No Difference

“even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;”

Romans 3:22 · NKJV

Paul has just finished showing that nobody could produce righteousness on their own, and now he names where it actually comes from.

It is the righteousness of God. His, not yours. Given through faith, which means received rather than manufactured. And it lands to all and on all who believe, which is Paul’s way of saying nobody gets a discounted version.

Church can quietly teach the opposite. There is the woman who has taught Sunday school for thirty years and the man who slipped into the back row last month, still carrying last night on him. We assume God sees them on different levels, that one of them is really righteous and the other is borrowing. Paul refuses that picture. The veteran is not standing on her record, and the newcomer is not standing on a loan. Both are clothed in the same righteousness, and it belongs to God. Nobody in that room is more accepted than anybody else.

For there is no difference. That cuts both directions. Nobody arrives with less need, and nobody receives less righteousness. The person who has walked with God for forty years and the person who came in this morning stand in the same gift.

The righteousness on you is God’s own. There is no tier system, and you are not on a lower rung.

Go deeper: You’re Not Becoming Righteous, You Already Are →