How many times have I quoted Romans 3:23? For ALL have Sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Seems to me that is a verse that screams...."Hey Y'all (yes Jesus was a Southerner)...You all are in trouble. No way You can get to me!"
Truth be known Romans 3:23 is a verse of hopelessness. A verse that says we are doomed. A verse that falls on hearts that are searching for a way out of this mess we call life. Life that has been defined by our sin/choices and, as such, has a track record that is filled with destruction and despair. So here in Romans 3:23 we have the plain-brown-wrapper truth that we are in trouble.
Aren't you glad that scripture didn't just end there?
Aren't you glad that Jesus always points us to the way out of our judgment?
Aren't you glad that with Romans 3:23 there is a Romans 3:24?
I am
Being Justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Justified. What a beautiful word. I heard one person describe Justified like this. "It is Just-as-if-I'd never sinned. Jesus, through the salvation He offers us, undoes all the bondage of sin that we are wrapped up in. He frees us from the penalty of sin. He breaks the power of sin. He fills us with the Holy Spirit to drive away the presence of sin. Such is the new life He offers to all who come to him believing by faith.
I have seen the power of His justification.
I have seen it in my own life and in the lives of others.
Others,whose story was so bad, you wondered if anything or anyone could help them or save them.
Yet Jesus turned them around.
He birthed them to a new life. A new way of thinking and doing business in this world. A new way of walking daily in this life.
Such is the power and person of Christ.
As the big book of A.A. says, "God did for me what I could not do for myself."
You know, when you're struggling, it is easy to find those verses in the Bible that seem to point the finger at you and declare you to be beyond help. verses like Romans 3:23. But know this! For every verse that reads like Romans 3:23. For every verse that seems to go right to the very heart of who you are and what you are struggling with..........there is a Romans 3:24 that declares the incredible love God has for you, and his desire to see you made whole and well. Aren't you glad he put those in there? I am.
Go forth and have yourself a Romans 3:24 kind of day.
God on you....
mb
1 comment:
Mayonaise!
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