The Family of God

8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
    and sing to your name.”

10 And again it says,

“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”

11 And again,

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
    and let all the peoples extol him.”

12 And again Isaiah says,

“The root of Jesse will come,
    even he who arises to rule the Gentiles;
in him will the Gentiles hope.”

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. – Romans 15:8-13 ESV

“Christ did not please himself,” Paul wrote back in verse three. No, Paul reminds us, “Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy” (Romans 15:8-9 ESV).

As Paul sums up his admonitions and encouragements for unity between the members of the body of Christ, he uses Christ Himself as the example to follow. It is true that Jesus initially focused His ministry on His fellow Jews, having been born into the line of Judah as a descendant of David. But His intent from the very beginning was to make salvation available to both Jews and Gentiles. 

Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham when He said, “Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed” (Genesis 28:18 NIV). In his letter to the Galatians, Paul clarified the meaning of this promise.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. – Galatians 3:16 ESV

Jesus was the means by which God would bless all the nations of the earth, including the Gentiles.

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” – Galatians 3:7-8 ESV

God’s intent all along had been to make salvation available to all people groups, not just the Jews. Paul’s missionary journeys to the Gentiles were not God’s plan B. He wasn’t forced to come up with an alternative plan when the Jews failed to accept His Son as their Messiah. And Paul makes this perfectly clear by quoting from four Old Testament passages that predicted that the Gentiles would respond to God’s offer of grace and mercy:

For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name. – 2 Samuel 22:50 ESV

Rejoice, O nations, with His people… – Deuteronomy 32:43 NASB

Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! – Psalm 117:1 ESV

In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. – Isaiah 11:10 NIV

The Hebrew word used in these passages for “nations” is gowy, which usually refers to non-Hebrew people or Gentiles. That is why Paul replaces it with the Greek word, ethnos, which refers to pagans, Gentiles, or the people of foreign nations who did not worship the one true God.  God’s promise to Abraham that He would bless all the nations (gowy) of the earth through Abraham’s offspring was fulfilled in Jesus. He became the sole sacrifice for the sins of men, Jews and Gentiles alike.

Jesus told Nicodemus, the Pharisee, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17 ESV). The apostle John reminds us, “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1 NLT). Those of us who are Gentiles or non-Jews have been extended the mercy and grace of God made possible through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. So, Paul encourages us to “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:7 ESV).

We have been included and warmly welcomed into God’s family, not because we deserved or earned it. In fact, Paul makes the amazing truth of our inclusion status quite clear. He provided the predominantly Gentile congregation in Colossae with a powerful reminder of their remarkable transformation from enemies of God to cherished members of His family.  

You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. – Colossians 1:21-22 NLT

And the apostle Peter confirmed Paul’s words. 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. – 1 Peter 2:9-10 ESV

In light of God’s marvelous grace, we are to welcome or receive others in the same way that we have been welcomed by Christ; with open arms, no pre-conditions or demands for good behavior, and no requirement that they curtail their sinful behavior. Our unity doesn’t require unanimity; we don’t always have to agree, and we won’t always see eye to eye. We will have our differences, but we will always share our common bond in Christ, illustrated by His undeserved mercy and grace.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. – Romans 3:23-24 NLT

Father, Your Son’s cross is the great leveler. At the foot of the cross, all men are equals, sharing the common status as sinners in need of a Savior. No one can stand before You who deserves Your mercy and grace. None of us are worthy of Your love and forgiveness but, through Christ, we discover access into Your presence and receive Your unmerited favor and acceptance. Each of us deserved condemnation and judgment because we have all sinned and fallen short of Your glorious standard. In Your eyes, all our so-called righteous deeds have as much value as a soiled piece of worthless cloth. The color of our skin, the quality of our character, the measure of our wealth, or the extent of our achievements mean nothing to You. You are not impressed by any man and You are indebted to no one. Your mercy and grace have nothing to do with our merit; they are expressions of Your selfless, sacrificial love for a hopeless and helpless humanity. And when we accept Your free gift of grace offered through the life, death, and resurrection of Your Son, we all become His co-heirs and members of the same family. And for that, I am grateful. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

The Pursuit of Peace Over Personal Preference

13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. – Romans 14:13-23 ESV

Paul bookends this section with virtually the same words. He opens with “let us not pass judgment on one another” (Romans 14:13 ESV) and ends with “blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself” (Romans 14:22 ESV). The only difference is the one on whom the judgment is assessed.

We are not to judge each other, and our actions toward one another should give us no cause to judge ourselves. In both cases, the issue is about rights, and Paul used himself as an example. He declared that he had the right to eat whatever he wanted, because nothing was unclean for him. He had probably heard the story of the vision Peter received from God before Peter was sent to the home of Cornelius, a Roman army officer.

Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon, and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.”

“No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.”

But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” The same vision was repeated three times. – Acts 10:9-16 NLT

While this vision was meant to convey God’s approval of Gentiles receiving the gospel, it also conveyed a not-so-subtle message regarding Jewish dietary laws. With the coming of Jesus, a radical paradigm shift had taken place. The new was replacing the old. The law of Moses was being replaced with the law of liberty. Jesus put it this way:

“No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.” – Luke 5:36-39 NLT

Gentiles were now acceptable, and once-forbidden foods were no longer off-limits. Paul would also have been familiar with Jesus' teachings about dietary laws and defilement.

“It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” – Mark 7:15 NLT

Jesus’ disciples had been confused by His words, so He provided clarification.

“Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes). – Mark 7:18-19 NLT

So Paul, even though he was a Jew, lived his life with a newfound freedom when it came to his eating habits. He no longer lived under the strict dietary restrictions associated with his Jewish heritage, but he was willing to give up his rights for the sake of a brother or sister in Christ. It all goes back to the “weaker” brother narrative in the opening verses of this chapter.

There will always be those in the church whose understanding of the life of faith is less developed. They will retain certain legalistic expectations, believing that what they do or don’t do earns them favor with God. In Paul’s day, both Jewish and Gentile believers brought their own list of restrictions to the table. There were converted Jews who still felt it necessary to maintain the dietary laws of their Jewish faith. There were also Gentile believers who felt convicted about eating meat that had been sacrificed to pagan idols.

Paul had to deal with this issue in the church in Corinth. He told them, “We all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God” (1 Corinthians 8:4 NLT). But he went on to say, “However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated” (1 Corinthians 8:7 NLT).

Then Paul dealt with the real issue. “It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do” (1 Corinthians 4:8 NLT). But for Paul, it all boiled down to the spiritual well-being of his brother or sister in Christ.

But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble. – Romans 4:9-13 NLT

While Paul understood that certain foods were perfectly fine for him to eat, he was not willing to demand his rights if doing so would cause a brother in Christ to sin against his conscience.

It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes a brother to stumble. – Romans 14:21 ESV

It is a wonderful thing to enjoy the freedom that comes with the life of faith. Our right standing with God is not based on adherence to a long list of prohibitions and restrictions. But there will always be those who don’t understand this truth and hold strong convictions about what they eat or don’t eat, what they can and can't wear, and even which activities they can participate in or abstain from.

For Paul, the final word on all of this concerned faith.

For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. – Romans 14:23 ESV

For the immature or weaker believer, conscience ends up playing a far greater role than necessary. Rather than enjoying the freedom that comes with knowing his standing before God is fully taken care of by the finished work of Christ, he ends up operating from his own inner sense of right and wrong. So if his conscience tells him that something is forbidden by God, to violate that belief would be sin. He becomes burdened with guilt for having done what he believed was against God's will.

Paul says, “Whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith” (Romans 14:23 ESV). So rather than the stronger believer wearing his or her rights like a badge of honor, they should love their weaker brother or sister in Christ, willingly setting aside their rights so that they might not cause a fellow believer to sin against their conscience.

We are always to build up, not tear down. We are to lovingly teach and instruct one another, not boastfully and arrogantly display our rights and flaunt our newfound freedoms in Christ. Peter summed it up well when he wrote, “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8 NLT).

Father, rights are a wonderful thing until they cause pain and suffering for others. I enjoy all kinds of rights and freedoms in Christ, but I am never free to flaunt them in the face of others or use them to condemn those who remain enslaved to guilt-enducing sins. Paul understood the freedoms he enjoyed as a Christ-follower, but he never allowed those freedoms to create barriers or roadblocks for the lost or less mature believers. He was willing to sacrifice his rights so that others might embrace the law of liberty, the freedom found in a relationship with God based on grace, not merit. Defending our rights and protecting our freedoms can actually make us slaves to them. We end up making them the focus of our faith, rather than Christ. If we’re not careful, we can replace righteousness with rights and holiness with the pursuit of happiness. But dying to self is a big part of living for Christ. Help me to see the difference and to never allow my rights to become a pretext for sin Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

The Wondrous Ways of God

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?”

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. – Romans 11:33-36 ESV

Paul sums up the last three chapters regarding Israel's rejection of God, their partial hardening, and their ultimate restoration as His chosen people with a statement about His incomparable character. He marvels at God’s riches, wisdom, and knowledge. He confesses that God’s ways and judgments are unsearchable and inscrutable. But what is Paul’s point? What is he attempting to say about God?

I think the New American Standard Version has a more accurate rendering of Paul’s opening line: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” The word “riches” refers to abundance or fullness. Paul says that God is overflowing with wisdom and knowledge.

“God’s ‘wisdom’ is His ability to arrange His plan so it results in good for both Jews and Gentiles and His own glory. His ‘knowledge’ testifies to His ability to construct such a plan.” – Dr. Thomas L. Constable, Notes On Romans, 2009 Edition

We may not always understand what God is doing, but we can always trust that whatever He does is right and good. Paul goes on to say that God’s judgments are unsearchable. The Greek word “judgment” carries a judicial sense. It can mean “condemnation of wrong, the decision (whether severe or mild) which one passes on the faults of others” (Outline of Biblical Usage).

We have no right to judge God for what He does, including His judgment of mankind’s sins or His choosing to show mercy to some who deserve His judgment. His “ways” or actions are beyond our comprehension. His thought processes exceed our limited capacity of understanding. Isaiah confirmed this reality when he wrote, “‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the Lord. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT).

Paul continues to quote Isaiah to support his point.

Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord? Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him? Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice? Does he need instruction about what is good? Did someone teach him what is right or show him the path of justice? – Isaiah 40:13-14 NLT

In verse 35, Paul resorts to quoting Elihu, one of Job’s well-meaning but ultimately unhelpful friends.

“If you are good, is this some great gift to him [God]? What could you possibly give him?” – Job 35:7 NLT

He also quotes the words God spoke in response to Job’s questioning of His ways.

“Who has given me anything that I need to pay back? Everything under heaven is mine.” – Job 41:11 NLT

God is not to be questioned or placed under the microscope of our finite minds. While His ways may seem strange or even distasteful to us, they are always right, just, and good. There is always a method and a meaning behind what appears to us as madness. God doesn’t need our advice and does not seek our counsel. He doesn’t owe an explanation for His actions, and we certainly don’t deserve His.

God is not obligated to redeem anyone and is not required to extend His saving grace to any man or woman. That He does so at all should astound and amaze us. It should leave us in awe of His incredible love, patience, and faithfulness. When Paul wrote, “For God has consigned all to disobedience” (Romans 11:32 ESV), he was saying that God was justly passing sentence on all men for their sin and rebellion against Him “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV).

Every human being is guilty of disobedience or “obstinate opposition to the divine will” (Outline of Biblical Usage), and that includes both Jews and Gentiles. But God has decided to show mercy to some, but not because they deserved it. As Paul explains, God shows “mercy on whomever he will, and he hardens whomever he wills” (Romans 9:18 ESV). His mercy and compassion have nothing to do with human will or self-effort (Romans 9:16), but are His sole prerogative. Which is why Paul concludes, “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36 ESV). The New Living Translation puts it this way: “For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory.”

Salvation is a gift of God and is based solely on His mercy. It has nothing to do with anything inherently good in the one who receives it. No one deserves God’s mercy. What He chooses to do in regard to sinful mankind is completely up to Him. As God, He is free to do whatever He deems to be just and good, and all that He does, He does for His own glory. His actions always reveal His character in a way that illustrates and accentuates His glorious nature. Whenever He acts, He expresses His judgment, and He does so in a perfectly just and righteous manner. When He punishes, He never does so unjustly; it is always deserved. When He shows mercy, it is never at the expense of His justice. In other words, it is never unjust or unfair.

