God loves us, deeply. He sent His Son Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins. That’s a fancy word for payment. He took our place under God’s judgment for our sin. He lived a sinless life and then actually became our sin for us and died on the cross as our atoning sacrifice before God, the Judge of all the earth.
In light of what He has done, our only proper response is to fall before Him in absolute humility, embracing His saving work on the cross entirely by faith. The Bible puts it this way, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV)
The bad news, then, is that we cannot possibly justify ourselves before a holy, Almighty God. His law is perfection, a standard by which we will always fall short.
And the really, really good news is that we don’t have to justify ourselves. Our justification, our redemption, our salvation is purchased and provided entirely by Jesus Christ who invites us to come to Him by faith and receive the free gift of eternal life in Him. And there is no other way to be saved.
