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For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. — Romans 3:22-24
Hi, friends! It’s week two of the Romans: In the Grip of Grace OBS. Just to savor this a bit more and so we’re up to speed, read through Romans 1-2 again. It should take you about five minutes. (I timed it.) It’s pretty rough. The Law is not something I want to mess with. Right? I don’t know about you, but I need all the grace I can get!.. which is one of the many reasons why I love Jesus so much! And the book of Romans.
Let me ask you, do you prefer to give gifts or to receive them? As an Enneagram two, I find it so much more enjoyable to give gifts. Giving gifts is my love language! Receiving gifts… not so much. I’ve had to learn from the Lord and my sweet family to let them love me with gifts. Maybe that’s true for you, too.
God the Father practically had to pin me down for a “come to Jesus” chat several years ago because I was working so, so, so hard trying to do all the Christian-y things, all the right things, all the serving things, all the loving things, all the works things, and it was really about trying to earn His love and grace instead of just receiving it because I’m His beloved daughter. This is a major weakness for me — delaying dealing with my personal sin by trying to cover it up with “goodness”. Oy vey. Not good.
But, listen, God will do whatever is necessary for His kids. If He has to pin us down, He will!
God went from the state of being worshipped in Heaven to being a Baby in Bethlehem all because He knows that His children are without their Father. ~ Max
Our sin separates us. We’ve all blown it and we can’t fix that for ourselves. He loves us too much to leave us in our own muck even if we try to whitewash it or ignore it.
Sin infects the entire person from eyes to feet. ~ Max
But God has a way to make people right with Him without the law, and He has now shown us that way which the law and the prophets told us about. — Romans 3:21
Jesus came to bring us a path back to God. Grace. Salvation. Peace with the Father through Him to all who choose to believe. How outrageous is that?!
None of us can get off the hook on our own no matter what we do, no matter how hard we try to ignore the problem. We’re stunk in sin like tar. But, the way out isn’t work, it’s relationship.
Holiness demands that sin be punished. Mercy compels that the sinner be loved. How can God do both? The answer… is Jesus. ~ Max
He does the unthinkable.
He gives us His perfection. He justifies us, makes us right, removes the separation.
Unmerited grace… we can’t comprehend it.
Mercy understood is holiness desired. ~ Max
I’m still eager to do right, but I’m learning to settle into enjoying the free gift of His grace.
Let’s rejoice in it! Celebrate it! Pass it on to other sufferers and wanderers. That’s what we’re called to do… share our stories about how Jesus saved our raggedy selves with His gorgeous, unmerited, unearnable, free grace.
This week in your study:
- Then, watch the video for session two of Romans: In the Grip of Grace on our study home page and take notes in your study guide on pages 17-24 and stick around to go through the questions afterward!
- Grab your Bible and enjoy your personal study this week on pages 25-33.
- Join the conversations about this week’s teaching and get to know our community in our private Facebook group.
Scriptures this Week
Romans 3-5
Prayer for the Week
Jesus, we love You! How could we not?! How could we not respond with adoration and worship and glorifying Your holy name?! Thank You for Your free gift of grace… unmerited, unearnable, unimaginable… We want to share it everywhere we go! We love You! Amen.
