Three Words to Change Your Life

Romans · Romans 3:19–28 · July 19, 2026

Three words that can change your life, whether you’ve followed Jesus for years or never heard His name.

People have always argued about the rules. In the 1880s, some towns banned ice cream sodas on Sundays. Shop owners skipped the soda water and poured syrup over the ice cream instead, keeping the letter of the law while ignoring its spirit, and the ice cream sundae was born. Rules can be bent and reinterpreted endlessly. Only God’s law stands forever.

The church in Rome was wrestling with that tension: are we made right with God by keeping the law, or by faith in Jesus? Paul answers in Romans 3: “No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin” (Romans 3:20). The law is good and perfect, but it shows how far we fall short. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23).

Sin separates us from God, from each other and even from ourselves. And God hates sin because it hurts the people He loves. That’s His wrath, and He did something about it. Then come three words: we “are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith” (Romans 3:24–25).

Three words

1. Justified. A legal term: in God’s courtroom, you have been made right with Him, not because of how hard you tried but through faith in Jesus. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith… not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).

2. Atoned. Think “at-one-ment”: made one with God. When God told Noah to “coat it with pitch inside and out” (Genesis 6:14), the Hebrew word for “cover” shares its root with the word for atonement. Just as the ark was covered and protected from judgment, we are covered inside and out by the blood of Jesus, “my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame with leaves. Only God can cover sin.

3. Redeemed. A slavery term: someone paid the price for your freedom. “It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed… but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18–19). Now we are free from slavery to sin and choose to live for God because we want to, not because we have to (Romans 6:17–18).

All at once

All three happen in an instant, the moment you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe God raised Him from the dead. So can we boast? “No… For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law” (Romans 3:27–28). You’ll never be good enough by jumping through hoops, and you don’t have to be. You are justified, atoned for and redeemed in Jesus.

Scripture references

Romans 3:19–28 · Romans 1:18 · Romans 11:33 · Psalm 103:12 · John 8:36 · Ephesians 2:8–9 · Genesis 6:14 · Matthew 26:28 · Genesis 3:21 · Isaiah 53:5 · 1 Peter 1:18–19 · Romans 6:16–18 · Romans 2:29 · Romans 10:9 · Romans 6:23

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