Couldn't Have Said It Better! (Romans 3:21-31)

SCRIPTURE

Romans 3:21-31
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

COMMENTS

Job had it all, and in that life he worshiped God. Satan saw him, and challenged that he only worshiped God because of the fact that he had it all. In fact, Satan challenged that God had placed a hedge around Job, to protect him and perhaps in essence keep his praise and worship. God knew better, He knew Job's heart. So God allowed Satan to peal away Job's blessings, yet Job continued to praise God, although he also struggled with what was happening to him.

That is faith. And righteousness comes through faith. A child-like faith. I want to share something I ran across while reading some old blog posts from a while back.

My 9 year old son and I were driving to the county fair, listening to the radio. A man was on who had witnessed many atheists and those who had given up their faith. He said that in his experience, people who rejected God on a rational basis always had a painful past that led to this attitude. As he spoke, he mentioned one who had rejected God because his fiance had gotten ill, and even after much intense prayer, she died. I was not aware how intently my son was listening, but suddenly he burst out, "That's ridiculous! You shouldn't hate God just because your fiance dies! God can't do everything! Well, He can, but He does not have to. You shouldn't hate God just because you don't get what you want!"

 Faith like Job. Faith even when things don't go our way. Faith even when our prayers are not answered the way we wish. Our righteousness comes through faith, and we are justified by His grace as a gift. This displays God's righteousness. But do you see what works does in this example? It does not earn or lose salvation for the man who lost his fiance, it reveals that his faith didn't really exist. It was evidence, in this case of a lack of faith.

What if his fiance had been healed? He perhaps would have gone on worshiping not God, but the gifts of God. Maybe until some later time when another intense prayer was not answered. Maybe a parent or sibling dying of cancer? God is not righteous because He gives us everything we want. He is proved righteous because He offers salvation based not upon our works, but upon what Jesus did on our behalf. We are not justified by works, but by faith. Not a one time confession or even a one time ritual, but by a life-changing belief that God, through His Son, has given us what we could never have attained through any other means.