Bible Verse of the Day Friday October 27th, 2023

Romans 3:21-24  But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 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.

God's justification of our lives is not merely the taking away of our sins, but the addition of God's righteousness offered to us. Justification is the process in which God declares us righteous in and through the cleansing power of Jesus' precious blood shed for us on the Cross of Calvary. The Law has no saving power and cannot provide the vehicle we need to carry us through this life and into our eternal life with the one that made it possible for us to be there. This concept is the substance of God's plan of salvation in Christ Jesus. It is salvation far removed from the Law of Moses and eternally separated from any good deeds we believe we might have done that would grant us eternal life with our Lord and Savior. God does not offer us His righteousness as something to fill the gap between the Law and our penchant for grace.

The Apostle Paul made it clear in his letter to the Romans and many other places in his writings that we do not gain righteousness through the Law or any good deeds we might offer God. It comes only through our faith in Christ Jesus in his substitutionary work on our behalf on the Cross. Faith is not a virtue or a token by which we may purchase salvation; Faith is the means God uses to bestow His saving grace upon all who have placed their faith and trust in Christ Jesus. Our faith is not our expectancy on God to supply anything to our lives; it is our standing on reliance upon God's eternal promises of the work of Jesus on our behalf upon the Old Rugged Cross.

After we receive saving faith, our life of trust begins. Trust is the bridge to what God will do, but faith sees what God says has been done and believes God's Word, believing it is true for us. Redemption has its roots in antiquity, meaning repurchasing something, as in releasing prisoners of war. This concept would indicate that Jesus redeemed us by His sacrifice on Calvary. In other words, God created us, and Satan took us as prisoners, so God bought (Redeemed) us back from Satan with the greatest price ever paid for prisoners, the life of His only begotten Son.

Some sincere but mistaken Christians today believe that Satan is incapable of possessing one’s soul, but he can fill our bodies with his evil demons, and one must have those demons cast out by someone in authority to do so. Paul tells us that our bodies belong to Jesus, and He will not sublet our bodies out to any demons. Jesus owns my body and will not rent it out to Satan or any of his evil soldiers.  Our bodies are the temple of God; He lives within us. Consequently, we have the power of God’s Holy Spirit indwelling within us, who can send Satan packing.