Romans 8:26

Romans 3:23, 24

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ.

When I think of my own story of redemption and how I came to be where I am in life, I am so grateful for the justification and redemption of my Lord. Paul says there is not one of us who can attain the glory of God – not one! We may strive in life to be good people, and yes, there are many good people in our world, but striving is not enough. Striving will never get me there, nor will it get you there. We are all sinners! We are born in the likeness of the first Adam who was tempted and fell. And we fall. Sometimes we fall hard. We struggle to know why that temptation once again caught our attention. We fight it to reclaim our victory and then fall again. It becomes a cycle in our lives as we go round and round. I have fought those battles. I have walked those paths that lead me back to the same spot as yesterday. You may not think my battle is one at all, and then again, you may see that you fight the same one and feel like you lose, like me, one more time. My temptations are sweets, they are not good for my body, yet I crave them constantly. Sounds silly? Not at all when I also know that my body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit and sugars are not good for me. And again, I sin. In this season of Lent, we are led to give up something, just as Christ gave up something – his life. He gave his life to redeem me from my sin, from my fallen person and to raise me up by his grace. I need to give my sin to him once more and crave only the redemption his love, grace, and justification can bring to me. That should be all the sugar I need, for my Jesus is sweet enough!