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Friday Devo

Scripture:

Romans 3:29-31
29 After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. 30 There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. 31 Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.

Commentary: 

3:29–30 Since God is the Lord of all, whether Jews or Gentiles, there can only be one way of justification—by faith.
3:31 overthrow … uphold. Justification by faith does not nullify the law but establishes it. That is, the law itself points to the fact that human obedience to the law cannot save and that righteousness can be achieved only through faith in Christ; Christ has achieved this righteousness on behalf of all who believe in him, through his perfect fulfillment of the law and his atoning death on the cross for the salvation of all who believe. When Paul says, “we uphold the law,” he also affirms the abiding moral norms of the law and thus anticipates the charge of antinomianism, to which he responds more fully in chs. 6 and 7.

Questions:

  • The Old Covenant set up a sacrificial system by which God's people could be made right with God. People were hopeless to keep God's Law perfectly. No one is righteous. No one's record is spotless. Except for one. Jesus kept the law perfectly. That's why he was the perfect one to sacrifice himself for our sin. Just imagine the suffering and punishment he endured. The mockery and shame the Son of God endured as he was stripped naked and beaten and hung up on display. And he was the only one in the history of the world that was truly blameless. Have you ever been accused of something you didn't do? Punished for someone else's mistake? How humbling is it to think that Jesus did all that for you?

  • We all have sinned. We are all born sinful. And even though we are saved by God's grace, sin is still in us. The enemy is still tugging at our hearts. And that's where our sin comes from... a selfish heart. Even though we probably wouldn't say this out loud, sin and go our own way we are saying "I know better than God." We say this with our thoughts, our words, our actions and our inaction. This is why we can NEVER behave our way into a right standing with God. We will ultimately fail, and failure brings with it shame and doubting our solid footing as an adopted son or daughter of the king. Take some time today to reflect on the week and on Romans 3. Thank God for his grace and for all he has done to purchase your freedom and commit to live for him with humility and gratitude.

Pray:

  • That you would remember what Jesus went through for you.
  • That you would live in the freedom that Jesus paid for.

This Week's City 7:

Try to commit to memory! 

3. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Since “all have sinned” and the “wages of sin is death,” Jesus had to die on the cross to pay the fine for my sin so I could be right with God.
(Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:21-23, 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:1-6; Colossians 1:13-14, 21-22)

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