God Remains Faithful; All People are Sinners, and Christ Took Our Punishment, I could drop the microphone right now! 

Paul through the Holy Spirit has some amazing nuggets in Chapter 3. 

If you and I read this chapter with an ounce of piety or pride we will miss the blessing God has for us. Paul shows us how believers are freed from sin, law, and death through Jesus Christ.

23For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  That means me.  I knew that about me, but did you know that about you?  There is no scale to weigh your sin against my sin.  Sin is sin.  You can think of the worst sin that a human has committed and my white lie, my doubt, my worry, my anger weighs the same.  Our sin put Jesus on the cross, but it was His love for us that brought Him there.

As believers do we become sinless?  Not at all, but we do sin less, or even differently.  For example, the closer we get to the heart of Jesus our heart and mind changes.  We don’t think like we used to.  We don’t talk the same way, our lives change through the help of The Holy Spirit. And here is where I/we need to take off our piety/pride hat, we can never be good enough, or do enough good to get to heaven.  If that was the case, why would God sacrifice His one and only Son?

There is so much more to chapter 3, but I will be forever thankful for this:  24Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25For 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…