Through Faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 3:22-23 No one lives a good, perfect, holy righteous life. We are all without any merit in ourselves to be acceptable to God, but by His mercy; pure, holy mercy and that alone, we can be brought to Him by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. God declares those who put their faith in Him are legally righteous. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to those who trust in Him. His righteousness is credited to us as if it were our own because it has been freely granted by Him. By His grace through the redemption that was paid by our Lord Jesus, we have been released from the slavery of sin to the freedom of new life in Christ.
Now in this journey through Romans it is clearly stated that the perfections of God's righteousness are completely filled through the Person of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of God concerning the death, burial and resurrection of Christ provides the benefits we need to be accepted by a Righteous God. God justifies a man who is not righteous because the basis of saving us is the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. He completely bore our sin and has been raised by God that we might be justified through Him. The infinite and final work that Christ has done is reckoned to us.
The blood of Christ is the reason God can declare an ungodly man righteous. God's grace alone is the cause of that declaration. Our faith doesn't add to the work of Christ in any way. Faith is the way we come into the good of that work and it is counted for righteousness because it gives God all the credit for salvation. Faith concerning Jesus Christ is exercised by accepting what God says as true. We rely on the testimony of God about Christ and redemption through Him alone. We believe God's Word that what He says has been done and it is done for us. We rest in what has been done; the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. The Father's testimony about the Son is true and has happened.
This blessed work has already taken place and therefore is unto all. Nothing more can be done or make it more real than it already is. God's righteousness is a fact based on faith in Christ, in contrast to any legal righteousness man seeks to attain by law keeping or any other means.
There is no difference or distinction between Jews and Gentiles as to the fact of sin being passed on to all. The difference we would consider between a great sinner or small sinner is not distinguished here. The fact is – “all have sinned.” Greater or lesser is not the issue. "All have sinned" and are fallen short of the righteousness of God. We have all sinned because one man sinned and death has passed upon all men. But that is not the whole explanation of the problem. Every individual since then (apart from the Lord Jesus Christ) has fallen short of God's glory. We are not in a position to only blame Adam for our sin, because we also have fallen (present) short of what God intended. We are ruined in sin by the fall of Adam and we daily fall short of the glory of God by our own sin.
Only in and through Christ alone can we find redemption and deliverance from sin. Whether religious or irreligious, Jew or Gentile, small or great, famous or infamous - we all fall short and can only through faith in Jesus Christ be counted righteous by God.