“…for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus….”
- Romans 3:23-24
This is a most familiar passage. Many of us can recite “for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” fairly much by heart. As
bad as I am at memorizing Scripture, this is one that I can always easily
recall. Probably has something to do
with how much I can very personally relate to the fact that all (especially and
particularly me) have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Yep, ahem, that is me.
But the passage that came in my
email the other morning does not stop where most of us do when reciting
it. It included, after that rough
admission of how fallen we really are, a wonderful grace note.
Yes, we all (and there are no
exceptions) are sinners that fall short of the glory of God. And if you are like me, who I suspect most of
you are, we fall short of that glory rather repeatedly and at times,
spectacularly. And yes, there is no excuse for what we do.
Yet. The verse’s grace note states we “are
justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus”
The word here that jumps out at me…is
‘gift.’ Gift. The word gets defined in English (it’s an old
Norse word) as “something given voluntarily without
payment in return, as to show favor toward someone, honor an occasion, or make a gesture of assistance….” The Greek
word here (δωρεάν)
(dorean) simply means “at no cost”
Yes, we have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…yet He has gifted us with a grace
given at no cost to us, through the redemption (which indicates a great cost)
in Jesus Christ.
Do we
deserve it? Honestly, I should not even have to ask the question. But the cost
has been paid and the results are given freely.
Live
freely, live deeply, rejoice in Jesus.
We have been gifted. There is nothing more we could ask for. There is
nothing more we need.
