Day 26: Redeemed

Romans 3:22-24 :

For there is no distinction, 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;

We have all sinned, both Jew and Gentile alike. Notice that we sin when we “fall short of the glory of God.” God expects mankind to demonstrate God’s glory. Anything less than that is to sin. We are made in God’s image according to Genesis and because of this we bear a responsibility to show God’s image with the proper glory to all of creation. Instead of doing this, we do the other things that have already been mentioned. Notice how important the very first chapter of the Bible is? It tells us that we have a responsibility because of who we are and who we represent.

Notice that we are “justified.” This is a legal term that means that we are made right. We are no longer guilty of our sins even though we did do them. Notice that we are “justified freely.” This means that we don’t do anything to earn or to pay for being made right. It is just because of God’s “grace” which is His favor that was not connected with anything that we did at all. God decided to provide “redemption” which is a means of “buying us back” from sin, and He did it through the Christ or “Messiah” who was originally promised to Israel. The Messiah we call Jesus, paid the price to buy the whole world back for God.