Romans: The Gospel for Everyone — Week 7 - Romans 3:9-26

How can I have a right standing before God? Before the how, this message on Romans 3:9-26 presses the why: a right standing is what allows us to be in God's presence for eternity, and its absence is eternal separation—the deepest agony, the cry of Jesus on the cross when sin separated him from the Father. Paul's diagnosis is comprehensive: no one is righteous, and there is power and an enemy behind sin, not merely accidental missteps. Read personally, the indictment of Romans 3 cuts deep, yet its purpose is diagnosis pointing to a cure. Then comes one of Scripture's great turns— "but now" the righteousness of God apart from the law, given through faith in Jesus to all who believe. Justified means we did the crime, Jesus did the time. To those in Christ, God looks and sees perfection, and he pursues us until our final breath.