The Gift that Keeps on Giving -- Romans 3-4

by Diana Durrill

"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.  This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." -- Romans 3:23-26 (emphasis mine)

It doesn't take much to make us understand that we are all sinners.  Few of us need to be convinced of that fact.  We know our hearts, we know our own sinfulness.  We know the ugliness of our thought life.  We know.  Romans 3:23 is a fact that few of us will try to deny.

How beautiful then are the words that follow verse 23 -- the ones that say we "are justified by His grace as a gift".  We know we don't deserve to be justified before God (justified means to be declared righteous or without sin).   We know that we stand before Him as convicts, guilty as charged.  And yet, because of the gift of His grace, we stand redeemed before God when we believe, in faith, on the finished work of Christ Jesus.  It is undeserved and unearned.

It is a gift.

And the grace with which we were given this gift, is the grace we should continue to walk in.  There is no earning God's favor, even after salvation.  God's favor always has been and always will be a gift.  It is the direct result of Him putting His Son forward, in our place, to be our substitute for our sin.  God continues see us dressed in the cloak of Christ's righteousness.

God's grace is a supernatural gift that keeps on giving.  (John 1:16)