The gift of redemption

In today's first Scriptural reading, Romans 3: 21-30, Paul reminds us that every human being is a sinner deprived of the glory of God until Jesus, the righteousness of God, reconciled us through the blood of the cross. Paul is talking about you and me. We are sinners who, until Jesus reconciled us to God, were deprived of God's glory, shut out of God's good graces. On Calvary, grace in abundance flows out of the Incarnate God into our bodies that are now redeemed by our faith in Christ Jesus, whom God the Father "set forth as expiation" (Romans 3:25). Our sins are fully forgiven by a loving God, who, in His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord, pardons our disobedience by Christ's obedience to the will of His Father. That will, from all eternity, is that we are saved moment by moment throughout our time here on earth. It is not our works, our eloquence, our goodness, our education, our talents, our nationalities or personalities or our accomplishments that redeem us. No, redemption is a pure gift from God the Father through God the Son and the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Jesus and the One who sent Him. The good we do is done through the Spirit working through us to accomplish the good God sent us here to do in His name.