To Get Right With God

ByJim Stephens

Reading: Romans 9; Psalm 75

30 Well then, what shall we say about these things? Just this: The Gentiles have been made right with God by faith, even though they were not seeking him. 31 But the Jews, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law and being good instead of by depending on faith. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. (Romans 9:30-32 NLT)

For the Jews, life was about trying to get right with God and stay right with God. If they were doing well at keeping God’s law, they felt pride in themselves and looked down on anyone who wasn’t keeping the law the way they were. If they weren’t doing so well at keeping the law, they either lapsed into depending on the fact that they were descendants of Abraham and tried for “righteousness by association,” or they tried to find ways to excuse their guilty conscience, or they just lived with the sense of condemnation their failings brought.

Now that there were whole churches like the church in Rome, made up mostly of Gentile believers, Paul found it necessary to re-explain how we get right and stay right with God. “It’s by grace through faith, dummy!”

8 God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. (Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT)

It’s given by grace (God’s part) and received through faith (our part) and it’s not by doing good works (trying real hard to be right with God!)

  • It’s too simple! Why shouldn’t it be simple? Look who God’s trying to get this across to (us!).
  • It’s too easy! Easy for us, not easy for Jesus who had to give his life to make it possible.
  • It’s too cheap! It’s not cheap. Jesus paid the ultimate price of his life and then gives it to us as a gift. The cost to us is that we must quit trying to “get right with God” through our own effort and simply receive what he has already done.

Prayer:

Father, Please forgive me when I keep trying to get right with you instead of simply receiving the gracious gift of your forgiveness and your gift of life and your gift of right relationship with you. I believe, I receive, I thank you with all my heart! For Jesus’ sake…