When God pardons the sins of those who believe in His Son, He doesn’t just turn His back on their sins and act as if they never happened; that would be unjust and unrighteous. Their sins deserve punishment. Their crimes require sentencing and payment of the penalty due. So God took care of the penalty with the death of His Son. He paid the price for our sins by sending His Son to die in our place. And as Paul declares, “How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable are His ways! How wonderful are the ways of God!”

Father, You are the just judge who always rules rightly and without partiality. You are the righteous Law-Giver and the flawless Law-Keeper. You are light and in You there is no hint of darkness (1 John 1:5). I may not always understand Your ways, but that gives me no right to question Your motives or character. You are always in control and Your plans are always perfect, righteous, and good. In the moment, when the circumstances of life appear difficult and even unbearable, I can sometimes question Your goodness and greatness. I can begin to doubt Your love for me. But Paul reminds me that all things come from You; they pass through Your sovereign hands and are intended for my good and Your glory. 

“…everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory” (Romans 11:36 NLT).

Paul’s imprisonments were part of Your will for him. It was from those prison cells he penned the majority of his letters. Some of his most encouraging words came during what must have been his most discouraging moments. Yet, he didn’t allow his suffering to stifle his faith or keep Him from trusting Your will for his life. I want to make his prayer my own, asking that I might live my life in submission to Your marvelous, mind-boggling, and fully reliable will for my life.

For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. – Philippians 1:20-22 NLT. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

From Enemies to God’s Elect

28 As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. – Romans 11:28-32 ESV

This is a fascinating and difficult passage that presents a somewhat confusing picture of God’s grace, which could easily lead us to accuse Him of injustice. But Paul’s is attempting to explain God’s plan concerning His chosen people, the Jews. For the time being, the Jews are experiencing “a partial hardening” until “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11: 25 ESV). While the Israelites had been trying to earn a right standing with God, they had been going about it the wrong way, by attempting to keep the law in their own strength. When Jesus revealed Himself to be the true path to righteousness, they rejected Him. So, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day” (Romans 11:8 ESV).

But God did not cause their hardening or spiritual callousness; He simply allowed their hearts to go where they were naturally bent to go. He did not intervene by extending them mercy. But if we conclude that God’s treatment of the Jews was unfair or unjust, we misunderstand mercy. God is not obligated to show mercy to anyone. By definition, mercy is a gift, not a requirement. However, justice is required. In a sense, mercy is non-justice. In other words, when God determines to extend mercy to anyone, He is choosing NOT to enact justice or to give them what they truly deserve.

The Old Testament Scriptures repeatedly show God extending mercy to the unrepentant and undeserving people of Israel. Their track record of disobedience and unfaithfulness to Him condemns them and warrants that justice be served. Their willful sin against Him deserved His righteous and holy sentence of just punishment. But instead, God graciously chose to show them mercy, His undeserved kindness, goodness, favor, and compassion. And to do so is God’s prerogative.

For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” – Romans 9:15 NLT

When God shows mercy, we have no cause to complain or to cry foul. What should amaze us is that God, in His patience and love, chooses to show anyone mercy. Because mercy is never deserved and can never be earned. Paul has made it clear that all men deserve God’s justice.

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. – Romans 3:23 ESV

…the wages of sin is death. – Romans 6:23 ESV

So if God chooses to extend His mercy to some, can we accuse Him of injustice? Paul would say, “No!”

Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! For God said to Moses,

“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,
    and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it. – Romans 9:14-16 NLT

Which brings us back to our passage. Paul contends that, as it pertains to the good news regarding salvation through Christ, the Jews were essentially enemies of God. Their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah had opened the door for the gospel to be preached to the Gentiles. But when it came to God’s sovereign election or choosing of the nation of Israel, they were still beloved in His eyes.

At this point, it appears that Paul is talking about the future state of Israel as a nation or a people. He is not referring to individual Jews or individual Gentiles in these verses. At one time in history, the Gentile nations had been alienated from God. They were separated from Him because of their sin. Paul reminded the Gentile believers in Ephesus of their former state of alienation from God.

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. – Ephesians 2:11-12 NLT

As non-Jews, they were excluded from citizenship among God’s chosen people. They could not claim the covenant promises God had made to Abraham. But Paul says that something changed all that.

But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. – Ephesians 2:13 NLT

Notice that he addresses them as a whole, as Gentiles. This does not mean that ALL Gentiles have come to faith in Christ, but that God has extended His undeserved mercy to “outsiders,” to non-Jews.

And Paul’s point is that God will do the same thing for the nation of Israel. While they are currently experiencing a hardness of heart and a spiritual callousness toward God and His offer of salvation through belief in His Son, the day is coming when He will show them mercy just as He has done for the Gentiles.

Once, you Gentiles were rebels against God, but when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you instead. Now they are the rebels, and God’s mercy has come to you so that they, too, will share in God’s mercy. – Romans 11:30-31 NLT

Paul wants us to understand that this is not a case of Gentiles replacing Jews as God’s favored people; it is about God extending mercy to those whom He sovereignly chooses. God’s mercy knows no prejudice. He is magnanimous and equitable when it comes to His mercy.

For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone. – Romans 11:32 NLT

Again, this does not mean that all will be saved, but that all share a common state of disobedience and alienation from God. If He does not choose to show mercy, no one will be saved, either Jew or Gentile.

Israel's rejection of the Messiah did not put them beyond God’s mercy, and His inclusion of the Gentiles was not a sign of His exclusion of the Jews. It is a matter of timing. At present, during the period of the Gentiles, His focus is on bringing the full number of “outsiders” to faith in His Son. When that happens, He will turn His attention to the nation of Israel.

While this is difficult for us to understand, Paul is trying to explain the nature of God’s ways, which he admits are beyond our capacity for comprehension.

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! – Romans 11:33 NLT

We may not understand God’s mercy, but we can certainly appreciate it and recognize that it is a gift freely given and never deserved. 

Father, Your ways are beyond my capacity to understand. I don’t fully comprehend the magnitude of Your mercy. In fact, far too often I take it for granted and treat it with an attitude of complacency. But Paul would have me remember that mercy is a priceless gift that You pour out on the undeserving and unworthy. I did not choose You; it was the other way around. In my original sinful and self-centered state, I was incapable of recognizing the value of Your Son’s sacrifice on my behalf. I did not see myself as a sinner in need of a Savior. But through the power of the Holy Spirit, You opened my eyes to the truth of the gospel and allowed me to accept the gift of Your marvelous mercy. I deserved death, but You gave me life. I deserved justice and judgment, but You gave me justification, a right standing with You that I could never have earned or deserved. Oh, how great are you riches and wisdom and knowledge. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

Our Ready, Willing, and Able God

25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
    he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
27 “and this will be my covenant with them
    when I take away their sins.” – Romans 11:25-27 ESV

Paul has been establishing the fact that God is not yet done with Israel. While the majority of Jews have rejected Jesus as their Messiah, a remnant has been shown mercy by God and placed their faith in His Son as their Savior. Paul was living proof of that reality, and there were other believing Jews in the church in Rome.

The Gentile believers had much for which to be grateful to the Hebrew nation. It was through the Jews that their Savior had come. Jesus was a descendant of Abraham and born into the line of King David, all in keeping with the promises made to both men. And while those Jews who refused to accept Jesus as their Savior were “broken off because of their unbelief” (Romans 11:20 ESV) and the Gentiles were grafted in, that did not mean that God had turned His back on His chosen people. If He was able to mercifully take Gentiles and graciously graft them into the root of Abraham, could He not do so with the Jews? Paul poses that very question.

And even they [the Jews], if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. – Romans 11:23 ESV

The important word here is “belief.” Faith in Christ is required for anyone, whether Jew or Gentile, to be grafted into the root of Abraham. Paul wrote the Gentile believers in Galatia, reminding them of their status as children of Abraham because of their faith in Jesus, the descendant of Abraham.

The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.” So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith. – Galatians 3:7-9 NLT

He went on to clarify, “Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14 NLT).

It is through faith, our belief in the saving power of Jesus Christ, that we inherit the promises made to Abraham. We become part of God’s family through belief in His Son, and the same thing is true for God’s chosen people, the Jews. But Paul indicates that a “partial hardening has come upon Israel” (Romans 11:25 ESV). The term Paul used is interesting. It is pōrōsis, and it means “obtrusiveness of mental discernment, dulled perception” (Outline of Biblical Usage). The root word means “to grow hard, callous, become dull, lose the power of understanding.”

For the time being, the Jews, individually and collectively, are experiencing a callousness to the gospel message, but this was all part of God’s divine plan. As Paul wrote earlier, “their rejection means the reconciliation of the world” (Romans 11:15 ESV). It was their rejection of Christ that led to the gospel being taken to the rest of the nations of the world. But Paul indicates that there will be a point when “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25 ESV). Thomas L. Constable explains what this phrase means:

“When all the Gentiles whom God has chosen for salvation during the present age of Jewish rejection (setting aside) have experienced salvation, God will precipitate a revival of faith among the Jews. Even though some Jews trust Christ now, God is not presently working through them as Israel as He will in the future (i.e., in the Millennium), after multitudes of them turn to faith in Christ. He is now working through the church.” – Dr. Thomas L. Constable, Notes on Romans, 2009 Edition.

Paul writes, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins” (Romans 11:26-27 ESV). He is quoting the writings of the prophet Isaiah.

“And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
    to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.” – Isaiah 59:20 ESV

Paul understood this passage as a prophecy concerning the Messiah, which was partially fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. But upon His arrival, Jesus was met with opposition from His own people. The apostle John described the less-than-warm welcome Jesus received from His fellow Jews.

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. – John 1:10-12 NLT

The Jews didn’t exactly roll out the red carpet when Jesus appeared the first time. But God is far from done with them. He will still accomplish His will among the Jewish people and fulfill the promises He made to them, but it will not take place until He has completed His work among the Gentiles. There is a day coming when the number of Gentiles to be saved will be complete. Paul is not inferring that ALL Gentiles will be saved; he is indicating that there is a limited number of those who will place their faith in Christ, and when that number has been reached, God’s work among the Gentiles will have been fulfilled. He will then turn His attention to the Jews.

But when Paul says that “all Israel will be saved,” he does not mean that every single Israelite who has ever lived will become a believer in Jesus Christ. In the same way that not all Gentiles will come to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, neither will all Jews. But when compared to the relatively small believing remnant of Jews that currently exists, the number that will come to faith in the future will be large, and there will be representatives from every tribe of Israel.

The prophet Zechariah predicted a future day when God would do a mighty work among the people of Israel. He quotes God’s promise to complete His divine plan for His chosen people.

“I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.” – Zechariah 12:10 NLT

The day will come when the people of Israel will grieve over their mistreatment and rejection of their Messiah. But their sorrow will be turned to joy. 

“On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and impurity.

“And on that day,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will erase idol worship throughout the land, so that even the names of the idols will be forgotten. I will remove from the land both the false prophets and the spirit of impurity that came with them.” – Zechariah 13:1-2 NLT

But not all Israel will be saved. The prophecy is very specific in indicating that God will redeem and restore a remnant of His chosen people.

“Two-thirds of the people in the land
    will be cut off and die,” says the Lord.
    “But one-third will be left in the land.
I will bring that group through the fire
    and make them pure.
I will refine them like silver
    and purify them like gold.
They will call on my name,
    and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘These are my people,’
    and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’” – Zechariah 13:8-9 NLT

God is ready, willing, and able to redeem Israel. He is not yet done with His chosen people, nor has He fully rejected them. He is simply waiting until the full number of Gentiles has come to faith in Christ, then He will turn His attention to the Jews. His plan is perfect, and His timeline is right on schedule. We don’t know when these things will take place, but we are to trust that they will, because our God is faithful, just, righteous, powerful, and fully capable of completing what He has started and fulfilling all that He has promised to the people of Israel and to us.

Father, as Paul has so persistently illustrated, You are a promise-keeping God. Your Word is filled with promises You made to the nation of Israel and You will fulfill every one of them. As Balaam said, “God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?” (Numbers 23:19 NLT). You are good for Your word. You don’t renege on Your promises and You never change Your mind. You are faithful, true, and totally trustworthy. And the fact that You will keep Your promises to Israel is a powerful reminder that You will keep the promises You have made to me and every other Gentile believer. You are more reliable than the sun coming up in the morning or the changing of the seasons. I am reminded of the words Paul wrote to Titus, reminding him of Your faithfulness.

