It is by grace you have been saved.
—Ephesians 2:8
We may hope to rack up enough points to be pronounced righteous. But pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps is an impossible spiritual contortion. God, praised be he, reversed the procedure, declaring believers justified and righteous.
Note the past tense: We were (past tense) “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24); “We have now been (past tense) justified by [Jesus’] blood” (Rom 5:9). “It is by grace you have been (past tense) saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8).
You, a committed believer, need not worry about nervously waiting in line on judgment day, dreading an announcement of condemnation. You have been justified and judged righteous by God’s grace.
Grace, gift-wrapped by God
and delivered to your door.