Friday in Lent

18Verse 18. Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance — who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion? 19Verse 19. He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea. 20Verse 20. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and loving devotion to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers from the days of old.

21Verse 21. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22Verse 22. And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction, 23Verse 23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24Verse 24. and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25Verse 25. God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. 26Verse 26. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus. 27Verse 27. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith. 28Verse 28. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29Verse 29. Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30Verse 30. since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31Verse 31. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.