DAILY REMINDER – Today, November 24’s Bible reading is Romans 1-3.
NEXT DAY REMINDER – Tomorrow, November 25’s Bible reading is Romans 4-7.
May God bless you with the reading of His WORD.
ROMANS’ Introduction
The book of Romans is believed by many biblical scholars to have been
written by the Apostle Paul around 57 A.D.
while on his third missionary journey in Corinth. He was unable to visit Rome
at that time, but his intentions were to make a trip to the church there soon. Paul’s
premise in the book of Romans centers around his message of justification
through faith in Jesus Christ by the grace of God. Paul focused on helping his
readers understand the sinful condition they were in, for the Law required
perfection which was impossible for fallen man to obtain on his own merit. Nevertheless,
righteousness was able to be made possible through the work that Jesus did on
the cross and because of His resurrection. Therefore, Paul’s overall theme in
Romans is simply the Gospel of which God’s plan of redemption for both Jews and
Gentiles was established. His teaching of justification by faith is highlighted
in Romans and was made prevalent in the early church and Christian faith.
ROMANS MOMENT – (24NOV19) “This righteousness is given through faith in
Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and
Gentile, 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”
(Romans 3:22-24). The Apostle Paul had at one time been a Pharisee who
believed that he was saved by his observance of the law. He was in no doubt
empathetic to the plight of those who were still like he was for in their
legalistic reasoning, they believed that they were right. Yet, there was a
problem with the ideology of many of the Jews, they did not practice what they
preached which is where Paul differed. The Jews felt that because they had been
chosen by God that their outward works would save them. Nevertheless, Paul tried
to help them understand that God wanted them to have a circumcision of the
heart and not of the outward flesh or merely outward expression. The Bible
says: “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your
God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity” (Joel 2:13). Anyone can appear to
be righteous from the outside, but God is looking at the heart of man to see if
he is dedicated to Him, for what’s on the inside will flow over to the outside.
Why does man have a problem with
sin? Could it be that we have not circumcised our hearts? Jesus quoted the
Prophet Isaiah when He said: “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he
prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts
are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human
rules’ ” (Matthew 15:7-9). The Lord hates lip service and He wants us
to have hearts for Him and not just outward displays of Christianity. In so
doing, we will understand that our works is not what saves us, but our faith in
Him. We are not saved by what we do but having faith in the One we do it for. When
we truly believe in Christ as our Savior, we will then aim to please Him and in
so doing, good works become a result of the relationship we have with Jesus. The
Apostle Paul argued that the Law could not save us and yet, it was a mirror to
let us know what sin is. We would not know what sin is without the Law. For example,
you would not know that you were going over the speed limit unless a sign was
posted to make you aware of it. That is how the Law operates with God. The Law
lets us know how we fail in our sinful nature. Nevertheless, there is another part
to this lesson in that once we have a relationship with Christ, we will lose
the desire to break the Law because of how we know that it affects Him. Here’s another
example. When we go the speed limit, most of us are not doing so just because
we do not want a ticket. We understand that the speed limit was posted to keep
us and those around us safe. So, when we go through a school zone and it says
do not go above 25 mph, we honor it to prevent from hurting an innocent child. In
so doing, we are productive members of society in that we not only care for
ourselves, but we look out for the well-being of others. It is the same way
with God.
In the Law of God, we find two
things – how we are to be towards the One who loves us and how we are to treat each
other. Our love for Christ is in keeping with the Law and yet, we are not condemned
by the Law because it becomes natural that we keep it. So, when the Law says to
not commit adultery, I do not do so because I am commanded to and therefore,
under the law, but I do it because I will not only bring shame on myself, but I
will hurt others in the process. My love for God and my fellow man outweighs
any lustful desires. This is what the Apostle Paul was trying to convince the
Jews of. He was not trying to get to them disregard the Law, but to embrace it through
their love and obedience to Christ. Something to ponder….
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