“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24)

Today’s verse presents us with a cause-and-effect explanation of Christianity. We, all the people of the earth, have “sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sin that entered God’s creation through Adam and Eve, has continued through the generations of all humanity, and sin remains in our lives today. This is the “cause” that put God’s plan into action. Because God saw sin in us, He provided the Israelites the Law. A Law that both clarified what sin was and provided a system to address and atone for the sin. And while the Law was complete in that sense, it could never cover the multitude of sin caused by all humanity across all time. There needed to be another [God appointed] path to redemption. Hence the “effect” caused by sin entering the world was for God to act on our behalf. And through His love for us, God knew that the only “effect” that could bring true salvation was to complete the Law Himself – sending His Son, Christ Jesus, God to die on the cross as the payment for our sin. And this is what I claim as the cause-and-effect of Christianity. Jesus’ death on the cross was the needed effect caused by sin in our lives. The people [we] sin, and God paid the price. And believing in this cause-and-effect is what we call faith. A faith, “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” So today take these truths with you: (1) All have sinned. (2) Our sin has a cost, but through true repentance, our debt is paid in full by the death of Jesus on the cross. (3) Our redemption was not earned but given to us freely through the grace and love of our Creator. And believing in these things is called faith. The faith that saves!