I have been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God—who does not lie—promised them before the world began. – Titus 1:1-2 NLT

Your plan is far from finished. Your will concerning the people of Israel is not yet complete. They remain hardhearted and incapable of accepting the truth concerning Jesus as their Messiah and Savior. But the day is coming when You will give them new hearts and a new capacity to see the error of their ways and return to a right relationship with You through faith alone in Christ alone, because You are faithful. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

The Faithfulness of God

17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree. – Romans 11:17-24 ESV

Paul has been discussing dough, firstfruits, olive trees, roots, and broken branches. But what’s his point? What is he trying to tell us? We must remember that he has been addressing Israel's current and future fate. God had chosen them as His special possession, but they had rejected Jesus as their Messiah. As a result, they were passed over by God, and His message of salvation was taken to the Gentiles. Yet, God had ordained for some Jews to believe in Jesus as their Messiah and form a remnant, a sort of firstfruits or offering that would consecrate the rest of the nation.

Paul referenced the command God had given to the Israelites as they prepared to enter the land of promise.

“When you arrive in the land where I am taking you, and you eat the crops that grow there, you must set some aside as a sacred offering to the Lord. Present a cake from the first of the flour you grind, and set it aside as a sacred offering, as you do with the first grain from the threshing floor. Throughout the generations to come, you are to present a sacred offering to the Lord each year from the first of your ground flour.” – Numbers 15:18-21 NLT

In his commentary on Romans, Donald Grey Barnhouse explains:

“In order to understand this we must first realize that throughout the Old Testament the word ‘holy’ has a special meaning. In the Old Testament ‘holy’ means ‘separated from profane uses, consecrated to God.’ In the use of the allusion as found in our text, Paul is saying that if the whole nation of Israel was originally set apart for God by the call of Abraham and the giving of the covenant promises to him, then the individuals of the race of Abraham also have a special relationship to God. This does not mean that they are personally holy, for some of them are even accursed; but it does mean that the members of the ancient race have been chosen by God and they will be brought to fulfill His purposes.” – Donald Grey Barnhouse, Romans

The nation of Israel was holy to God. He had set them apart, not because of anything they had done, but simply out of His sovereign will. Moses made this perfectly clear to them.

“For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors.” – Deuteronomy 7:6-8 NLT

In Paul’s day, God was bringing some Jews to faith, and they served as evidence of God’s continuing favor upon the nation of Israel. He had not completely abandoned them. In fact, Paul goes on to stress the non-debatable necessity of the nation of Israel in the grand scheme of God.

He switches analogies and begins to talk about trees, roots, and branches. He specifically refers to the olive tree, which, in the Old Testament, represented the nation of Israel.

The Lord says,
“Then I will heal you of your faithlessness;
    my love will know no bounds,
    for my anger will be gone forever.
I will be to Israel
    like a refreshing dew from heaven.
Israel will blossom like the lily;
    it will send roots deep into the soil
    like the cedars in Lebanon.
Its branches will spread out like beautiful olive trees,
    as fragrant as the cedars of Lebanon.” – Hosea 14:4-6 NLT

“I, the Lord, once called them a thriving olive tree,
    beautiful to see and full of good fruit.
But now I have sent the fury of their enemies
    to burn them with fire,
    leaving them charred and broken.

“I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, who planted this olive tree, have ordered it destroyed. For the people of Israel and Judah have done evil, arousing my anger by burning incense to Baal.” – Jeremiah 11:16-17 NLT

The root to which Paul refers most likely represents Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel. He had been hand-picked by God and ordained to be the father of the nation of Israel and the means by which God would bless the nations of the world. From Abraham, the root, came the trunk and the branches of Israel. And because Abraham was holy and set apart for God, so was the rest of the tree. But some of the branches of that tree had been broken off by God, and the branches from “wild” or uncultivated olive trees were grafted in.

Gentiles were made a part of God’s family, not because they deserved it, but out of His mercy and kindness. And Paul reminds the Gentiles, “remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you” (Romans 11:18 ESV). Our faith as believing Gentiles depends on the promises of God made to Abraham. We are not better than or superior to the Jews, and we are not to look down our noses in pride at those Jews who remain in unbelief. In fact, Paul would have us see ourselves as unified with God’s chosen people.

So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. – Ephesians 2:19 NLT

God is not done with Israel; He has not abandoned them. If He can graft into the root of Abraham branches from “wild” olive trees, He can certainly graft back in those branches that were broken off. In fact, Paul states, “And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again” (Romans 11:23 ESV).

God’s promises to Israel still stand, and He will fulfill them all, in His time and according to His perfect will. God’s unwavering faithfulness to Israel is meant to encourage us, reminding us of His love, faithfulness, and trustworthiness.  What He says, He will do. His promises will be fulfilled.

His decision to take the gospel to the Gentiles was not Plan B. It was not done because the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah; it was all part of God’s sovereign will from the very beginning. Everything is taking place according to His divine plan. He is blessing all the nations of the earth through the offspring of Abraham, and one day He is going to bless the nation of Israel by sending His Son again and setting up His Kingdom on earth in Jerusalem and restoring His chosen people to their rightful place.

Father, Your plan is perfect and undeterable. Nothing can prevent Your will from taking place just as You have ordained it. You are never surprised or caught off guard. At no point, do You have to change plans or knee-jerk react to what You see happening in the world. You are all-knowing and all-powerful, and You are in control at all times. Your plan for Your chosen people is unfolding just as You set it out before You laid the foundations of the earth. You have a timeline and it is unfolding precisely as You have planned, and it includes the restoration of a remnant of the people of Israel. You will keep Your covenant promises. and fulfill every commitment Your have made to them. And we, the wild olive branches ,get to enjoy the benefiits of having been grafted into the tree that You planted and that will one day produce fruit for eternity in Your Kingdom. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

Our Promise-Keeping God

1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. – Romans 11:1-6 ESV

Is God done with Israel? Has their rejection of His Son as their Messiah put them on His permanent “naughty” list and denied them any opportunity to be restored to a right relationship with Him? Paul would say confidently and emphatically, “No!” and he used himself as living proof.

If God was done with Israel, Paul would never have come to know Christ as His Savior. After all, he was a Jew himself.

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, and I was brought up and educated here in Jerusalem under Gamaliel. As his student, I was carefully trained in our Jewish laws and customs. I became very zealous to honor God in everything I did, just like all of you today.” – Acts 22:3 NLT

“I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law.” – Philippians 3:5 NLT

Paul argued that he and the other believing Jews in his audience were not the last of their kind. He used the story of the prophet, Elijah, to drive home his point. Elijah had defeated the prophets of Baal and, as a result, came under the wrath of the wicked queen, Jezebel. She put a bounty on his head, and Elijah was forced to run for his life. When God confronted Elijah and asked him why he was running from the queen, Elijah responded: “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10 ESV).

Elijah and God had this conversation two times in the narrative. Then God informed him, “Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18 ESV). In other words, God knew something Elijah didn’t know; he was not the last man standing. Despite his feelings of isolation and intimidation, Elijah was not alone. There were others who, like Elijah, had refused to abandon God.  

And Paul’s conclusion was, “It is the same today, for a few of the people of Israel have remained faithful because of God’s grace—his undeserved kindness in choosing them.” (Romans 11:5 NLT). While the majority of Israel had rejected Jesus as their Messiah, there were some who had chosen not only to recognize Him, but to accept Him as their Savior. And Paul couldn’t resist the urge to remphasize that their salvation was the result of grace, not works.

The very existence of this faithful remnant in Paul’s day was proof that God had not abandoned His people; He was not done with them yet. And, later in this chapter, Paul explains what God has planned for His people in the future. Chapters 9-11 form a cohesive unit in which Paul focuses on Israel, the chosen people of God. In chapter nine, Paul reveals God’s past grace in His sovereign selection of Israel as His people. In chapter ten, Paul addresses the present reality of Israel’s refusal to respond to God’s provision of grace, as revealed in His Son’s death. And finally, in chapter eleven, Paul outlines God’s future plans for Israel.

Paul paints a compelling picture of God’s matchless grace. While the people of Israel never deserved God’s favor, He had repeatedly displayed it — despite their ongoing rebellion and refusal to repent. Over the centuries, they had proved to be unfaithful and disobedient time and time again, but God never fully abandoned them. Even after sending them into exile for their rebellion, He graciously and mercifully restored them to the land. He kept a remnant alive and returned them to Jerusalem so that He might one day fulfill His promise to produce a descendant of David who would sit on the throne of Israel.

Even today, there are future plans concerning Israel that have yet to be fulfilled. At present, they are experiencing a temporary rejection by God. But as Paul will explain later in this chapter, that condition will one day be radically altered. Their rejection of Christ as their Messiah opened up a door for the gospel to be shared with non-Jews, “those who are not a nation” (Romans 10:19 ESV). God made the good news regarding salvation available to “those who did not seek me” (Romans 10:20 ESV). And those of us who have discovered the grace of God made possible through the death of Christ have much to be grateful for. We were totally undeserving of God’s favor, and yet He provided a way for us to be made right with Him.

When he wrote to the Gentile believers in Ephesus, Paul emphasized the incredible nature of their conversion.

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. – Ephesians 2:11-13 NLT

Paul wrote something similar to the believers in Colossae.

You who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. – Colossians 1:21-22 NLT

As Gentiles or non-Jews, we have much to be grateful for. We must never forget that if God had not chosen Abraham and given him Isaac as his son, if He had not chosen Jacob over Esau, if He had not chosen David over Saul, and if He had not chosen to send His Son through the nation of Israel, we would never have heard the good news concerning Jesus. But our God is good and gracious, and He is sovereign over all. He knows what He is doing, and He is not yet done with Israel. Their rejection of Him has not resulted in their rejection by Him, because He is faithful, loving, and true. He will accomplish all that He has promised for them, in His time and according to His plan.

Father, Your grace truly is amazing. That You would deem to save any should astound and confound us. As David wrote in his Psalm, “The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one” (Psalm 14:2-3 NLT). And Paul echoed those words when he wrote, “No one is righteous— not even one” (Romans 3:10 NLT). And yet, You poured out Your mercy and grace on Jews and Gentiles alike. You have redeemed a remnant of Your chosen people and You are far from done. You have made Your grace available to all humanity, but You have not turned Your back on the seed of Abraham. You will one day fulfill every promise You made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You will redeem and restore a righteous remnant from among the 12 tribes of Israel. And this fact reminds me that You are faithful and fully worthy of my trust because You are not a man, so You do not lie. You are not human, so You do not change Your mind. You have never spoken and failed to act. You have never promised and not carried it through (Numbers 23:19 NLT). You are the promise-keeping God. 
Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

A Blessing to the Nations

18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for

“Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
    and their words to the ends of the world.”

19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,

“I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;
    with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”

20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,

“I have been found by those who did not seek me;
    I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”

21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” – Romans 10:18-21 ESV

So, did the Jews never hear the good news regarding Jesus Christ? Was their failure to accept Him as Messiah because they had not heard of His arrival? Paul would answer those questions with a resounding and confident, “No!”

He would argue that the Jews were without excuse. Quoting from Psalm 19, he holds them accountable to the same standard he established in the opening chapter of his letter. 

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
    The skies display his craftsmanship.
Day after day they continue to speak;
    night after night they make him known.
They speak without a sound or word;
    their voice is never heard.
Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
    and their words to all the world. – Psalm 19:1-4 NLT

Nature itself declares God’s glory. Paul began his letter to the Romans by restating the psalmist’s assertion. 

For what can be known about God is plain to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world...so they are without excuse. – Romans 1:19-20 ESV

In Paul’s estimation, Israel was doubly guilty because they had received God’s general revelation in nature and had the privilege of receiving His special revelation, spoken through His prophets who had declared the promise of the coming Messiah. But when Jesus came, they rejected Him.

So, if they had heard about the coming Messiah through the prophets, was their rejection of Him a case of misunderstanding? Again, Paul is emphatic in his answer. He declares that they fully understood, and he uses the Old Testament Scriptures to prove it. Quoting from the book of Deuteronomy, Paul writes, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry” (Romans 10:19 ESV).

The context in the book of Deuteronomy is that God had become fed up with Israel’s repeated unfaithfulness.

“They have made me jealous with that is no god, they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.” – Deuteronomy 32:21 ESV

Paul takes this Old Testament prophetic passage and applies it to the current circumstances of his day. Centuries after Moses wrote the words found in Deuteronomy, the people of Israel were still worshiping false gods. Their view of God was skewed by their own faulty perceptions. They put more faith in their own abilities to keep the law than they did in God’s ability to save them. They rejected Jesus as Savior because they didn’t think they needed one. They worshiped the law more than they did the Law-Giver. They worshiped the Temple more than the One who occupied it. So Paul says that God took the good news about His Son to another nation; He made it available to the Gentiles. God opened the doors to a people who, at one time, were not a people.

