This episode of Living the Selah Life walks through Romans 3 and 4 in a simple way. It shows that all of us fall short, yet God made a way through Jesus. We are made right with Him by faith, not by trying to earn it.

We also look at Abraham and how his faith was counted as righteousness. His life reminds us that believing God matters more than works.

This episode invites you to rest in the truth that you are accepted by God through faith.

The content shared on Living the Selah Life is for spiritual encouragement, personal reflection and informational purposes only.

It is not intended to diagnose, treat or replace medical, psychological or professional advice of any kind.

Please consult a licensed health care provider or qualified professional for any physical, mental or emotional health concerns.

The views expressed are those of the hosts, Kimberly Lockanore, and are based on personal experience and Biblical insight, not clinical or professional training.

Welcome back to Living the Selah Life, a podcast that invites you to slow down to breathe and reconnect with the presence of God.

I am your host, Kimberly Lockanor.

You can call me Kim and this space is for anyone logging to become more familiar with his presence.

Each episode is an intentional pause, a moment to reflect, realign and remember that God meets us when we create space for Him.

So take a breath.

You are right on time.

Let's live the Selah life together.

In our last episode we saw humanity's condition apart from God.

All have sinned, all fall short.

All need rescue.

And that episode was kind of on the heavy side, but it was preparation for the most glorious announcement ever made.

Today we're moving into Romans chapter 3, verses 21 through chapter 4, where Paul unveils God's breathtaking solution.

After showing that no one can earn righteousness through keeping the law, Paul reveals the stunning way that God makes unrighteous people righteous through faith in Jesus Christ.

And this is to be celebrated.

It is the heart of the Gospel.

This is the truth that transforms every anxious performance based behavior into grateful resting performance based religion into grace filled relationship and condemnation into complete and total acceptance.

If the last episode showed us our desperate need, this episode shows us God's extravagant provision.

Get ready to have your breath taken away by grace.

We will call this week's main teaching justified by faith alone, starting with Romans chapter 3, verses 21, 22.

But now, after pages of proving universal guilt, and I do mean pages, Paul writes two of the most beautiful words in scripture.

But now but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, but now signals a dramatic turn.

Yes, we have all sinned.

Yes, we are all guilty.

And yes, we all deserve judgment.

But now God has acted.

He has provided a way.

The righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed.

This is the righteousness we need.

But we don't have God's own perfect righteousness.

It's revealed apart from the law.

You don't get it by keeping the law.

The law only condemns this righteousness comes another way and this is not a new revelation.

It was witnessed by the law and the prophets.

The Old Testament pointed to this all along.

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

David spoke of the blessedness of the one whose sins are covered.

The sacrificial system illustrated that sin required a substitute.

This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe.

Faith is the means.

Jesus is the object.

Everyone who believes receives his righteousness.

And notice how I didn't say you performed a bunch of shiny amazing looking good deeds and then you received his righteousness.

You did nothing to become righteous and in right standing with God until you believed.

Everyone who believes receives his righteousness.

I need for you to receive that because part of living out your identity in Christ is not moving away from your righteousness being in Christ Jesus because you will hear a lot of people say just be more righteous and just be more this.

You can have behaviors that need to be changed, that need to be modified that does not affect your right standing before God because you believe in Jesus Christ.

I need you to get that deep down on the inside.

Because we once you begin to move and purpose things and destiny things, the first thing the enemy will try to come for and the enemy in you because I will not even give him credit in that it is us because we know how messed up we can be.

We begin to think that the more I pray or the more I fast or the more I do all of these right looking things, it is adding onto my righteousness and it is not.

Is it good to live a proper life before God?

It is.

It is a byproduct of loving God as He as the Holy Spirit cleanses you.

Living right before him is a byproduct.

But your righteousness, the righteousness that gets you right with God does not come from anything you will ever do.

Stop.

Does not come from anything you will ever do.

The righteousness that makes you right before God comes from Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

All have sinned.

Romans chapter 3, verses 23.

Paul states the problem one more time before explaining the solution.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

All includes everyone, all means all.

No exceptions.

No one reaches God's standards.

We have all sinned.

Past tense completed action.

We've all missed the mark, rebelled and violated God's law.

We fall short of the glory of God.

And sin is not just about breaking rules.

It's about falling short of God's perfect glory, failing to reflect his image, as we were created to do, lacking the righteousness and holiness that he requires.

And we're going to get into those words, holiness and all these things in another episode, because that's a whole nother soapbox.

