Today, Tuesday January 19 – Romans 4 – It’s time we hear some good news. It seems like everywhere we turn we are hearing bad or sad news! But my friend, there is good news to be found even today! That’s what Romans 4 is about. Up to this point in Romans, Paul has been giving us the bad news that we are all sinners and left to ourselves there is no hope of salvation. In the last verses of chapter 3, Paul begins to explain how a righteous and holy God can justify a sinner by grace.
Now in chapter 4, he gives us an illustration how this grace and salvation can be found with the story of Abraham. In the very first verse we read: “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found….” Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation but he is also called the “father of the faithful.” He becomes the biggest illustration in the Bible and history, that if we want to have a relationship with a holy God, we can only discover and find it by faith and faith alone. Abraham was so revered by the Jews that if they thought anyone deserved salvation because they were good, it would have been him. So Paul goes back to the Old Testament and quotes Genesis 15:6 – “And Abraham believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” In other words, Abraham found the righteousness of God solely by his believing in the promises that God was making to him!
When we come to the LORD in this way, by faith alone, it leaves no room for us boasting in anything we have done or can do to merit this righteousness and salvation. Have you discovered this righteousness of God for yourself? God is ready to give you this righteousness if you will only believe! It’s my prayer that today you will open you heart and believe and “find” what Abraham found. God bless!
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