Daily Devotional

April 22nd 2024

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MONDAY

Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners … and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity He put us in right standing with Himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where He always wanted us to be. And He did it by means of Jesus Christ.–Romans 3:23, 24 (MSG)

Paul says that the salvation of Christ works justification in our lives, the bestowing of righteousness on us because we can’t achieve it on our own.
We are justified because of Christ’s imputed righteousness. God extends Christ’s righteousness to us; God assigns it to us. Justification comes entirely by God’s grace through faith in Christ. Jesus is the conduit by which justification becomes available. It’s not simply given to everyone, even though it was offered for everyone.
In Romans 3:20, Paul tells us that “Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin.” “Then how can we be justified?” It’s by God’s grace! Paul says in Ephesians 2:8, 9, “Saving is all His idea, and all His work. All we do is trust Him enough to let Him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving.”
By faith in Christ, we are acknowledging to God that we can’t do for ourselves what is necessary to escape the punishment due us because of our sin. God demands satisfaction. Only the perfect sacrifice of His Son can satisfy. Only His perfect righteousness can free a man from the guilt of sin, and the only way to receive that perfect, imputed righteousness is by surrender to Him.
Justification results in blessing. God says to us, “I declare you to be righteous. From now on, I will treat you as though you had never sinned. Your sin isn’t just forgiven, not just pardoned, but the slate has been cleared. It can never be written on again.” We no longer offend God because all God sees is the perfect righteousness of Christ.

Prayer: Lord, we thank You that the resurrection of Jesus provides justification for us. We thank You that, through Him, we are declared righteous and our sin no longer hinders our hope of eternal life. As we go today, let us walk in the assurance that we are Yours and You are ours, and nothing can separate us. In the name of Jesus, the means of our justification, we pray. AMEN!

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