Grace Greater Than Our Sin---Day 214 Through the Bible

                            "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

                                                    even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." 

                                                                                                 Matthew 6:28 

What are we standing in?!  “We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (Romans 5:2).  What do we have on our lips?!  “He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend” (Proverbs 22:11). “Grace”—what a funny word!  How can we “stand in grace” and have “grace on our lips”? What do we see when we look at a perpetrator of a heinous crime, a woman of the street, an impaired homeless bum, or a tattooed, pierced youth?  Our Scripture reading in Romans 5:8, sheds light on these questions and has the potential for changing the way we look at people, including ourselves. 

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “grace” as: “unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification; a virtue coming from God”.  The people listed above are people who have had their sins paid for because of God’s love for them. Most of them don’t know it. They, like us, did nothing to deserve such a gift from God.  On the contrary, we’ve all done a great deal to deserve the death penalty from the holy Judge. These people are unaware of God’s divine favor, and we believers fail to consider it that much.  But verse 10 of Romans 5, tells us that God reconciled us to Him when we were His enemies.

We were not even born when Christ died, yet God included us and those yet to be born as recipients of His mercy.  Once we believe on Jesus as our Savior and the payer of the penalty for sins we incur, Romans 5:11, tells us: “We can now rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”! Unfortunately, the majority have not yet received this reconciliation.  May our days not end with only a sigh (Psalm 90:9), but with the knowledge that we have made someone aware that God loves him or her, and that the penalty for their sins has been paid by the death of the Son of God!

But what about “grace on our lips” and how could that make a king our friend?  We could ask Esther about this one!  Esther wisely wined and dined the King before making her request.  Then we read these words of grace that God placed on her lips as she awaited her fate: “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.”  (Read the Book of Esther to see whether the king proved to be her friend or foe.)

“Return, O Lord!  How long? And have compassion on Your servants” (Psalm 90:13).  Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil. Let your work appear to Your servants” (v. 15-16).  One day we will see the beautiful picture on the tapestry of our lives that God is creating. “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands” (v.17).  A few days ago, we read a similar cry to God by Nehemiah: “Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for its services” (Neh. 13:14)!  Some believe that Nehemiah was a eunuch—deprived of his manhood to serve in the palace.  Perhaps he felt the need for his life to count for something, just as we do.  Regardless of how much we have sinned or how much of our life we have wasted, once we believe and become the children of God, our loving Father places on us a robe of righteousness—the very righteousness of Christ our Savior. That is grace!  That makes it worth it all!

The King's Love Commended Toward Us--Day 78 Through the Bible

                                            We enjoy our loved ones and the beauty of God's creation to no end.
                               There is also no end to the pleasure God takes in us and in our relationship with Him!
                                                       
                                                  
March 19 is a date with special meaning for me. It was my mother's birthday. She passed away 18 years ago, yet this date always brings with it a flood of memories. If she were mentioned in the Bible by God, He would probably say that she was the daughter of _____(her father's name).  God knows exactly who my mother was and where she came from. He was even aware of when she was being formed (Psalm 139).  Numbers 35:34, says, "for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel".  God's love for His people was the reason He chose to dwell with them. Today, He dwells in us (when we believe on Jesus) by His Holy Spirit (John 14) and knows everything there is to know about us--even to the number of hairs on our heads ((Matthew 10:30, Luke 12:7). This speaks volumes of God's love for us.

Because of God's love for Israel He was concerned for them and went into great detail about how they were to handle certain situations. In Numbers 35, God addressed accidental versus premeditated murder. He understands that we are prone to accidents and He discouraged the propensity for murder by means of the death penalty.  He made provision for "cities of refuge" for those involved in accidental deaths. However, if the person left the city and was killed by an avenger, the avenger would not be found guilty of his blood because, "he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest".  God lays out the best way for us for doing things and offers protection when we adhere to what He says, however when we choose to ignore His warnings then we pay the penalty. In this case, the man could live in the city of refuge without fear of harm--but he must stay in the confines of the city.

God also wanted each tribe to retain the blessing of the possession of their land He had given them. Therefore, concerning their daughters, He instructed: "Let them marry whom they think best, but they may marry only within the family of their father's tribe". In Numbers 36:9, God says, "Thus no inheritance shall change hands from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children of Israel shall keep its own inheritance". This, of course, does not directly apply to us today, however, the underlying principle does. God has reasons for what He tells us to do and not to do. We may not understand at the time, however when we leave the refuge of what God says, we should not be surprised that we, too, experience the consequences.  (I have lived to regret selling a piece of property my parents bequeathed to me.)

Throughout the book of Psalms, we read many cries to God for His help. Do we cry out to God in despair when we are faced with unpleasant situations and attacks by those who have chosen to see us as an enemy?  We can tell God about all the ugly details and bare our souls to Him.  This in itself is therapeutic. Many times we don't want others to know how intimately we have been wounded.  As we read these Psalms each day, may we ever be reminded of God's love and compassion for us and that He is our refuge (Psalm 59:16), a strong tower (Proverbs 18:10) we can run to in our own painful situations.  We, too, can join with the psalmist in saying "And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness and of Your praise all the day long" (Psalm 35:28).

Proverbs 12:3, reminds us there is no stability in wickedness, however, when we are "rooted in righteousness", we cannot be moved!  We complete today's study with the account of Jesus' death as recorded by Mark and thereby reminded that our righteousness is in Him alone.  In Philippians 3:9, Paul says, "And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith".  As He was hanging on the cross, Jesus was mockingly referred to as "King of the Jews", "the Christ", "the King of Israel". Those making these remarks were Roman soldiers, passers by, and the chief priests and scribes.  Each person no doubt, had their own opinion of who this man was.  We are told that mockery and blasphemy were involved in their assessments of Him.  Each person has his or her own idea about Jesus.  Joseph of Arimathea begged His body for burial, Pilate marvel that He was already dead and inquired of the centurion if He had been dead for some time.  Jesus' name has crossed many lips and has entered the thoughts of many people across the years for various reasons.  May our interest in Him lie in the fact that we have come to acknowledge before God that we are sinners in need of a Savior. We need to come to the knowledge of the truth about Him (I Timothy 2:4-6).  We need to know Him rather than just knowing facts about Him.  God will hold us accountable for our own personal assessment of who Jesus is.

When Jesus "breathed His last", we read in verse 38: "Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom".  Jewish tradition says the veil of the temple was so thick it could not be torn in two by two teams of horses.  The fact that it was torn from top to bottom left no doubt that only God could have torn the veil in two.  The veil, or curtain separated the Most Holy Place from the people and was only entered by the priest once a year to make atonement for sin for the people.  The fact that it was torn from top to bottom symbolized that God, through Jesus' death for our sins, had opened up the way for us to approach Him.  When the centurion who stood nearby witnessed the tearing of the veil, he said, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"

We can only be "rooted in righteousness" because of God's love for us.  May we never take for granted the price that was paid so that we might be recipients of the righteousness of Christ and enjoy a relationship with God our Father.  God's love permeates every passage in the Bible. May we have eyes to see His wondrous love for us!