But I digress.

This verse sets up the contrast.

All have sinned.

That's the problem.

But all can be justified.

That's the solution.

Romans, chapter 3, verses 24 through 26.

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness.

Because in his forbearance, God has passed on over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

That scripture is a mouthful.

I urge you to go back and dissect it word by word.

It'll set you free, y'.

All.

This passage is packed with some crucial theology.

Let's unpack it.

Being justified, declared righteous, declared not guilty, given a right, legal standing before God.

And this is not a being made righteous progressively.

That's sanctification.

This is being declared righteous legally.

It is legally declaring you righteous freely by his grace.

This justification costs you nothing, no thing.

You can't earn it, purchase it, or deserve it.

It's a gift of grace.

God's unmerited favor towards those who deserve judgment through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Redemption means being bought back, like set free through paying a price.

That's what it means to be redeemed.

Christ paid the price for our freedom from sin's penalty and power, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood.

And propitiation means a sacrifice that satisfies God's wrath and turns it away.

And keep in mind this.

The sacrifice that's satisfying God's wrath was by God's standards.

So it's God giving the sacrifice that he's requiring.

Let that sink in.

Jesus's blood sacrifice satisfied God's justice.

God's wrath against sin was poured out on Jesus instead of us through faith.

You receive this justification by believing, by trusting in Jesus, by relying on his finished work rather than yourself to demonstrate his righteousness.

God is not unjust.

He demonstrates his righteousness by dealing with sin properly.

He doesn't sweep it under the rug.

He punishes it fully in Christ, though He punishes sin fully in Christ, that He might be just and the justifier.

And this is stunning.

God remains perfectly just.

He punishes sin while justifying the ungodly.

He declares sinners righteous.

Both justice and mercy are satisfied through the cross.

Romans, chapter 3, verses 27 31.

Boasting excluded.

Where is boasting then?

Is it excluded?

By what?

Law of works?

No, but by the law of faith.

Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

If justification came through works, you could boast, you could claim, you could say, I earned this.

But justification comes through faith, not works.

There is no room for boasting.

You can't brag about receiving a gift.

You can only thank the giver.

Is he the God of the Jews only?

Is he not also the God of the Gentiles?

Yes, of the Gentiles also.

Since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

Justification by faith levels all distinctions.

Jew and Gentile come to God the same way through faith.

One God justifies all people the same way.

No one has an advantage and no one is excluded.

He goes on to say, do you then make void the law through faith?

Certainly not.

On the contrary, we establish law.

Justification by faith does not nullify the law, it establishes it.

The law's purpose was to show us our sin and our need for a Savior.

When we're justified by faith, the law has accomplished its purpose.

We're not keeping the law to be saved.

We're keeping it because we are saved.

Romans, chapter 4, verses 1 through 8.

Abraham is justified by faith.

Paul uses Abraham as an exhibit, a sort of thing for justification by faith.

What then shall we say that Abraham, my father, has found according to the flesh?

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does the Scripture say?

Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Abraham is the father of all nations.

If anyone could be justified by works, surely it will be Abraham.

But Scripture says Abraham believed God.

And God credited that faith to him as righteousness.

Abraham didn't work for righteousness.

He believed God.

And God counted his faith as righteousness.

Now, to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt.

But to him who does not work, but believes, on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

If you work, you earn your wages.

The employer owes you a payment, and that's a debt.

That's not grace.

But God doesn't justify the godly who earn it.

He justifies the ungodly who believe it.

He credits righteousness to those who have faith, not to those who perform perfectly.

Paul quotes David, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.

And he quotes David from Psalms chapter 32, verses 1 through 2.

David understood justification by faith.

Blessing comes not from perfect obedience, but from having sins forgiven, covered, not counting against you.

This is grace, not works.

Romans 4, 9, 12.

Before or after circumcision, Paul asks, when Abraham was declared righteous, was it before or after circumcision?

For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

How then was it accounted while he was circumcised or while he was uncircumcised?

Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.

Abraham believed God and was declared righteous in Genesis 15.

He wasn't circumcised until Genesis 17 years later.

God declared him righteous while he was still uncircumcised, which was a requirement of God, by the way.

And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also.

Circumcision was a sign of the righteousness Abraham already had by faith.

It didn't produce righteousness it pointed to righteousness already received.

And this makes Abraham the father of all who believe, whether circumcised or not.

Gentiles who believe are Abraham's children.

