Tag: Grace

Morning Musing: Romans 5:6-8

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“For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us  in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When someone gives you a gift, you often feel a certain amount of loyalty to them. A very small gift yields a very small amount of loyalty, but a very large gift garners much more. To not give any kind of loyalty is to either not actually receive the gift, or else to walk a path of ingratitude which is generally a pretty terrible look. Well, in Christ, God gave us the ultimate gift. Let’s talk about what He gave, and what we should give in return.

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Morning Musing: Romans 5:2

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“We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In the last generation, thanks to a number of different cultural trends, it became common to think of Christianity as providing a kind of fire insurance. Many preachers adopted what is often caricatured today as a “turn or burn” approach to their preaching, putting incredible rhetorical pressure on their congregations to follow Jesus in order to escape the horrors of Hell. Most of this thinking followed from an impoverished understanding of a much older sermon by Jonathan Edwards. Because of this, salvation began to be thought of as a mostly past tense affair. As long as you had been saved, how you lived going forward was up to you. But Paul spoke of salvation as something much greater than that. Let’s talk about salvation as something that encompasses past, present, and future.

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Morning Musing: Romans 3:25-26

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“God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When an offense occurs, someone is responsible and someone is offended. There may be more than one responsible party, and there may be more than one offended party, but there is at least one of each. Indeed, if there is no offended party, then it wasn’t an offense. That is, it wasn’t wrong. And when this offense has occurred, it has to be made right or justice is never achieved. Today, let’s explore why God is always the ultimate offended party, and what He has done about making sure justice—His justice—is ultimately satisfied.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 3:21-24

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“But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Everything has been building to this. For six weeks now, we have been working through Paul’s indictment of sin and sinners. It’s been eye-opening and bruising. Paul doesn’t let anyone escape the conclusion that everybody’s guilty. He even reemphasizes it here. But into this mess of guilt and sin, God offers us a way out. This is the good news. We may all be lawbreakers in one form or another (but not degree; we are all lawbreakers of the same degree because there’s only one degree), but God has provided a way out that doesn’t involve our keeping the law. Let’s start talking about this very good news.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 2:2-4

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“Now we know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth. Do you think — anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same — that you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Self-righteousness is not a good look. What exactly is self-righteousness, though? Oxford says it is having an unfounded certainty of one’s moral superiority. Essentially, it’s the feeling that you are better than the people around you. Of course, you don’t feel that, but I’ll bet you know a bunch of other folks who seem to as far as you are concerned. In somewhat more robust theological terms, self-righteousness is the mindset that you have made yourself right with God. If our culture generally condemns the Oxford sort of self-righteousness, it ranges from being more ambivalent to openly encouraging of this second sort. Paul doesn’t agree. Let’s talk about why.

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