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Romans 3:22 “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”

Think

Some gifts change your life. Not because of their price tag, but because of what they mean. A ring given in love. A letter written in grace. A hand extended when you least deserve it. These are the kinds of gifts that do more than surprise you. They undo you. They remind you that love has never been about earning. It's about receiving.

Paul continues his gospel crescendo in Romans 3 with a truth that flips religion on its head. Righteousness is not achieved. It is given. And it is not handed out to the spiritually elite. It is offered to all who believe.

We have to let that sink in. For many of us, even after years of following Jesus, we still operate with an earn-it mindset. We try to be good enough, read enough, serve enough, apologize enough. And when we fall short, we feel like God must be disappointed, or worse, distant. But Paul is clear. Righteousness is not a paycheck. It’s a gift. And like all true gifts, it’s given out of love, not performance.

The word “righteousness” here refers to being made right with God. It’s not just legal language—it’s relational. It means being fully accepted, fully loved, fully embraced. And it comes through one way only: faith in Jesus Christ.

Imagine walking into a job interview, heart pounding, resume in hand. You’ve prepped for weeks. You know the questions. You’ve rehearsed the answers. But before you sit down, the interviewer says, “Actually, the job is already yours. We’re not hiring based on performance. We’re adopting based on love.” That’s the shift Paul is describing. Faith is not our part of a trade. It is the open hands that receive what God has already offered.

Still, everything in us wants to contribute. We like to earn things. It gives us a sense of control, of security. But the problem is, when it comes to righteousness, we don’t have anything that qualifies us. Not our best day, not our most spiritual moment, not our deepest regret. All of it falls short. The only thing that qualifies us is Jesus. And the only way we receive that is by trusting him.

It’s been said that “the gospel is not the ABCs of the Christian life, but the A to Z.” In other words, we never move on from grace. We never mature out of our need for it. Righteousness is not just the starting point of our faith—it is the entire foundation. The same faith that saved you is the faith that sustains you.

That means today, when you wake up feeling like a failure or a fraud, the answer is not to double down on effort. The answer is to return to trust. The gospel is not about behaving your way into God’s presence. It’s about believing that Jesus has made a way for you to be there already. It is not your consistency that holds you in grace—it is God’s.

This kind of faith doesn’t produce laziness. It produces freedom. When you know you don’t have to earn God’s love, you start living like someone who already has it. You stop performing and start becoming. You stop faking perfection and start walking in honesty. You stop measuring your value by what you do and start anchoring it in what Jesus has already done.

One of the greatest tragedies is when people walk away from God, not because they stopped believing in him, but because they started believing they would never be enough for him. Paul wants to silence that lie. He wants to raise the banner of grace so high and so wide that no one could miss it. This righteousness is given. And it’s given to all who believe.

So whether you’ve walked with Jesus for years or are still unsure where you stand, the invitation is the same. Come with empty hands. Come with honest faith. Come receive the gift that no one can earn, and everyone can receive.

Apply

Take a moment and reflect honestly: are you living like righteousness is a gift, or like it’s something you still have to earn? Think about how you respond when you fail, or how you try to prove your worth. Ask God to expose any areas where performance has replaced trust. Then speak this out loud as a declaration over your heart: “I am made right with God by faith, not by my effort. Jesus is enough.” Let that truth shape how you relate to God today—not with fear or striving, but with freedom and confidence.

Pray

Jesus, thank you for giving me what I could never earn. I confess that I often try to prove my worth or fix myself before coming to you. Remind me that righteousness is not a reward for the good, but a gift for the trusting. Help me receive that gift with open hands and an open heart. Let me live today in light of your grace. In Jesus’ name. Amen.