God’s word proves true every time. I love the way the Message version puts it in Romans 5:20-21:
“All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.”
Did you get that? Sin doesn’t stand a chance against God’s super-abounding, unmerited, death-defying, life-giving, amazing Grace! If sin can’t compete with Grace, why do we give it so much power in our lives?
We’ve all experienced that vicious cycle—try to be holy, get tired and give into sin, feel guilty and condemned, then try, try, try again doomed to repeat the same old thing. Thank God for the Cross and what Jesus Christ of Nazareth accomplished over 2,000 years ago!
Because Jesus took all of our sin and shortcomings on the cross, God’s judgment is completely satisfied and we have right standing with God, completely free to experience intimacy with our loving Father.
The Bible says that we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Conversely, Isaiah 61:10 states “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
When we come to the realization that we will never meet God’s holy standard and freely accept the perfect righteousness that Christ has won for us, we break that horrible cycle of trying to achieve holiness with self-effort.
If self-righteousness is like a filthy rag to God and Christ’s perfect righteousness is like a beautiful, dazzling white robe, I’m going with Christ’s righteousness. That’s a no-brainer right?
For those of us who know we’ve missed the mark, this is amazing news! God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Here’s the best part, we can finally stop trying to be perfect! God knew that we could never save ourselves, and that’s why He sent Jesus.
Grace will beat sin every time. No matter what you’ve done, whether you’ve committed homicide or stolen a cookie from the cookie jar, God’s Grace is greater still. So the next time you miss the mark (and we probably will considering we are still a work-in-progress), rest assured you can come Boldly to the Throne of Grace and freely receive forgiveness. As we yield to the Holy Spirit and continue in our relationship with Him, it is God who produces in us the desires and actions that please Him (Philippians 2:13).
