“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (Jn. 3:16,17).

It is a fact, plainly stated in the Bible, that the gift of righteousness and life in Christ has come to every man on earth. There is not the slightest reason why every man that has ever lived should not be saved unto eternal life, except that they would not have it. So many spurn the gift offered so freely.

Someone may ask, “Why are not all made righteous by the obedience of One?” The reason is that they do not wish to be. People are not simply counted righteous, but actually made righteous, by the obedience of Christ who lives today in those who yield to Him. His ability to live in any human being is shown in the fact that He took human flesh eighteen hundred years ago. What God did in the person of the Carpenter of Nazareth, He is willing and anxious to do for every one who believes. The free gift come upon all, but all will not accept it, and therefore all are not made righteous by it.

Nevertheless, “many” will be made righteous by His obedience.

Is the heart full of sin? Know that where sin abounds, there does grace much more abound (Rom. 5:20). Christ, who is full of grace, stands at the door of the heart that is sinfulness itself, and knocks for admission. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1Tim. 1:15). When Wesley sang, “Plenteous grace with Thee is found, Grace to cover all my sin,” he had the authority of Romans 5:20 for it!

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 101-104