Romans (Part 26) - CHRIST is God’s Way!
[Romans 10:4 ESV] 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
[Romans 9:22-24 ESV] 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory– 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
GOD HAS A PEOPLE
How do I become a part of God’s people?
IS NOT ENOUGH
Meaning: who you are is not enough to be acceptable to God.
[Romans 9:25-26 ESV] 25 As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” 26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
[Luke 22:20 ESV] 20 … “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
[Galatians 3:27-29 ESV] 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
[Romans 9:27-29 ESV] 27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.”
IS NOT ENOUGH
Meaning: what you do is not enough to be acceptable to God.
[Romans 9:30-32 ESV] 30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works…
[Galatians 3:24 ESV] 24 … the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
[Romans 9:32-33 ESV] They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Who is the stone of stumbling?
[Romans 10:1-3 ESV] 1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
[Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV] 4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
[Colossians 2:9 ESV] 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
[1 Timothy 2:5-6 ESV] 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all…
[Romans 10:4 ESV] 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
[John 14:6 ESV] 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Will you grab the rope?
PERSONAL REFLECTION:
Is there anything specific that You felt God speaking to your heart?
Are there any ways of thinking that you need to change, to align with Scripture?
What will you take into this week that applies to your circumstances?