Romans 3:23-24 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

I learned verse 23 very early on as a tool for personal evangelism, but I don’t recall hearing a sermon that specifically included verse 24, even though it is part of the same sentence. Paul’s focus here isn’t on “everybody’s bad,” but rather on “salvation is available to everybody.” This is not universalism, because the context before and after makes it very clear that salvation is only by faith. There is a weakness to English that makes verse 24 harder to understand than it might be. “Freely” (justified freely) has a number of connotations in English, but the Japanese makes it clear that what is meant here is “without cost.” The idea of “paying for” our sins is very ancient in human culture, and even today we say, “You’ll pay for that!” Micah expressed it as, “Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:7) The greatest miracle of the cross, the cornerstone of the Gospel, is that Jesus paid it all (to borrow the words of the hymn); we pay nothing. We struggle with that from one direction or the other. On the one hand, we have a lust for pride; we want to be able to say, I did that. That is excluded, as Paul said in verse 27. We don’t like that! From the other side, we have a tendency not to value things we don’t have to work for or pay for. The most valuable thing in the universe can only be received, gratefully and by faith.

This is an understanding I have grown into more and more over the years, though the words themselves are something I learned as a child. My personal tendency has been to fail to value such a great salvation, precisely because I didn’t work or pay for it. I think that was because I had so little grasp of what it is like to live apart from Christ. The longer I live, though, the more I deal with people who don’t have the hope of salvation, and the better I realize that apart from faith, I am just as worthy of destruction as they are. The saying is very true that “Evangelism is one beggar telling another where to find bread.” I have no room whatsoever to look down on anyone, because, to quote another saying, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” My task is to let people know that salvation is already provided for them, as much as it is for me, if they will only let go of the sins they have been hanging on to (repent) and reach out in faith to receive it.

Father, this is extremely basic, but we stray from the basics to our peril. Help me present the simple facts of the Gospel more and more effectively, so that more and more may repent, believe, and receive, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!