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Devotional

Rejoice! Stand in THIS Grace.

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 Today our passage is Romans 5:1-11.

  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

You know what that word therefore means right?   It means that remember what you have just learned.. keep that in mind..  cause now there will be a new thing to add in.

Remember that we have been justified because of our faith.  Got that right?
The result of that is this:  we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And not only that. 

  •  access to the grace in which we stand 
  • we can rejoice in hope of the glory of God
  • we can rejoice in our sufferings BECAUSE suffering eventually leads to hope, a hope because of God’s love. 

I have to admit that I don’t get this all.  I don’t.  How does one live in the God’s grace?  How does one stand within that grace?  I looked it up in other translations and that was no help.
So I leaned on hubby who helped me understand that it’s grace, a tangible thing that we see in our hope, and in how we deal with suffering and build character and overall live within that hope of God’s glory.   It’s is not just God’s kindness, but it THE GRACE…the grace that is God and is a tangible thing that we can hold on to.  And I’m probably not explaining it well, but it’s real and it’s there and it’s what helps us rejoice in our sufferings because we can see the end result of it  all.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

These verses point out to us that Christ died at just the right time.  God knew you know?  How all these cultures would merge in Rome. The Passover which brings people into Jerusalem so all these people would see the mighty work that God had done.  God’s timing was perfect.

Our weakness was still there, a people so prone to turning away from God, a people so ungodly. A people full of sin. BUT read this: but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners.  Showing love to us.. sinners!  And we already know how God sees sin right?  God sent his son to DIE for us. 

 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Since we’ve been justified by his blood, we are also saved from the wrath of God. Think about what that means.  While we were in that horrible icky state, enemies of God, and he chose to reconcile us to him by the death of his Son.    So now we’ve been made right with God just think about how much more we will be saved by his life.  Just think about that!  We have that reconciliation.  We have the joy in God. What am I saying.. doesn’t all this give you reason, give me reason to REJOICE in the Lord God.  That tremendous gift he gave us in reconciliation.   We were horrible in our sin and God knew that and yet, and yet he chose to bring us back to himself.   If that isn’t a reason to rejoice what is?
 
 To follow along with the rest of this devotional series in Romans Click Here.

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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Grace,Righteouness and The Promises of God

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Today our passage is Romans 4: 13-25.

13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
Oh, think about that.  Just THINK about that.  Abraham, we already know he’s been declared righteous because of his faith.  WE got that right?  HE will be heir to the world because of the righteousness of his faith.   He is our father in the faith.. so think about what that means.  Ponder it.

Cause it just kinda hit me tonight as I was reading.

Those that stick to the law are not the inheritors of the earth.  The law brings wrath.
BUT those who have faith… THEY inherit the earth.    

16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring
Why? So that God’s promise rests on grace and is a guarantee to all the offspring of Abraham.  Faith and grace… so intertwined.
 
—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
Abraham…the father of many physical descendants as well as many spiritual descendants.   God kept his promise to Abraham and all his descendents, and that means to us to eh?   As believers God’s promises to Abraham… those promises based on grace, and our faith. 

  18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
These verses are amazing. See Abraham’s faith in action.  Against the odds his faith stayed strong.  Old age and the unbelief of others didn’t stop his faith in God.  Unswerving. 

But read these words: he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.   Do you see it?  As he gave glory to God his faith grew stronger.   Wow.   Just WOW.  Think about that.  I’m thinking about that.   

Praising God, giving glory to God, means our faith grows stronger.

Makes me think about how in a marriage, if you act in a loving way toward your spouse it increases the depth of your love for him/her.   It does.  It changes your love and makes it grow.  Like an echo of how.. if we act in a loving way toward God, if we give him glory and honour, our faith in him grows becoming stronger and fuller.   And it counts to us as righteousness.

When the bible tells us that Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness it wasn’t only for the sake of Abraham eh?   See these words:   But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Abraham’s faith, that faith seen in those who believe in Jesus raised from the dead.  Jesus the very son of God who was delivered up for OUR sins, who was raised for OUR justification.   If we believe this… then OUR faith is counted as righteousness.  Not just Abraham.. but US TOO!   

I read these words and I think to Martin Luther and how reading Romans changed his entire life.  See faith and righteousness and God’s grace so intertwined…and how it passes through the generations so that not only Abraham’s faith is counted as righteous…but ours too, if we truly believe.
  
To follow along with the rest of this devotional series in Romans Click Here. 

