Focusing on God’s grace, listen to Romans 3:23-28 … For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. … God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. (NLT) Can you hear the connection between today’s passage and yesterday’s? The only way we are made right with God is through a relationship with Jesus. Once again, we believe that what God says He has done for us is true. Jesus paid the penalty for sin that we could never pay.
Listen to verses 22 thru 24 in The Message Bible … The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.
Is there anything you could possibly do today to quote-unquote deserve your salvation?
Do you view what God has done for you as His gift to you?
We are free to become what God designed us to be because of Jesus. We pray you really allow that truth to sink in and take it as your own this week.
Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, forgive me when I don’t believe what You can do in me because of things I have done. Help me to trust You, to believe You, and to live out what You have planned for me. As above, so below.”