by Stuart Gray
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Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised (Romans 4:20,21).
Read Romans 4:13–25
How often do we waver in our faith? Most of us enjoy a ‘woe is me’ conversation – this shouldn’t be happening to me, I do the right thing. I don’t deserve to be sick, have relationship problems, or have money troubles. I’ve always done the right thing.
In myself, I can see that these conversations are, in part, a lack of faith and not putting my full trust in God.
Imagine what it was like for Abraham. He was told that he would be the father of many nations, yet here he is, nearly 100 years old, with a body that was ‘as good as dead’, with an elderly wife whose womb was ‘as good as dead’. Not a good basis on which to be the father of many nations.
But Abraham ‘did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God’.
What a great and inspirational faith. This is a powerful example for believers to trust God even when circumstances seem impossible. I pray for that faith, but I certainly don’t think I am in that league. I am more like the father in Mark 9:24 who says, ‘I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.’
Paul then quotes Genesis 15:6: ‘Abraham’s faith was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ The fundamental point that Paul drives home is that righteousness comes by faith, not works. Just as Abraham’s faith was credited as righteousness, so too will our faith in the God who raised Jesus from the dead be credited to us as righteousness.
This passage reminds us that salvation isn’t earned through rule-following, but through faith in God’s promises. We can have confidence that, like Abraham, we are justified by our faith in Christ – his death for our sins and his resurrection for our justification. It’s not about achieving perfection but about trusting in God’s power and grace.
What freedom this gives. We are not under pressure to try to earn God’s favour through good works. Whatever would be good enough? God has given us the means to be in relationship with him through faith in Christ Jesus.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have examples like Abraham to show us what unwavering faith in you looks like. Help us to have that faith that moves mountains so that our faith moves the mountains of unbelief around us. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, the resurrected one. Amen.
Stuart is retired and, with his wife Pamela Dalgliesh, lives in Mansfield, Victoria. Stuart has a background in agricultural science, rural journalism and corporate affairs. He now loves living a peaceful life on a small farm in the beautiful High Country of Victoria. He mentors learner drivers and is a Red Cross Patient Transport driver. Stuart is also involved in the Mansfield Anglican church and the Mansfield community.
by Stuart Gray
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:22b–24).
Read Romans 3:21–31
Just as in yesterday’s passage, where Paul leaves us in no doubt about humanity’s sinfulness, and we cannot achieve righteousness through the law, in today’s passage, Paul leaves us in no doubt that it is through faith in Christ Jesus that we are justified.
The word ‘faith’ is used eight times in just 10 texts. Righteousness is used four times in the same passage.
Sin is universal – ‘there is no difference between Jew and Gentile’ – so it needs a universal solution for us to be in relationship with God; ‘… all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’
Paul packs a lot into this text. ‘All are justified’, that is, declared righteous. ‘Freely by his grace’; it is freely given, not earned, but a true gift of grace. ‘Through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’ ‘Redeemed’ means bought back, so something must be paid. Christ paid the price.
Paul goes on:
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus (verses 25 and 26).
This shows God’s justice. Because of God’s patience and forbearance, he left previous sins committed unpunished. He could have continued that way and ignored sin, but God deals with sin so that we can be in relationship with him through faith.
Having a relationship with God is something we can boast about, but Paul says that is excluded because we have not earned salvation; however, justification is by faith, not by works of the law, by our own efforts.
And finally, in this passage, Paul asks if we nullify the law by this faith. He answers: ‘Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.’ Faith doesn’t abolish the law, but the law is fulfilled in Christ’s death on the cross.
This is an amazing passage. A reference I used describes the first eight chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans as the ‘heart of Christianity’. It is rewarding to take the time to study these chapters.
Heavenly Father, we thank and praise you for the sacrifice Christ has made so that through faith, we are justified in your sight. Uphold in us this faith, which we receive by your grace, and help us to be beacons for others to receive the faith that justifies. Amen.
