THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS # 10

Paul has explained that Gospel righteousness is a gift, totally unmerited, granted by sheer grace equally to every person who believes in Christ, on the basis of the sin-bearing death of Christ which sets us free from sin's penalty.

Now he asks the question: 'Where, then is boasting'?

If we are all sinners who sin '

If we are all credited with the righteousness of Christ as sheer gift '

Then all human boasting is excluded.

No one can claim that God has declared them not guilty on the basis of personal absence of guilt.

No one can claim that the acquittal they have received is because they merited it, earned it or deserved it.

No one can claim that they are more righteous than another, for all have received the same perfect righteousness of Christ credited to them by God's act of grace.

This Gospel, this grace, this Christ, brings a great equality, a great unity, in which both spiritual pride and spiritual despair are both outlawed.

There is no room for pride here ' no room for superiority, no room for looking down on another Christian believer, no room for perceived acceptance by God because of personal achievements.

There is no room for despair here ' no room for feelings of inferiority, no room for thinking another believer more acceptable to God than oneself, no room for perceived rejection by God because of personal failures.

This Gospel, this grace, this Christ, makes us all one.

Scriptures: Romans 3:21-31; Galatians 3:26-29.