Paul has left us with every objection answered, every justification silenced, knowing that we should be justly condemned before God. “But now” everything changes in perhaps the most important paragraph ever written. God gifts us with righteousness we could not earn, pays our ransom we could not pay, and turns aside his own wrath: all of this through the death of Jesus, God’s gift to us. If that’s the case, we’re left unable to boast because we have simply received a gift.
