But why does Paul call himself the foremost or chief of sinners? Remember, Paul was an extremely religious man, yet he calls himself the chief of sinners. Perhaps he wanted to make a point about self-righteous religious people. The point is that being religious does not exempt us from being terribly sinful with the ability to commit horrible crimes. The religious bigotry and murderous purges in history bear testimony to the atrocities carried out in the name of religion. Someone said to me, “When I become older, I will come to God because then I will be less prone to failure.” Whenever you meet a person who talks like that, you know that he has not yet understood grace. He is still thinking that he cannot come to God just as he is. 29 Regarding his previous and wretched spiritual condition, Newton said, “I was capable of anything. I had not the least fear of God before my eyes.… I not only sinned myself, but made it my study to tempt and seduce others.” 3 Surely, being redeemed out of such a wretched spiritual state, as the hymn described it, helped Newton see and appreciate the matchless grace of God. Later he wrote, “I needed someone to stand between me and a holy God who must punish my sins and blasphemies. I needed an Almighty Savior who would step in and take my sins away.… I saw that Christ took my punishment so that I might be pardoned.” 4 But “when the kindness of God our Savior appeared and his love for mankind, 3:5 He saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, 3:6 whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior. 3:7 And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.” (Tit. 3:4-7). Grace Can Be Received

Grace: Why It’s So Amazing and Awesome | Bible.org Grace: Why It’s So Amazing and Awesome | Bible.org

Having given clear proof from Scripture of man’s basic sinfulness, the next step is to demonstrate to whom this applies. The question is simply, is anyone exempt? Is the moral man or the religious man? Absolutely not and verses 19-20 plainly indicts all the world as accountable or liable for judgment. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God, which is attested by the law and the prophets, has been disclosed— 3:22 namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ 12 for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 3:24 But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 3:25 God publicly displayed him as a satisfaction for sin by his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed. 3:26 This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, 4:4 among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor. 4:3-4). Even though many may have good deeds and claim a relationship with Christ, unless they have turned from trusting in their own works to faith in Christ alone, they are under the condemnation of the Law as Law breakers. All people break God’s moral law and fall short of God’s righteousness unless they turn to His provision of righteousness by grace through faith in Christ, as Paul shows us in Romans 3. Doing the will of the Father (vs. 21) starts with personal trust in Jesus as our one and only means of salvation. If God’s rescue program had included our efforts, grace would be diminished and salvation would not be wholly the work of God. “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace” (Romans 11:6). Some things can exist together, but human works and the grace that brings salvation cannot.For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. 2:12 It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 2:13 as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 2:14 He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good. 2:15 So communicate these things with the sort of exhortation or rebuke that carries full authority. Intuitively, we think that we have to have some part in our salvation, to do some work, some deed that will make us worthy of the gift. Some do this by working up a sorrow for sin. Such sorrow is proper and to be expected, but it is not the basis for God’s loving favor toward us. Sorrow does not make us more worthy of God’s grace. It might lead us to cast ourselves upon His grace, but it will never make us more “presentable.” Let us suppose that you have two corpses. Is one more dead than another? Does one need a bigger miracle to be restored to life? Fact is, the good person who lives next to you and the criminal you read about in the newspaper are essentially in the same predicament—both need the life that only God can give. 26 In the introduction to What’s So Amazing About Grace? you close by saying “I would far rather convey grace than explain it.” What do you mean by that?

Grace: An Interview with The Shock and Scandal of God’s Grace: An Interview with

Then how does one obtain forgiveness of sin, spiritual life, righteousness with God, and a relationship with Him? Paul answers this in Romans 3:21-27. Outside the doctrines related to the Person and work of Christ, there is no truth more far-reaching in its implications and no fact more to be defended than that salvation in all its limitless magnitude is secured, so far as human responsibility is concerned, by believing on Christ as Savior. To this one requirement no other obligation may be added without violence to the Scriptures and total disruption of the essential doctrine of salvation by grace alone. Only ignorance or reprehensible inattention to the structure of a right Soteriology will attempt to intrude some form of human works with its supposed merit into that which, if done at all, must, by the very nature of the case, be wrought by God alone and on the principle of sovereign grace. 32 (Emphasis mine.) The True Liberty of Grace I recently heard an actor on TV comment that he was striving for grace. While the context didn’t give much indication as to what he meant, the idea of striving suggests struggle, toil, work, extreme exertion. In other words, striving suggests doing something to gain grace. While one might strive to promote and defend God’s grace as a fundamental truth of Scripture or strive to be a gracious person, the phrase striving for grace is really a contradiction in the fundamental meaning of grace as it is used in the Bible, theologically speaking. In a number of places, the New Testament speaks about the believer’s freedom or liberty in Christ, but what exactly does this mean biblically speaking for the Christian? Our ideas about liberty may be skewed by our society. For instance, the first definition given in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition is that liberty is “The condition of being free from restriction or control .” 33 The first definition in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines liberty “as the quality or state of being free,” but then gives the following as the first sub-definition of liberty, “the power to do as one pleases.” 34 But dictionaries do not provide us with an accurate definition of Christian liberty according to the New Testament. He is the one who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not based on our works but on his own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began (Tit. 1:9).

For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith (Rom. 12:3; see also Rom. 12:6; 15:15; 1 Cor. 3:10; Gal. 2:9; Eph. 3:2, 7, 8). I became a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the exercise of his power (Eph. 3:7). There is no doubt that many who profess faith in Christ have never truly and personally trusted in Christ as their Savior. But we must understand that the gospel message is offered unconditionally (i.e. freely) to those who will believe or trust in the person and work of Christ and no amount of failure can remove them from the Father's hand (John 10:29). A beautiful illustration of the amazing aspect of God’s gra How right he was! The very heart of the gospel is the supreme truth that God accepts us with no conditions whatever when we put our trust in the atoning sacrifice of His incarnate Son. Although we are helplessly sinful, God in grace forgives us completely. It’s by His infinite grace that we are saved, not by moral character, works of righteousness, commandment-keeping, or churchgoing. When we do nothing else but accept God’s total pardon, we receive the guarantee of eternal life (Tim. 3:4-7).