Romans
Verse Annotation
Verse 3 - Our inability to live according to God’s laws does not mean God is also the same; we cannot attribute our inconsistencies to God.
Verse 8 - God charges us to live a life of righteousness; we are called to walk in this path, even if we think taking a tangent will help God’s cause. We do not have the ability to think for God; therefore, we cannot come to the conclusion that our evil will birth his righteousness.
Verse 9 - We all were dead in sin, EVERYONE. Through the sacrifice of Christ, we were able to wake up as new wine
Verse 11 - Without the working of grace in us, we would never seek God for ourselves.
Verse 21-22 - Our faith is not in the law or in the prophets but in Jesus. The law and the prophets direct us to Him, as well as bear witness to the righteousness of God
Verse 24 - Justification by Grace is a gift, we did not deserve or merit, just privileged receivers
Verse 27 - We have nothing to boast about because this is not achieved by works or our effort but by faith in Christ
Verse 31 - Our justification by faith does not call for the disbandment of the Law but for it to be upheld, not as a requirement but as fruit.
Reflection
We are privileged receivers of an unmerited gift. “Amazing love, how can it be that you, my savior, would die for me?”. The Bible says we were dead in sin, not on life support, not at the brink of death, but fully dead in sin. By ourselves, we would have never been able to seek God or even want to. Our death was not only a blindness to the righteousness of God, but a blindness to God’s standards of morality, His standards for truth, and His purpose for our lives.
Through grace and faith in Jesus Christ, we are justified and awakened, not into our dead bodies ( sons of wrath) but as sons of God through Jesus Christ. Through this, we are able to commune with a larger family of Christ and join in the eternal working of God. Our righteousness by faith does not make the laws of God mute; it calls and brings us all to the fulfillment of the law. This comes in, not as a requirement into the kingdom of God, but as a fruit of his work in us.
Prayer
God, I am thankful for your love, am thankful for your grace, am thankful for your mercies, and even more, your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for waking me up into this new reality, a newness of purpose, a newness of morality, a newness of truth, and my role in it. I pray that you may help me to be an upright person, that I may walk according to your commands. Give me strength, even more when my own fails. Help me not to negotiate this precious, eternal salvation for mortal satisfaction.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen
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