Innocence Through Grace

Innocence Through Grace

Romans 9.22-26

22What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25As he says in Hosea: "I will call them 'my people' who are not my people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," 26and, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'

The greatest gift God gave us as Christians is salvation. Through the redemption from our sins, we live as innocent, grace-centered creatures under God's mercy instead of wrath. I encourage you to read the entire chapter of Romans 9 to better understand this concept of grace and mercy. It is a wonderful explanation of the plan of redemption played out throughout history and fulfilled ultimately in Jesus Christ. Beloved, this is the innocence under which we fall.

You see, as sinners, we were, as the Scripture says, “objects of [God's] wrath” who were “prepared for destruction.” We were sinners bound for hell, for God, being eternally just, must by His very nature punish sin. We do not expect a judge to simply pardon someone without a payment of some sort—that would be unjust. Everyone expects a murderer to pay for his crime, and yet we wonder why God is so serious about sin? Thankfully, though all of us should have been destroyed, the Scripture says that God “bore with great patience the objects of his wrath.” We see this plan of forgiveness laid out in the Old Testament and at the beginning of the New Testament with John the Baptist. Men who should have been killed under the law were forgiven, but where did that payment go? Why was all wickedness not punished? It is because God had a plan of redemption for His children—both Jews and Gentiles.

That plan involves making us innocent—not under the law, but under grace. Romans 3.23-26 says this:

“23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

From whence doth our innocence derive? From the blood of Christ made full alive. Though we have all “sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” You see, God poured out His wrath on His Son. That is why Jesus was “presented...as a sacrifice of atonement.” By this sacrifice, God punished our sins and “[demonstrated] his justice” for those “sins committed” which he had left “beforehand unpunished.”

The punishment, then, is paid. There is now “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8.1-2). We are innocent, and we must live as such. Ought not the innocent live in innocence? But if we fall into sin, we know that God will convict us and bring us back under His grace. We must strive to live in holiness to God, but we must not allow Satan to tempt us into thinking that our mistakes spell out eternal doom. We are still in a process of becoming like Christ. We are not yet perfect, but it is perfection for which we strive.

I pray that if you are not living in the knowledge of your innocence to God today, you will ask Christ for such a mindset. Always remember the grace you have been given. Allow it to renew and brighten you. Remember, Ephesians 2.8 says that “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Live your life in grace, and thank God for the innocence you have through Jesus! He did not die for nothing! Amen.

With love in Christ,



Austin Aldrich