Think of the Weaker

Did you know that being sick sucks!   Means you get terribly behind on things... including things like doing devotions.  I've been starting to feel a bit away from the Lord and realized I really need to get back to spending time with the Lord.

So getting back to Romans, today it's chapter 15:1-7.

Review: NIV Revolution Bible

The Revolution Bible is a bible geared toward young men, from teenagers on up.It's actually a fairly neat bible with some interesting features.

It's actually hard to know where to start with this review.  It has so many features and I can't list them (lest the review get too long and wordy) so I'm pondering how to break it down for you.

Have you discovered this?

Discover Defined
 - find (something or someone) unexpectedly or in the course of a search.
 - Divulge (as in a secret)

Proverbs 16:19-21

¹⁹ It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor
    than to divide the spoil with the proud.
²⁰ Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good,
    and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.
 

²¹ The wise of heart is called discerning,
    and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.

Review: Psalm Hymns: Books 1,2,3

Do you love to sing scripture?  Singing back to God the words he gave to his people?

L.L. Larkin has come up with a book to do just that and I really really like it.  It is called :  Psalm Hymns, Books 1, 2, & 3: Dramatic, Contemplative, Singable, Recitable Psalms!

No boring unsingable tunes.  But simple easily recognized tunes with the words of the Psalms.    

Let me tell you more. 

I actually received two versions of this book, which appear to be identical within.  The only different being the cover.   You'll see the one cover here, and the other cover pictured below.

This book is FILLED with scripture written to the tune of familiar songs and hymns.

Completely Protected

Today we are looking at Romans 8:31-39.

Do you remember that future hope that we need to wait for patiently?  How God has foreknown us, called us, justified us and glorified us?

 

Can we wait patiently for that future glory?

Today we are reading from Romans 8:18-30.

This morning on facebook I read about a young lady who is going through a hard time medically speaking, and today (or I suppose rather yesterday) it was an emotionally tough one.  One of the commenters mentioned that surgery scars are a sign of a battle fought and shouldn't be seen as ugly but as a sign of victory.  Mourn the need of them us, but truly see them as they are.  With that in mind.. when I read the first verse of this section it makes sense you know?

We are Heirs of God.

Today we are reading from Romans 8:12-17.

¹² So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

No Condemnation

Today we are reading from Romans 8:1-11.

 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 
 Oh!   I love this verse don't you?   To think that if we are in Christ, there is no condemnation heaped upon our heads!  Why?  Because we've been freed from slavery to sin!

 ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 
The Law of the Spirit has set us free!  Think on that a spell!   FREEDOM!   No condemnation. That's what the Lord God has wrought for us.  

The Delight vs The Captivity

Today we are reading from Romans 7:8-25.

 ⁸ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰ The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Can you see what sin does in a body?  It seizes opportunities. It uses the commands, the laws, to produce covetousness.  A great desire to possess something.  It makes us want something that we don't have.   Can you see that?  The law of God was meant to be freeing, but it wasn't.  The presence of the law revealed the heart...that heart that longs for something more.  BE MINDFUL therefore...what do you covet?  Don't let it deceive you.  Look for what it holy, righteous and good.

Marriage compared to the Law

Today we are reading from Romans 7:1-6.

 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ² For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. ³ Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
Paul continues to talk about our freedom to not be enslaved to sin.  Now he uses the example of marriage and how in a marriage, while our partner lives we need to stick to the bounds of marriage.  BUT if our partner dies, we are free to live as we choose.   Makes sense right?   

Slaves to Righteousness

Today we are reading from Romans 6:15-23.

¹⁵ What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 

What are we to be?  Slaves to sin or Slaves to Righteousness.  That is the question Paul has for us today.

He starts off by asking us.  Should we sin because we live under grace?
He gives us an emphatic answer.  NO.

Why?
Because how we present ourselves in obedience shows who our master is. 
 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 
 We could sin, but it shows that we are on the path to death.  OR we could be obedient to God which leads to righteousness.  What do you want people to see?

¹⁷ But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 
Do you see it?   We can thank God that we don't have to live like we used to.. like slaves to sin!  We've been set free!  You see we've been taught a new way to be... and are committed to it   Obedient from the heart.  That's what we become with good teaching.  And that good teaching helps us to become slaves to righteousness.

 ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
It's like Paul is saying..make a choice!   Will you or won't you... make the choice RIGHT NOW.. to be a slave to righteousness.   To choose to let our bodies be obedient to God.  You once had no real choice right?  Natural limitations and all that, but then God stepped in.  Now you have that choice, so choose to let yourself be bound to the cause of righteousness.  Take the path that leads to sanctification!
 
²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.



We've been set free you know?  Do you really know that?  You don't have to be a slave to sin.  Where it's reward is that of death. NOW, NOW we've been set free.  And if we live by that freedom...the end result is not death, the end result is eternal life in Christ Jesus.




Isn't that awesome?
 
What say you? 
 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

Death to sin, live letting God use us for Good.

 Today we are reading from Romans 6:1-14.

 So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us even more grace? 
I always find this an interesting question.  The thought that it even needs to be raised!  To me it's an automatic no, though in some way I can understand people thinking it, so I guess it did need to be raised.  
 
  ² No! We died to our old sinful lives, so how can we continue living with sin? ³ Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ when we were baptized? We shared his death in our baptism. ⁴ When we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and shared his death. So, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the wonderful power of the Father, we also can live a new life.
Paul gives an emphatic NO.  We shouldn't be running around sinning thinking we're all that, so that God's grace can abound all the more in us.  Seriously dude... when we believe in Christ, in his death on the cross, that means we are part of him.  Do we really want something as ugly as sin to be part of that as well?   ICK when you think about it.  Adding that dirtiness to something so pure.   Paul's point is this though... we have DIED to our old sinful lives, so why would we want to deliberately choose to continue living in that sin.  Just as Christ was raised to a new life through God's power, so we can have that new life as well.   Don't live in the past!
  
