The Gift of Righteousness

FAITH IN ACTION:
LIVING AS FAITHFUL PEOPLE
God's Redemption
Heirs to the Promise

Romans 4:1-8

The Message

Trusting God

 ^1-3 So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own." ^4-5If 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.
 ^6-9David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man:

   Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off,
      whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.
   Fortunate the person against
      whom the Lord does not keep score.
Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don't we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?

For Reflection
What a Gift!  The end to guilt.  The promise of infinite acceptance and forgiveness.  All of this even for all those who were not brought up in the Faith.  Embracing God's promise and uncompromising trust in Him is all it takes.  To what extent do you trust in God?

Pray
Thank God for not keeping score.   Thank God for the freedom to err.  Thank God for the invitation to participate in His kingdom.  Thank God for His steadfast faith in you.