“Justified Freely By God’s Grace…!”(Rom.3:21-26).
Yesterday I was having a light conversation with an elder and she was telling me about what she noticed at a certain funeral celebration. A choir group was served food and drink in an open space where they sat mixed with people from other places. What the elder noticed and was uneasy was that the choir servers served only choir members, skipping those other people without any qualms. All the choir members ate and drank with ease without any of them raising any concerns about the selective serving. We may see greed and selfishness in this, but it goes beyond, to the myopic reasoning that the other people are Gentiles (non-aligned). Worst still is simply that the other people are not our group members, or our congregational members or our denominational members.
We read in Romans that the righteousness of God is given through faith to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
A non-Christian is a potential Christian in the same way a stranger is a friend you are meeting for the first time. First impressions have a lasting effect. The first impression at the encounter between a believer and a potential believer may become a repellant than an attraction to join the faith.
Worthy of note from the text:
- God’s righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
- All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
- All are justified freely by grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Both the believer and the not-yet-believed stand on the same pedestal of sin, having fallen short short of the glory of God. This is not to say the outsider should flap a boastful wing as if he too is as saved as the believer!
What comes from above is given “through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” You must believe to belong! While “all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus,” it is “to be received by faith.”
Therefore as believers, we have a responsibility to make the yet-to-believe become believers so that they too should be included among the all who are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” whom God presented “as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood….”
And while we make that effort to bring others to enjoy free grace, we must work tirelessly upon our own selves so that we do not end up being signposts pointing a direction to the place of salvation that we can’t go to.
Prayer: Glory be to you, Lord Jesus Christ, for your humble submission to be a sacrifice of atonement for our sins. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
03/04/2025.