How you doin? It boggles my mind that after 9.5 years sober, that I still find parts of my unredeemed life luring. Phish is playing 3 shows next door to where I work tonight through Sat. Watching the crowd come in and thinking of their music makes me hear a lie that it would be fun to go and be part of something that upon first glance looks really fun. At least to me. Of course then I can remember what it looks like after the show. The truth of a life without Jesus then appears and truth always prevails. Romans 3 today.
My unrighteousness under the old convenient makes it possible for me to have faith in Jesus. My life has certainly demonstrated the flaw and unrighteousness of my ability to choice correctly on my own. If left on my own... I can guaranty I would fall away from Jesus completely. As I've said before, I'm often been asked "how do stay sober?". As I've pondered that question over my sobriety, I can't find any one particular thing that I've done except summit my will to Jesus. So as the heading on verses 9-20 points out "No One Is Righteous". Praise Jesus for what follows.
Verse 22-24, "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 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 Christ Jesus." COME ON!!!!!!! "Justified freely". That's a tough thing to wrap my mind around. Verse 20, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin." My consciousness of my sin demands that I turn my will over to Jesus. That's a good word. The lie is that I should get myself together and be a good person. I've proven that I'll fail at that. So where does that leave me? Verse 25, God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith." Atonement through the blood of Christ. WOW!!!!!!! Faith before righteousness. Verse 28, "For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." The old covenant is an inferior covenant. The new covenant offers us atonement. The law makes me conscious of my sin which renders me dependent upon Jesus. AWESOME!!!!!!! Faith in Jesus is the righteousness that I'll never obtain on my own. That's a good word. The dictionary in my Bible defines faith like this, "reliance, loyalty, or complete trust". Webster's says, "strong belief or trust in someone or something, allegiance to duty or a person, firm belief in something for which there is no proof". Have faith in Jesus today.
PS Verse 22 can't go unnoticed, "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe".
No comments:
Post a Comment