But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 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. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

The baseball arced through the air towards the centerfield stands, only to be intercepted by a leather glove that reached up just over the centerfield wall and snatched the ball out of the air. Instead of a game-winning home run, it was the final out of the championship game. The roaring stadium grew silent as one team in the dugout hung their heads in disappointment. Just one more foot, maybe even a few more inches, and the outcome would have been completely different. But whether it's an inch or a mile, falling short is falling short.

The common Greek word for sin, "Hamartia," means just that: to miss the mark or to fall short of the perfect and holy standard of God. This falling short is a very real problem because it means that in and of ourselves, we are impure and unholy people who are unworthy to step into the presence of a pure and holy God in heaven. Everyone who has ever existed has shared this problem because we have all fallen short. No matter how righteous you think you are, how many good deeds you have done, or how many degrees or accolades you've collected, you still come up short along with the rest of mankind. One of the most famous verses in all of Scripture is found in today's passage and echoes this idea clearly. Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. It doesn't matter if you fell short by a lot or by a little; if you sinned only a little, or if you lived a life of violence and perversion, the result is the same: eternity without God. Yet the good news is that God has a solution to this problem, and Paul uses today's passage to not only describe the problem of sin but also to point to and begin to define and lay out the solution.

Paul develops his teaching about salvation in this passage around three pictures and themes the readers of Paul's day would understand to explain the idea of salvation from three unique angles. The three themes are Justification, Redemption, and Propitiation. Justification is an image from a court of law of a person on trial. In the picture, we are that person on trial, and God is our judge. Redemption is an image from the Roman slave market of a person being sold into slavery. In this picture, which Christians in Rome would be very familiar with, we are the slaves, and God is the one who has purchased our freedom, redeeming us or buying us back from our current unloving masters in the process. Propitiation is an image taken from the world of religion in which God is appeased through sacrifice. Only it isn't our sacrifice that appeases him since we have nothing to give, and we are not in any way a spotless lamb. It is the sacrifice of his son Jesus that alone has the power to appease God's justice. Justification solves the problem of man’s guilt before a righteous and perfect judge because Jesus took that guilt onto himself. Redemption solves the problem of man’s slavery to sin, the world, and the devil through being purchased by the blood of Christ. In this purchase, sin and death no longer have a hold on us or rulership over us. And propitiation solves the problem of offending our Creator through the appeasement of the sacrifice of Christ. The ancient Greek word for propitiation, "hilasterion," is also used for the Mercy Seat, the golden lid covering the Ark of the Covenant, upon which sacrificial blood was sprinkled as an atonement for sin. This word propitiation, in its classical form, was used for the act of appeasing the Greek gods by a sacrifice; in other words, the sacrifice was offered to buy off the anger of the gods. This appeasement may have led to a better harvest, victory in war, or increased fertility, but it was always limited and temporary. But in Jesus, His death and sacrifice of blood was a propitiation or substitute sacrifice for us and offered eternal, not temporal, appeasement to God for those who received it. This once again shows God's ultimate power and authority even over other spirit beings in the supernatural realms.

These three problems each stem from sin, but in each, there is only one solution, and that solution is Jesus. There are not multiple solutions for sin, and none of the solutions come from us or can be earned by us. The single solution for sin can only be found in Jesus, and in stressing this point, Paul is speaking of and pointing to the New Covenant, which is salvation. We are saved only by the blood of Jesus through faith and nothing else. It does not originate from us, nor can it be earned by us. In knowing what the solution to sin is, we also need to understand the false solutions or ways that man attempts to become his own solution and savior. In the old covenant, people were justified (or claimed to be) by keeping the law, something that all people failed at. In this way, the Old Testament law was valuable because it showed us that we could not save ourselves or solve the problem of sin and separation in our own power. In our feeble human attempts, we will always fall short and will always need a savior outside of ourselves, both then and now. The law cannot save us, and neither can our performance, good works, or self-merit. We have received forgiveness and righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ alone. So whether we have fallen short by an inch or by a mile, God has given us victory in Christ. The problem of sin and death has been solved, so we can walk with our heads held high as long as our eyes are fixed on Jesus.