“23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
This is the summary statement for the last two chapters that Paul has written. There is not even one righteous person in all the earth who is capable of properly ascribing glory to God. Every single human has sinned. Period. Praise be to God, that this is not where the story ends! God has provided the only possible way of salvation. If our salvation were determined by our works, by how well we kept the law, no one would be saved. This is why it was necessary for salvation to come from outside of ourselves. This is why Jesus, in order that we might be saved, had to step down into our world, live a perfect human life, die the death that we deserve to die, and rise again on the third day. Salvation comes from God, not from us. It is a free gift from God. It is free in the sense that there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn or attain it on our own. We haven’t the ability to boast about ourselves, only about God who saved us.
“For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift — not from works, so that no one can boast.” — Ephesians 2:8-9
“It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us — our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption — in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” — 1 Corinthians 1:30-31
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace…” — Ephesians 1:7
Notice in verse 24, that Paul does not merely say that we are saved freely by God’s grace. Rather, he says we are justified freely by God’s grace. What is the significance of us being justified? This tells us that, for those who are saved by repentance and faith in Christ, our sins are not only wiped away, but that we now live justified in God’s sight. We not only receive a clean slate, we stand before God as righteous!
“and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God based on faith.” — Philippians 3:9
“He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” — 2 Corinthians 5:21
Not only are we saved and justified before God when we are saved in Christ, we are also given access to the Father through Jesus because of our justification. No one who is a sinner can be in God’s presence. Jesus ensures that by His righteousness, which those in Christ have been given, we may stand before God, in His presence, justified.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” — Romans 5:1-2