Freely

All week we’ve watched Jesus receive people. A leper who came back to say thank you. A woman who had bled for twelve years and heard Him call her “Daughter.” Today Paul tells us why He could.

He starts with two words we saw in Ephesians: “But now.” Romans had just spent nearly three chapters building a court case against the whole human race, Jews and Gentiles, religious and irreligious, until every mouth was stopped. Then:

“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed… For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:21–24)

The leper and the priest stood on the same ground. So did the bleeding woman and the crowd that kept away from her. So do we.

The word “freely” is dōrean in Greek: as a gift, without a cause. John uses the same word when Jesus says, “They hated Me without a cause” (John 15:25). The world hated Him for no reason in Him, and God justifies us for no reason in us.

Paul says God set Christ forth as a hilastērion, a propitiation. It’s the word for the mercy seat on the ark, where the blood was sprinkled once a year and judgment met mercy. Jesus became that meeting place.

So God is “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (3:26). The standard never came down. He paid it in full.

That’s why He could touch the leper and call her Daughter, and it’s why He can receive you today.

What would change if you really believed you were justified freely?

On Monday: Jairus’s daughter.