Stuart is retired and, with his wife Pamela Dalgliesh, lives in Mansfield, Victoria. Stuart has a background in agricultural science, rural journalism and corporate affairs. He now loves living a peaceful life on a small farm in the beautiful High Country of Victoria. He mentors learner drivers and is a Red Cross Patient Transport driver. Stuart is also involved in the Mansfield Anglican church and the Mansfield community.
by Stuart Gray
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin (Romans 3:20).
Read Romans 3:9–20
I like to think I am a reasonably good person. I try to do the ‘right’ thing. I contribute time and effort freely to my family, friends, community and church. I know my weaknesses and vulnerabilities, but overall …!
Not so, says Paul. While writing to the Romans, he is also speaking to me. My assessment of myself is by human standards; Paul judges by God’s standard.
This is a devastating passage. Paul makes no bones about it; we are all sinful and cannot be in relationship with God by our own efforts. Not only are we sinful, but we ‘are under sin’ (verse 9), under the power and guilt of sin.
Paul then goes on to quote Old Testament passages, mainly from the Psalms and Isaiah, which poetically but graphically describe the condition of humankind (verses 13 to 18):
‘Their throats are open graves.
their tongues practise deceit.’
‘The poison of vipers is on their lips.’
‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’
‘Their feet are swift to shed blood.
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know.’
‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’
This passage by itself would leave us with no hope. But what Paul is doing is making us face the reality that by our own efforts, we well and truly miss the standards God has set for us; therefore, we cannot be in relationship with God. If we don’t face this reality, we will have trouble accepting what Paul covers in tomorrow’s devotion. Paul is setting the stage to reveal the good news of God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.
The law does not make us righteous; it exposes sin and stops self-justification. No-one can earn a right standing before God through obedience to the law alone.
Thankfully, we know this is not the end of the story, and over the next few days, we will explore how Paul powerfully introduces how we can be in relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father, give us the humility to recognise that we cannot come to you through the law or by our own efforts. Grant us the faith to know that by your grace, we can be in a right relationship with you through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.
Stuart is retired and, with his wife Pamela Dalgliesh, lives in Mansfield, Victoria. Stuart has a background in agricultural science, rural journalism and corporate affairs. He now loves living a peaceful life on a small farm in the beautiful High Country of Victoria. He mentors learner drivers and is a Red Cross Patient Transport driver. Stuart is also involved in the Mansfield Anglican church and the Mansfield community.
by Stuart Gray
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
Then Jesus said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions’ (Luke 12:15).
Read Luke 12:13–21
Stories of inheritance disputes often appear in the media. They mostly display some sort of greed on behalf of one party or another. With his trademark wisdom, Jesus avoided engaging in the inheritance dispute in this story. Instead, he used it as an opportunity to teach about greediness and materialism.
The dictionary describes greed as manifesting in various forms, encompassing excessive desire for material possessions, wealth, power, and even opinions or personal image. It can be driven by a desire to accumulate, hoard or manipulate to gain an advantage.
Greed can lead to stress, anxiety, depression and a sense of emptiness. Greedy behaviour can damage relationships, as it often involves manipulation, exploitation and a lack of empathy. The most important relationship it damages is our relationship with God. Greed focuses on the present, material life, not on what God wants us to be.
We live in the richest period of human existence. The great majority of Australians have an abundance of possessions. Does that make us greedy? It is often said that things are getting worse, for example, that people are becoming greedier, but I doubt the fact of greed has changed. It’s just that our ability to express greed is greatly enhanced.
The parable in our text does not condemn the man for being rich but for his attitude towards his abundance. He believes he is set for life because of his possessions. However, his life ends suddenly; his earthly possessions go to someone else; he has not prepared himself to meet his maker and judge.
Jesus says in verse 21: ‘This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.’ What a beautiful phrase ‘rich towards God’ is. Jesus urges us to be generous, to trust in God, to live in relationship with God and to value what he values: compassion, justice, humility and generosity.
However, we still need to ask ourselves: Where might I be putting trust in material things rather than in God?
