A Look at Romans - Chapter 3

If most people were asked which offense was worse, either murder or lying, the overwhelming answer would be murder, of course! Yet, in God's eyes, both of these sins keep us apart from Him so neither one is "worse". There are not different "levels" of sins and the consequence for all sins is the same. Jesus had to die in order to pay the price for all of our sins. We can accept that payment or we can reject it. If we reject it, WE have to endure the consequences for our decisions...an eternal death separated from the love of God. If we accept Jesus' payment, we have access to an eternal life enveloped in the love of God!

In verses 5-8, Paul addresses the human thinking that it is GOOD for us to sin because then that allows God to show his mercy and forgiveness to us. That if we DON'T sin, then God would have no need to be glorified. Basically, without us humans being messed up, God wouldn't need to exist to save us and He'd have no purpose. So, in order for us to show His goodness and to bring Him glory, we should sin often to allow His work to be shown in us. Talk about looking for an excuse to be a deliberate sinner!

On the other hand, it is important to realize that even if we work and work to do all things good and follow the law, we are not considered right with God because of our actions. The ONLY way we get right with God is through faith. We can't earn it, no matter how hard we try! The beauty of God is that He isn't picky - He will take the biggest screw ups there are and love them like nobody's business. I mean, He loves me after all. And there's nothing I have ever done to 'deserve' that. He will accept men, women, old, young, Asian, African, American (North AND South), Muslims, Hindus, and everyone in between. Jesus died for every single one of us, He doesn't have a list of people He doesn't want. The invite list is ALL INCLUSIVE!!