How can God offer forgiveness to everyone everywhere?
Text: Romans 3:21-4:25
Hosts:
J. Kent Edwards
Vicki Hitzges
Nathan Norman
Narrator: Brian French
The CrossTalk Podcast is a production of CrossTalk Global, equipping biblical communicators, so every culture hears God’s voice. To find out more, or to support the work of this ministry please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org
Produced by Nathan James Norman/Untold Podcast Production
© 2026 CrossTalk Global
Brian: MUSIC] Some people love puzzles. They can spend hours, sometimes days or even weeks, poring over thousands of irregularly shaped cardboard pieces, trying to reassemble a large photograph or artistic reproduction. Only to break it apart and put the pieces back in the box. As strange as it sounds, the more difficult a puzzle is, the more some people enjoy it. They enjoy the challenge of succeeding where others have failed. But one of the world's most daunting puzzles was invented in 1974 by a Hungarian sculptor and architecture professor to teach his students 3D geometry. I assume it was successful as an educational tool, But when Ernő Rubik rebranded it as the Rubik's Cube, it became the world's most popular puzzle toy, with more than 500 million sold. At first glance, the cube seems simple, with 9 colored squares on each side. Out of the box, each side is a uniform number: red, green, yellow, orange, blue, or white. To solve the puzzle, you must twist the cube so that each side returns to its original color. The challenge lies in the astounding number of possible variations—more than 43 quintillion! To master the cube, you must learn a sequence of moves performed in order. Many people have tried to solve this challenging puzzle, and many have failed. Too many of us bought it with great hopes, failed repeatedly, and gave up, leaving it abandoned on a bedroom shelf, a testament to our failure. The same goes for our spiritual life. Quintillions of us have tried to solve the problem of our sin and guilt by rearranging our lives like the panels of a Rubik's Cube. We try again and again to line up our lives morally so every side looks perfect, so we can look godly enough for God. And we fail over and over again. The good news is that we can solve the seemingly impossible problem of aligning all the pieces of our life. Past, present, and future with the holy God. Many have failed, but is success possible? Listen in as Kent Edwards, Vicki Hitzges, and Nathan Norman turn to the Apostle Paul for the solution in Romans chapter 3, verse 21 through chapter 4, verse 25. Welcome to Crosstalk, a Christian podcast whose goal is for us to encourage each other to not only increase our knowledge of the Bible but to take the next step beyond information into transformation. Our goal is to bring the Bible to life into all our lives. I'm Brian French. Today, Dr. Kent Edwards, Vicki Hitzges, and Nathan Norman continue their discussion in the book of Romans. If you have a Bible handy, turn to Romans chapter 3, verse 21, to chapter 4, verse 25, as we join their discussion.
Kent: Vicki, Nathan, have you ever tried to solve a Rubik's Cube?
Vicki: I have, and mine is on the shelf in the bedroom. It's not that literally, but that, yeah, I couldn't do it.
Nathan: Yeah, I have. I tried as a kid. I cheated as a kid. I removed the stickers from the road stickers and I rearranged them to deceive my brothers. My older brother eventually figured it out. Because I hadn't precisely put them on straight.
Vicki: Oh, that's funny.
Nathan: And my son has gotten into it. My 12-year-old son, he's got a bunch of them and he's gotten a little close sometimes, but he can't quite crack it. It's a lot.
Kent: Well, I confess to you, I hate puzzles of every kind.
Vicki: Do you?
Kent: I see absolutely no value in them. My whole family does. At Christmas, they all want to do puzzles and And I say, what's the point? You spend all those hours putting it together and then throw it back in the box. And if you decide, I'm not going to put it back in the box, I'm going to laminate it and put it on the wall. Why would you do that? I mean, it's got all these marks all through it. That's a total waste of time. But the Rubik's Cube, ah, I hated that in high school. I couldn't do it at all. It was beyond me. So yeah, Vicki, you and I are a team.
Vicki: There you go.
Kent: Hang it up in the bedroom and leave it there. But as Brian said, an even harder puzzle to solve is what we do with our sin. We all have it, but how can we get rid of it? How can we bring all the moral pieces of our life in alignment like a Rubik's Cube and achieve what the Bible calls righteousness. By the way, we use that term all the time, but Nathan, do you know what the word righteousness means?