Heavenly Father, you have given us lives of abundance, but we too often think we live in scarcity. Help us to recognise that our material wealth can be used to bless others and is not just a tool for self-indulgence. We pray that we can continually focus on being rich towards you. Amen.
Stuart is retired and, with his wife Pamela Dalgliesh, lives in Mansfield, Victoria. Stuart has a background in agricultural science, rural journalism and corporate affairs. He now loves living a peaceful life on a small farm in the beautiful High Country of Victoria. He mentors learner drivers and is a Red Cross Patient Transport driver. Stuart is also involved in the Mansfield Anglican church and the Mansfield community.
by Pauline Simonsen
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish (Psalm 49:12).
Read Psalm 49:1–12
We live in frightening times. Great nations are dominated by rich, power-hungry individuals who shape the law to their benefit. Ego and greed influence government. Wars of age-old, stubborn hatred are stirred up, and the common people suffer. Christians are increasingly persecuted in this amoral, cruel age. For many, it feels more like Jesus’ ‘last times’.
But it has always been this way, as any reader of history knows. Since Genesis 3, human sin has fomented evil, especially for God’s people. Our time is no different.
So, listen to the psalmist in Psalm 49:5,6:
Why should I be afraid in times of trouble, when the sinful deeds of deceptive men threaten to overwhelm me? They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches.
That’s written up to 3,000 years ago! Human ways haven’t changed much. Why should I be afraid that this still happens? The psalmist counsels themself to keep an eternal perspective. ‘Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life; there is no price one can give to God for it’ (Psalm 49:7).
All the riches and power in this world won’t help a person save their eternal life. Nor, indeed, their earthly life.
Fools and spiritually insensitive people all pass away, and leave their wealth to others.
Their grave becomes their permanent residence, their eternal dwelling place.
They name their lands after themselves, but, despite their wealth, people do not last (Psalm 49:10–12).
Throughout the week, we’ve seen how all the created things we humans vest our trust in fall away. Our fig leaves, our badges of honour, our wealth and power – none help us before God. Only God can help us, and he has – in Jesus Christ. The greatest wisdom in the world is simply this:
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling.
Naked, come to thee for dress.
Helpless, look to thee for grace.
Foul, I to the fountain fly.
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.
(A M Toplady, Rock of Ages)
Our Heavenly Abba draws us to his Son, our Rock of Ages, who hides us in himself. Cleansed, safe, loved. Home forever.
Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. You alone are my Saviour, and in you, I find rest and peace forevermore. Bless you, Lord Jesus.
Pauline lives in sight of the ranges in the beautiful Manawatu region of New Zealand with her husband, Roger, and two cats. She leads a small Bible College there and offers spiritual direction and supervision to people from a wide range of backgrounds and denominations.
by Pauline Simonsen
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
… real circumcision is a matter of the heart – it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives praise not from others but from God (Romans 2:29).
Read Romans 2:25 – 3:8
Yesterday, we read about one of Judaism’s great badges of honour: having the law of Moses. Today, Paul addresses their other great badge of honour: circumcision. For Jews, the physical mark of circumcision was a sign of their identity as God’s chosen, covenant people. Which it was (Genesis 17:9–13).
Paul’s comment? ‘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.’
What? ‘Surely,’ says every Jewish male, ‘my circumcision shows I am a true Jew!’
It gets worse. Paul goes on to assert that an uncircumcised Gentile who keeps the law can actually be regarded as circumcised, one of God’s chosen people – more so than a circumcised Jew who breaks God’s law!
This is shocking stuff for the Jews of Paul’s time to hear. All their certainties about who was ‘in’ and who was ‘out’ of God’s kingdom are being blown out of the water.
Paul is clear: a true Jew – one of God’s people – is circumcised inwardly, spiritually, not just outwardly in their body as a requirement of the law. This is not just a box-ticking exercise, or rather a knife-cutting exercise done by humans. True circumcision is done by God. It’s an internal work: a cutting off of our old sinful nature.
