith’” (Romans 4:3 NLT).
It just doesn’t get any more fundamental or funda-wonderful than this! Yes, I know I just made that word up, but it made you smile, didn’t it? So does the remarkable grace of God expressed to us through Jesus Christ. “And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are” (Romans 3:22 NLT).
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