Grace–Simple. Profound. Grace and the Gospel Sample

Righteousness Through Faith

There is a way to be right with God that is different than the works of obedience to the law. I grew up believing in God and that Jesus died on the cross, although I didn’t really understand how it all fit together or what it meant for me. But I knew I wanted to do good things to earn a place with God. And what’s good about that is that it’s easy to compare yourself with most in the room. I thought, ‘I’ve never been to prison. That’s awesome! Checkmark, I’m already on the good side!’ It’s easy to compare yourself to some of the worst stories, but is that really what God intends us to compare ourselves to? 

Paul says, “Righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” That’s a pretty different trajectory. It’s no longer by obedience or works of the law that we get into right standing with God. There’s a new way that’s been revealed and it is by placing faith in Jesus—believing in Him. Faith is putting the weight of your life on something that you believe in and trust. Paul is saying that for now, in this time and era, there’s a new way of standing right before God in righteousness and that is through faith. Righteousness with God is not earned. 

Paul continues with saying, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That’s part of the Roman road and where we start explaining the gospel. It’s a great place to start. All of us have failed. There’s none who can earn their way. Nobody is ever going to be justified by the law because the standard is not comparing yourself to those in prison; the standard of comparison is the righteousness of Jesus which is perfect all the time. How many of you do and obey the law all the time? The answer of Paul is no one, not anybody ever. 

We are “justified freely by His grace.” Being justified declares a person righteous. We have God as the judge and Jesus as our advocate. Jesus paid everything to purchase grace. We can talk about the freedom of grace, but grace is the most expensive gift ever purchased. It’s incredibly costly. God did not purchase His gift of grace with gold or jewels. He purchased it by offering over His Only Son to a terrible death. God looks over at Jesus and says because you have paid everything, nothing left undone, and because this person, though a sinner, placed their faith in you, I declare them to be righteous.  What we learn is that grace is the most expensive gift but given freely to the one who puts his faith in Jesus.