Nathan: Well, from a human standpoint, it means being in right standing with God, right? To do the right thing, to have our character align with his moral character.
Vicki: My dad used to say right standing with God and man.
Nathan: Mm, I like that.
Kent: That's easy to say, it's hard to live up to, isn't it?
Nathan: Absolutely.
Vicki: Especially the God part, yeah. Well, both parts.
Kent: But it's not a unique problem. Everyone has a problem of how to bring their life into alignment with God. We know that because anthropologists have pointed that out.
Vicki: I have heard that every human language and every culture possesses a concept of guilt, shame, and regret. Yeah, so everybody, everybody feels bad for sinning.
Kent: Every person, every culture, in all places, at all times.
Nathan: How is that possible?
Kent: Well, and we can see the evidence of that in the attempts that people have made through major religions. Islam has tried that, hasn't it?
Nathan: Yeah, Islam has the 5 pillars of Islam: faith, prayer, charity, fasting during Ramadan, and pilgrimage to Mecca. If you follow these things, maybe you'll be okay.
Kent: Yeah. That's their suggestion. Hinduism is different. They advocate devotion and right action, or what they call karma. Deep meditation is what they refer to as yoga, in order to escape the cycle of rebirth. If you can do that enough, maybe you'll elevate to the higher level. Buddhism is a bit different, isn't it, Vicki?
Vicki: They have the four Noble Truths: ethical conduct, mental discipline, meditation, and self-purification in order to reach nirvana.
Kent: Hmm. Everyone's got a strategy. The Jews, of course, had a strategy that is well known to most of our listeners, didn't they?
Nathan: Uh, repentance, turning away from sin, and obedience to God's law in the Torah.
Kent: Yeah.
Vicki: Which, if they could do it, isn't a bad way to do it.
Kent: Well, it's not a bad way to live your life. Whether it's sufficient is another question.
Vicki: Possible. Yeah.
Kent: So when I look at all these different approaches that have been made in all these different cultures through all these ages to try and say, how can we live a truly righteous life? Which one works? Are any of them correct?
Vicki: You know, they're all, they're all close. You look at them and you think, oh, it makes sense. That's good. That's good. But no, none of them are. Paul says in Romans 3:20, I believe, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law. Instead, he says, through the law, we become conscious of our sin. Hmm. So we can obey, but realizing that we've broken the law makes us aware that we're sinners.
Nathan: Yeah. All of these things sound really good in the abstract. We're like, okay, yeah, that makes sense, right? Yeah. It's the problem is when you get to the concrete and you actually have to live this and you're like, well, that doesn't work.
Kent: And to be right 90% of the time doesn't help, right?
Nathan: No.
Kent: If the engine on your plane works 90% of the time—
Vicki: not good enough.
Kent: It seems that no one, regardless of the religious rules they follow, has ever been able to escape the guilt, shame, and regret over past mistakes. No matter how hard we work, we cannot solve our sin problem. In some ways, we are like boats adrift on an ocean of iniquity. Now, let me try and unpack that a little bit. It's a personal metaphor. I live in Southern California, and we're only a short drive to the ocean. Some days I enjoy going down to the coast and visit a marina and walk the docks just to look at the boats. Just
Vicki: picturing that sounds so relaxing.
Kent: It is. And what I've learned as I've walked, looked, and talked with people on the docks is that, at least in Southern California, because of the warm water, every one of those boats, regardless of its age, size, or usage, has stuff growing on its hull. Algae, barnacles, and other marine growth. In fact, it's interesting that left untreated, these organisms can degrade and ultimately destroy a boat. And these boats can't clean themselves. If you decide, "I'm going to get rid of these things stuck to the bottom of my boat by taking it out and going fast," you're not going to lose them. You cannot shake off that marine growth. You cannot outrun it. In fact, the only solution is for a scuba diver to go below the waterline, probably about every 2 to 3 weeks.
Vicki: Wow.
Kent: Bring some aggressive tools and scrape off all the marine growth.
Nathan: Wow.
Kent: Now, boats can't clean themselves. They need a diver to do it for them. The same way Paul says people can't escape the consequences of their sin either. No matter how fast they are, far they run, or how many sharp turns they take in life, they cannot escape the catastrophic consequences of their moral mistakes. They need more than an underwater diver. They need a Savior who can remove the guilt and shame from their souls. And according to the Apostle Paul, that Savior has arrived.
