Day 12 – Romans 3:5-10 – September 7, 2018

 

“But,” some might say, “our sinfulness serves a good purpose, for it helps people see how righteous God is.  Isn’t it unfair, then, for him to punish us? (This is merely a human point of view.) Of course not! If God were not entirely fair, how would he be qualified to judge the world? “But,” someone might still argue, “how can God condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty highlights his truthfulness and brings him more glory?” And some people even slander us by claiming that we say, “The more we sin, the better it is!” Those who say such things deserve to be condemned.  Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others?  No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles are under the power of sin. As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous – not even one.” (Romans 3:5-10)

Humans don’t like to admit we’ve done anything wrong.  We want to hide and not be discovered, so we make excuses. We come up with some doozies – quite often we blame our wrongdoings on God.  Saying, “God makes me righteous after I sin and repent, so I am giving Him a chance to show that He always keeps His promises,” is a very clever excuse.  It is like saying, “The more we sin, the better it is!” But those who call us on our clever excuses also deserve to be condemned.  Why?  Because we are all under the power of sin.  And sin is powerful; it overtakes us!  That is why, “No one is righteous – not even one!” Those who steal, murder, and rape are not righteous.  Those who think they are perfect, deceive themselves and are not righteous.  Those who don’t know God are not righteous.  Those who pride themselves on their religion cannot do the works that they teach, so they are not righteous either.  We all fall short.  We need God to restore us, to make us righteous again.

Day 12 – Romans 3:5-10 – September 7, 2018

4 thoughts on “Day 12 – Romans 3:5-10 – September 7, 2018

  1. A question – why would a perfect God, or maybe a better start to the question should be – how could a perfect God create sinful/unrighteous man?

    1. That is a great question! You think like I do! First, I would like to say human beings are perfect in many ways. When I took physiology, anatomy, dissection of the human body, and neurophysiology, I was totally amazed at the interaction of chemicals and brain synapses that the body undergoes and how perfectly the body is put together. If one small thing goes wrong, our bodies can cease to exist. But you are talking about the hearts and minds of mankind. Since I am far from perfect, I often wonder why God set himself up for disappointment by creating me. Then I think about my own children. They are perfect in my eyes. All three of them called me on my birthday yesterday. I expected them to, but I was really thrilled when they did! Yet I know they aren’t perfect. They rebelled as most teenagers do. There were many times they wished they had different parents. But they returned to the flock, and I can’t describe the joy in my heart when they did. Most of us know the story of the Prodigal Son. The joy of having a wayward son or daughter return home to the flock is probably the most joyous thing that could ever happen in our lives. We pray for them constantly, and the day comes when our prayers are answered. It’s exciting! Julee, God feels the same way about you! When you make a mistake, you go to God and apologize. God is excited! The mistake has consequences and now you go to God to pray about the consequences. God is excited again! We have to go through some disappointment to be really excited.

      The first person God created was Adam. I think God was happy with Adam. When Adam was first created, he was choosing God, but Adam didn’t know any better. He didn’t have much of a choice but to go to God. God was all that he knew. He was like a baby choosing to drink milk from his mother’s breast. Before God created Adam, angels were already on the scene. One particular angel, whom we refer to as the devil or Satan or the enemy was already in existence. Adam was almost perfect until Satan came along. Ah, temptation!!!! The enemy is so good at it. Adam bit from the fruit. That was the only thing he was told not to do. Adam only had one rule to follow. “Do not eat from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.” He probably never would have done it if it weren’t for coercion from the enemy.

      Julee, I cannot say for sure, but I personally think that God gave us free will because it makes Him extremely happy when we choose Him over the enemy, over everything, just as our imperfect children choose us, choose to ask us for advice, choose to talk to us, and choose to be in our presence. God’s love is perfect, and he loves you so much that it makes Him ecstatic when you choose Him. If you were perfect, righteous on your own, you wouldn’t need God.

  2. I never thought of God being joyous when I go to him in prayer. Actually, that makes me smile! I was the most rebellious of 3 daughters. I do remember my father and I having several conversations after I was out of the teenage rebellious stage. I remember him using words like grateful and relieved that I was acting like an adult. Guess I made my father and My Father excited and happy!

    1. Thank you for your encouraging comment! It was a reminder for me, too, that God was excited and happy to talk to me, too, this morning even after I messed up! I am so thankful for God’s grace. It is so humbling and exciting to think that the God who created this whole universe wants you and me to be His friend and to talk to him throughout the day. We are part of His army of workers to get His job done. He can accomplish everything He wants to do on this Earth without us, but he chooses to use us instead. That is why it is so important to pray “continuously” so we don’t miss anything that he wants us to do.

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