"For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight."

Believers, remember Romans 3:23 (NLT) "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard." NKJV says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

We read this and erroneously see it as God not wanting anything to do with us until we are "okay" or having to do things to make up for our sins/receive from God, but this verse does not stand by itself. It is sandwiched between a sentence and several other verses that as a whole, show us how much God loves us and how hopelessly and eternally saved we are with Christ as our Righteousness! Here goes how. Romans 3:

21"But now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 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.

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

24 Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,26 for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus.

27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

29 After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t He also the God of the Gentiles? Of course He is.30 There is only one God, and He makes people right with Himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law."

Believer, we are made right with God "not by obeying the law" but by placing our faith in Jesus Christ, and it is a free and everlasting righteousness. With Christ as our righteousness, we CANNOT undo our salvation; we cannot lose our salvation because we did nothing to earn it to begin with. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done. See Ephesians 2:8-9:

"For it was only through this wonderful grace that we believed in Him. Nothing we did could ever earn this salvation, for it was the gracious gift from God that brought us to Christ! 9 So no one will ever be able to boast, for salvation is never a reward for good works or human striving."

"Salvation" here is not just being saved to go to heaven; it is deliverance from the molestation of enemies and redemption from all earthly ills (anxiety, depression, sickness, lack, stupid mistakes, etc.) It is being saved from the penalty, power, presence and pleasure of sin! The word used in the original Greek text of the New Testament is Swthria (pronounced soteria) and it encompasses all these meanings.

Believer, every demand made of you, Christ has paid in full, even death in hell which we were all destined for but for His glorious salvation. See Romans 5:9-

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

In Him, we get to walk in His finished work. We get to live a life in line with and even beyond the moral excellence that the law demands; for instance, the law says "You shall not steal." Some people don't commit this sin because they think God will punish them 100 fold if they steal/there is no opportunity to do so/they are afraid of getting caught/the thing that they have the opportunity to steal isn't worth the risk and so on. It isn't driven by love.

Peter's three-time denial of Christ shows us that given the right circumstances, the one who swore that he would never steal will do so profusely. The arm of flesh will fail. The potential to steal is in everybody and given the right temptation or testing, all will fail. God sees that potential and how favourable circumstances make some people boast in their non-existent power over sin. We see only outward actions:) The reason that we are not committing particular sins is because we have not been tempted beyond what we can bear in those areas. If a big enough trial came our way and it was up to us to save ourselves, the best of us will fail woefully.

But in Christ, our hearts are transformed by His Spirit so much so that not only do we UNKNOWINGLY comply with this "You shall not steal" directive of the law, we UNWITTINGLY become cheerful givers too, and not necessarily in a time of abundance.

We get to live in triumph over sin and death (depression, oppression, sickness, lack, etc are "death begun") through Christ. From being called to Christ by God and living a righteous life to being caught up with Christ when He returns for His saints (Rapture): nothing for us to do except believe. Yet we do exploits because "no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me."

This is the Good News! Salvation is not at all about behaviour modification. The arm of flesh will fail. Salvation is all about hearts' transformation by the Spirit of the Lord. Christ does it all. In Him, we don't HAVE TO live right; we GET TO live right.

The Holy Spirit will teach you all things.

Believe Right and you will Live Right!