Vicki: Well, Paul says in Romans 3, "But now the righteousness of God has been made known. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came By Jesus Christ. Well,
Kent: that's one of our favorite verses, isn't it?
Vicki: Yeah.
Nathan: With good reason.
Kent: It acknowledges what we lack and provides resources for what we need. According to the Apostle Paul, the sin puzzle can be solved only by Jesus. We have all sinned and fallen short of God's standards, but Jesus can redeem us. By the way, what does the word redemption mean? We use it all the time, but what does it mean?
Nathan: Well, it was a process of freeing a slave. Enslaved person could be redeemed for a price. And if you paid the price, that person was now a freed individual. They were no longer enslaved. They're liberated, they're delivered.
Kent: Paul wants us to know that, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." No matter what efforts we try on our own, we can never be fully acceptable to God. We cannot clean our own souls, but God can clean them for us. But this cleaning process is costly. God's Son had to pay a price, didn't He?
Vicki: Oh, and what a price too. Paul says in 3:23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to demonstrate his righteousness.
Kent: Wow, there's a lot there in those few words.
Vicki: There's a lot in that. Yeah,
Kent: justified means what? When he says we are justified freely.
Vicki: Made right.
Kent: Yeah, declared innocent.
Vicki: Declared innocent.
Kent: Which means that God knows of our past sins, but we have been fully pardoned. They will not judiciously be applied to us. But it required a sacrifice of atonement. That's a kind of a phrase we don't hear every day. What is he— what is Paul meaning by that? What's he referring to?
Nathan: Propitiation.
Vicki: Oh, that's an easy word. Thank
Nathan: you. That's the joke. Uh, define it with something even more, uh, opaque. Um, no, but it, it is when someone sacrifices something on behalf of another. It is a replacement. You know, you get a speeding ticket, I pay for the price of the speeding ticket and the points on my insurance also come to me. All right. I'm put in the place of someone else's punishment or fine.
Kent: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And it was echoed— it was imaged for us rather in the Old Testament, wasn't it?
Nathan: Yeah, absolutely. So you'd have to take an unblemished animal and sacrifice them, which is incredible. You know, I haven't grown up with the Bible and reading through the Old Testament. All of the sacrifices that are happening over and over and over again to atone for the sin, you begin to— it begins to lose its effect on you, right? And I remember a number of years ago, I was reading a children's book to my kids, and it talked about the sacrifice and the sacrifice of animals. And, and my kids just start crying. Oh my gosh, the innocent animals. And my first reaction was, "Oh, come on, grow up, please give me a break." And then God convicted me. No, their response is correct. It was terrible that these animals had to be sacrificed because of humanity's sin. And that same feeling should be how we feel about the sacrifice of Jesus for our sin. They have it right, Nathan. You have it wrong.
Kent: I remember King Josiah at the end of Chronicles, and what a revolutionary king he was when he reintroduced the Passover with the atoning sacrifice of the animals so that all could see and remember the source of their forgiveness. Who can take advantage of this justification because of the atoning death of Christ, Vicki?
Vicki: Well, that's the amazing thing. Anybody can. Anybody. Anybody can be forgiven, but to do it, they have to believe. But yes, anybody can. It says in Romans 3:22, this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
Kent: Regardless of how deep our sin, how late in life or early in life.
Vicki: It's amazing. Yes.
Kent: Yeah. And what I find fascinating in Paul's discussion here is that it seems that God's solution to our sin problem today is not a new one. It's not as if God's Plan A for salvation failed, so he had to pivot to Plan B. No, Jesus' atoning death on the cross is effective retroactively. It means that while Jesus died in the first century—
Vicki: yes,
Kent: his death applies way before he ever was born.
Vicki: Ah,
Kent: notice what he says in chapter 4.
Nathan: What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If in fact Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about. What does Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness.
