Word hard your whole life and what do you get?

As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. (‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭10‬ NLT)

We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. (‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭10, 22‬ NLT)

According to the verses above, scripture is clear...we have all sinned. There is no one who walks the face of this earth that is without sin. Not one. I think it's interesting in both of these verses Paul refers the reader back to the Old Testament scripture. The verse he refers to here is Psalm 14:3 in which the psalmist tells us "there is no one who does good...not one."

There is nothing we can do to be good enough. We cannot follow the law good enough, or serve others good enough, or live a good and moral life that will ever be good enough to make us right with God. The only way this can happen Paul says in v.23 is through placing our faith in Jesus. Believing and trusting that the work he did on Calvary is good enough to cleanse us from every sin...past, present and future.

I'm sure you have heard someone say "Well, I haven't killed anyone, I obey traffic signals, and I don't cheat on my spouse...I live a good and moral life." While that may be true, if they haven't accepted Christ and put their trust in him, they are still considered unrighteous...not right with God.

God wants to be in relationship with us...we've seen this truth from the very beginning of time when Adam and Eve walked and talked with Him in the Garden of Eden. Yet in one moment of doubt, they gave up the paradise God made for them and believed the lie of the enemy. In that instant their eyes were open to this sin-stained world and they were cast into the midst of it as a direct result of their disobedience.

God never intended for us to face eternity without Him. He loves us and wants to give us life! He's not some cosmic kill-joy who wants to rule over us. If He did...He wouldn't have given us free-will (the ability to choose.) But with choice comes consequence. The consequence of sin...death. I like the way the Message paraphrases Romans 6:22 - 23:

" But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master."

Romans 6:23 echos what Jesus said in the Gospel of John (John 10:10 - NCV) "...I came to give life-life in all its fullness."

The word of God is clear...the wages or penalty of sin is death. We are headed for an eternity in hell if we don't put our faith in Jesus as our Savior.

Through this chapter (Romans 3) we can see Paul urging us to understand that Jesus is the only way to become right with God. It is only by His blood are we are washed clean and considered good enough to enter God's perfect heaven.