“Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39).
Paul clearly presented the good news of salvation in these few words. Salvation takes care of our past. That is what “forgiveness” means. “Forgiveness” is the good news that our sins have been “sent away.”
Salvation also touches our present and our future. It makes us right with God. That is the meaning of justification. What Jesus did for us makes us right with God the moment we believe in Him.
My favorite explanation of justification was written by the late J. Rodman Williams, a professor at Regent University, in his “Renewal Theology.” “We do not have to prove ourselves before God, we do not have to be anxious about His final judgment against us, we do not need to struggle to achieve something God will somehow find acceptable. Rather, He declares us to be righteous. In Him we are righteous—not we who are godly, but we who are ungodly; not we who have climbed the mountain heights of righteous living, but we who are struggling on the plains, and sometimes in the muck and mire, of unrighteous living.”
This truth that Paul preached changed my life and will change the lives of all those who believe in Jesus. Some people think the good news is for good people. The truth is, it’s for sinners. That good news is what the death and Resurrection of Jesus provided for all of us.