“…for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. ‘Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.’” – 1 Peter 2:9-10 NLT

Quoting the words of God found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, Paul writes, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name” (Isaiah 65:1 NLT).

God had warned Israel that this day would come. Their stubbornness and rebellion would one day result in their rejection by God and His blessing of the Gentiles. In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul emphasized how foolish all this appeared. God was taking His message of salvation to a people who had no relationship with Him.

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. – 1 Corinthians 1:26-28 NLT

The rejection of Jesus by His own people did not surprise God or catch Him off guard. This had been His plan from the very beginning. It was in fulfillment of His promise to Abraham that through him and his “offspring” all the nations of the earth would be blessed. It was through Christ, the descendant of Abraham, that God had chosen to bless the nations of the world by offering salvation from sin and death – “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14 ESV).

As a result, the Church represents a new nation and a new people, made up of individuals from all walks of life and every conceivable ethnic background. Paul told the Gentile believers in Galatia that they were now joint-heirs with the Jews and were the beneficiaries of all the promises God had made to Abraham.

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. – Galatians 3:26-29 NLT

Paul wraps up this chapter with another quote from the book of Isaiah. “All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes” (Isaiah 65:2 NLT). The rejection of Jesus by His own people was part of God’s divine plan. But as Paul will clarify in the very next chapter, God is not done with Israel. He has not abandoned them or given up on them. Because He is a faithful, promise-keeping God, He will faithfully fulfill every promise He has made to them.

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? – Numbers 23:19 ESV

Father, You are forever faithful and committed to keeping the promises You have made. You told Abraham that his offspring would bless the nations, and that is exactly what happened. Jesus was a descendant, the seed of Abraham, and His sacrificial, substitutionary death made salvation available to all people, both Jews and Gentiles. When the Jews failed to be a blessing to the nations by living exemplary lives based on Your holy law, You sent Your Son to fulfill the law — perfectly and completely. He lived a sinless life, which made Him the only acceptable sacrifice to atone for the sins of mankind. And it was all part of Your plan. Through Jesus, You used the Jews to bless the nations of the earth. Now You are using the redeemed of the nations to produce a holy jealousy among Your chosen people. While they rejected Your Son as their Messiah and Savior, You have promised to redeem, renew, and restore them.

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.” – Ezekiel 36:25-27 NLT

 And You will do what You have promised to do because You are not a man that You should lie. You are faithful, loving, and true to Your Word — all the time. Thank You! Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

Offspring of God

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” – Romans 9:6-13 ESV

Yes, God did choose Abraham and, through him, created the nation of Israel. They were God’s chosen people. And as Paul has said, “To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises” (Romans 9:4 ESV).

God even ordained that the Messiah, the Savior of the world, would be born an Israelite. Yet, earlier in his letter, Paul wrote, “For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people” (Romans 2:28-29 NLT).

So what is Paul saying? Better yet, what is God doing? Have His promises to Israel failed? Was all that He promised to Abraham a lie?

The point Paul seems to be making concerns the sovereign grace of God. The Jews believed they had a right relationship with God simply because they were Abraham's descendants. Their faith was in their heritage and their unique place as God’s chosen people. But Paul argues that simply claiming Abraham as your father is not enough. To prove his point, Paul reminds his Jewish audience that Abraham fathered a number of sons, and yet only one of them, Isaac, was chosen as the line through which the promise of God would flow.

For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too. This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. – Romans 9:7-8 NLT

Also, Isaac had two sons, but only Jacob was chosen as the conduit for God’s promise.

This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” – Romans 9:10-12 NLT

Paul points out that this sovereign decision by God had nothing to do with the behavior or merits of the two sons. So what does all this mean? Paul provides the answer.

This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. – Romans 9:8 NLT

Many of the Jews living in Rome, who had not yet placed their faith in Christ, were under the delusion that their Hebrew heritage was their guarantee of a right relationship with God. But Paul wants them to understand that having the blood of Abraham coursing through their veins was no substitute for having the blood of Christ cover their sins.

Faith in Christ trumped anything and everything, including a pure bloodline. To experience the fulfillment of God’s promises always required faith; a fact the author of Hebrews drives home.

It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” – Hebrews 11:17-18 NLT

It was his faith in God's promise that set Abraham apart and was counted to him as righteousness. And it is our faith in the promise of salvation through His Son that makes us right with God.

Ultimately, salvation is based on faith, not works. It requires a trust in God, not a false hope in our heritage or religious upbringing. Being born into the right family or worshiping in a particular faith system has no bearing on our worthiness and carries no weight with God.

Paul has already made his main point regarding the gospel – the good news regarding Jesus Christ.

It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” – Romans 1:16-17 NLT

God chose Abraham. He chose Isaac. He chose Jacob. He made a conscious and sovereign decision to bring about salvation through the nation of Israel, but our hope is in the promised One. No one deserves salvation based on their background or their behavior. Man’s salvation and restoration to a right relationship with God requires faith alone in Christ alone; it can’t be earned or deserved, and isn’t the guaranteed right of a privileged few. 

God’s chosen people were the conduit through which His promised Messiah came, but this did not guarantee their salvation. They would still have to place their faith in the One who had come to be their Savior. Yet, they refused to do so. When John the Baptist was preaching and baptizing in the Judean wilderness, in preparation for the Messiah’s appearance, he had a few choice words for the Jewish religious leaders. 

…when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones.” – Matthew 3: 7-9 NLT

He assailed their flawed faith in their Hebrew heritage. They were self-assured and confident in their standing as God’s chosen people. As descendants of Abraham, they considered themselves to be the rightful heirs to all of God’s promises, including the one concerning the coming of their long-awaited Messiah. Yet, when Jesus appeared on the scene, they refused to accept Him. They rejected John the Baptist’s call for repentance and dismissed Jesus’ claims to be their Savior. Their overconfidence in their status as God’s chosen people led Jesus to rebuke them.  

“…you sent investigators to listen to John the Baptist, and his testimony about me was true. Of course, I have no need of human witnesses, but I say these things so you might be saved. John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message. But I have a greater witness than John—my teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they prove that he sent me. And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face, and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you.

“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.” – John 5:33-40 NLT

The Israelites were the children of God and had the Word of God, which contained all His promises.  Yet, they refused to recognize the Messiah when He showed up. When offered the gift of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone, they blatantly rejected it. Self-confident in their own self-righteousness as God’s chosen people, they denied their need for God’s Son and the salvation He offered. 

Father, it is amazing how self-assured we humans can be. We somehow believe we are Your gift to the world. In our arrogance and pride, we place far to high a value on our own worthiness. We falsely boast in our own self-importance and wrongly believe we deserve Your approval. But Paul reminds us that even Abraham”s descendants, the rightful heirs of God’s promises, were required to place their faith in Your Son, not their status as Your chosen people. Paul made the need for faith alone in Christ alone perfectly clear when he wrote, “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, ‘It is through faith that a righteous person has life’” (Romans 1:16-17 NLT). And I am so grateful that You made this offer available to me. I certainly did not earn or deserve it. But You graciously offered it and I humbly accepted it, and now I am Your child. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

Willing To Die So That Some Might Live

1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. – Romans 9:1-5 ESV

Paul was a proud, card-carrying Jew. His Damascus road experience had introduced him to his Messiah and justified him before God, but it had not eliminated or altered his ethnicity in any way. His identity as a descendant of Abraham remained unaltered, and his Hebrew heritage remained intact. In fact, Paul was proud of his background. He once described himself as having been “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:5 ESV).

After his Damascus Road encounter with the resurrected Jesus, Paul received a commission to take the gospel to the Gentiles. But Paul never abandoned his desire to share the good news about the Messiah with his fellow Jews. The book of Acts records that, virtually every place Paul traveled on his missionary journeys, the first place he went was to the local synagogue. 

Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to Antioch of Pisidia. On the Sabbath they went to the synagogue for the services. – Acts 13:14 NLT

The same thing happened in Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. – Acts 14:1 NLT

While Paul’s assignment from God was to take the gospel to the Gentiles, he never lost his desire to see his fellow Jews come to faith. 

Paul and Silas then traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.” – Acts 17:1-3 NLT

As a former Pharisee, Paul was highly knowledgeable of the Hebrew Scriptures and understood that the Jews were God’s chosen people. That’s why he wrote, “They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned” (Romans 9:4-5 NLT).

The Jewish nation was the divinely ordained conduit through which God’s grace and mercy were to flow to all mankind. God had sovereignly orchestrated that His Son was born into a Jewish household. Jesus was a Jew, but not only that, He was the fulfillment of God’s long-awaited promise for a Messiah or deliverer.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. – Isaiah 7:14 ESV

And Jesus was the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. – Galatians 3:16 ESV

Paul knew that the church in Rome was likely comprised of a blend of both Jews and Gentiles, and it would be easy for the Jews to be seen in a negative light. After all, they had rejected the Messiah and were complicit in His death. Peter made that fact painfully clear when he addressed the Jews in his sermon on the day of Pentecost.

“The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.” – Acts 3:13-15 ESV

But despite his harsh accusation, Peter was quick to offer them an opportunity to repent of their sin and accept Jesus as their Messiah.

“I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.” – Acts 3:17-20 ESV

Both Peter and Paul longed to see their fellow Jews accept Jesus as their Savior. Paul has already stated in this letter that all men stand before God as guilty of sin and worthy of death. But he also made it clear that Jesus died so that all men, both Jews and Gentiles, might come to a saving knowledge of Jesus as their God-appointed deliverer.

Paul felt so strongly about his desire for the Jews to be saved that he was willing to be damned or cut off from Christ if it meant that his fellow Jews might come to faith.

I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.  – Romans 9:3 NLT

The Greek word Paul used was anathema, and it refers to “a thing devoted to God without hope of being redeemed, and if an animal, to be slain; therefore a person or thing doomed to destruction” (Outline of Biblical Usage). In a sense, Paul was saying that he was willing to give up his salvation if it meant that more of his Jewish brothers and sisters would come to faith in Christ. Of course, Paul knew that sacrificing his salvation could not redeem anyone, but his statement expresses his deep longing for them to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus as their Messiah.

Despite the Jewish nation’s initial rejection of Jesus, there were many who had come to believe in Him, and their path to salvation was the same as everyone else's. They had to come to Christ by faith alone; their Jewish heritage could not save them. When it came to God’s assessment of their sinfulness, their coveted position as Abraham's descendants could not earn them special favor with God.

Remember, Paul started out this letter with his thesis that the gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16 ESV).

One of the hardest things for a Jew to do was to let go of his pride and trust in his own self-righteousness and accept the free gift of God’s grace offered through His Son’s death on the cross. Paul knew this firsthand, which led him to quote the words of God found in the book of Exodus.

For God said to Moses,

“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,
    and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it. – Romans 9:15-16 NLT

Paul longed for Jews to come to faith in Christ; he deeply desired their salvation. But he knew that there was only one way for them to be saved, and he made that way known to Timothy, his son in the faith.

…there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time. – 1 Timothy 2:5-6 NLT

Paul believed this message so strongly that he was willing to die that others might live, including his own people. He took his assignment as the apostle to the Gentiles seriously, but he never gave up his quest to reach his fellow Jews with the good news of the gospel.

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. – 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 ESV

Father, Paul’s passion is both inspiring and convicting. He was so willing to share the gospel with his fellow Jews that he endured rejection, ridicule, and even the threat of death every time he entered a synagogue. His efforts to share Christ with his Jewish brothers and sisters were usually far from successful. He was repeatedly chased out of town and, on one occassion, even stoned and left for dead. But he kept on sharing. He persistenly and faithfully kept on calling his fellow Israelites to believe the wonderful news that their Messiah had come and His name was Jesus. I long to have that same kind of passion. As a Gentile, I have experienced the joy of being saved and sanctified by placing my faith in Christ, but I don’t share Paul’s passion and persistence to proclaim that good news to others. Light a fire within me that I too could say, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”  Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

Faith Comes Before Faithfulness

9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. – Romans 4:9-12 ESV

The “blessing” Paul refers to is the one mentioned in the previous two verses, where he quoted directly from the Psalms.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
    whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
    and in whose spirit there is no deceit. - Psalm 32:1-2 ESV 

This blessing includes the forgiveness of sin because of the atonement or payment for those sins by another, leaving the one forgiven with no guilt or further remnants of that sin. Paul says that this remarkable blessing is not just reserved for the Jews, those he refers to as “the circumcised.” This is because the blessing is available to everyone through faith, just as Abraham's righteous standing was made possible by his faith.