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Abraham: Father of Faith

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Today we are studying from Romans 4:1-12.   

Does doing good works justify us?   NO! 
We are told this clearly.  Abraham believed God and IT (his belief) was counted as righteousness.  It was his FAITH that mattered. 

 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Does that mean that doing good works is meaningless?  Of course not.  It’s part of what is due to God.   He made a way for us to be righteous.  Should we not then live according to the law that he has painted on our hearts?

 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.

What matters is the belief in the saving work of Jesus Christ.  God provided the way for us. All we have to do is believe it!  That faith makes us righteous.   Pretty cool eh?
5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
    and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Again Paul raises the question.  Is this determination only for the circumcised (ie… only for the Jewish people).   Abrahman’s faith was counted BEFORE he was circumcised.   His circumcision was only the sign of his faith. 

9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He
received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that
he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

Circumcision’s point with Abraham was a seal of his faith.  His faith, was counted as righteouness before he was circumcised, making Abraham then the father of those who believe without circumcision, AND the circumcision made him the father of the believers who are circumcised. 
 The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12 and
to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely
circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our
father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Abraham, father of faith for all.  Circumcised or not, as long as you have faith, Abraham is our father in the faith.   

I have to admit I’ve not really thought about this before.   Like it’s not that I don’t KNOW that Abraham is a father in the faith.  But it’s more that I’ve never really sat and pondered what that means for me personally.  Abraham is MY father in the faith.  He’s part of the line that leads all the way back to the first covenant God made with his people.  Of Jewish origin or not, he is out father of faith. 

To follow along with the rest of this devotional series in Romans Click Here. 

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Righteousness, faith and the law

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Do you remember the sadness of yesterday?
Of no one being righteous?  Not a single one. 

But listen to this:
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

Righteousness doesn’t come based on the law.  Righteousness come through FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST!!

 For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. 

See, we know from the previous verses the depravity of mankind.  How we all turned away from him.   That horrible picture of what sin is. 

But now there is hope for us right?   Hope  because God’s righteousness is now found in our faith in his SON.  It doesn’t matter if you are Jew or Greek.  There is no distinction between people.    All have sinned.  All fall short of God’s glory.  ALL.  No exceptions to this fact.   But just as all have fallen, so all CAN come to faith in Christ Jesus.  All can receive the gift of God’s grace in his son.Christ is our redemption.  Christ paid for our sin.  God put him forward as an atonement.  Christ, to be received by faith.
 
This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It
was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be
just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Why did God do this?   To show his righteousness.  God is ever so patient with us but he can’t keep letting us sin and not giving us a way through it.   He needs to be just you know?
 
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
This gift is received in faith.  So Paul is clear.  There is not boasting.  How can you boast about faith?  Either you have it or you don’t.  Works you can point at and say SEE.. See what I did?  But faith is faith.  
 
28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

So having faith doesn’t negate the law right?    Remember.. it’s written on our hearts.  Having faith causes us to want to follow the law, to uphold it, to not turn aside from it. Paul affirms how God is God to everyone, doesn’t matter if Jew or Greek.  The offer is the same, our faith is the same, It’s all about our faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ, God’s gift of Grace offered to us.   So our faith will naturally cause us to want to stick to the law of God written on our hearts.   (and yes I know.. the old sinful nature will cause us to want to fight that…but that’s another lesson).  🙂

To follow along with the rest of this devotional series in Romans Click Here. 

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

No One is Righteous

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Hello, welcome to another day of learning from the book of Romans.   For the rest of the series go here.  Today we’ll be learning from Romans 3:9-20.

9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 
ALL are sinners.  No one is any better than anyone else.  Jew or Greek…all under sin.  All already charged.
 
 10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
11     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”
I read these words, and I see the condemnation.  No one, not a single person can be righteous.  EVERYONE has turned aside. So you see it.. TOGETHER the people have become worthless.   It’s like this whole group mentality thing.  Making choices to turn aside from God.  So that not even one person does good. Not a single one.
 
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14     “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16     in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 
This is how God sees sin you know? At least that’s my reading of this passage.  How everyone has turned aside, no one is able to do good.. so we get this horrid picture of what sin looks like… all that bitterness and venom and misery.   So much deception and ruin.   This is what sin is.   A people who know no peace. A people who not NOT known the way of peace… but how could they?  They are a people full of bitterness, venom and deception.
It’s a sad place to be in.
 
18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Not only that.. there is NO fear of God.  None.  They simply don’t get the thought of being in awe of God.  Of knowing the fear of him as the Triune Lord.
 