Faith not in ethnicity or ritual, makes you part of God's family.

Romans chapter 4, verses 13 through 17.

The promise through faith for the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect.

God's promise to Abraham came through faith, not law.

If inheritance depended on keeping the law, the promise would be worthless, because no one keeps the law perfectly.

Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations.

Faith guarantees the promise is by grace.

Grace makes the promise secure for everyone who believes, Jew and Gentile alike.

Abraham is father of all who have faith like this.

Romans, chapter 4, verses 18 through 22.

Abraham's faith.

Paul describes Abraham's faith who, contrary to hope, in hope, believed so that he became the father of many nations.

According to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be.

And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was able to perform.

And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Abraham was nearly 100 years old and Sarah was past childbearing age.

Like physically, having children was impossible, but God promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars.

Because Abraham believed God, he didn't focus on impossibility.

He focused on God's promise and God's power and his ability to be able to do what God said.

He did not waver in unbelief.

He was fully convinced that God could do what he had promised.

This faith was credited to him as righteousness.

Notice what Abraham believed.

That God could bring life from death.

That God keeps his promises.

That God is powerful enough to accomplish what seems impossible.

Romans, chapter 4, verses 23 through 25.

For us also now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us.

It shall be imputed to us who believe in him, who raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification.

Abraham's story is not just history.

It is the pattern for how all people are justified.

God credits righteousness to those who believe.

What do you believe?

That God raised Jesus from the dead.

We believe in the God who brings life from death, who keeps his promises, who.

Who has power to save.

Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses.

He died for our sins, bearing the punishment we deserved.

He was raised because of our justification.

His resurrection proves our justification is complete.

If sin wasn't dealt with, Jesus would still be dead.

His resurrection declares that the debt is paid.

Justice is satisfied.

Justification is accomplished.

And what does justification mean?

Justification is a legal declaration.

God, the righteous judge, declares you not guilty.

He pronounces you righteousness.

And this isn't because you are inherently righteous and it is not because you earned it.

It is based entirely on Christ's righteousness.

Being credited to your account.

When you believe in Jesus Christ, God takes your sin and puts it on Christ.

He takes Christ's righteousness and puts it on you.

This is often called the great exchange.

Your sin is imputed to Christ, credited to his account.

He bore it on the cross and paid its penalty.

Christ's righteousness is imputed to you, credited to your account.

God looks at you and sees Christ's perfect record instead of your sinful one.

This is justification.

You are declared righteous based on Christ's righteousness alone, not your own.

And why faith and not works?

Why does God justify by faith instead of works?

It's a couple things.

But first, because no one can be justified by works, the law demands perfect obedience.

We've all failed.

If justification require works, no one would be justified.

Second, to exclude boasting, if you earned salvation, you could take credit.

But salvation by faith means God gets all the glory.

You're simply receiving what he offers.

Third, to make salvation available to all.

If salvation required perfect works, only the morally superior could be saved.

But salvation by faith is available to everyone.

Moral and immoral, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor.

Fourth, to demonstrate grace, works based salvation isn't grace, it's payment for services rendered.

Faith based salvation is pure grace.

Undeserved favor extended to the guilty.

And fifth, to point to Christ.

If works contributed to salvation, Christ's works would be insufficient.

But salvation by faith alone, through Christ alone, makes clear that Jesus accomplished everything necessary.

Faith alone.

This is the doctrine that sparked the Reformation.

Justification by faith alone, solo fide.

You are saved by faith alone, not faith plus works, not faith plus baptism, not faith plus church membership, not faith plus good behavior.

Faith alone.

And this doesn't mean faith is alone.

Saving faith also produces works.

James says faith without works is dead.

But works are the evidence of faith, not the basis for justification.

Hear me.

Works are the evidence of faith, not the basis of justification.

You're justified by faith alone.

But the faith that justifies is never alone.

It always transforms how you live.

Period.

And why does this matter?

Justification by faith is the heart of the Gospel.

Getting this wrong, and you will get everything wrong after this.

If you think you're justified by works, you'll spend your whole life trying to earn what can only be received as a gift.

If you think you're justified by faith, you'll rest in what Christ accomplished.

Live in gratitude for grace and find the identity, your identity in being loved, not in being good enough.

And that becomes very important as you move out on destiny steps.

This these foundational Truths that Paul set out in Romans.

If you fail here, fail to understand and fully receive them, it becomes a big, big deal when you start stepping out into bigger platforms, onto bigger things, because the enemy is coming straight there.

