The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22-24)
Martin Luther said this passage is the center of the entire Bible. J.I. Packer said this passage carries the whole weight of Christianity on its shoulders. Because it tells us what we most need to know about ourselves, and what we most need to know about God.
We’ve all fallen short of God’s standard, no matter how good we are. It’s like how we would all fall short if we tried to swim from Hawaii to Japan. If I was a decent swimmer, maybe I could make it 5 miles. You might be an Olympic-level swimmer, so you could make it 500 miles. Even so, we’d all fall woefully short of the goal. We’d all drown in the middle of the ocean.
That’s your status apart from God’s grace. Dead in your sin. And if you don’t understand the depth of your sin, you won’t understand that God’s righteousness is a gift. You’ll think you earned it. You’ll think God’s approval and blessing depend on your level of faith. But if you put your faith in your own faith, then the next time you start to have a few doubts, your faith will be shattered.
The only way to live in the joy and freedom of Christ is to continually remember what Paul says here: it’s only the work of Christ on the cross that gives you the righteousness of God. You’ve got nothing to bring to the table. You’re justified, approved, and blessed by God’s grace, and only through the redemption that is in Christ. So go through your day today in awe and wonder at the undeserved grace of God that’s constantly working in your life.