"Good News About Grace" in American Sign LanguageSample

Who Is God’s Favorite?
By Rick Warren

“[The promise] is not only for those who live under the law of Moses but for anyone who lives with faith like that of Abraham.” (Romans 4:16 NCV)

God doesn’t play favorites — regardless of your background, your status, or your sin. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been a religious person or a non-religious person or if you have any religious background at all.

Romans 4:16 says, “[The promise] is not only for those who live under the law of Moses but for anyone who lives with faith like that of Abraham” (NCV). Who are these people who live under the Law of Moses? The Jews. The Jewish people were given the ways of God before anyone else.

Have you ever thought about why the Jews were called God’s chosen people? Does God love them more than he loves the rest of us? No. They were chosen for a purpose — to spread the message that there is one true God to everybody else. They were kind of like the missionaries to the rest of us.

Now God has taken that task and given it to the Church, which includes Jews, Gentiles, and everybody else who puts their faith in Christ. God says his salvation is available to anybody who opens up his or her heart in faith: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13 NIV). There are no quotas in Heaven. It doesn’t say only really good people will be saved if they call on the name of the Lord or really religious people or really smart people. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

The sad thing is that even though many people know that God offers his gift of grace, they still try to work their way into Heaven. They think that something in their lives makes them good enough so they don’t need to receive God’s gift of salvation through Christ.

You may have done some really nifty things in life, but if you think they’re going to get you into Heaven, forget it. The only way any of us are going to get in is by receiving God’s gift of grace, which is available to every person.

Talk It Over

What are the efforts you’ve made or the character traits you’ve nurtured that you believe will help your salvation?

What do you believe is your part in the Church’s task to spread the message of salvation to those who have not heard?

What does it mean to “call on the name of the Lord”?