Thursday Dec 16, 2021

Episode 67: Romans 3

Today's meditation is based on Romans 3 from the Passion Translation

If some are unfaithful to their divine calling, does their unbelief weaken God’s faithfulness? Absolutely not! God will always be proven faithful and true to His word, while people are proven to be liars. God's words will always be vindicated and he will rise victorious when he is being tried by His critics!

If my lie brings into sharp contrast the brightness of God’s truth, and if my lie accentuates his glory, then why should I be condemned as a sinner? Is it proper for me to sin, just so good things may come? Of course not!

Scripture plainly states that there is no one who always does what is right, no, not even one! There is no one with true spiritual insight, and there is no one who seeks after God alone. All have deliberately wandered from God’s ways.

Every excuse I would make is silenced. And I cannot boast of innocence. Along with the entire world, I will be held accountable to God’s standards. I know that I cannot earn the status of being declared righteous before God by observing the law, for it is the law that fully exposes and unmasks the reality of sin.

But now, independently of the law, the righteousness of God is tangible and brought to light through Jesus, the Anointed One. This is the righteousness that the Scriptures prophesied would come. It is God’s righteousness made visible through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And now, because I believe in him, I am able to receive that gift. There is really no difference between any of us for we all have sinned and are in need of the glory of God. Yet through his powerful declaration of acquittal, God freely gives away his righteousness. His gift of love and favor now cascades over me, all because Jesus, the Anointed One, has liberated me from the guilt, punishment, and power of sin!

Jesus’s God-given destiny was to be the sacrifice to take away sins, and now he is my mercy seat because of his death on the cross. I come to him for mercy, for God has made a provision for me to be forgiven by faith in the sacred blood of Jesus. This is the perfect demonstration of God’s justice. He had been so patient — holding back his justice out of his tolerance. So he covered over the sins of those who lived prior to Jesus’s sacrifice. And when the season of tolerance came to an end, there was only one possible way for God to give away his righteousness and still be true to both his justice and his mercy. He had to offer up his own Son. So now, because I stand on the faithfulness of Jesus, God declares me righteous in his eyes!

Where, then, is there room for boasting? Do my works bring God’s acceptance? Not at all! It was not my works of keeping the law but my faith in his finished work that makes me right with God. So my conclusion is this: God’s wonderful declaration that I am righteous in his eyes can only come when I put my faith in Christ, and not in keeping the law.

God is the God of all people. Since there is only one God, he will treat me the same. He eliminates my guilt and makes me right with him by faith no matter who I am or who I might have been. Emphasizing my faith doesn't invalidate the law. Instead, my faith establishes the role the law should rightfully have.

Episode 67: Romans 3

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