Having grown up in the Christian Missionary Alliance Church, and later, the Nazarene Church, I grew up with a strong dosing of salavation and redemtpion. Still, though, in my "amped-up" faith journey of recent years, the concepts in Romans 3 have seemed fresh to me.

I guess that maybe, actually, it isn't that the concepts are fresh but rather that their application to my life is fresh.

We are not saved by following laws. Anyone, technically, could follow laws but yet still not profess Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We are, instead, saved by trusting in Jesus to take away our sins. And, in the midst of that, there must be an admission that we are all sinners -- we are all on even ground.

That realization that I am no better than anyone else out there has made a huge impact on my life. Somehow, before, there was a sense of "one upmanship" because I was saved. But now I am realizing that my redemption has nothing to do with me. I am the exact same as the unsaved.

It is all about Jesus ... what He did, what He offers. I work hard to follow His teaching ... not to receive salvation -- that, I already have -- but for the purpose of Glorifying Him, the one who saved me.