Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Romans 3:21-31
Set – 1 Kings 8; Romans 3
Go! – 1 Kings 8; 2 Chronicles 5; Psalms 99; Romans 3
Romans 3:21-31
21 But now for the good news: God’s restorative justice has entered the world, independent of the law. Both the law and the prophets told us this day would come. 22 This redeeming justice comes through the faithfulness of Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King, who makes salvation a reality for all who believe—without the slightest partiality. 23 You see, all have sinned, and all their futile attempts to reach God in His glory fail. 24 Yet they are now saved and set right by His free gift of grace through the redemption available only in Jesus the Anointed. 25 When God set Him up to be the sacrifice—the seat of mercy where sins are atoned through faith—His blood became the demonstration of God’s own restorative justice. All of this confirms His faithfulness to the promise, for over the course of human history God patiently held back as He dealt with the sins being committed. 26 This expression of God’s restorative justice displays in the present that He is just and righteous and that He makes right those who trust and commit themselves to Jesus.27 So is there any place left for boasting? No. It’s been shut out completely. And how? By what sort of law? The law of works perhaps? No! By the law of faith. 28 We hold that people are justified, that is, made right with God through faith, which has nothing to do with the deeds the law prescribes.
29 Is God the God of the Jews only? If He created all things, then doesn’t that make Him the God of all people? Jews and non-Jews, insiders and outsiders alike? Yes, He is also the God of all the outsiders. 30 So since God is one, there is one way for Jews and outsiders, circumcised and uncircumcised, to be right with Him. That is the way of faith. 31 So are we trying to use faith to abolish the law? Absolutely not! In fact, we now are free to uphold the law as God intended.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
Some of the Jews of Paul’s day had trouble thinking I could care about the outsiders, the Gentiles, anyone other than the twelve tribes of Israel. Down the line from the time of Abraham, they forgot the mission I originally gave Abraham. In My covenant with him, I told him I would bless the nations through him. I meant for his children and his children’s children to minister to those around them. Not shut them out.
The Israelites were My chosen people for that purpose, to bless those around them. But they became arrogant and blind to the task I set out for them to accomplish. Instead of blessing the other nations of the world and sharing My love and My design for humankind, they hoarded the treasure I gave them. So Paul tries to remind them in these verses that I am the God of all creation. I am the God of all nations. I came to save all humankind from the penalty sin brings.
Some among them didn’t want to hear Paul’s words and caused dissension in the churches. Paul had to set it right. But the same thing happens today in My church. I see segregation among congregations. Many think I’m the God of the white, Anglo congregations alone. Did anyone tell them I came to earth as a dark-haired, olive-skinned, Middle-Eastern Jew? How did they get their warped idea?
I created all humankind, though. I am the God of everyone and everything. Whether they want to believe it or not doesn’t matter, it’s still true. Christians and Jews will sometimes acknowledge they serve the same God, but too often exclude everyone else from their thought process and dismiss the rest of the world as unworthy of Me. But stop and look around. Who created them. Who will save them if not Me? And who will introduce them to Me if not you? I am their God. But for many of them, I need an introduction. They haven’t heard My story. They haven’t seen the evidence of My Spirit truly alive and at work in men and women sold out to Me.
Much of the world hears the rhetoric of “Christians” who talk about Me but don’t live for Me. Like the Jews of Paul’s day, they shut everyone out except those that look like them, talk like them, and think like them. I created a colorful world, full of variety, including a variety of people. Just because you were born in a country where you heard the gospel early doesn’t mean you are special. It means you, like Abraham, have a mission to tell others about Me.
You would be surprised, if you checked, at the number of people in your neighborhood who do not know Me. I dare you to walk around the block and ask how many attend church regularly. Ask how many read the Bible more than twice a week if at all. Ask how many pray every day. Ask how many can tell you just five of the Ten Commandments. You see, you have a lot of work to do in sharing My story.
My laws live in you if you accepted My gift of salvation. So does My grace, My mercy, and My Spirit helps My fruit grow in you. Go spread some seeds and tell others what I’m doing in you. That’s all I ask of you as a witness. Tell your story of My life in you. If I’m living in you, it will make a difference to those around you, whatever their race, color, gender, nationality, religion, political persuasion. None of those things matter to Me. I created everyone. All of them are important to Me. Go tell them My story!
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