He's coming straight for that spot.

You have to know where you stand and why you stand there.

And the only way that anybody is able to stand against some of the persecution that is already here, and that I see a lot of people that I follow go through is because they understand who they are in God.

Justification by faith also levels up human distinctions.

We all come to God the same way, as guilty sinners receiving undeserved grace.

And this creates humility and unity.

We will move on to this week's pause prompts.

And remember, pause prompts are just a way to see where we are so that we can know where we are going.

Here we go.

Paul's prompt number one.

Do you believe you're justified by faith alone in Christ Jesus, or are you trusting in faith plus something else like faith plus your fasting, faith plus your prayers, faith plus your anything else?

Do you believe that your justification comes by believing in Christ alone?

Are you anxious about your standing before God?

Are you certain whether you're good enough?

Do you have peace knowing that you're declared righteous based on Christ's works, not your own?

Are you grateful for grace or do you take credit for your salvation?

Where are you still trying to earn what God freely gives?

Remember, you're justified freely by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Don't try to earn what's already been given.

Let's move on to this week's Selah moment and prayer.

This is our opportunity to rest in the work, the beautiful work of justification.

So get comfortable.

Take a few slow deep breaths and picture yourself standing before God, not fearful, but with confidence.

Why?

Because Jesus stands for with you.

When God looks at you, he doesn't see your failures.

He sees Christ's perfect righteousness.

Hear God's declaration over you, righteous, accepted mine.

That's it.

That's the whole transaction.

We are going to let go of the exhausting effort to earn what God freely gives.

You are justified freely, permanently, totally.

The work is finished.

You get to rest.

You get to breathe.

You get to live from a place, place of love.

Let us pray.

Father, thank you for justification.

Thank you.

That even though we've all sinned and fallen short, you justify us freely by your grace through Jesus and our faith in Jesus.

We're grateful we don't have to climb our way way to righteousness.

We're grateful you credit righteousness to those who simply believe.

We are grateful that justification comes through faith alone in Christ alone.

Forgive us when we slip back into performance mode trying to earn what you've already given.

Lord, please forgive us when we trust our own efforts instead of resting in Christ's finished work.

Help us to believe the gospel.

Help us trust that we're fully justified based on what Jesus did, not what we do.

Help us to stop the overwhelming cycle of trying to prove ourselves when you've already declared us righteous.

Keep us humble.

We have nothing to brag about when it comes to our salvation.

It's all about grace.

It's a gift.

It's all Jesus.

Help us live with open hands, knowing we're saved the same way as every other believer by undeserved, unearned grace.

Give us faith like Abraham.

Faith that believes your promises even when they seem impossible.

Faith that trusts your power over our weaknesses and failures and faith that gives you all the glory.

Help us live as people who know they're already accepted.

Thank you that Jesus was delivered up for our sins and he was raised to prove our duty.

Justification is complete, the debt is paid.

Justice is satisfied.

We are declared righteous.

Case closed.

When any kind of anxiety creeps in, remind us of the truth.

If shame tries to take a hold of us, bring us back to the gospel, the good news.

When we forget who we are in Christ, help us remember that we are justified, loved, accepted and free.

We worship you Lord, for this incredible gift and we rest in what you've done.

We're grateful beyond words.

It is in Jesus mighty name that we pray.

And it is so.

Let's lean into our Ceylon moment.

Sam.

All right, my friends, thank you for listening to Living the Selah life.

If this moment stirred something in your spirit, please share it with someone who needs to be reminded to pause and listen.

You can connect with us on Instagram, Facebook or a Facebook group.

Not a Facebook page.

I don't man that page.

Or YouTube @Living the Selah Life.

Or email me your story to livingthesalaliferoton me.

I'd love to hear it.

Until next time, remember that God is speaking.

He wants to guide you and direct you and give you his wisdom for your life.

Create space to listen.

Be honest about your need for grace so that you can fully receive it.

The Gospel is for sinners and that's the best news that we've ever heard.

May you go from this place rested not just in body but in spirit, carrying the awareness that his presence is always near.

May you be rooted not in the shifting voices of this world, but in the unshakable word of God, the Logos that ground you and the rhema that guides you.

For man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And may you keep rising into the life he designed for you, into purpose, into peace, into the fullness of his calling.

May your life become a living Selah.

An intentional pause that reveals his presence.

It is in Jesus name that we pray, and it is so, Selah.