This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Welcome to our daily drive-time devotions. We're going through the book of Romans together this week, chapter 3. We're in our third day of looking together at the incredible truth of God's forgiveness. As we begin this look today at Romans chapter 3, verses 21 to 26, let me ask you a question. What do you feel like is the difference between opinion and conviction? I've always felt that the difference is this. Opinions are something that I'll argue about. Conviction is something I'm willing to die over. Conviction goes deep into the soul. The book of Romans is all about life convictions, the things that go deep into our soul and make a difference in our lives. Yesterday we began to look with a telescope at this paragraph of scripture that talks about the conviction of what God has done to free us from our sin, to forgive us for our sin. We took the broad view yesterday. Today I'd like to start a look with a microscope to look more closely at our salvation. With a microscope you can discover a disease and cure it before it does too much harm. The same is true of these truths. If you miss any one of them, they can lead to personal disaster. But if you catch a hold of these truths, these verses reflect healthy attitudes about the cross and the truth of salvation. Let me read Romans 3, 21 to 26 again. If nothing else this week, hearing these verses a few times can make an incredible difference in our lives. "But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 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. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. " Martin Luther said of this paragraph of scripture that this was the chief point and the very central place in the epistle and of the whole Bible. And John Calvin said, "There is not probably in the whole Bible a passage which sets forth more profoundly the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. " As we said yesterday, Leon Morris called this the most important paragraph ever written. Verse 21 shows us God's answer to man's failure. Verses 22 to 24 tells us how the gift of righteousness is obtained. Verses 25 and 26 tell us how and why it works. And verses 27 to 31 show us the results that follow. These verses reflect seven healthy truths of understanding about the cross. So let's focus in a little bit more closely than we did together yesterday. Truth number one is the truth that everyone needs salvation. Romans 3, 11, and 12, looking back to those verses at the beginning of the chapter, "There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned away, they have together become worthless, there is no one who does good, not even one. All have sinned and fall short. " You see, our picture of our need of salvation and God's picture as revealed here in the Bible are sometimes entirely different. Sometimes we see our need for salvation as somewhat like a race. We're in a race with all of humankind and some people are way out ahead getting closer and closer to salvation. Some are far behind and those who are out ahead have almost reached God. Those who are the most evil in our society are far behind, they're never going to reach God. But God doesn't see it that way. God sees that we're in the wrong race, we're running the wrong direction. And because of that, we're never going to reach Him. Or our picture is the picture of trying to reach God through some impossible means. We would sometimes picture it like we want to swim out to God in the ocean and maybe God's a mile out. And some of us can swim half a mile, some of us can swim maybe a hundred yards, a few of us could swim a mile and reach God. God's picture is that if we're trying to swim out to meet Him, we're starting at the Pacific Ocean on the west coast and God's in Hawaii. There's no human way possible that we can swim that far. It's impossible for us. Or if it's a long jump contest, it's not a matter of who jumps the furthest, it's a matter of how far we have to jump. And for us to reach God, God says in the Bible that there's a grand canyon-sized gap between us and God. We don't always feel that way because we're surrounded by God's creation. We don't always see that until we look at God's Word. We tend to compare ourselves with each other and think, "Well, I'm better than they are. I'm more righteous than they are. " But God says, "I don't compare you with each other. I compare you with me, with perfection, with holiness. " And none of us are righteous. No one can reach God. We all desperately need salvation. In verse 24, these verses remind us that anyone can have salvation. We're reminded that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God but are also justified freely by His grace if we will choose the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Later in the book of Romans in chapter 10, verse 13, we're going to read together that everyone, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Jesus died for all mankind. Not all will receive His gift, but it is a gift that is offered to all. It's not as if there's some kind of limited access, like there's a hidden password that only a few people know. The password is clear to all, is Jesus Christ. God's given it to everyone. Anyone can have salvation. These verses also remind us of a third very healthy truth about the cross, about salvation. And that is that there is only one way to receive salvation. In verse 21, the Bible tells us that there is a righteousness from God that is apart from the law. Apart from the law means there are ways that do not work. You can't reach God by the law, by keeping rules and regulations. The moment you recognize that even one way will not work, you have to admit there's a lot of ways that will not work. We have a lot of ideas about how we can reach God