Thursday, January 2, 2014

Advent Archive: Romans 3:21-31

The best price is “FREE.” Cheap is good, free is best. This is like going to the grocery store on Saturday with mom and enjoying the delicacies offered up at the little booth with the old lady in a hair net. Row upon row of chopped up treasures wait in their little plastic cups for you to gobble down. Who doesn’t like free samples? Free lunches, free admission, free prizes…the list goes on and on. We love free things. The truth is that at the heart of it, free things are so great because it costs us nothing. Something for nothing. You don’t have to work. You don’t have to pay. It is FREE! And the guy who says he doesn’t like free things, either has issues or isn’t paying attention.
This is what Paul is speaking of in Romans 3. He comes into verses 10-20 talking about some generally ornery people whose throat “is an open sepulcher,” and who are “swift to shed blood,” who have no righteousness whatsoever, and who probably just kick puppies for fun….real bullies. Paul comes into verse 24 and says that these evil types (all mankind) who have all sinned (v.23) are “FREELY” justified by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. You are redeemed “freely.” Do you see that? You don’t pay for it, you don’t work for it, you can’t even steal it. God gives it away like the goodies on the little toothpick at the grocery store! FREE…and all because Jesus paid for it. Praise be to Jesus for His love wherewith He loved us.

Food for Thought: Read Romans 3:21-31. What does Paul say justifies a man? What specific verses say that?

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