“Everyone who believes in him is made right in God’s sight—something the law of Moses could never do.”
Acts 13:39 (NLT)
Paul reaches the mountaintop of his sermon with one simple announcement: through Jesus, there is forgiveness for your sins, and everyone who believes in him is made right in God’s sight. That is the good news. Not a new religious system, not a better version of the old one, but a Savior who can do what the law never could.
The law of Moses could tell you what God expects from imperfect creatures, and it could expose what’s wrong in you, but it could never make you righteous. It turns life with God into a hamster wheel of trying to be good enough, look good enough, act good enough, think good enough, and appear good enough. And the truth is, it’s never enough. You are not enough. I am not enough. We are not enough.
That’s why Romans 3 hits so deep. God has shown us a way to be made right with him apart from keeping the requirements of the law. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. God, in his grace, frees us from the penalty of sin because Jesus became a sacrifice for all of us, shedding his blood. When God looks at the one who believes, he sees what Jesus has provided, not what we have failed to produce.
So here’s what I’m sitting with today: do you need to be made right with God, not by striving, but by believing? Jesus is enough to wash over anything you’ve done. And when you rest in his righteousness, you can be in God’s presence, be loved by God, walk with God, talk with God, be led by God, and be empowered by God. Jesus is the way out, and he is the way to God.