Day 197

1 Chronicles 22:1–23:32; Romans 3:9-31; Psalm 12:1-8; Proverbs 19:13-14

IN OUR READING from Romans today, Paul brought us to the very bedrock of our faith —the very essence of the gospel. Although Romans is a highly theological treatise on how Jesus changes the scope of humanity altogether, all the nuances distill down into a profoundly simple core: No one is perfect. I know this is a cliché. But take it in slowly. Nobody is singularly perfect because of their own effort to become perfect. However, God is perfect and perfectly righteous. So how do we get beyond our inability to become perfect as we pursue a relationship with absolute perfection?

The Hebrew people believed that the law given to Moses was the path toward perfection. If a person could obey God’s laws completely, wholly, and with an honest and open heart, then they could become righteous before God. The problem was that no one could achieve this. Therefore, Paul revealed that the point of the law was fundamentally to show people their absolute inability to keep it:

Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

For Paul and those assiduously grappling with the Torah, this was a fundamental point of wrestling. How might one achieve the unachievable? However, as Paul began to consider the implications of Jesus’ life and ministry, he arrived at an answer to the age-old question:

But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

This is the bedrock of the Christian faith —and thank God. Because no one can achieve perfection before God on their own. Thankfully, through Jesus, we no longer need worry about perfection. We are being made perfect before God every day, or, as the writer of Hebrews put it, “For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14).

MEDITATION:

The LORD’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over.