Daily Devotional

April 1st 2025

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TUESDAY

Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) 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)

In Romans 3, Paul says that, through the redeeming work of Christ at Calvary, we experience justification—God bestowing righteousness on us.
Justification is a legal declaration by God. Justification is the instantaneous legal act of God in which He views our sins as having been forgiven and views Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us. God sees us as though we never sinned.
This is Christ’s imputed righteousness. We have no righteousness of our own. Thus, the only way God could look upon us as being righteous is by considering Christ’s righteousness as belonging to me: He justifies the ungodly by forgiving my sins and by declaring me to be righteousness.
Justification comes entirely by God’s grace through faith in Christ. It’s not simply given to everyone, even though it was offered for everyone. Paul tells us that “no one will be considered right with God by obeying the law”, which means we can’t be justified by our effort—we’re corrupt. “Then how can we be justified?” It’s by His grace (Ephesians 2:8, 9).
“But how does God determine who will receive this grace?” Paul says that He justifies the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. This is a benefit of salvation. In exercising 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.
As God justifies, God says, “I declare you to be righteous. From now on, I’m going to 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, and you have been set before God as a righteous person.”

Prayer: Eternal God, we thank you that our Savior justifies us; that through Him, we are declared righteous, and our sin can no longer hinder 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 Christ, we pray. AMEN!

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