and get closer to God. A while back, there was a popular book in America called Conversations with God. I picked it up in a bookstore to read what it had to say about how we could get closer to God. I turned to the very last of the book and read the last three words and almost dropped the book out of shock. The last three words were, "You are God. " I guess it's a conversation with yourself. The idea that you are God is ridiculous. Obviously, if you were God, you could solve all your problems. If you were God, you could solve all of everybody's problems. You're not God. I'm not God. None of us are God. We need God in our lives. There are a lot of ideas we have about what might make us more spiritual or help us to reach God, but my ideas really aren't that important. Your ideas aren't that important. Only God, who made us, has the ideas that you and I need to look to. The Bible tells us here that it is by faith. We're justified freely by grace, by faith in Christ Jesus. It's faith alone. Faith alone, Christ alone, grace alone. In verse 21 of these verses, we're told that righteousness comes by faith. In verse 25, we're told that forgiveness comes by faith. In verse 26, that justification comes by faith. In John 14, Jesus said, "I'm the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. " There's only one way to receive salvation. It's through Jesus Christ. It's not your feeling about your sin that causes you to become forgiven. Many people think that if you're just sorry enough for your sin, God will automatically forgive you. But God did something about our sin. Through Jesus Christ on the cross, he gave himself for our sin. It is your faith in Jesus Christ who gave himself for your sin. Oswald Chambers once said, "We trample the blood of the Son of God if we think that we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. " The only explanation for the forgiveness of God and the unfathomable depth of his forgetting is the death of Jesus Christ. The one way is through Jesus Christ. There's a fourth healthy truth about salvation that you and I need to remember. That is the truth that this one way has always been God's plan. God didn't change horses in midstream. It's not as if he thought, "Well, I'll try to get people to me through the law. " "Oh, whoops, that didn't work. Now let's try it through Jesus Christ. " No, he always intended to bring us to himself through Jesus Christ. There are a couple of phrases in these verses that point to the fact that salvation through Jesus Christ has always been God's plan. At the beginning, I'm reminded in verse 21 that the law and the prophets testify about Jesus Christ. The law, all those rules, the whole sacrificial system, it all looked forward to Jesus Christ and what he was going to do. The prophets, people like Isaiah and Jeremiah, they all look forward to what Jesus was going to do. In fact, especially Isaiah, when you read that book, you see again and again him looking forward specifically to the fact that Jesus Christ was going to give himself for us. This one way has always been God's plan. The law and the prophets have always testified of it. Then there's this phrase towards the end of this passage that he left the sins beforehand unpunished. A lot of times when we're going through the Bible, those are the kind of phrases that we sort of ignore because they're hard to understand. What does that mean? He did this to demonstrate his justice because in his forbearance, he left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. What is that talking about? How are the sins that were committed before Jesus Christ came to this earth forgiven? You ever thought about that? Were people that live before Jesus forgiven somehow by keeping the law, by sacrificing animals on an altar? Is that how God forgave them? And now that Jesus has given his life for us, we are now forgiven by our faith in Jesus Christ. People have always been and will always be saved only one way, and that is through Jesus Christ. The people who live before Jesus Christ through their keeping of the law, through their obedience to the commandments, through their sacrifices, look forward by faith to what Jesus was going to do for them one day on the cross. It's Jesus who saved them. The blood of Christ flows both ways in history, forward to us but also backwards to those who had faith in God even beforehand. Once Jesus died on the cross, the law was no longer needed to look forward. The sacrificial system was no longer needed to look forward to what Jesus was going to do. And so now we look back to Jesus and we have faith in him. But it's always been the blood of Christ. This one way, Jesus Christ has always been God's plan. You may have already understood this plan of God for your life, or it may be that right here, right now, today, is the day for you to say, "Jesus Christ, I see it now. I see now that you gave your life so that I could be forgiven. " If you've never before, or you can't ever remember saying to Jesus Christ, "I need your forgiveness. I need your leadership in my life. Take a moment right now to tell him. Jesus Christ, forgive me for the wrong things I've done. Jesus Christ, help me to learn to live the life that you made me to live as best as I know how. I give my life to you. " And then, pray for someone else to understand this wonderful news. Tell it to someone else and pray for someone else. Right now, bring to mind someone who doesn't yet understand this wonderful news that God's plan is to give us new life and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. And just say in a simple prayer, "God, help them to understand. Help them to see. To see how much you love them, what a wonderful plan that you have, and the great forgiveness that you offer to all. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen.