Romans 4

Boy howdy do I suck at this blogging thing! I look back at the old Xanga page and see looooong posts (mostly about nothing) EVERY DAY. They may have been dumb and boring but it was something. And then I start this thing. And then I stop it. And then I think about stopping it again. I WANT to get back into the habit of writing everyday, I really do. So how about this, I tried the whole "blogging AFI's 100 Movies" and failed. Well my New Year's Resolution was to get serious about reading my Bible. I'm kind of tired of treating my Bible has a fashion accessory on Sundays in order to fit in. I'm going as far as physically writing in a journal, so if I can do that why can't I try sharing those thoughts on the internet. Well mainly because they're short and boring! But hey if it's gets me blogging again, even if no one reads it, so be it. Unlike movies I'll actually feel bad if I stop writing about the Bible. So consider this my public accountability.

So I chose the reading plan the Epistles and Acts because well I love Paul. And since this is a personal Bible Study (as opposed to a scholarly study) I figured I could use The Message. I've never read the Message at length, just various verses and sections.

Today I was reading Romans 4 and the wording of the Message just helped remind me of this universal truth that I'm always so quick to forget.

So for the first 3 chapters of Romans Paul is trying to explain how the grace of God is open to EVERYONE. Because a lot of the Jews in the church were saying "By us doing all these rituals, works, etc. we are in God's favor. He has chosen us because we do X." Well for the rest of this chapter Jews is interchangable for Christians and all the "rituals" are the same as baptism, works, etc.

So how do the Jews/modern Christians reconcile this fact they've received this FREE gift of God's grace. Paul says, "If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift." (v. 4-5)

It's so true. So many times we act like we've earned the right to be called a Christian because we _______. Fill in the blank - were baptised, go to church, memorize the Bible, anything! Well then it isn't a gift! It's work! But the best part is NOTHING we could do can ever EARN us God's grace. "If you're a hard worker..." well sad news is, we all sin, and therefore we've all failed at being a "hard worker". Instead we see that, "the job (living a holy life) is too big for you, that it's something only God can do..." and therefore this grace we receive is a GIFT. It's not because of ANYTHING we've done, the only thing we've done is believe God's promise!

And then Paul just goes and pulls the rug right from under all the self righteous Jews/Us. They try to say over and over "Abraham is our father in faith, he was declared right by God when he was circumcised" Well look at the scriptures again. Abraham was declared right by God BEFORE he was cirucumcised. Before any of these fancy rituals came into play Abraham was made right by God SIMPLY BY BELIEVING!!! God made Abraham a promise, Abraham believed it, and God said you are righteous BECAUSE OF YOUR FAITH. THEN the circumcision, then the rituals, then the acts of showing others that he had faith.

But too often we do the same thing. We try to say, "I'm right with God because I _____" That's us trying to earn grace, trying to get paid for our WORK. God says from the very beginning, "I have a promise for you (eternal life, eternal love, eternal purpose). Do you believe me?" In FAITH we say YES and therefore he says we are right with Him. THEN comes the baptism, THEN comes the good works. Those are what made you right with God, it was faith you had before it all started.

Am I the only one that forgets that?