Two sections stand out to me. First, Paul calls God himself as a witness to Paul's faithfulness in prayer for the people of Rome that he has not yet met. What a conviction to pray. How often to I tell someone "I'll pray for you" and then forget? How easy it is to not be diligent in praying for even those I love.
Then Paul makes the statement that "in the gospels a righteousness from God is revealed; a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written the righteous will live by faith."
I grew up reading the gospels and hearing the story over and over. Yet somehow I heard it not as the revelation of a life of faith but as how to perfectly live in order to fulfill requirements. I heard it as the new law. It was still a law but it was a better one than the previous Old Testement. Yet Paul refers to it as revelation. The revelation of a new way to live that is totally unrelated to law.
Reading Paul's comment makes me want to repent. It makes me want to start over. To read and re-read the story until it is clearer to me that this in not a "how to" manual for perfect life before a lawmaking God but rather this is the revelation of the righteousness from God to us.
Showing posts with label righteousness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label righteousness. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Luke 18:9-14; Own righteousness
Its parables like this one that just scare me. When did the Pharisee cross the line? Obviously the easy answer is "when he came to depend upon his own righteousness rather than God's". But the question next to my heart is what did it look like when he crossed that line?
He gave himself to preserving the blood-line of Christ, to maintaining Judaism in its purest form. He studied the scripture, he went to the right places, he fasted twice a week, he tithed and he avoided what society considered to be major sins. He had great intentions and, at least at the beginning we assume, he had a good heart. So what does it look like when acts of piety move from being acts to place me before God or shape my behavior to being more Godly to become acts that move me away from God because of my misplaced confidence in them?
It scares me to think that my heart could just as easily forget the real motivation behind changing my behavior and I could miss the heart of God while dedicating my life to seeking it.
He gave himself to preserving the blood-line of Christ, to maintaining Judaism in its purest form. He studied the scripture, he went to the right places, he fasted twice a week, he tithed and he avoided what society considered to be major sins. He had great intentions and, at least at the beginning we assume, he had a good heart. So what does it look like when acts of piety move from being acts to place me before God or shape my behavior to being more Godly to become acts that move me away from God because of my misplaced confidence in them?
It scares me to think that my heart could just as easily forget the real motivation behind changing my behavior and I could miss the heart of God while dedicating my life to seeking it.
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