“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:21-24
The history of God’s relations with human sin breaks into two parts: before and after Christ. The death of Christ marked the point of division, which is, at the same time, the key to explaining both, which Paul does as he starts this portion of his letter with the words “but now,” which may be two very essential words in the Bible. In the previous verse, Paul said, “by works of the law, no human being will be justified” in God’s sight. Nobody can keep the law perfectly, and no person lives a life worthy of God’s righteousness (Romans 3:10).
Paul has come to the main point of Romans: “But now.” Something crucial has changed in human history. The thing none of us could live up to—God’s righteousness—which has now been made known. In other words, Paul is saying there is hope. The path to God does not require us to keep God’s law. The Prophets and the Law had pointed to this new thing all along. It has been God’s plan from the beginning. Paul explained that no one could be made right with God by following the law; he stated there is another way to be righteous and saved from God’s wrath. He makes it very clear that the righteousness of God is available only through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
A new thought starts here, stating that “There is no distinction” between Jews and Gentiles. Why? Because all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Everyone sins, and none of us earn God’s glory, and without distinction, are equally deserving of wrath for our sins, and all people are justified, without merit, through Jesus Christ.
The statement here is short and to the point: Everyone sins. Everyone has sinned. No one does not commit sin (Romans 3:10). Paul had already pointed us to the Old Testament Scriptures, which emphasizes that even the law given by God doesn’t make us moral. The Greek word translated as “fall short” here is in the present tense. In reality, we keep on falling short. In other words, even knowing the consequences of our sinfulness is not enough to keep us from sinning (Romans 1:18–20).
This truth matters because we cannot escape God’s judgment against our sin except by being sinless. That is God’s standard, and we all fall short of His “glory” because of our sins. Since he has described this universal human tragedy: Every one of us has sinned, which means nobody deserves heaven; we all have earned separation from God due to our actions.
But a universal opportunity has been provided for every person. Despite our sins, God has made it possible for us to be justified—declared righteous and sinless—by His grace. Grace is receiving a good thing when we deserve a terrible thing. Paul describes it that way here. God allows us to be justified in His eyes “as a gift.” Because we cannot be made right with Him by following the works of the law, God must justify us by His grace as a gift we could never earn and is for “all who believe” (Romans 3:22).
Paul adds another critical word to this verse: redemption. God gives us this gift of grace, this opportunity to be included in His family and participate in His glory through the redemption in Christ Jesus. Redemption means “a ransom payment.” Our sin holds us captive, unable to be included in God’s family. The price of our sin was death. Jesus paid that price when He died for our sins on the cross. He paid the ransom for us and redeemed us. He received the anger of God’s judgment on our sin in His own body.