SCRIPTURE
Romans 3:9-10 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one.
Romans 3:21-24 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 4:1-3 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
OBSERVATION
Are you good enough? We always think better of ourselves than we should, there is always somebody that we can use as an example of how bad we could be, that makes us feel pretty good about ourselves. Problem is that the goal is to be righteous and I can’t see anybody making that big of a claim about himself.
How in the world can I expect to meet the criteria, I don’t see much chance that I will become righteous no matter how long I live. Actually Paul tells me that I have no hope of achieving this goal in my own power but there is a way to make it happen:
Romans 3:23-24 Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious ideal; 24 yet now God declares us "not guilty" of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins.
Wow! We have offended God but he freely declares us “not guilty” and the only thing that I had to do was to trust in His only Son that paid the price for all the ways that I fall short of the goal of being righteous.
Thankfully all I have to do is follow Abraham’s example, his faith was credited to him as righteousness. We can look back and see how many times that he blew it and fell short but God declared him “right with Him” through faith alone.
Psalms 32:1-5 What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven! What joys when sins are covered over! What relief for those who have confessed their sins and God has cleared their record.
APPLICATION
I believe that I didn’t stand a chance to perform up to God’s standard, but He always knew that I couldn’t and had a plan from the beginning to make me right with Him. I will trust God and His promise to take away my guilt and clear my record.
PRAYER
Thank you for taking the burden away of trying to be good enough to have a relationship with you.
