Proclamation:
“This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness.’ The words ‘it was credited to him’ were
written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit
righteousness, for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the
dead. He was delivered over to death for
our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” Romans 4:22-25 (NIV)
Explanation:
These words were written under the influence of The Holy
Spirit of God by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the believers in Rome . Paul was telling them about Abraham, the
father of the faithful. He reminded them
that the scripture says that Abraham believed that God would keep His promise
and because of his faith in God he was credited with righteousness. (Romans
4:18-25) Paul told them that those who
had faith in God would also be credited with righteousness and their sins would
be forgiven just as King David had said. (Romans 4:6-8 and Psalm 32:1-2)
Application:
Because of our sinful human nature,
alone at our best our “righteousness” is but as filthy rags in His sight.
(Isaiah 64:6) It is by the grace of God
that we are saved, it is His gift to us, and we did not do anything to earn it.
(Ephesians 2:8-9) If we believe and have
faith in God, then we too will be credited with righteousness. Our faith will be tested, but if we hold on
to our belief we will be rewarded. The
testing of our faith leads to the development of perseverance, which helps us
mature as Christians. (James 1:2-4)
Because Christ died for our sins, believers can live and be credited
with righteousness. (Romans 4:25 and 1 Peter 2:24)
No comments:
Post a Comment