Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. (Romans 3:27–28)
As I drove to my friends’ house, I recall thinking out loud to my family that it was a most unusual party we were to attend. My friends, a wonderful couple, were celebrating the homecoming of their son, who had been paroled after seven long years in prison. While he was guilty of the charges against him, the sentence he received was extraordinarily harsh when compared to the crimes of other inmates. No matter. He was home. And his exuberance for life energized everyone around him. The experience that so often hardens men and turns them bitter had refined and softened this young man. What emerged from the crucible of prison was a serenely repentant, mellow, humbly grateful child of God.
He spoke freely of his experiences, beginning with the moment the judge accepted the jury’s verdict and slammed the gavel down. As everyone else gathered their belongings and headed for the parking lot, he was led through a side door and then placed inside a cage. Next, he was stripped, searched, photographed, printed, shackled, and then put aboard a tan prison bus. For the next seven years, he bore the title “convict,” and for rest of his life, he will be called “ex-con” or “felon.”
As I reflect on this young man’s experience, I must ask myself, “How are he and I different?” There are several differences. His record of wrongdoing is a matter of public record; mine is locked away in heaven. He suffered punishment most can scarcely imagine; I will not endure a single moment of retribution for my wrongs. The world will forever count him the least among its citizens; I am unjustly celebrated. “Where then is boasting? It is excluded” (Romans 3:27)! For the felon and I are more alike than different. My heart is no less depraved than his—or yours. Earthly courts saw fit to place him behind bars, but you and I are no less guilty before our almighty Judge. Truth be told, you and I deserve far worse.
Therefore, if we dare boast in the presence of my paroled friend, let us boast with him. Let us join him in bragging on Jesus Christ and His inexplicable gift of grace. Let us see ourselves as his equals, paroled felons enjoying undeserved freedom. For “where then is boasting?” Not with us. Not in our goodness. And may I remind you once again? Salvation is a gift, and this gift demonstrates the goodness of the Giver, not of those who receive it.
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.” (Romans 3:23–25)
Content taken from Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary: Insights on Romans by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2015, Charles R, Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
