Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: Romans 3 and Psalm 99

On Monday, Romans 1 showed us that right at the heart of the Gospel is the message that all human beings (regardless of whether we are Jews or Gentiles) are equally in need of salvation, because we all stand guilty before God. Today we discover that right the heart of the Gospel is also the glorious truth that all human beings can be saved in exactly the same way – by faith in Jesus Christ.

I love the simplicity and clarity with which the Good News Translation renders Paul’s Gospel-presentation in verses 21-25. So I will quote it at length below. But first let me highlight that it cuts to the heart of what God does when He saves us: “He puts people right with Himself” (v.21 & 22). He does this regardless of whether people are Jews or Gentiles because “there is no difference at all: everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence” (v.22-23). This restored relationship with God is an absolutely “free gift of God’s grace” (v.24a). It cannot be earned. It can only be gratefully received through faith in “Christ Jesus who sets us free” (v.24b); and everyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ receives this free gift of a right relationship with God when their “sins are forgiven through their faith in Him” (v.25). By an incredible act of divine grace and justice, God “deals with our sins (v.26)” when He lays the responsibility for every believer’s sins onto Jesus, and accepts the punishment Jesus received on the Cross as being full and final punishment for my sins and your sins too. And that’s the Gospel message in a rather large nutshell.

That’s the heart of the glorious Gospel of the Book of Romans. But its not the end of the book, because the Gospel is so glorious that the apostle is going to return to gaze at it from a number of different angles in the rest of the book.

Life Application: If you have never done so, do so today. If you have done so, rejoice in it today. Done what? Turned away from your sins and received the free gift of an eternally right relationship with God through putting your faith in Jesus Christ and what He has done for you on the Cross.

Here are those verses from Romans 3 as promised:

²¹ But now God’s way of putting people right with himself has been revealed … ²² God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: ²³ everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence. ²⁴ But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. ²⁵ God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in him. (Romans 3:21-25 GNT)