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

So the law of God is written on the hearts of all. We know this from previous verses.  People who are under the law are people under sin.  People who are accountable to God.  We are.  We are accountable to God, and when we are under the law we cannot be justified.  The law brings knowledge of sin.    

No justification through the law.
The law shows us sin.
Sin means no peace.
Sin means no knowing God, a turning from the truth written on our hearts.

So this leaves me here… is there no hope then?  
If we are all under the law and the law means sin… then how can we be justified?

This is where today’s passage leaves us… asking the question.  
How can we then be justified?

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

God’s Righteousness Despite our Lack

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Hello, continuing my study in the Book of Romans. Glad to have you here. Click here for the rest of the series   Today the first 8 verses of chapter 3. 

 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,

“That you may be justified in your words,
    and prevail when you are judged.”

5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

I can’t say this is the easiest section to understand.  I really can’t. 
If circumcision is of the heart, if we are to be Spirit-led, then is there any advantage to being Jewish.  That’s the question right?
Paul says the advantage is in that they were the first people to received God’s word.

Now.. does it matter that some of the Jewish people were unfaithful?
Not really.
It doesn’t really say anything about God’s faithfulness.  He remains faithful and righteous.

God is true.  EVEN IT everyone involved with him turns out to be a liar.  It doesn’t change God’s character one whit.  He is faithful and fully righteous. 

In fact… our lack of being faithful and righteous shows off just how faithful and righteous God himself is.

So….Does that mean God shouldn’t judge us for being what we are?
Seriously DUDE?

Imagine a child does something wrong, despite his folks telling him how to do things correctly.   Does that mean the parents have done wrong OR that they would be wrong to say HEY.. son..you did that incorrectly?   Of course not.

God needs to be able to call sin what it is.. Sin.  It’s a choosing to do something against God’s written law.  (written on our hearts remember?)  If our sin shows God off for being better.. that’s a good thing…but doesn’t mean we should want to sin, or that God can’t call us on our action.   Just means more glory to God.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Word and Deed need to Match

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Hello, continuing my study in the Book of Romans. Glad to have you here. Click here for the rest of the series. Today Romans 2:12-29.

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

The connection of the law to sin is one that sometimes confounds me.   For instance, those of us who follow the Lord God aren’t bound by the law, but that doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want.   We aren’t bound to the law, but those who who obey it, who obey the law, are justified before the Lord God.  

In fact those who obey the law of God without even knowing, show that the law of God is written on the hearts of people.  WOW.  just think about that for a minute eh?  God’s law is written on our hearts already.  He put them there.   This, this is why there is  only excuse for folks to not obey the law.  It’s there, we just make choices to follow it or not.   It’s our bad decision-making that is to blame, not the law.   It is this bad decision-making that brings us before the Judgement of God.

17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

This section seems to start off well eh?   Folks who know the law and do it, doing what is excellent and right according to the law, Paul has some hard questions for these people.

When you teach others, do you do what you teach?

  • When you teach staying faithful to your spouse,  do you?
  • When you say don’t take things that aren’t yours, do you take your own teaching to heart?
  • If you abhor idols, do you take from the temples?

When you boast in the law and don’t do what you teach, then you bring dishonor to God and his ways.  You cause his name to be blasphemed by the non-believers. If you say God and his ways are important then do so.  Model what you teach!!

This brings to mind how I’m trying to teach my lad to spend time in god’s word daily.  If I ask him to do so and I don’t,  then what am I truly saying?   I want to be honest with him.  To that end we’ll be working on holdING each other accountable, talking about what we are learning at supper time.  This gives us the whole day to get our devotions done.  🙂  and if we don’t get them done, we talk to God about it rather than apologizing to each other.

25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Take for instance here circumcision.   It’s something that all Jews do.  It’s supposed to be a sign of covenant between God and his chosen people.  But if you don’t live out that covenant,  so,if you as a Jew, don’t live out the law that is already written on your heart, than what point is the circumcision?   Those that obey the law without being circumcised condemn those that are circumcised but don’t act it.  

I found this statement interesting.    “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.  His praise is not from man but from God.”   So does that imply that those who follow God truly, who live according to the law written on our hearts, that in essence we are Jewish within?  I know it means we are true believers, true children of God.  I just found the statement curious.   It doesn’t really ,after in the end does it though?  The important thing is, do you live by the Spirit, following what is written on our hearts in both word and deed?

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites