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, whom God put forward as a perpetuation by His blood, to be received by faith.
– Romans 3:23–25
Yes, this is one of the most incredible paragraphs in all of the Bible, Romans 3:21–26, and some of the most incredible verses right at the heart of that paragraph.
Romans 3:23–25 Presents the Complete Spectrum of the Gospel
The bad news, Romans 3:23, many people have memorized this verse, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 1:18–3:20 has summarized the sinfulness of man and the sickness that consumes every one of our hearts, how we all rebel against God. There’s no one righteous, not even one. All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
So people memorize that verse, the bad news. Memorize the good news too, verse 24, “And are justified.” One of a word God says to guilty sinners who falls short of his glory, “I just justify you. I declare that you are righteous, that you are forgiven, not guilty of sin.” How is that possible? “By his grace,” verse 24 as a gift. There’s no way we could earn that kind of standing.
How could we earn a not-guilty standing before God? There’s no way we could do it. How could we earn righteousness before God? We are not righteous. We have all sinned, that was verse 23. We’re justified by God’s grace as a gift to us. And how is this gift possible? Because God is holy, God is just, and when he sees sin, he judges sin. When he sees sinners, he judges sinners. So how can we be justified before a holy just God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood?
Romans 3:23–25 Reminds Us Why the Gospel is Good News
You don’t know that word? Meditate on that word, learn that word, love this word, propitiation. A sacrifice that turns away judgment. A sacrifice that turns away, to use language from Romans 2, wrath and fury. Jesus has died on a cross to endure the judgment we deserve for our sin so that the holy wrath and fury of Almighty God that we deserve for our sin has been turned away from us and turned toward him in our place.
“By his blood,” verse 25 says, he has died on a cross to pay the price for our sin. “To be received,” then how do we receive this redemption? How do we receive the effects of this sacrifice? By faith, by faith, by trusting in Jesus and God’s love for us in Jesus as the savior of our sin and the Lord of our lives. This is the gospel, and it does not get old.
God, we praise you for Romans 3:23–25. We praise you that though all of us have sinned and fall short of your glory and deserve your judgment. And right now, I should be in hell, all of us should be, that you have, by your grace as a gift, justified us all who trust in Jesus. You have declared us not guilty of sin. God, what a gift. The greatest gift. We praise you for the gospel. Lord, we praise you for your grace. We praise you for the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
This Verse Reminds Us God is Infinitely Trustworthy
Jesus, we praise you for your propitiation by your blood. We praise you for turning aside the holy wrath and fury and judgment that we deserve, from us, for taking it upon yourself that we might receive your redemption, your righteousness, by faith, by trust in you. So we say today, in a fresh way, we trust in you.
If you have taken all of our sins upon yourself and love for us, then we realize there is nothing in our lives, nothing going on in our lives, nothing we will face today or tomorrow or the next day or the next day, any point in our lives that we cannot trust you with. You are infinitely trustworthy. We trust you as the savior of our sins, the redeemer of our souls, and so we trust you with everything going on in our lives right now. And for all of eternity, you are the faithful God, worthy of all our trust in God, we pray. We pray for the spread of this gospel in all the world to all the peoples of the world.
Prayer for the Aneuk Jamee People
For the Aneuk Jamee people of Indonesia, 76,000 of them. The few Aneuk Jamee followers of Jesus. God, we pray that you’d strengthen them. We pray that you would help them, uphold them. Remind them today of the beauty of the gospel. Help them to grow in the depth of their understanding of the gospel and bless them for the spread of the gospel. To the thousands upon thousands of Aneuk Jamee people around them. They’re in Aceh, Indonesia.
God, we pray, please cause this good news to spread, but the obedience of faith for the sake of your name, Jesus, among the Aneuk Jamee people of Indonesia. And God, help us to faithfully share this good news with somebody around us today and pray all of this according to your Word, which we love in Romans 3:23–25. We pray in Jesus’ name. In the name of the one whose propitiation by his blood makes the way for our redemption. In Jesus’ name, we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
