Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Comment: St. Paul is telling us that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is no one who has met God’s standard of perfection and is therefore able to meet with God and stand in His presence. On the contrary, we have all indeed offended Him by sinning. Sinning is being directly rebellious toward God by doing the opposite of what we know He wants us to do. Sound familiar?

Comment: Sin can only bring one outcome, death. Sin can only earn death. Rest assured that a holy and righteous God will be just and permit sin to reap its just reward. But, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus merely by accepting His free gift in faith. Jesus did all the work, all we must do is the only thing we can do without lifting a finger and that is to simply believe. We approach God not with our holiness (for which we have none) but with our faith, simply in believing He is who He claims to be, the Son of God. Believe that He died for your sins, and was buried and resurrected Himself on the 3^rd day. Believe that, and you have received His free gift of eternal life with Him and the Father in heaven everlasting.

Comment: We are all destined to go to hell. We were born in sin from Adam. We have no way of changing that on our own. There is nothing we can do to pay for our sin, then be perfect as God is perfect. It is an impossibility. God did not have to do anything to change this condition. Yet, Jesus chose to pay for all our sins and make us perfect forever in His Fathers eyes. We did not ask Him to do this for us. He volunteered to do so because of His intense love for us. He paid, not with a few dollars but with His dearest possession, His Sons life. Jesus paid with His own life. Not even satan can condemn us for our sins now. Jesus’ shed blood at Calvary trumps all condemnation. We are as spotless as Jesus now. When our heavenly Father looks at a believer, all He sees is the pure white spotless sinless cloak of His Son. This is what Jesus accomplished by His sacrifice for you and for me at Calvary. Jesus’ resurrection accomplished victory over death which Jesus also gives to those of us who believe in Him. Non-believers will die twice, once in the flesh and again when cast into the lake of fire to burn for all eternity where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. But believers will only die once in the flesh. Their spirit will never die as walking with our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ IS heaven.

Romans 10:13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."