Romans 3:23-24 - “For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Have you ever tried to reach for something that is on a high shelf or counter, only to find that it is “out of your reach”. Either it is too far from you, or you are not in a position to get to it.
Without God’s plan of redemption, that is the place that we find ourselves in. Sin is not just something that we do, it is who we are. We are unable to “reach” God. We have “fallen short of the Glory of God”, or you could say we have “lost” the glory that God meant for us to have.
This is not Gods’ plan for anyone. God created us for His Glory. He did not create us for sin. By His Grace, He came to us, when we could not come to Him.
Sin is something that keeps us from being in the place that God intended for us. But God does not stop at our sin. Sin may be something that kept us from God, but God did something for us that is greater than our sin.
“Being Justified” refers to the same people that are the “all” that have sinned. This means that “all” who have lost God’s Glory have also had something done for them so that they “all” can get it back. Justified - “Just as if you had never sinned”- is done for all BY HIS GRACE. His Grace is the only thing that is greater than your sin. It causes someone who is a sinner to be forgiven of all their sin, because His Justification, (by His Grace), is Greater than your condemnation (by your sin).
How did God get this Big Package of “Justification by His Grace” to someone who was not in a place to receive it. Remember, we had “fallen short” of God’s glorious plan for our lives. It was “out of our reach”. We could not come to God, so He came to us in the person of Jesus Christ. It was through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Redemption means that we were “purchased back to our original owner”. We were created for God’s Glory, but we lost it because of sin. Remember, sin is not just something you
do, it’s something you
are. You’re not a sinner because you sin, you sin because you are a sinner. But because of God’s plan in Christ Jesus, we can now say, we are free from sin,
just as if we’d never sinned and never been sinned against! Not only has He set us free, He has given us the same freedom to give that release to others! That is AMAZING GRACE!