Paul makes it clear that God declared Abraham righteous long before He commanded Abraham to be circumcised. Genesis 15 records Abraham’s encounter with God when he was informed about the divine plans for his future.

Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!” – Genesis 15:5 NLT

Despite the fact that Abraham was in his mid-80s at the time and his wife Sarah was barren, the text states, “Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith” (Genesis 15:6 NLT).  It was nearly two decades later that Abraham received God’s command to practice the rite of circumcision.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.” – Genesis 17:1-2 NLT

God agreed to confirm His covenant agreement with Abraham and his future descendants.

“I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.” – Genesis 17:7-8 NLT

But God informed Abraham that their confirmation of the covenant would come with a cost. Every male member of Abraham’s future family would be required to undergo circumcision.

“Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility. This is the covenant that you and your descendants must keep: Each male among you must be circumcised. You must cut off the flesh of your foreskin as a sign of the covenant between me and you. From generation to generation, every male child must be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. This applies not only to members of your family but also to the servants born in your household and the foreign-born servants whom you have purchased. All must be circumcised. Your bodies will bear the mark of my everlasting covenant.” – Genesis 17:9-13 NLT

Circumcision was to be a physical reminder of their covenant commitment to God. It was never intended to be guarantee their right standing before God. Paul emphasizes this point when he states, “He [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised” (Romans 4:11 ESV).

In other words, Abraham's right standing before God had nothing to do with circumcision, but circumcision had everything to do with his right standing before God. It was to be a symbol of his unique relationship with God, rooted in his faith in God. The rite of circumcision did not justify anyone with God, any more than the rite of baptism makes someone right with God today. The descendants of Abraham were to practice circumcision as a sign that they believed in God’s covenant promises. It was an outward demonstration of their faith. Refusing to be circumcised was a demonstration of a lack of faith and would result in that individual’s expulsion from God’s covenant community.

“Any male who fails to be circumcised will be cut off from the covenant family for breaking the covenant.” – Genesis 17:14 NLT

Like baptism, circumcision was intended to be an outward sign of something that had taken place inwardly. However, the Jews had turned circumcision into the source of their righteousness when God had intended it as the sign of their righteousness. Circumcision without faith in God was worthless; it meant nothing. Paul stated this truth earlier when he wrote: “A true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.” (Romans 2:29 NLT).

In the book of Jeremiah, God prophetically declared, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh…all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart” (Jeremiah 9:25, 26 ESV).

Paul tells us that God declared Abraham righteous prior to the covenant of circumcision because He intended Abraham to be the father of all who believe “without being circumcised” (Romans 4:11 ESV). The righteousness God required was based on faith, not works; it was founded on belief, not on obedience to a command. Righteousness could be earned, and it was not a standard to be met. 

…it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. – Romans 2:29 NLT

In plain language, it was to be a work of God, not man, and was to be provided by God, not man. So that no man could boast or brag.

The book of Jeremiah records God’s pleas for His covenant people to return to Him.

“Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! Do not waste your good seed among thorns. O people of Judah and Jerusalem, surrender your pride and power. Change your hearts before the Lord, or my anger will burn like an unquenchable fire because of all your sins.” – Jeremiah 4:3-4 NLT

The people of Judah were guilty of unbelief, having failed to trust God and believe His promises concerning them. They had gone after other gods and made alliances with other nations. They had broken His commands and lived in the false security of their status as God's chosen people. But what God was calling them to do was impossible for them. They would never be able to surrender their pride and power. They did not possess the capacity to change their hearts. As a result, God's punishment was coming.

They would experience His wrath against their sin and rebellion, but God would not annihilate them. Instead, He would preserve them. And while He would allow them to fall into captivity among their enemies for 70 years, He would also restore them to their land and reestablish them as a people. Why? Because He had made a promise to Abraham. God had told Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3 ESV). He had also promised, “To your offspring I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7 ESV).

But in the book of Galatians, Paul makes a clarifying interpretation of these passages. “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ” (Galatians 3:16 ESV). In other words, God's promise to bless the nations through Abraham would be fulfilled through one of his descendants – specifically, Jesus. God made His promise to Abraham long before He gave the law to the people of Israel. So Paul concludes: “The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise. For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise” (Galatians 3:17-18 NLT).

Our righteousness is made possible by faith in the promise of God, just as it was for Abraham. I am not made right with God by trying to live up to His righteous standards. I am made right with Him when I recognize my complete inability to meet His criteria for righteousness and place my faith in His plan for my salvation: His Son's death, burial, and resurrection. 

Jesus died to pay the penalty for my sins, He rose again to prove that His sacrifice was acceptable to God, and He took on my sin and imparted to me His righteousness. All men are made right with God through faith in His Son. When we place our faith in God's plan of salvation, we walk in the footsteps of the faith Abraham laid down all those years ago.

The righteous shall live by faith. – Romans 1:17 ESV

Father, thank You for the gift of faith. It is certainly not something we could have produced. Your Spirit makes faith in Your promises possible. If left to our own devices, we would refuse to believe. Like the Israelites, we would turn our backs on You and worship other gods. In fact, we all do it every day. We are prone to unfaithfulness.; it is built into our fallen DNA. But Your Spirit graciously regenerates those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, and opens their eyes to see the glory of Your grace-based gospel. And when we place our faith in the truth of Your Son’s death, burial, and resurrection, we receive new life. We are born again. Not based on our feeble attempts to keep a list of religious rules or regulations, but based solely on grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

Grace Is Getting What You Don’t Deserve

1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
    and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” – Romans 4:1-8 ESV

God does not owe us anything. Our well-intentioned acts of self-produced righteousness do not score brownie points with God or put Him in our debt. Paul has made it perfectly clear that God's declaration of our righteousness is based solely on faith in His gospel concerning His Son.

No man or woman can earn or merit favor from God. And yet, because of their sin and the death penalty it carries, they find themselves desperately needing to make things right with God. That explains man's ongoing attempt to serve and satisfy the god of his choosing. Man is always attempting to gratify whatever god he has chosen to worship by sacrificing his time, talents, and treasures to that god. It could be the god of religion or recreation.

Every day, countless men and women sacrifice themselves to the gods of entertainment, work, pleasure, popularity, wealth, beauty, and power. They give everything they have to get whatever it is they are expecting their “god” to deliver. But there is only one God, and all stand before Him in the same condition. Despite their best efforts, they have failed to meet His righteous standards and have fallen short of the glory He demands. It doesn't matter how religious or morally-minded you are. It doesn't matter if you worship the right God or the wrong god. It matters if you worship the right God in the right way, and Paul says that way is by faith.

In his gospel, John describes the redemptive plan accessible only through faith in Jesus.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. – John 1:9-13 ESV

When Jesus came, most Gentiles didn't recognize or accept Him, and even though He was a Jew and fulfilled all the prophecies concerning their coming Messiah, the Jews rejected Him. In doing so, they rejected the gospel of God, “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16 ESV).

Paul has already shown that it was not enough to be a Jew. Their privileged position as God's chosen people gave them access to God's law and insight into His holy standards, but it did not equip them to live up to those standards. Despite their standing as God’s treasured possession, they were just as guilty as the Gentiles, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV).

Knowing that any Jews in his audience would automatically appeal to their unique status as descendants of Abraham and attempt to use the patriarch as an example of works-based righteousness, Paul cuts the legs out from under their argument. He states, “if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God” (Romans 4:2 ESV).

Abraham could have bragged about his righteous accomplishments before men, but not before God. His most fervent attempts at righteousness would have scored him no points with God. But Paul, quoting from the Old Testament book of Genesis, writes, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3, Genesis 16:6 ESV).

God reminds any Jews reading his letter that God had promised to make of Abraham a mighty nation, and yet, Abraham was old, and his wife was barren. Both Abraham and Sarah began to question God's promise. How could Abraham father a mighty nation if he couldn't have a son? Already advanced in years and with a barren wife, Abraham assumed his heir would have to be one of his household servants. But God told Abraham, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!” (Genesis 15:4-5 NLT).

After this divine disclosure, God repeated His original promise to Abraham, and the Genesis account records, “he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6 ESV).

It was Abraham's faith in God's promise that led to God's declaration of his righteous standing before Him; it had nothing to do with Abraham's works or efforts. In fact, Paul insists that when someone does labor, they deserve their wages as payment. Their wages are not a gift; they were earned. Then Paul points out the difference works worthy of remuneration and the gift of righteousness.

But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. – Romans 4:5 NLT

Again, Paul turns to the Hebrew Scriptures to prove his point. Quoting Psalm 32:1-2, he writes, “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin” (Romans 4:7-8 NLT).

Our forgiveness from God is a gift, unearned and undeserved. Our salvation is made possible by His Son's death, not by our good works. As Paul makes clear in Chapter Six, the only thing God owes man is death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:23 NLT

Our sins have earned us nothing but God's wrath, and yet He chose to provide a way of escape, a solution to our sin problem. He sent His Son to pay the penalty for our sins and, in so doing, Jesus satisfied the wrath of God. When anyone places their faith in God's sole provision for salvation, the death and resurrection of His Son, they receive the gift of His righteousness. Their disobedience is forgiven, their sins are put out of sight, and their record of rebellion against God is cleared once and for all.

For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. – Romans 5:10-11 NLT

Father, what an incredible thought that we are now Your friends. Because of Jesus, we are no longer Your enemies, condemned by our sinfulness and incapable of doing anything to win back Your favor. Instead, we have placed our faith in Your Son’s death on our behalf and received the marvelous gift of salvation and restoration. We who were at one time deserving of death have been forgiven and offered the gift of eternal life. You owed us nothing but have given us everything. We deserved justice and judgment but received love, mercy, and grace instead. My prayer is the same as that of Paul. That we may have the power to understand, as all Your people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep Your love is. And that we may experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then we will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from You (Ephesians 3:18-19 NLT). Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

The Only Way That Matters

27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. – Romans 3:27-31 ESV

When it comes to righteousness or obtaining a right standing before God, does anyone have grounds on which to boast? Is it possible for a Jew to claim righteousness because of his adherence to the law? If it were, Paul asserts, then Christ died in vain. If righteousness is available through self-effort or by keeping the law, then the Gentiles are hopeless, because God did not give them His law. But Paul asks, “Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also?” (Romans 3:29 ESV). Then he answers his own question. “Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one…” (Romans 3:30 ESV).

There are not two plans of salvation – one for the Jews and one for the Gentiles. God did not set up two means of attaining righteousness – one through good works and the other through faith. God “will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith” (Romans 3:30 ESV). In this last sentence, Paul uses two different prepositions: by and through. One is the Greek word ek, and the other is dia, and they both mean essentially the same thing: “by” means “of.”

Most likely, Paul used two different prepositions when speaking of Jews and Gentiles to illustrate that God chose to deal with each in two distinct ways. To the Jews, He gave the law. But it was to show them His holy expectations and their inability to meet them. The Gentiles did not receive the law; they were essentially outsiders. In writing to the Gentile believers in Ephesus, Paul reminded them of their former lives as outcasts.

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called ‘uncircumcised heathens’ by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. – Ephesians 2:11-12 NLT

Then he gave them the good news.

But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. – Ephesians 2:13 NLT

They had drawn near to God because they had been made right with Him, through the blood of Christ and faith. Both Jews and Gentiles are made right with God by and through faith. What looked like two different paths was essentially one and the same. The gospel of God (His plan for man's salvation) was always going to go through Jesus. That is why Paul can so confidently and emphatically state, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28 ESV). He doesn't say, “in conjunction with” or “alongside” works of the law. In other words, justification stands based solely on faith, and that faith must be placed in a single source: God's offer of salvation made possible through the death of His own Son.

In his letter to the believers in Corinth, Paul provides a synopsis of the gospel, the good news in which they had placed their faith.

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. – 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 NLT

He came, died, was buried, rose again, and appeared. And Paul says, “so we preach and so you believed” (1 Corinthians 15:11 ESV).

It is belief in God's gospel that brings about our justification. We are made right with God through faith in His redemptive plan, not our own futile efforts to live a righteous life.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

It is our belief in that reality that makes us right with God. In the next chapter of Romans, Paul states, “He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right [justified] with God” (Romans 4:25 NLT). That is what we must believe. It is in that truth we must place our faith. 

So does faith eliminate and invalidate the law? Not in the least. Paul claims that when we are justified by faith, we actually uphold the law. Paul uses the Greek word histēmi’, which means “to uphold or sustain the authority or force of anything” (Outline of Biblical Usage). Our ability to keep the law is made possible through our faith in the redemptive work of Christ. Our capacity to live righteously or rightly is given to us by God through our faith in Christ. Paul summarizes our new relationship with the law in a later chapter.

