Paul penned these words to the Church (believers) who were in Rome. Those folks were under extreme persecution, knowing that death could come at any moment simply because they believed in Jesus as Savior.
These words would have been an encouragement of the highest magnitude. The “everyone” puts us all on level footing. In the original language it means, “all.” Every human has sinned—fallen short of the measure of God, it’s in our blood.
That could sound condemning when taken alone, but when coupled with the next verse becomes a source of great joy to the believer.
Yet God… y’all know I love the “But God” parts of the Bible!
Despite the fact of our sinfulness, God declared us righteous in His sight as a gift, with no other purpose than to reveal His kindness and grace.
He freed us from the penalty for our sins! Imagine Sin as a kidnapper, holding us for ransom. We are not free to leave it, we can’t escape it. We’re stuck until someone pays the exorbitant ransom required. God paid it by becoming the ransom for us.
We’ve been set free from our kidnapper! We’re away from it, not controlled by it! We don’t have to come up with any ransom to get away from it!
Then why do some of us live as though the ransom has never been paid or that it wasn’t enough to secure our complete freedom?
Don’t we understand that the penalty for our sin has been utterly paid? Completely and forever covered? No more is necessary?
Believer, let’s start today walking with heads held high, knowing that in God’s eyes we are right with Him simply because of His kindness and grace to pay off the ransom that Sin required. Let’s let our minds rest in the truth that God has paid every penny of ransom, setting us completely free of sin’s imprisonment.
What will you do with that freedom? Will you live for the One who saved you? Will you walk back toward Sin that held you captive? Time to make a choice, friend. It’s time.
Choose well.
Coffee, Bible, Journal.
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Faye Bryant is an author, coach, and speaker who helps individuals escape the lies of the enemy, live into God’s truth, and build a better life by first feeling, dealing, and healing their way through a stuck future or an abused past, toward a deeper path of purpose, and into the unhackable life of their chosen legacy. Hers is a story of resurrection: from death to life!
