“For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’ Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.” -Romans 4:3-4

God’s means of salvation remains unchanged. Every human being sins and we’re all unrighteous. Even Abraham! God never declares unrighteous people to suddenly be righteous because we’ve reformed ourselves, straightened up, flown right, or done great things for Him. God declares unrighteous people like us to be righteous based exclusively on His grace which we receive through faith in Jesus Christ. We believe God about His Son and it is counted as righteousness. Even though we aren’t. That’s God’s gift of grace.

Grace – the only way by which sinful people can be reconciled to our holy Creator – is a gift, not a paycheck. It’s a gift to you from the supreme and holy ruler of the universe. God doesn’t forgive you, declare you to be righteous, love you, and adopt you as His precious child because He owes you anything or based on what you’ve done to improve yourself or please Him. If He did, he wouldn’t be showing you grace, He’d simply be giving you what you’d earned. None of us can earn God’s declaration of righteousness. Because we aren’t righteous. We’re selfish, rebellious, and sinful.

Your relationship with the most Holy God is only based on His grace. God doesn’t deal with you based on what you deserve or do. This is a very good thing! God’s grace toward you is like a vast ocean compared to any tiny drops of merit you could ever earn for yourself. Let God’s grace flood your life, your heart, and your mind. Dwell in it and delight in it. Remember how you received it – not because of anything you’ve done – but through your faith in Jesus and what He’s done for you on the cross and the empty tomb. #FollowJesus

“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” – Romans 3:20

Herein lies the great conundrum of God’s Law… God gave His Law to the ancient Israelites to be obeyed, however it’s impossible for an ordinary human to perfectly follow the Law in both action and attitude. God gave the Law to bless His people, guide them, and show them how to be His people in an ungodly world. However, following the Law perfectly could never make an imperfect and sinful human being perfect. It could never result in the guilty being declared not guilty (justified).

The greatest value of the Law was to reveal just how impossibly holy our God is. It vividly details the unbridgeable distance between us in our fallen, sinful nature and our sinless, unstained, infinitely righteous and holy God. Why would God give the Law for this purpose? So we would finally admit that we can’t save ourselves, can’t justify ourselves, and can’t reconcile ourselves to God. In other words, for all its many virtues, the greatest virtue of the Law is to make clear that each and every person needs a Savior!

We need someone who can reconcile us to God. We need someone who can deal with our sins and our guilt. And none of us are qualified to be that person. Not for ourselves and certainly not for others. The ultimate point of the Law is that we all need Jesus! Only Jesus, the eternal Son of God and perfect human being, fulfilled the Law in action, heart, and mind. Only Jesus was qualified represent us before God and take our sin and guilt upon Himself so that through faith in Him, we are justified before God.

The Law’s ultimate objective was to spur us to faith, not to exaggerated efforts to save ourselves. Although good works are important for those who have been saved, salvation comes only through God’s grace and not in the slightest bit through our works. That hasn’t changed and it won’t ever change. #FollowJesus

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” – Romans 1:28

Here Paul describes one of the devastating consequences of widespread cultural rejection of God. When enough people reject the existence, presence, or authority of God as Sovereign Lord of the Universe, He gives them exactly what they want. When enough people tell God to get lost, He steps back and removes His restraining hand. What follows is absolute madness!

He removes the restraints of conscience, morality, and custom and lets people indulge every whim, every fantasy, and every destructive, shameful, and degrading idea they can come up with. To be clear, this is a punishment, not a blessing! This is the last stage of a dying culture before it either dies completely or turns back to God in repentance and revival.

Are we there yet??? It certainly feels like we might be. There no longer seem to be any filters stopping people’s most irrational thoughts, dreams, and fantasies from being expressed loudly and acted out proudly. Plenty of people have told God to get lost and rejected His authority in matters of politics, culture, art, family, justice, education, and sexuality. Media and the arts tend to be increasingly degraded and calling it progress. Our culture and society is ripping itself apart from the indulgence and selfishness demanded by each person doing whatever they think is right in their eyes.

This current cultural moment certainly feels like a Romans 1 time. Pray that the western world would recognize the madness and finally humble itself before God in vast numbers praying, repenting, and seeking God’s face. Pray for widespread revival and renewal in the name of Jesus. Pray for those who don’t know Jesus and for those who do but are still living in this degraded Romans 1 way. #FollowJesus

“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” – Romans 1:17

What is the “it” in this verse? The Gospel good news of Jesus Christ! The Gospel reveals God’s perfect righteousness and gracious work of salvation which is always, only, and completely through faith in Jesus Christ. The Gospel reveals God’s absolute righteousness and our total unrighteousness. It highlights the perfect, unstained, purity and holiness of our Creator. It also reveals the countless ways we have all sinned and fallen short of His glory and standard.

The Gospel makes it clear that we can’t possibly save ourselves. It emphasizes that no amount of rule-following, morality, self-discipline, or good deeds could ever make imperfect people like us perfect. The Gospel also reveals God’s limitless mercy and grace in making a way for our sins to be forgiven and righteousness declared. That way is only through repentance and faith in the perfect life, sacrificial death, and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s eternal Son.

We can only grab ahold of God’s righteousness by believing the Gospel, entrusting our lives to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It is only by faith that we are saved and enter into new spiritual life in Jesus Christ. This was always God’s plan from eternity past. The only remedy for our sin is God’s grace poured out through faith in His Son. Take some time today to really think about how good this Good News is! Rejoice and give thanks if you believe it. Decide to believe it for the first time if you haven’t before. #FollowJesus

“When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes.” – 2 Kings 22:11

Whenever we’re tempted to complain about our nation’s moral and spiritual decay, we should remember that things could be much worse! Judah, the remaining people of God, had drifted so far from the Lord that they’d completely lost the Scriptures! It’s hard to say how many decades they went without having or reading God’s Word. However, when the scroll of the Law was found, the righteous king was horrified. As God’s Law was read, he instantly understood just how great the nation’s disobedience was.

Because King Josiah was a godly man, he lamented, repented, and sought the Lord. The message he got back from God was that Judah’s disobedience had been so profound for so long that their fate was already sealed. Nonetheless, God was pleased by Josiah’s repentance and blessed him by sparing him from the coming wrath headed for Judah.

Flash forward to today. We’re blessed to have God’s Word readily available in many high-quality translations both in print and online. And yet, the prevailing culture is profoundly, proudly, and loudly disobedient. We don’t have Josiah’s excuse that we have no idea what God expects. We know. Even unbelievers know, they just don’t care or respect God, Jesus, or the Bible.

Our situation is nowhere near as dire as Judah’s. We have God’s Word. That’s all the more reason we MUST pray for people to come to repentance and return to God. Perhaps it isn’t too late for a nationwide or global revival. As God’s people, we must pray for that. It must begin with us (Christians) – repenting of our sins, rejecting our excuses, and reforming our casual attitudes towards obedience to God’s Word, will, and expectations. Then we must pray for revival to spread. Take time every day to pray for the Holy Spirit to sweep across this land and draw millions to #FollowJesus!