Romans - Christ Took Our Punishment

Christ Took Our Punishment

Romans 3:21-31 NLT

 

“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. 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.”

 

            After Paul levelled the boom on his readers regarding the sinfulness of man and the punishment that awaits all who sin against God, he gives them wonderful news...that faith in Jesus Christ removes all sin and makes them righteous in God’s sight. In other words, God is showing us we’re no longer bound by the law once we receive Christ as Lord of our life and Savior of our soul. 

It needs to be understood that you must have Christ as both, not just one of the other. He is more commonly referred to as our Savior, but not our Lord. Having Christ as Savior is easy because He did all the work on the cross. We just need to receive the gift. 

Making Him Lord of your life requires you to do something. Just as ‘love’ isn’t a passive word, Christianity isn’t a passive ‘religion’, but rather an intimate, very personal relationship with your Creator and One who paid your sin debt.

                  It’s a sin to murder someone; however, in God eyes it’s a sin of equal stature to hate someone. Adultery is a distasteful sin, but so is pride and arrogance. The same penalty is levied for any and all sin. All sin makes us sinners, cut off from a holy God.  Understand this, whether saved or not, any sin, regardless of its size, can be forgiven as long as you are willing to confess it to God and commit to not doing it again. A contrite heart willing to change will always find forgiveness from God. 

                  Paul addresses the Jew-Gentile issue again in vv.29-31 when he emphasizes that there is only one God, and that God isn’t Jewish, nor does He favor the Jews even though they are called God’s Chosen Ones. Now that the Gentiles have been grafted into God’s family it establishes the fact that Jesus didn’t just die for the Jews, that would be ludicrous since the Jewish religious leaders plotted to kill God’s Son. Christ’s death was the plan all along. Without Christ’s death mankind would be forever lost in sin with no redemption in the offing. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.

In His name & for His glory,

Richard Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

Resource: The Life Application Study Bible.