Far from perfect
“For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” (Romans 3:28)
Often when a person dies you hear, “He/she was such a good person.”
Such comments imply the person who is deceased did many good things in their life, and those should certainly count for something.
Contrast such thinking to what God demands us of us Matthew 5:48: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” It may be a person truly was nice and did good things for others, but when we are standing before God at the end of our life, he is going to ask us one simple question “Were you perfect your entire life?” That is a very intimidating question, and we all know what we have to answer. We can’t stutter or stammer and try to say “But, God I did a lot of nice things for people in my lifetime.” We have to honestly answer, “No, I have been far from perfect.”
But before we despair, look at our Bible verse for this week. It gives us the answer we need when we stand before God. Instead of trying to present our own supposed “good deeds,” by faith in Jesus as our Savior we can point to Him and say, “He did it all for me!”
That is the only thing we can say, and what a joy and relief it is to be able to say that. Instead of lying awake at night trying to figure out what good we need to do to make up for the not so good things we know we’ve done, instead of letting our conscience be tormented by our shortcomings and failures, we can lean totally on Jesus.
That is what Paul meant when he was led by God to write the words of our Bible verse for this week: “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” By faith in Jesus, we can live peace-filled lives knowing we don’t have to try to justify ourselves by what we do. Jesus did it all by His death on the cross to pay for our sins and by His resurrection from the dead to assure us that when we die we will rise and go to heaven with Him.
In the mid-1500s, the church had basically lost the teaching that you are saved by grace because of what Jesus did for you. The Reformation is when Martin Luther rediscovered the wonderful things our Bible verse and devotion for this week focus on. Martin Luther read our verse for this week and came to realize what he had been told about having to do good things to make up for the evil he has done was not true. That in a nutshell is what the Reformation is all about.
Rejoice that Jesus did it all for you! Cling to the freedom He gives you through faith in Him. And, most importantly, live in that freedom each day and don’t let the devil or anyone else rob you of the joy and peace you have in Jesus.