Paul wrote in Colossians 2:11–14b:
In Christ you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code that was against us …
In Christ, the old covenant of the law is fulfilled. In our baptism, by faith, we were joined to Jesus, dying and rising with him. We were spiritually circumcised – both men and women, Jew and Gentile. And we live forever with him now!
All our fig leaves and badges of honour are so much rubbish. Jesus Christ is our boast, our sun of righteousness, our life and our hope!
Loving Father, your great plan to restore humanity to yourself through your Son is amazing. We pray a blessing on your beloved Jewish people and that they come to know Jesus as their sun of righteousness. Thank you for including us Gentiles in your kingdom through Jesus. Bring us all together one day, under Christ Jesus. In his name, Amen.
Pauline lives in sight of the ranges in the beautiful Manawatu region of New Zealand with her husband, Roger, and two cats. She leads a small Bible College there and offers spiritual direction and supervision to people from a wide range of backgrounds and denominations.
by Pauline Simonsen
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
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).
Read Romans 2:12–24
My drive to church takes me through town, past the big Downtown shopping centre. I notice how incredibly busy the mall is on Sunday mornings, and I often have some pretty judgemental thoughts, like how godless and consumer-driven people can be. Do none of them go to church? I think about how most people have no idea about God or Jesus, or worship, or truth or morality … You get the idea.
In today’s reading, Paul turns the mirror onto his own people, the Jews. He’s pretty confronting.
You think that because you Jews know God’s law, his Torah given to you at Sinai through Moses, you are superior to the rest of humanity. You boast of your relationship to God based on having the law. You reckon it makes you a guide for the blind and ignorant, a light for people lost in darkness. You’re certain that God’s law gives you complete knowledge and truth (Romans 2:19,20).
But, says Paul, if you are relying on the law for your good standing before God and others, by heck, you’d better be keeping it! You’d better not be stealing or committing adultery, because under that very law, you’re condemned. Those who live by the law will be judged and die by the law!
Worse, if you don’t keep the law you boast about, you are bringing God – the source of that law – into disrepute. Gentiles speak ill of God when they see how hypocritical his people are.
Paul is saying that his fellow Jews were wearing God’s law like a badge of honour. Just having it made them feel superior, smug, spiritually proud and overconfident. A lot like me looking at all those Downtown shoppers.
I wonder what our ‘badges of honour’ are. What do we boast about and rely on for our spiritual standing? Having good theology? My church lineage or family name? Maybe it’s our performance: my regular church attendance, my service in the congregation. These are all good gifts. But if I’m relying on these things for my spiritual standing, then I must do them perfectly.
And, of course, none of us can.
Thank God, ‘a righteousness from God, apart from the law’ has been made known. And ‘this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe’ (Romans 3:21,22). We can put down all our badges of honour and simply hold on to Jesus.
Jesus, only Jesus – he’s my salvation, my hope, my only badge of honour. Thank God I am hidden in you, Lord Jesus, through my baptism. Keep me holding on to you alone. Amen.
Pauline lives in sight of the ranges in the beautiful Manawatu region of New Zealand with her husband, Roger, and two cats. She leads a small Bible College there and offers spiritual direction and supervision to people from a wide range of backgrounds and denominations.
by Pauline Simonsen
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realising that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)
Read Romans 1:28 – 2:11
What have you been watching on TV lately? Are you binge-watching the latest Netflix drama? Or secretly enjoying watching people embarrass themselves on a reality TV series?
Why don’t we take a few steps back from our viewing to look dispassionately at the content on our screens? Because ‘they have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They [show] gossips, slanderers, God-haters; insolent, arrogant and boastful …’ (Romans 1:29,30).
This is certainly not The Waltons.
In case you think I’m targeting your favourite series, I put up my hand too. I’ve also gone along with the descent into degradation. It’s what happens when we don’t ‘think it worthwhile retaining the knowledge of God’ (Romans 1:28). God has let our culture follow its desires, and it has led to a depraved collective mind.
