[J]ustified freely by his grace.
—Romans 3:24
Gregory Counts was convicted of rape in 1992. On May 7, 2018, his conviction was vacated because the alleged victim confessed that the crime never happened and new DNA testing proved his innocence.
Gregory Counts had spent over half his life—twenty-six years—in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
How old are you? Can you imagine spending over half of those years in the slammer for something you didn’t do?
But you do have guilt because you have sinned (Rom 3:23), and the penalty for that is death (Rom 6:23).
Don’t leave this page before thanking God that Jesus came down and stepped up to take your punishment, redeeming you with his blood (1 Pt 1:18–19), justifying you by his grace (Rom 3:24), and reconciling you to God (Rom 5:10).
We are not justified by what we do
but by what Christ has done.