"There is no difference"

"There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 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 Jesus."(Romans 3:22b-24)

"There is no difference", between Jew and Gentile, or between Gentile and Gentile. Simply, "there is no difference", period.

Why is there no difference between a person and a person when it comes to standing before God as our judge? Because we all, every single one of us have sinned. But not only once, we still sin, we still "fall short of the glory of God".

And what does that mean? It means that we come short, we don't measure up to God's holy standard, our character never is as holy and pure as God's. And since the word "fall" is in the present continuous tense, it means that since we have sinned we haven't stopped sinning and are always lacking the perfect righteousness God requires of us.

At this point many might be saying, "but I'm better than my neighbor". I'm different, just look at my life... Well, outwardly we may appear before others to be better, but God knows our sinful and fallen hearts. And so HE says, "there is no difference" between any one of us. And if you doubt that, take a look at yourself in the light of what Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-48. There Jesus says that to God, not only the outward obedience matters, but also our heart. So if we haven't murdered but have been angry with someone, or if we haven't committed adultery but have lusted after someone, we have sinned against God and are subject to his judgment. He expects us to be perfect in our actions, thoughts, words, motives, etc. So, that's a really bad news, because many have been taking comfort in the fact that they're not as bad as others. But there is a reason for such a high as heaven standard.

So, has God done anything about our miserable situation? Yes! He sent his Son Jesus. As a man and our representative, he lived the perfectly righteous life we were to live. And he died the death we were to die, because we have sinned and sin against God.

So, how do we benefit from Jesus' life and death in our place? "All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." V.22a says, "This righteousness is given through faith [or faithfulness of] in Jesus Christ to all who believe." So, all, or everyone who believes and puts their trust in who Jesus is and what he has done in our place, is freely justified, declared righteous in God's sight.

If we believed this one truth that "there is no difference" between any one of us before God, and that God "freely" justifies all sinners like you and I, and only because of Jesus Christ, we would not only be saved from God's judgment, but also from our judgment on others. This one truth of "no difference" has the potential by the grace of God to eliminate so much of our pride and selfishness, if we but believe it, embrace it, and live by it.God's assessment of us when we accept it, will make us to humbly accept and love others, as God loves and accepts us, because of Jesus. May God give the grace for it!