Paul is holding up that mirror again, showing us ourselves.
But maybe some of us are thinking, ‘I refuse to watch bad TV shows. Why do people watch this stuff? I only watch quality TV.’
Ah, Paul has words for us, too. ‘You there, passing judgement on someone else: you’re condemning yourself because you do the same things.’ What are my secret viewing vices?
Of course, our screen time is just a symptom of the much deeper godlessness in our world. Ironically, our screens are reflecting our own degradation back at us – giving us what we want. Maybe what we are.
Where is God in all this? The Creator God who delighted in making a beautiful world and making it good? Watching us humans – letting us – pervert and disorder and uglify it all. And ourselves: the crown of his creation, made in his image.
God’s anger, his wrath, must be rising. Paul reminds us that God’s judgement will come: he will bring this degradation to an end.
But Paul wants us to hear the most important truth: God is rich in kindness, tolerance and patience – calling us to repentance, leading us back to himself to ‘godfullness’. His Son came to find us, rescue us from destruction and return us to our home in God.
This is Paul’s good news. Hear it again, rejoice in it again, and share it with anyone who will listen: God’s gospel for his broken world.
Loving God, have mercy on us and our culture. You know how easily we descend into godlessness. In your grace, wake us up and lead us back to you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pauline lives in sight of the ranges in the beautiful Manawatu region of New Zealand with her husband, Roger, and two cats. She leads a small Bible College there and offers spiritual direction and supervision to people from a wide range of backgrounds and denominations.
by Pauline Simonsen
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
The gospel … is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes (Romans 1:16b).
Read Romans 1:16–27
Listen with me to the beginning of Paul’s teaching in Romans. Ask yourself: Is Paul writing 2,000 years ago or today?
Paul writes: God reveals something of God’s self in creation. All humans instinctively know it – we can see it all around us! The wonder of the cosmos, the intricacies of an insect, the astonishing variety of plants … all this shouts of God’s effusive creativity, his delight in beauty, diversity and order, and his awesome power.
However, we humans no longer praise God or thank him for his power and presence in creation. In fact, we have even refused to acknowledge God – we have become godless. Instead, we idolise things, worshipping creatures rather than the Creator. Paul was thinking of his world: Rome’s pagan temples filled with idols, a culture that normalised debauched sexuality.
He could also be writing about our time. As we humans fell in love with ourselves and our own bodies, our sexual practices followed. We become what we worship. When we ceased to worship Creator God, we were left only with ourselves and the created world. And both are corrupted and dying. So God allows humanity to spiral down into deepening degradation.
These opening chapters of Romans are some of the most challenging in the entire New Testament. Paul unapologetically holds up a mirror to the people of his time – Gentile and Jew – and shows them their lost degradation. He tears away the fig leaves of self-righteousness to show that humanity has nothing to solve its sinfulness.
Paul is speaking to our time, too. He uncompromisingly applies the law – and it beats down upon us and makes every reader of these chapters squirm. People today find Paul’s remorseless truth-speaking profoundly challenging, confronting and even offensive! We do not like being presented with our own ugliness.
But to truly understand the profound love and goodness of God and what Jesus did for us all, we must look honestly at our own godlessness. Otherwise, God’s grace becomes meaningless. These verses would be terrible, but for the golden hope that Paul holds out at the start of this letter, the good news of Jesus Christ that is the power of God for salvation to all who believe – Jew and Gentile, 1st- and 21st-century people. God gives us his righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. He solves our hopeless state!
Paul’s gospel – God’s gospel – changes everything!
Gracious God, thank you for your mercy on all of us humans. Thank you for Jesus, our Saviour. Without him, we are lost in our own spiral of sin. Give us eyes to see clearly and hearts open to your transforming work. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Pauline lives in sight of the ranges in the beautiful Manawatu region of New Zealand with her husband, Roger, and two cats. She leads a small Bible College there and offers spiritual direction and supervision to people from a wide range of backgrounds and denominations.