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. – Romans 8:2-4 ESV

Through His gospel, God has made it possible for men to live in harmony with Him by placing the desire to keep His commands in their hearts. No longer do we serve Him in the flesh or through our human effort. And that is good news because “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8 ESV).

Because of God’s grace-based, love-motivated gospel, we live by faith in Christ and according to the power of the Holy Spirit. As Paul emphatically states in Chapter 8, this gospel of redemption is truly good news.

If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. – Romans 8:10 ESV

Father, Paul’s seeming obsession with this topic makes sense. If we get this wrong, it’s not just a matter of semantics or a doctrinal error, it has eternal ramifications. Any slight alteration to the gospel is not only wrong, it’s potentially deadly. Yet, we continue to chase after gospel alternatives that allow us to pursue righteousness on our own and according to our agenda. We humans inherently love rules, but we have a tendency to cherry pick the rules we want to keep. Even worse, we brazenly create our own lists of dos and dont’s and measure our righteousness by self-determined standards designed to make us look good. But You have a much higher standard, one that is impossible for us to keep. Even though You were aware of man’s incapacity to live up to Your moral code, You didn’t dumb it down or compromise Your standards. Instead, You sent Your Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body You declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins (Romans 8:3-4). That had always been Your plan and it is the only one that will work. No other gospel or plan of redemption exists that can restore sinful men to a right relationship with You. Thank You for Jesus. Thank You for the good news of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

Self-Righteousness Is Self-Delusional

9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16     in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” – Romans 3:9-18 ESV

Paul has just said that the Jews do have an advantage, because they “were entrusted with the oracles of God” (Romans 3:2 ESV). They had been given the seal of circumcision as a sign of the covenant that God had made with them. They were His chosen people whom He had promised to bless them and, through them, bless all the nations of the earth. He had led them, protected them, given them their own land, provided them with His law, privileged them with His presence, and instituted a sacrificial system that provided them with atonement for their sins. So, they did have a distinct advantage.

Yet, Paul begins verse nine with a question: “What then? Are we Jews any better off?” And then he answers his own question: “No, not at all.”

Though the Jews had an advantage, that did not mean they availed themselves of it. Some, like Abraham, recognized that their righteousness was determined by faith and not by works, and they trusted in God's promises. Better yet, they trusted in God. Martin Luther writes, “Abraham did not believe God in order that he might become the father of many nations, but he believed God as the One who is true and faithful” (Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans).

Abraham believed in God’s faithfulness even though he lived as a nomad, never owning a home in the very land God had promised as his inheritance. Abraham died long before his descendants became a mighty nation. And yet, he believed. He trusted in the faithfulness of God. Quoting St. Augustine, Martin Luther writes, “God is glorified through faith, hope, and love. According to a common saying, God is directly insulted by three sins: unbelief, despair, and hatred” (Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans).

Failing to believe in God was an ongoing issue for the Israelites that manifested itself in idolatry, disobedience, stubbornness, immorality, selfishness, and the constant urge to achieve righteousness through self-effort.

So Paul says even the Jews were no better off than the Gentiles. All are under sin. Then, to support his statement, Paul turns to the Old Testament Scriptures. Verses 10-18 are drawn from the Psalms and the writings of the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah. Acting as a prosecuting attorney, Paul brings glaring evidence to bear against all who might try to defend their self-produced righteousness before God.

Every man and woman stands guilty and condemned. None is righteous or understands the truth about God's holiness and His determination that righteousness is through faith alone. There is no one who seeks God. Instead, they seek their own will and pleasure. They gladly accept whatever they can get from God, but they have no desire for a relationship with Him.

Paul uses the Scriptures to paint a bleak picture of man's condition. But he is attempting to present the glory of the gospel as “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV). Paul's thesis statement for his letter is “the righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:18 ESV). So he goes out of his way to prove that, without faith, no one is righteous, and that includes his own people, the Jews.

When John the Baptist began his ministry, he had a singular message

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” – Matthew 3:2 ESV

Later, after John was arrested by Herod, Jesus picked up that same message.

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” – Matthew 4:17 ESV

When we read the word "repent," we tend to think of someone turning away from sin, and while that is an accurate reading of the word, it is far from complete. To repent means “to change one's mind.” So when John and Jesus called the people of Israel to repentance, they were telling them to change their minds. But about what? Sin? No, sin was the outcome of something else. They needed to change their minds about God and the means of achieving a righteous standing before Him. They still believed that righteousness was based on works, had long ago stopped believing in God's faithfulness, and had begun believing in the myth of their own capacity to please Him.

They thought they could earn God's favor by trying to keep His law. But Jesus told them to repent by changing their minds. He was calling them to believe in Him. All they believed about God and righteousness was wrong, and therefore, their view of their own sinfulness was mistaken. Because of their “good works,” they saw themselves as righteous and without sin.

But Paul was not going to let anyone stand on the lie of self-righteousness. So he proved man's guilt with the words of God.

“There is none who does good, not even one.” – Psalm 14:3 ESV

Self-righteousness is self-delusional. The belief in one’s own sinlessness is ridiculous. John wrote, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8 ESV). Self-deceit may make us feel better about ourselves, but it does not make us righteous before God. Faith in ourselves is not the kind of faith God is looking for.

Father, man is obsessed with his own self-righteousness. I guess we take a certain amount of personal pride in our capacity to do the right thing. But, according to You, even our best deeds done with the best of intentions are nothing but filthy rags. They are worthless and incapable of earning Your favor or forgiveness. Yet, even as believers, we continue to believe the lie that our filthy rags aren’t really filthy. In fact, we convince ourselves that our attempts at righteousness are more than good enough for You. Yet, Paul reminds us that no can stand before You as acceptable on their own merits. It is, and always has been, based on grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We can add nothing to the gospel formula. It Jesus plus nothing. I am reminded of the words of the old hymn Rock of Ages.

Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law's demands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.

 Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

The Heart of the Matter

25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. – Romans 2:25-29 ESV

In this chapter, Paul has been dealing primarily with the Jews, those who have been chosen by God, commanded to keep His law, and who enjoyed a unique and privileged relationship with Him. They believed themselves to be spiritually superior and safe from God's judgment, because they were His treasured possession.

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” – Deuteronomy 7:6 ESV

“And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.” – Deuteronomy 26:18-19 ESV

But in his ongoing exposition of the “gospel of God,” Paul makes it clear that it is impossible for either the Jew or the Gentile to produce the kind of righteousness God demands. Even though the Jews enjoyed a one-of-a-kind relationship with God, they were no better off when it came to righteousness than their non-Jewish neighbors. Paul even accused them of passing judgment on the Gentiles while practicing the very same sins. It wasn't enough to have and to know the law; you had to keep it.

Paul said it was “the doers of the law who will be justified” (Romans 2:13 ESV). In other words, those who wanted to be made right with God would have to keep His law perfectly and completely.

“…you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 19:37 ESV

You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess. – Deuteronomy 5:32-33 ESV

Paul's accusations against his own people were anything but gentle.

While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. – Romans 2:21-23 ESV

Circumcision, the physical, outward sign of the covenant between the people of Israel and God, was to be a constant reminder and a permanent mark of their status as God's people. But circumcision was not enough. They still had to obey Him and be faithful, worshiping Him alone. When God gave the law to Moses, the people had a non-negotiable, indisputable outline of God's righteous expectations, so they were without excuse. That led Paul to conclude that their sign of circumcision was meaningless without obedience.

The Jewish ceremony of circumcision has value only if you obey God’s law. But if you don’t obey God’s law, you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile. – Romans 2:25 NLT

Circumcision was intended as a physical sign of their spiritual union with God through the covenant He had established with them. But the sign was rendered meaningless if the recipient was unwilling to submit to God's will. Being a Jew was directly tied to being obedient to God. The privilege of being God's chosen people came with a heavy responsibility. It was not enough to have a mark on your body, an external sign of ownership.

For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law… – Romans 2:28-29 NLT

The book of Deuteronomy records the words Moses spoke to the people of Israel, not long after their debacle with the golden calf in the wilderness. Because of their disobedience, Moses informed them that the real sign of their covenant relationship with Yahweh was to be a very different kind of circumcision.

“Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.” – Deuteronomy 10:14-17 NLT

The people of Israel were guilty of disobedience and unfaithfulness. While Moses had been on the mountaintop receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the people had been busy worshiping the golden calf down in the valley. In his anger and disappointment, Moses had broken the original tablets on which God had inscribed His law. So he was forced to return to the mountain to receive a second set.

Despite their unfaithfulness and spiritual adultery, God gave His rebellious people a second chance.

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” – Deuteronomy 10:12-13 ESV

God demanded obedience and required faithfulness from the heart. The problem with man has always been an inner one, not an outer one. Our sinfulness flows from the heart. Jesus said, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you” (Mark 7:20-23 NLT).

Paul’s point was that circumcision is a matter of the heart; it has always been about the heart. The kind of heart that God is looking for is only available through a work of the Spirit, not the efforts of men. Keeping the law through outward effort will always fail because man's heart is inherently evil and unfaithful. The prophet Jeremiah had strong words from the Lord for the people of Judah, who had been repeatedly unfaithful and unable to keep the law of God. And God informed them that their sinful disposition was inherently unchangeable. 

“Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil.” – Jeremiah 13:23 NLT

They had a heart problem that rendered them incapable of remaining faithful to God or refraining from sin against God.

So Paul wanted his readers to know that all men, whether Jews or Gentiles, stood guilty before God. It wasn't a matter of perceived spiritual status or a knowledge of God and His ways; it was about obedience, faithfulness, and perfect righteousness, something man was incapable of pulling off on his own.

Paul continues to support his primary premise that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The righteousness God demanded and expected was only available through faith in His Son. The kind of heart change required to remain faithful to God was only made possible through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. All men need the gospel, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV). 

Father, You always look for heart change, not just behavior modification. Yet, we tend to concentrate all our efforts at DOING rather than BEING. We spend all our time trying to alter our outward actions, while neglecting the state of our hearts. We think we can somehow live up to Your stringent standards of righteousness through sheer willpower, but we always fail. Because the brand of righteousness You demand cannot be produced through self-effort. It is the fruit of Your indwelling Holy Spirit. Only He can empower us to live set-apart lives that reflect our status as Your sons and daughters. But even the Spirit of God will not force holiness upon us. His presence within us requires submission from us. We have to listen and obey. But as Paul told the Galatian believers, “We who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love” (Galatians 5:5-6 NLT). You have provided the power; but we must avail ourselves of it by willingly submitting to it. And when we do, we are “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:11 ESV. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

A Sinner Condemned, Unclean

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. – Romans 2:12-16 ESV

Paul viewed sin as nothing less than unrighteousness, man's inability to live up to God's righteous standard. Earlier, in chapter one, Paul wrote, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18 ESV). The unrighteous behavior of men, their refusal to live according to God's divine requirements, suppresses the truth about God’s identity and His expectations for mankind.

God created man to live in fellowship with Him, enjoying unbroken companionship and walking in step with His revealed will. But man chose autonomy over conformity to God’s will, making the fateful decision to determine right or wrong on his own.

Eve believed the lie of the enemy and did what God had commanded her not to do, and her husband willingly followed her lead. Ever since, men and women have continued to live unrighteously and ungodly, apart from God's will. And, according to Paul, all men are without excuse, whether they had been given the Mosaic law or not. Paul makes it clear that both Jews and Gentiles stand before God as unrighteous. The Gentiles, or those “who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law” (Romans 2:12 ESV). They are without excuse, because they “show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it” (Romans 2:14 NLT).

All men instinctively know right from wrong. All cultures have laws or accepted moral standards against murder, cheating, stealing, and a host of other “sins.” Paul says, “They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right” (Romans 2:15 NLT). Having been created in the image of God, all humanity has had the Creator’s moral code imprinted on their hearts and minds. This includes the Gentiles who were never given the Mosaic Law to regulate their conduct and consciences.

But the Jews are just as culpable, if not more so. They were given the law of God engraved on tablets of stone. He clearly articulated His righteous standards and requirements for morally acceptable behavior. He showed them exactly what was necessary to live righteous and godly lives. Paul states, “the Jews, who do have God’s law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it” (Romans 2:12 NLT). They will be judged by what they know but, ultimately, by what they do.

