Romans
3:22-24 This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by
Christ Jesus.
There are many movies with
this scene: A man approaches a dark warehouse on the waterfront late at night,
amid the fog. Seeing the door marked with a golden crest he walks up the steps
to it. He looks around to be sure he has not been followed and then knocks on
the door. A small peep hole opens and a gravel voice is heard saying: “Who’s
there?” The cloaked figure replies, “Joe sent me.” At his reply the door opens
and the man is given permission to enter the warehouse.
The thing about this scene is that the cloaked
man does not relply: “It’s me, Frankie.” No, he replies that Joe sent him. This
is a simple and humorous, way of describing our faith in Christ. We do not
enter the Kingdom of God by saying, “It’s me Lord, open up.” No we say: “Jesus
sent me.”
We cannot merit entry into
God’s Kingdom by our own efforts. Jesus is the perfect Son of God who has free
and total access to God and to the Kingdom. The gravel voice said, “Come in.
Any friend of Joe’s is a friend of mine.” God responds to our knock saying,
“Because my son has loved you and forgiven you and accepted you, so will I, and
I will view you as justified before me. Enter.”
As sinners we are cut off
from fellowship with God. The door is closed for us to enter into his company.
But when we accept Christ’s work for us personally and place our trusting faith
in Him, we are forgiven and made acceptable to God as His child. Then, the door
is opened and we enter into the Kingdom now and forever.
