Romans 4:5-7

4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

7″Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
8blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Are you a worker? Do you try to make up for your daily sins but doing good things later? Trying and hoping that your goodness will outweigh the bad? This is “Religion”, sadly even we who proclaim to be Christians do this. But Romans 5:7 says the one who trusts him who justifies the ungodly that “his faith is counted as righteousness” When we trust Jesus to be our righteousness we have left the world of religion and have become Christian in our thinking and experience. Justification is a gift, we don’t earn it, and all Christians have the exact same amount. Look at the following verse for help in seeing God’s work in us.

2 Cor 5:21
21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus bore our sins so that we might become the righteousness of God . This is the gift He gave us, not earned by our works, and most certainly not deserved. When a Christian bears good fruit it proves he is part of the “true vine”. Our fruit(good deeds) are evidence of being justified but it does not justify us. Therefore, let us trust the One that justifies the ungodly and be grateful.