Discover His heart: He counts us righteous because of our faith
The basket of strawberries caught my eye at the grocery store – plump, deep red, juicy-looking strawberries. Was it strawberry season? I didn’t think so, but they were so very perfect that I had to buy them. As I unpacked the basket at home, it didn’t take long to realize that the only good strawberries in the bunch were on top, and the rest were mostly white, hard and awful. I was ripped off, as they say. No matter how good the ugliness of those unripe strawberries made the five delicious strawberries look, the unripe ones were still useless to me. As we read in our scripture today, some would disagree.
@ Romans 3
“But,’ some might say, ‘our sinfulness serves a good purpose, for it helps people see how righteous God is. Isn’t it unfair, then, for him to punish us?’” (5) Of course, in reality, it is just the opposite. The five ripe luscious strawberries served to show how deficient and unappealing the rest of the strawberries were and how far short they were of what they could have been, but they really couldn’t change their condition. Paul went on to counteract this false assumption for those who were certainly trying to justify their sin, their unripeness if you will.
Paul took this opportunity to open the dialogue about the Law, something that the Jewish Christians stumbled over again and again. “Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” (20) Like the ripe strawberries in the analogy, the law shows us our sin, our deficiency but can do nothing to change us. Sometimes we get uncomfortable reading the Bible because instead of offering comfort and inspiration at the moment, it reveals our sins and shortcomings, those feelings of resentment, pride, hatred, or whatever. But we can assume it is serving its purpose in those moments as well.
Fortunately, we no longer must keep the requirements of the Law to redeem ourselves, selecting a perfect sacrifice down at the local farmyard and all the bloody mess that would follow. “But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law…We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”(21-23) After all, those delicious strawberries were at one time hard and pale, but they remained on the vine in the light of the sun and everything changed for them. Unfortunately, there was no redemption for my unripe strawberries because they had left the vine. I’m not sure, but I think that will preach. (John 15)
@ Romans 4
Abraham was probably Paul’s favorite example of a faith-filled life, “For the Scriptures tell us, ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith’… And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.” (3,23-25) So when the Lord convicts me of sin or my falling short through His Word, I must run to Him in repentance because only He can make me right – ripe and beautiful in His sight.
Moving Forward: As I remain in His Word today, I pray He will reveal to me my sins and shortcomings so that I may respond with a heart of repentance and be made right with Him through Jesus.
Tomorrow @ Genesis 4-7
Phyllis Benigas 