⁵ Christ died, and we have been joined with him by dying too. So we will also be joined with him by rising from the dead as he did. ⁶ We know that our old life died with Christ on the cross so that our sinful selves would have no power over us and we would not be slaves to sin. ⁷ Anyone who has died is made free from sin’s control.
Oh.. I like this line.  " Anyone who has died is made free from sin’s control."  To be free of sin's control.  It's such a battle you know?   To always want to live in the past, with what I know so well. And yet seeing that brighter future and possibility. Fighting for that.  You know what I mean?   Paul gives us hope here.  He tells what the new reality is.  We have DIED to the old way.  God's power is there to help us live a new life.   Take that power!  Use it.  Remember that sin doesn't have control of us anymore. 

⁸ If we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. ⁹ Christ was raised from the dead, and we know that he cannot die again. Death has no power over him now. ¹⁰ Yes, when Christ died, he died to defeat the power of sin one time—enough for all time. He now has a new life, and his new life is with God. ¹¹ In the same way, you should see yourselves as being dead to the power of sin and alive with God through Christ Jesus.
Paul spells it out for us.
We died with Christ (if we believe in him).   That means we also LIVE with Christ.
Christ, raised from the dead.   We live with him.
He can't die again.  Death has no power over him.   
Think about that.  We live with Christ...one that death has no power over, he can't die again.  We live with him.   That's a surety don't you find?  A surety of hope, of sin no longer having the upper hand.
I need to see this more clearly in my life, what about you?   To see God's power to keep me in the new life.
 
¹² So, do not let sin control your life here on earth so that you do what your sinful self wants to do. ¹³ Do not offer the parts of your body to serve sin, as things to be used in doing evil. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have died and now live. Offer the parts of your body to God to be used in doing good. ¹⁴ Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law but under God’s grace.
Hear Paul's Words to us.   Do not let sin control your life.   Don't let parts of your body be used for evil.   Don't let that sinful self do what it wants.  Remember.. we died to sin's control.

Instead do this:
Offer your body up to do good.   Give it up to God.  You are under God's grace, not under the law of sin.   So let God use your body to do good.  I see choice in these words.  People can choose to live the old way, the way they died to.  OR they can choose to let God use their body for good. and live   Follow the old way.. or choose to let God work in you.   Let us today make that right choice eh?

What say you? 

 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

Review: My Jesus Bible

Want a board book bible for your littlest ones?   One that is easy to hold on to, that tells the story of Jesus, and will take some abuse?

Have I got the bible story book for you!   Called My Jesus Bible. 16 stories, 40 pages.   It follows the story from Mary hearing the news to Jesus's death and resurrection.    

This is a delightful little book, a solid, brightly coloured book.   The colours are so vibrant and the text gives enough detail to give the basics, which leaves you ample room to supplement with additional details if desired.

Each story covers two pages.   Are the colours lovely?  And the text, a bit smaller than what I would have thought, covers more information than is normally found in a board book. 

Check out the text eh?

 

My Thoughts:
This is a bright, colourful book, with sturdy board book pages.  The handle is nice size for little hands that can take some throwing around (not that you'd want your littles doing that but you know... sometimes things happen).  It makes it so easy for them to bring along with them to church or grammas or the park.  The stories are short with just enough detail that you can easily embellish, or let stand on it's own.   I appreciated how in the story of Peter and Jesus on the raging see how it mentioned how Peter took his eyes off Jesus and that's when he started to sink. 

My Jesus Bible
Text: Michael Berghof
Illustrator: Gill Guile
Tommy Nelson
Type: Board Book
Children's story bible
40 pages
Age: Preschool
Reviewed for BookLookBloggers


Where can you get one?
Amazon.ca:  My Jesus Bible: With Handle

Amazon.com: My Jesus Bible: With Handle

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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

Adam's Disobedience, Christ's Obedience

 Today we are reading from Romans 5:12-21.

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— ¹³ for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Remember from Genesis, how sin came into the world?  The temptation of the devil, Adam falling into it?  Sin was brought into the world through one person.  And so it spread to all mankind through that one person.  I found this line interesting "for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law".  So I thought I'd check out other translations NCV says it this way "Sin was in the world before the law of Moses, but sin is not counted against us as breaking a command when there is no law."
So until the law of Moses was set into place, sin was not counted against the people, even though it existed.   And since sin existed... so did death.  Adam was a type of the one who is to come (being Jesus) we know from the rest of the New Testament.

¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. ¹⁶ And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. ¹⁷ For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Then God's free gift happened. And it wasn't like the result of Adam's action.  It caused the death of many BUT Christ's redemptive work.. resulted in grace and life to so many more!  This free gift brought about justification, and life to so many more.
 
¹⁸ Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. ¹⁹ For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. ²⁰ Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, ²¹ so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is what we have
One trespass = condemnation for all men.
One act of righteousness = justification and life for all people.
One person's disobedience created sinners.
One person's obedience created righteous people. 
Then the law showed all the more sin, but where we saw more sin we also see something else now.. MORE GRACE!  Grace abounding!

Sin reigns in death.
BUT grace.. see grace reigns in righteousness that leads to eternal life though Jesus Christ our Lord.

 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

Rejoice! Stand in THIS Grace.

 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.

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

Grace,Righteouness and The Promises of God

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

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

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