For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight. – Romans 2:13 NLT

Knowledge of God’s law was not enough; He expected His commands to be obeyed. The Jews, who had been given the law, failed to keep it. They knew what was expected of them but were unable to live up to God's righteous standards. So their lives were marked by unrighteousness, despite having received and heard God’s righteous commands.

The Gentiles were also condemned as unrighteous because they rejected the law of God written on their hearts. Yet Paul acknowledges that there are occasions when the Gentiles instinctively obey God’s law. 

…they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. – Romans 2:14-15 NLT

But their obedience is sporadic and devoid of any reverence for God. Their spotty adherence to the law is self-serving rather than submissive to God’s divine authority. As Paul stated in the opening chapter of his letter, the Gentiles long ago abandoned any intention of submitting to the will of God.

…they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. – Romans 1:21-23 NLT

So what's Paul’s point? What is he trying to tell us? Remember, in this letter he has addressed the gospel of God and attempted to explain the divine nature of God's redemptive plan for mankind – “the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16 ESV).

The kind of righteousness God demands is only available through faith, not through human effort. Both Jews and Gentiles have clearly proven that no one can live up to the righteous demands of a holy God. Quoting from the prophet Habakkuk, Paul writes, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 ESV). Those who would live righteous lives must do so based on faith in God. The Jews were required to trust in and rely upon the law of God to guide, direct, and protect them from sin and judgment. The Gentiles were dependent upon the law of God written on their hearts and were obligated, by faith, to trust His divine will.

Man inherently knows what is right; it is wired into his system. He knows instinctively what to do and how to live, but lacks the ability to pull it off. It isn't that he is unaware of God's expectations; it is that he is unable to live up to them. Later in this same letter, Paul writes, “The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature” (Romans 8:3a NLT).

Even when God gave the Jews His perfect, holy law, eliminating all doubt about what His expectations might be, He knew they would fail because of their sinful natures. But Paul provides the good news:

So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. – Romans 8:3b NLT

That is Paul's point and the thesis of his entire letter. God did for man what man could not do for himself. He provided a means by which man could be justified or made right with Him. And without faith in the saving work of the Son of God, no man, either Jew or Gentile, will be able to stand before God on the day of judgment. Their sins will condemn them, and even their most righteous acts will fail to measure up.

The prophet Isaiah assessed mankind’s state in rather bleak terms. 

We are all infected and impure with sin.
    When we display our righteous deeds,
    they are nothing but filthy rags.
Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall,
    and our sins sweep us away like the wind.
Yet no one calls on your name
    or pleads with you for mercy.
Therefore, you have turned away from us
    and turned us over to our sins. – Isaiah 64:6-7 NLT

But again, Paul balances the bad news with the good news. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25 ESV).

We are made right (justified) with God, not based on our own human effort, but because of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. And it is our faith in Him, not in our works, that leads to our salvation.

Father, Your gospel isn’t just good news, it is great news. It provided a way for sinful humanity to be restored to a right relationship with You. Without the death and resurrection of Jesus, none of us would stand a chance of entering Your presence and receiving forgiveness of sin and the hope of eternal life. Our best efforts, whether motivated by the law written on tablets or on our hearts, could not measure up to Your holy standards. All of “righteous” deeds are unacceptable to You because they are polluted by sin and rendered of no more value than “filthy rags.” Yet, because of Your gracious love and the sacrificial act of Your Son we can sing the words of the old hymn, “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be:
How marvelous! How wonderful is my Savior’s love for me.” Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

Earning God’s Favor Never Pays

 6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality. – Romans 2:6-11 ESV

In Chapter Two of Romans, Paul addresses the Jewish community. In the first chapter, he talked about the non-Jew or pagan, who stands before God as without excuse and guilty. They have been exposed to God's “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (Romans 1:20 ESV) through creation, and yet, they have refused to acknowledge Him as God. Instead, they ended up worshiping the creation rather than the Creator, resulting in God turning them over to their own foolish hearts, dishonorable passions, and debased minds.

As far as Paul was concerned, the Jews were no less culpable or free from guilt. In fact, they were so busy pointing their condemning fingers at the pagan Gentiles that they failed to acknowledge their own guilt for having committed the same sins. As descendants of Abraham and children of God, they considered themselves exempt from judgment. They somehow thought themselves immune to God's wrath. But Paul warned them that they, too, were without excuse. They stood just as condemned and guilty as the Gentiles who were outside the family of God. Their self-righteous attempts to honor God were no more effective than the Gentiles’ pagan pursuit of their false gods.

Paul accused the Jews of having hard and unrepentant hearts; they refused to admit their guilt and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. So Paul warned them that “you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5 ESV). Not only that, the day was coming when God would render to each of them according to his works.

Paul is using the Hebrew Scriptures to indict them. He quotes from two different passages; the first is a Psalm of David.

Once God has spoken;
    twice have I heard this:
that power belongs to God,
   and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.
For you will render to a man
    according to his work. – Proverbs 24:11-12 NLT

The second is a proverb of Solomon.

If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
    does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
    and will he not repay man according to his work? - Proverbs 24:12 ESV

Their own Scriptures warned that the coming judgment of God would be based on each man's works. The expectation was righteousness, but it would have to be God's brand of righteousness, not man's. His divine requirement was perfection and nothing less. Yahweh had repeatedly warned the Israelites, “I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. ” (Leviticus 11:44 ESV).

Jesus had told the Jews of His day, “unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20 NLT). James put it in even more practical, if not demanding, terms.

For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God's laws. – James 2:10 NLT

Paul seems to give only two options for life, and both end in judgment. One is to satisfy the self and disobey the truth regarding God and His gospel offer. Those who choose that path will end up obeying unrighteousness and earning God's full wrath on the day of judgment. The other option is to live self-righteously, attempting to obey God's law and earn a right standing with Him through your own efforts. If you happen to pull it off, your reward on judgment day will be glory, honor, peace, and immortality, while everyone else gets tribulation and distress.

But is Paul suggesting that we can earn our salvation by doing good deeds? Certainly not. He is showing that those who are sinners will be judged and condemned, but so will those who consider themselves to be righteous because of their own efforts. In the next chapter, Paul makes it clear that “all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin” (Romans 3:9 NLT), and that “no one is righteous – not even one” (Romans 3:10 NLT). Later, Paul will introduce the sobering news, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NLT).

So self-righteousness is no better than sinfulness. Attempting to do good things for God puts you in no better position than those who blatantly sin against Him. God shows no partiality; nobody gets to earn their way into His good graces. There is only one way for men to be made right with God, and that is through the death of Jesus Christ.

Later in Chapter Three, Paul states, “all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24 NLT). That includes the Jew and the Gentile, the pagan and the pious, the selfish and the self-righteous. Paul elaborated on this grace-based gift from God in his letter to the Ephesians.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. – Ephesians 2:8-9  NLT

We can't earn our salvation, and none of us deserves God's grace and mercy. The Jews of Paul’s day were no better off than the Gentiles. They, too, were sinners who stood condemned and unclean before a holy, righteous God. Paul reminds us that at the foot of the cross, we're all equals when it comes to our guiltiness and our need for salvation and atonement. Which is why he wrote, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV).

The greatest danger men face is to fall under the delusion of man-made righteousness. We will never be able to achieve our way into God's presence or earn our way into His good graces. Which is why He sent His Son to live among us, model holiness right in front of us, and die on behalf of us.

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. – 2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

Father, I confess that I still have the tendency to try to earn my way into Your good graces. Despite all I know and understand about the gift of salvation, I find myself going down the path of self-righteousness, hoping that I can somehow do enough to earn Your love and deserve Your favor. But Your grace is a gift, and your love for me is unmerited and undeserved. In fact, You loved me while I was mired in my sin and incapable of doing anything that you would consider righteous or acceptable. Your Son died for me while I was a sinner, not after I got my spiritual act together. Jesus didn’t sacrifice His life to save the righteous. He willingly paid the penalty for my sins, a debt I could never have settled on my own. Yet, even after accepting the free gift of salvation through Your Son, I continue to pursue the path of self-righteousness, needlessly trying to do enough “good deeds” that will keep You satisfied and maintain my right standing before You. But Christ’s death was enough. His selfless sacrifice restored me to a right relationship with You – once for all. I don’t have to earn Your favor because I already have it. I don’t have to do anything to merit Your love because You loved me enough to send Your Son to die in my place. So, my “‘good deeds” aren’t done to earn Your favor, they’re a way of saying “thank You.” Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

The Strength to Endure

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. 4 Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. – 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4 ESV

As is obvious from the book’s title, this is a second letter written by Paul to the congregation of the church in Thessalonica. There may have been other letters written as well, but they were not included in the Canon of Scripture. It is unclear how much time passed since Paul wrote his first letter, but he obviously received new information regarding the spiritual state of affairs in Thessalonica, and he felt compelled to pen his response.

Paul was still in Corinth, some 358 miles away, when he heard the latest report concerning the church in Thessalonica. Driven by his pastor’s heart but hindered by the distance between them, Paul immediately put pen to paper in an effort to clarify the confusion that had been brought into the church by false teachers. This was a constant problem for Paul and the other apostles. As soon as they proclaimed the good news regarding salvation alone through faith in Christ alone, others would appear on the scene, declare themselves to be teachers, and begin offering what Paul refers to elsewhere as “a different gospel.”

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. – 2 Corinthians 11:4 ESV

These “false” teachers were propagating their own version of the truth, adding to or taking away from the message of Jesus that Paul and the rest of the apostles had been divinely commissioned to preach. Paul told the churches in Galatia that these individuals were to be treated as enemies of God and as threats to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. – Galatians 1:8 ESV

But before broaching the subject of the doctrinal controversy going on in Thessalonica, Paul addressed his audience in his usual gracious manner, expressing his strong affection for them and complimenting them for their “steadfastness and faith” in the face of all the persecutions and afflictions they were having to endure. The members of the Thessalonian church were still relatively new converts to Christianity, and they were living in a predominantly pagan society heavily influenced by both Greek and Roman culture. Located on a major trade route, Thessalonica was a cultural melting pot that enjoyed unprecedented prosperity. As the capital of the Roman province of Macedon, it also benefited from the protection provided by Caesar’s powerful legions.

But all of these factors made Thessalonica a particularly hostile environment for those who had chosen to place their faith in Christ. While Thessalonica was considered a rather pluralistic society, there was strong resistance to Christianity from the Greeks and the sparse contingent of Jews who called Thessalonica home. The small but growing band of Christ-followers was feeling intense pressure from all sides as they attempted to live out their new faith under less-than-ideal conditions.

Paul, writing on behalf of his ministry companions, Silvanus and Timothy, compliments the Thessalonians for their steadfastness and perseverance under fire.

We proudly tell God’s other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering. – 2 Thessalonians 1:4 NLT

While the circumstances around them were difficult, these faithful few were not giving in or choosing to give up. In fact, Paul emphasizes that they were handling the pressure with remarkable poise and persistence.

…your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. – 2 Thessalonians 1:3 ESV

Paul opens his letter with his usual salutation, declaring his desire that they enjoy the ongoing benefit of God’s grace and peace. While Paul used this same phrasing in many of his letters, it should not be seen as some rote and, therefore, meaningless line. He meant what he said. His desire that they experience God’s grace or unmerited favor was real. For Paul, the grace of God played an indispensable role in every believer’s salvation, but also in their ongoing sanctification. Without the benefit of God’s grace, no one could come to faith in Christ.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. – Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT

Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. – Romans 3:24 NLT

Paul understood that, after salvation, God’s grace continued to play a vital role in the believer’s transformation into the likeness of Christ. God graciously provides each believer with His indwelling Holy Spirit, who provides the power required to live the Christian life. That’s why Paul warned the believers in Galatia just how futile and foolish it was to try to achieve spiritual maturity without God’s grace, as demonstrated by the Spirit’s enabling power.

After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? – Galatians 3:3 NLT

Paul knew that without the ongoing benefit of God’s unmerited favor, the Thessalonian believers would never experience the fullness of joy and the abundant life Christ promised to give them. But he also knew that the peace of God was another essential resource in their ongoing spiritual transformation. In his letter to the churches in Philippi, Paul described this peace as that which “exceeds anything we can understand,” and he assured them that God’s “peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7 NLT).

When Paul commended the Thessalonians for their faith and love and complimented them for their steadfastness and faith, he knew that it was all attributable to God’s grace and peace. He was at work in their midst. Yes, He had saved them, but He was also sustaining and supporting them as their spiritual journey continued. Paul was fully convinced of the reality of God’s ongoing participation in the life of every believer, a belief he expressed boldly and often.

Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. – 1 Corinthians 1:7-8 NLT

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. – 1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT

The Thessalonians were in good hands, and they had everything they needed for living godly lives because of the grace of God the Father. The apostle Peter shared Paul’s confidence in the power of God’s grace.

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. – 2 Peter 1:3 NLT

Father, You never said that the Christian life would be easy. Even Your Son warned that it would be accompanied by trials and marked by suffering. He told His disciples that the world would hate them just as it hated Him. And yet, despite the difficulties that sometimes accompany the life of faith, You have provided us with everything we need to not only survive, but thrive. You constantly pour out Your grace and peace in abundance, and provide us with power through the indwelling presence of Your Spirit. We are never alone or left to struggle in our own strength. The same grace that made our salvation possible makes our sanctification attainable. Your peace, which surpasses all understanding, provides us with comfort and hope even in the darkest moments. We can display endurance and faithfulness because You make it possible. And for that, we are eternally grateful. Amen.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Committed to the Cause

1 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. – 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 ESV

Paul was under constant pressure to defend his apostleship because he was not one of Jesus’ original 12 disciples. However, as Paul points out, he had received his commission to take the gospel to the Gentiles directly from Jesus Christ Himself. But his opponents, of which there were many, questioned the validity of his claim to be an emissary of Christ. So, they attempted to undermine his ministry by raising doubts concerning his authority to speak and the veracity of his message. He was just a man, they claimed; his message was not from God, but was nothing more than the self-delusional rants of a self-appointed apostle.

This forced Paul to constantly validate his ministry and message. In the opening line of his letter to the Galatian church, Paul wrote: “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father” (Galatians 1:1 ESV). Just a few verses later, Paul told them:

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. – Galatians 1:11-12 ESV

And Paul went on to explain to them how that revelation came about.

For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles… – Galatians 1:13-16 ESV

Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, confirms Paul’s description of that event and provides us with further details.

Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains. – Acts 9:1-2 ESV

But while on his way to Damascus, fully intending to continue his persecution of the followers of Jesus, Paul had a life-changing encounter.

As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”

“Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.

And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” – Acts 9:3-6 ESV

Paul (Saul was his Hebrew name), having been blinded by the light and bewildered by this unexpected change in his itinerary, made his way to Damascus. In the meantime, God appeared in a vision to Ananias, a Christ-follower living in the city, informing him to lay hands on Paul to restore his sight. Ananias expressed his reluctance because of Paul’s reputation for animosity against Christians, but God insisted that this was all part of His divine plan for Paul.

“Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.” – Acts 9:15-16 ESV

And years later, Paul would stand before King Agrippa and recount the story of his conversion on the road to Damascus. And he would add the words of the message he received when Christ confronted him.

“But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” – Acts 26:16-18 ESV

But what does all this have to do with chapter 2 of the book of 1 Thessalonians? Everything. In this chapter, Paul reminds the believers in Thessalonica of the day when he and Silas had first appeared in their city more than a year earlier. In the interim, and in his absence, enemies of Paul had been spreading rumors and suggesting that he was not what he claimed to be. They had been casting dispersion on both his message and his motives.

Yet Paul reminds them that he and Silas had arrived in their city after having been beaten and imprisoned in Philippi. The city officials in Philippi had forced them to vacate the premises because their presence had resulted in a riot, and Paul reminds the Thessalonians, “But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict” (1 Thessalonians 2:2 ESV).

If Paul had claimed to be an apostle simply to seek fame or fortune, he had been far from successful. His assertion of apostleship had earned him little more than rejection and suffering everywhere he went. He wanted the believers in Thessalonica to know that his only motivation was to declare to them the gospel of God – even in the midst of conflict.

Paul had the same message for the believers in Galatia. If he was simply out to gain the favor of men, he was failing miserably. In fact, if Paul had wanted to win a popularity contest, the last thing he would have done was present himself as an apostle of Christ preaching a controversial message of sin, judgment, and salvation. That’s why Paul told the Galatians, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10 ESV).

And Paul assured the Thessalonian believers that, despite what others were saying, he and Silas had been anything but deceptive or dishonest in their motivation.

For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive… – 1 Thessalonians 2:3 ESV

They had not set out to please men, seek glory, or get rich. But they had been approved by God and entrusted with the gospel message. That’s why, when they had suffered in Philippi, they hadn’t abandoned their mission, but continued their efforts to spread the gospel, even in the face of extreme opposition and personal pain. If Paul and Silas had been in it for what they could get out of it, they would have thrown in the towel a long time ago. But as Paul makes clear, their motivation had been and continued to be heartfelt and God-ordained.

Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else. – 1 Thessalonians 2:4-6 NLT

Paul was anything but a people-pleaser, and his message was far from politically correct. He was an in-your-face, no-holds-barred kind of guy who delivered the message of the gospel unapologetically, making no attempt to water it down or make it more palatable and acceptable.

In delivering the gospel to the Gentiles, Paul had faced opposition from the Jewish believers in Jerusalem, who still questioned the validity of uncircumcised Gentiles having access to salvation. If nothing else, they believed these Gentiles had to first convert to Judaism. But Paul had stood his ground, demanding that the gospel message put no such requirements on Gentile converts. Salvation was based on God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Paul had also faced opposition from the Gentiles, who resisted his efforts to convert their people to this new religion or cult, called The Way. Paul’s message of the gospel was resulting in conversions among the Gentiles, leading these new believers to walk away from their false gods and their old ways of life to serve the one true God. Because the gospel brought about life change, these conversions were having an influence on the local communities and their economies. And, according to Luke, that’s exactly what happened in the city of Ephesus.

Many who became believers confessed their sinful practices. A number of them who had been practicing sorcery brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire. The value of the books was several million dollars. – Acts 19:18-19 NLT

The gospel was powerfully transformative; it changed lives. That was why Paul was committed to carrying out his God-ordained mission to share the gospel with both Jews and Gentiles. He was motivated by love and compassion, not greed or fame. And he reminded the Thessalonians that he and Silas had come to them like innocent children, free from guile and with no ulterior motives. They had displayed the same love as a mother who feeds and cares for her children. She does so sacrificially and willingly, and not for what she can get out of it.

Paul assured them, “We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too” (1 Thessalonians 2:8 NLT). They gave their lives away. They sacrificed, and rather than demanding payment for their services, they willingly shared all that they had. They risked all for the sake of the gospel and the salvation of the handful of Thessalonians who had heard and received it. And Paul would gladly do it again.

Father, What a picture of commitment to one’s calling. In fulfilling His God-given commission, Paul faced all kinds of opposition and rejection, and, yet, he never gave up. He had his motives questioned, his message maligned, and his ministry undermined at every turn. But, like the Energizer Bunny, he kept going and going and going. He wasn’t out to please men or pad his portfolio. Fame and fortune meant nothing to him. He was sold out to the calling of Christ and determined to tell others about the One who had radically and permanently changed his life. Give me that same passion and desire to make the gospel my highest priority. Keep me from making it about me or allowing the enemy to distract me from the call to make disciples of all the nations. Amen.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Good News Travels Fast

8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. – 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10 ESV

The church at Thessalonica may have been small, but it was effective. They were suffering persecution for their faith, but were not allowing their suffering to diminish their joy in the Lord. Paul compares their lives to the notes of an instrument “sounded forth…everywhere” (1 Thessalonians 8 ESV). The Greek word he used is exēcheō, and it means “to sound forth, to echo forth.” Their actions, attitudes, and outward expressions of their faith in Christ had traveled well beyond the borders of their city and into the surrounding regions.

There is no indication that the Thessalonian church had sent out actual missionaries to carry “the word of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 1:8 ESV), but word of their transformed lives had spread beyond the borders of their town. Their lives were witness to the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite their less-than-satisfactory circumstances, they were exhibiting the sanctifying power of the Spirit in their daily lives. And because Thessalonica was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia, and stood on the Via Egnatia, the Roman highway to the East, countless travelers would have heard the news of this fledgling religious community and their message of the resurrected Christ. It wasn’t long before stories of their faith and growing numbers were carried throughout the region. 

Paul makes a somewhat hyperbolic statement in order to indicate the powerful nature of their witness: –…your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything… (1 Thessalonians 1:8 ESV). 

Obviously, Paul and his traveling companions were still sharing the gospel wherever they went, but they were hearing more and more stories of those who had come to faith because of the witness of the Thessalonian believers. Paul provides details regarding the exact nature of their testimony.

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God… – 1 Thessalonians 1:9 ESV

The Thessalonian believers were living proof of the power of the gospel, providing irrefutable evidence that God could transform idol-worshiping, sin-enslaved people into Spirit-filled, faith-empowered disciples of Jesus Christ. Their lives were tangible proof of the transformative power of the gospel that Paul described it to Titus.

For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God… – Titus 2:11-12 NLT

In the first part of verse 9, Paul mentions “the kind of reception” he and Silas had experienced when they arrived in Thessalonica on their second missionary journey. It’s interesting to note that the New Living Translation renders Paul’s words as “the wonderful welcome.” But that seems a bit of a reach when you consider the actual facts surrounding those fateful days from a year earlier. As Luke records in Acts 17, Paul and Silas initially found a somewhat receptive audience to their message.

…some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. – Acts 17:4 ESV

But the welcome of this handful of eager converts was not the only one Paul and Silas received in Thessalonica. Others offered a far less cordial reception to the two missionaries.

But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar… – Acts 17:4 ESV

When Paul describes these events, he uses the Greek phrase, hopoios veisodos, which can be translated “what manner of entering in.” He seems to be emphasizing the harsh nature of their “welcome.” They were met with strong resistance from a group of Jews whom Luke describes as “wicked men.” Yet, a great many devout Greeks and not a few leading women in the city had chosen to hear and receive Paul’s message regarding salvation through faith alone in Christ alone.

It was this unwelcoming reception, coupled with the decision of the Thessalonian believers to accept Christ, that gave their witness its power. They had come to faith under extremely difficult circumstances. They “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9 ESV). Their decision to follow Christ had not been made in a stress-free environment full of encouraging friends and family members. Each of the individuals who placed their faith in Christ had done so at great risk to their lives and livelihoods. When they chose “to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures” (Titus 2:12 NLT) and accept Paul’s message concerning the Messiah, they placed themselves in direct opposition to the Jews and Gentiles within their community. They became outcasts and targets for persecution.

Paul reminds them of the decisive nature of their decision:

…you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. – 1 Thessalonians 1:9 ESV)

They chose to leave behind a lifestyle of idolatry, turned their backs on the pagan practices of their past, and “turned to” God. The Greek word Paul uses is epistrephō, and it conveys the idea of returning or reverting. It can be translated as “to come again.” These people were experiencing the joy of coming back to God, having been cleansed from their sins and made righteous in His eyes because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on their behalf. They had been reconciled to God, a powerful reality that Paul described to the believers in Colossae.

You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. – Colossians 1:21-22 NLT

This image of lost, sin-enslaved people returning to God with full access into His presence and their sins fully forgiven is what the gospel is all about. In his second letter to the church at Corinth, Paul provides a powerful reminder of the reconciling nature of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. 

…anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 NLT

The Thessalonian believers had come back to God, and now they were serving the living God, not a man-made, lifeless idol with no capacity to provide help or hope. They were serving the one true God, not one of many false gods whose statues could be found all over the city of Thessalonica.

As a result of their reconciliation to God, they had confidence that He would one day send His Son back to earth to redeem and rescue them from this sin-marred world. God had not only transformed their lives in the here-and-now, but He had also promised them eternal life in the hereafter. They were willing to suffer now to gain what God had in store for them in the future.

Their belief in the one true God came with a guarantee of His Son’s ultimate return, which is why Paul encouraged them “to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10 ESV). They might suffer for their faith in this life, but they would be delivered from the coming judgment of God; all because they had placed their hope in the gracious gift of God made possible by the sacrifice of His sinless Son.

Father, Your gracious gift of salvation is free. It doesn't come with a price tag or require a heavy payment. Your Son paid the price with His life and made salvation cost-free to all who by faith accept His offer of righteousness and reconciiliation. Yet, with the free gift does come with consequences. In accepting Christ’s offer of salvation, we align ourselves with Him and experience the same animosity and hatred He experienced. We discover that the world hates us just as it hated Him. We find ourselves facing opposition and having to do battle with an enemy whose sole purpose is to discourage and defeat us. But, like the Thessalonian believers, we can find comfort in the presence of Your Spirit and the promise of Your Son’s return. We may suffer in this life, but we will not have to endure the judgment to come. All because of Jesus. Thank you for that much-needed reminder. Amen.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.