Read the Book: July - SeptemberSample

Week 33

Romans 3

Where is Righteousness?

 All of us have them—inward standards by which we measure ourselves, whether that be comparison with others, our status in society, or even how our children are turning out. There’s not enough room within this devotional to list the many ways we convince ourselves that we are “okay”. As natural of a process that might be, the words contained in the third chapter of Romans completely destroy all of our efforts at self-justification.

Verses 10 through 18 use language of the absolute. NONE is righteous.. NO ONE understands… NO ONE seeks for God… ALL have turned aside… together they have become WORTHLESS. I think you get the bleak picture and skepticism about this indictment can seem like literal overkill. We can protest with many questions. “It can’t be that bad!” “I know a lot of moral people, me included!” “Doesn’t research tell us that millions within our culture believe that being good to others is a good thing and isn’t religious affiliation still deemed as a good virtue?”

What we seem to forget is two things. First, because we are made in the image of God, we are able to be moral and virtuous people, but our sinfulness cuts off our ability for those virtues to come from a place of God’s righteousness. Furthermore, we can even live a religious life, but we are ultimately pursuing a God of our own making. 

Second, on our own we are unable to please God in a way whereby God receives us. The good news is there is someone who IS righteous.. who COMPLETELY understands… who PERFECTLY sought the Father… who NEVER turned aside.. and is SUPREMELY worthy. 

This person is Jesus alone. Jesus pleased God for us. Let us be grateful today for His righteousness for us.

Family Connection: Set up a bucket a good distance away and see how many paper balls or tennis balls people can make into it (make it challenging). None of us made all of the shots that we took. If we practiced we could make more but we would still miss a few. It says in the Bible that everyone has fallen short of living a perfect life. We have all said, done, and thought things that disappoint God. That is called sin. Because of that sin we were separated from God. But He wants a relationship with us so He sent Jesus to take the punishment for us falling short. Pray and thank God for His love for us!