Humans mess things up! We seek our own version of righteousness and do not do things God’s way. This is the story of Israel. (This is the story of me. Of you too.)

One way that is shown is in the Israelites lack of sharing God’s plan of salvation to all. They tried to keep it hidden and avoid the world from hearing. Until He showed up and changed that! (Remember Gergesa and the feeding of 4000!)

Jesus crossed boundaries often to show God’s love to those far from Him. Are you doing the same? Are you a Jonah (reluctantly going or running away)? I want to share what He has done.

Paul goes in another brilliant direction and shows that after Abraham still not all received God’s mercy, but only those whom the promise extended to, by His grace. Isaac’s children were in the line (not Ishmael’s), and then Jacob (not Esau).

All this intends to show that one cannot EARN the grace of God, but works in response to His love. The law does not intend to show us how to earn it, but the guidelines to live by in faith that He will do what He promised. So we shall pursue life in God by faith in Christ alone!

Without Christ we stand . We are blessed to have no condemnation in Him! Even better: it is a status we enjoy in Him that can’t be tainted or removed from us!

He lived a life as a human, helping us relate to Him. Yet as a human we cannot please God. In Christ, we are given access to the Father and the same power that raised Christ from the dead now lives in us!

Due to this, we are a part of the new creation. We through the Spirit have access to a better prayer life. Our will and destiny starts to go differently. Also God is for us! What can be against us? Nothing! You are His!!

Paul brilliantly points out that the law is only binding while we are alive. Then, since we are dead to our old self in Christ, we are free!

But the law isn’t sin itself, it just shows us what sin is! How would we know if we weren’t told? Yet, what is interesting is that sin and our sin nature jump at the opportunity to use knowledge against us. We know what is wrong and that is what we want. The deceiver has planted that seed in our hearts! You and I hear “surely, the Lord didn’t mean…” now instead of truth. We aren’t strong. In Christ we are!

So unfortunately we often do what we don’t want to do. God is greater!

We would be lost without Him, amen? So we need Him! Have you found Him?

We have endless grace! So why not endlessness in the sin department? This is foolishness. This would be like being granted from a prison cell to turn around and lock yourself up again in the name of freedom!

“I’m free to do what I want.”

Why do we do this to ourselves? Sin is fun until it’s over. It appears to give us freedom until it locks us down. Sin is the opposite of freedom. So stay free! We then become slaves of righteousness, who aim our hearts to Him. Are you living in freedom? Sin pays out death. Every time. Know that He forgives endlessly, but choose to embrace the freedom He gives and live that way!

Faith is enough because God makes it enough. We trust Him because He can be trusted. Therefore no matter what happens to us or what we face, we are okay… by faith!

He is faithful and proves that by dying for us. When we were at our worst, far from Him, He gave His life to draw us near. He is love and that is how He shows it!

Sin is a disease that came from one person and infected us all.

Yet grace is more than an antidote or chemo – it is the answer! He makes us good by imparting His righteousness to us by Himself. There are two paths: one of grace and one of condemnation. Which path are you on? Which one has the benefits you want?

Would you rather earn it or be given a gift? Even those of us who are achievers would still likely love someone to gift us something. Debt paid off? Why thank you! What a gift! Why would you begrudge a gift like that?

This is at the heart of what Paul is pointing out at this juncture of the argument. He needs to point out that we can’t pay for righteousness, we can’t earn it. Yet he starts by showing that Abraham didn’t earn it either – as it would appear many believed at the time. Was circumcision something that earned them a right to God or was it a gift that marked what God did through Abraham’s faith? This faith is counted as righteousness, he concludes. Yet those who believe outside of the promise of circumcision are still given access by the simple fact that Abraham received the mark AFTER he had been credited righteousness by faith. He didn’t earn the mark and the mark meant nothing to his righteousness, but was a sign of had already occurred.

So, if faith was the main point, then what has changed? Nothing! We can’t earn this, but accept the gift by faith. Abraham held faith that God would give him a nation, despite his age or the age of Sarah, despite fact that it took 25 years (he was old when the promise was given and 100 when it came to be!). He had faith and trusted. So now we hold faith that one day He will return. One day this world will no longer be our home. So we live differently. We focus our hearts on the things of Him. We are sealed by faith. We don’t earn it, it is freely given – and our lives are a response to His goodness.