Declared Righteous

Romans 3

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

It is only through Jesus that anyone can be declared to be righteous in the sight of God. There is no other way. We can’t work hard enough, we can’t try hard enough, we cannot do it because of us. Biblical belief is more than a mere mental assent, it requires action. In this case, it requires obeying the Gospel of Christ. When we believe and obey, we are declared righteous. Without this belief in action, we are dead in our sins.