October 19: Romans 3:21-30
Key Verse: Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Devotion:
One of the things we often forget is we have all sinned against God at some stage in our lives. Now, as humans, we like to measure how much we have sinned and go according to some sort of scale, but according to the law God has given us, when we sin we are guilty. So if we have all sinned and are all guilty, how will any of us not have to pay for our sin debt.
This is where our faith in what Christ has done for us comes in. If we do believe Christ came to pay for our sin debt and we believe He is faithful and merciful to forgive us when we admit to our sins, then we will be forgiven just as He said we will. There is no law which excludes us from forgiveness and righteousness if we believe in what Christ has done.
Christ demonstrated His righteousness by allowing Himself to go to the cross even though He knew He had done nothing wrong. Through shedding His righteous blood He was able to pay for our sin debt once and for all. Now all we have to do is to have faith He did this for us. Why? If we do truly believe in what he did, then we should trust He is telling us the truth and will forgive us; this is the basis of faith.
If we start boasting about “our church” or how well we are doing we may well be starting to lift ourselves up instead of God. It is because of everything Christ has done we have what we have. Our faith is what makes the church and will help others to see there is hope when they cannot see any.
Points to Ponder:
Have you ever looked for a better church?
What can be more important that Christ?