Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Proverbs 20:6-10
Prov 20:6-10
6 Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find? 7 The righteous who walks in his integrity — blessed are his children after him! 8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes. 9 Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”? 10 Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
Rom 3:9-11
What then? Are we Jews any better off [than Gentiles rf]? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.
Rom 8:16-17
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
None of us can say that we have made ourselves righteous. We all have sinned, and we all deserve to be judged and sentenced to death. But this is not just any death, we deserve everlasting or eternal death. We have separated ourselves from God by our sin and we should be banned from his presence forever. Paul says that we all fall short of the glory of God, and in as much as we do this, we sin.
But God loves us, even when we are his enemies. He wants all to turn away from sin and turn to him, and he wants it so badly that he devised a way for us to have our sins forgiven and be counted righteous. The hard part of this plan of God is his justice. Sin MUST be punished for him to be just. But in his love, he sent his Son to earth to live as one of us and then to take our sin upon himself. Being guilty of our sin, he then took our punishment on himself. He died on the cross for us!
When we accept his grace, we are buried with him in baptism and then raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. Our sins are washed away, and our conscience is cleansed. In Christ, we are made righteous. Now, God is just because our sin is punished in Jesus, but he is the justifier because he provided a way for us to be free from sin. Praise God!
O Lord God, giver of life and all good things, I am so thankful that you are my Father and that you love me enough to find a way for my sin to be forgiven. It is beyond my ability to understand the depth of your love or your ability to extend your grace to those who hate you or just ignore you. Help me be just like you and love everyone, even those who don’t love you or me. Thank you for the freedom I have to worship you without fear from others. Help me share the good news of Jesus to those who do not know him. In his name I pray.
Robert
