Something we misunderstand has a surprising reality

There is often a lot of debate about who is wrong and who is right. It can lead to legal battles and sometimes even violence. It even goes to the question of our identity. We like to think of ourselves as always being in the right.

This passage, however, tells a completely different story. It begins by showing that no-one, in and of themselves, is right in God’s sight. The Jews thought that they were in a secure position because of being Abraham’s descendants and also because of their relationship to God’s law. The passage though goes on to say that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’.

When it comes to our standing before God, there is only one way that anyone can be declared to have right-ness and that is not because of who they are or what they have done. It can only ever be because of what Jesus has done on the cross. By this atonement God can declare sinners, who trust in Jesus, righteous and in doing this also remain just himself.