Kent: Past, present, and future, Jesus is the only way people can be saved from their sins. I find this fascinating as I think of this in view of how Paul has been developing this letter to the Romans. You may remember that at the very beginning, Paul began by explaining Jesus' death on the cross that not only motivated his personal ministry, but would also bring him to Rome for the strategic advantages it offered for expanding the gospel. A gospel he desperately wanted to offer to the Gentiles who had not heard of Christ, as well as, we saw last episode, the many religious people, including Jews, who had rejected Christ. Why? Why is he so passionate about this gospel?
Vicki: Well, he says God will credit righteousness for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Kent: Puzzles are hard for me, and Rubik's Cube, they're my nemesis. So now you'll know why I was so intimidated to learn that a 6-year-old girl did it. In a video of a Rubik's Cube competition in Wuhan, China, held back on September 13th, just a couple of weeks before this podcast was recorded, Liang Yunhui, wearing a headband with a red bow, grabbed an ordinary Rubik's Cube, spun it with blinding speed, and dropped it on the table fully solved.
Vicki: Wow.
Kent: She completed it 4 more times, and her average time across the 5 solves was 4.52 seconds.
Vicki: Seconds?
Kent: Seconds! 3 days later at another competition, she lowered her record to 4.27 seconds.
Vicki: Intimidated anyone?
Kent: Anyone?
Vicki: Wow.
Kent: A 6-year-old girl? According to the New York Times, however, someone else has solved the Rubik's Cube puzzle in under 20 seconds.
Vicki: Blindfolded.
Kent: No! I, I, how is— I, I am—
Vicki: No!
Kent: I have no words. I am lousy at traditional puzzles, terrible at Rubik's Cubes, but I can take comfort in knowing that the puzzle of how sinful people like us can live in harmony, full harmony with a holy God, has been solved. You and I could never solve that problem, no matter how much time we spent. But God did so in the person of Jesus Christ.
Vicki: Because he said, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and can be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ." Praise God!
Kent: That's the Master's plan. The Master's plan for you.
Brian: Some people try to earn their way to heaven. They think if they can just be good enough, at least better than, say, Hitler, then they have a shot at getting past the pearly gates. The problem with that is that outshining Hitler or other bad sinners is that being better than is not enough. God's standard is perfection, so none of us can meet that standard. What we have just heard is how we can get to heaven. Jesus paid the price for humanity's sins. He paid our penalty and the penalty for everyone from Adam and Eve till the earth ends. What is required from us is that we believe that and trust that Christ's death satisfies God. And it does. Christ's death does satisfy God. The penalty for my sin and yours has been paid. The question is, do you believe that? If so, let's live lives that please God because we are forgiven. The Crosstalk Podcast is a production of Crosstalk Global, equipping biblical communicators so every culture hears God's voice. To find out more about this educational nonprofit organization, please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org. Crosstalk is getting ready to train biblical communicators in Southern California, Florida, Cuba, Bucharest, Moldova, and Nepal. Help us train the next generation of biblical communicators communicators. All you have to do is click Donate in the show notes and make a donation of any size. You can also support this show by rating it on whatever platform you're listening to us. Be sure to join us next week as we take a break from our series through the book of Romans for something a little special. You won't want to miss it.
Nathan: To solve the puzzle, you must twist the cube so that each side returns to its original color. The challenge lies in the astounding number of possible variations—more than 43 quintillion.
Vicki: Wow. I know somebody who can do it. Go ahead.
Nathan: To master the cube, you must learn a sequence of moves performed in order. I have two students in my young adult group that they compete Like, they're under 30 seconds each usually. It's unreal
Vicki: to do Rubik's Cube.
Nathan: Yeah, it's bananas watching them. I feel stupid because I am. Many people have tried to solve this challenge and many have failed. Too many of us bought it with great hopes, failed repeatedly, and gave up. That's me, leaving it abandoned in a bedroom shelf, a testament to our failure. Some of us took the stickers off and rearranged them and fooled our brothers into thinking that we had figured it out.
Vicki: I think that's smart.
Nathan: Oh, the same goes for our spiritual life. Oh man, I've cheated there too. Quintillions of us have tried to solve the problem. Cool. Um, this is totally an aside, Kent, but, uh, for Crosstalk, Rubik's Cube will make customized Rubik's Cubes, so we could put the Crosstalk logo onto a Rubik's Cube. Sounds like a plan. We could put the Crosstalk logo onto a Rubik's Cube. Sounds like a plan.