Hi and welcome back to Perspective For Today. We are going to continue with our study of Romans. But first I’d like to make my listeners aware of their listening options.
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We ended last week’s study with Paul’s revelation that it is not through keeping the law that we are saved.
The Jews couldn’t do it and neither can we. We all fall short of the glory of God. We left off with verse 21 which reads,
Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
Paul makes it clear that salvation cannot be obtained through keeping the law.
The prophets foretold the sacrificial system or the shedding of blood for the atonement of sin. They gave a glimpse of the coming Messiah.
In verse 22 Paul makes it clear where our faith needs to be placed. Romans 3:22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
It is only by placing your faith in Jesus Christ and believing that He died, was buried and rose again for sin, that you can be made right with God.
This is not an elite club. Salvation is freely available to all who believe.
Nothing else will make you right with God. Where is your faith? Jesus asked this very question of the disciples after He calmed the waters that had created fear and doubt in their hearts.
No matter what the situation, how we react reveals how much faith we really possess.
It is so easy to have faith when the waters are calm, but when the storms come do we really stay anchored in our faith? Our faith grows as we continually seek Him and draw near to Him.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Anything worth having is worth fighting for.
If you have a casual faith you will become a casualty of that faith. We need to be steadfast in our relationship with our Lord and savior. We are all racing toward our eternal destiny. We need to keep our eyes on the prize and not falter no matter what our circumstances.
2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
We are all going to have trials.
Those trials will test our faith to the limit at times. What doesn’t break you makes you stronger. We should rejoice in overcoming those trials and not be bitter for having gone through them. After all God is molding us into someone he can use for his glory and sometimes it takes trials and tribulations to get us to where he wants us to be.
James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kind 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
In this life none of us are perfect.
We will only attain perfection in the next life. In that life we will be declared perfect in the sight of almighty God, because of the blood that Jesus shed so freely for us.
Let’s look at Romans 3:22 one more time.
Romans 3:22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
When Paul says there is no distinction he follows it up with the punchline in Romans 3:23
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
If Paul ended it right here it would be a sad commentary.
We are all sinners who are born with a sinful nature. We aren’t perfect, far from it. This would seem to be a hopeless situation. Psalm 14:3 just piles it on.
Psalms 14:3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
If you have a worldly mindset you would probably say the heck with it.
I’ll never measure up, so I might as well just live for today and not worry about tomorrow. It sounds like a no-win situation. As we will read later in chapter 7 Paul talks about his inability to do good under his own power.
The first step in the Celebrate Recovery program is to admit that we are powerless to control our tendency to do the wrong thing and that our life is unmanageable.
It is in that humility that we can be receptive to what Paul says next.
Romans 3:24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
This verse describes the opportunity for everyone to be declared righteous and sinless by His grace. When we say grace we are saying that even though we deserve a bad thing, we have found favor in God’s eyes.
That Grace is manifested through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.
Redemption is from the Greek word Apolytrōseōs, which literally means a ransom payment. We are all held captive by sin. Yet, by Jesus’ death on the cross he took on the sin of the world. He paid the price, the ransom for our every sin. That is why his final words were, “it is finished.” In other words the debt has been paid.
What a beautiful place for us to end our study today. Thank you for listening and may you have a week full of opportunities to share this good news with those that need to hear it.