Advent Devotion for Wednesday, December 4

By Scott Giger

Read Romans 3:21-26

If you could tell someone anything about the Christian faith, what would it be? What if you were able to write a letter, just one, outlining the things that you thought were most important? As you consider that, you are in the position of the Apostle Paul.

He was called by God to write a letter to the fledgling church in Rome demonstrating the key teachings of Christianity. Magnifying the difficulty of the task as the fact he had never even met them! Praise God, Paul knew that he was writing on God’s authority and not his own! The result would be his finest writing, the Biblical book of Romans.

By chapter three, Paul has hit his stride. This is the key chapter of his magnum opus. “Listen, Romans,” he writes, “you have a problem, and so do I, and so does everyone else. It’s a sin problem and it prevents you from being in a relationship with God [my paraphrase of verse 23].” You can imagine the air being sucked out of the room as these words were read aloud. They needed to know.

Paul knew this would settle heavily on these new believers so he didn’t even stop to start a new sentence. He kept right on, “But God has made a way. He loves you so much that He has made a way. He couldn’t go back on His law. He couldn’t deny justice. But, He could send His Son who would veil Himself long enough to make things right, to pay for your forgiveness, to die for you and me and the guy down the street and even the Gentiles. Jesus did that for you [my paraphrase of verses 24-25].” Everyone in the room began to breathe again. In Jesus there is forgiveness!

Paul wanted them to know. The Holy Spirit breathed these words through him, not only for the Romans, but for you! Though you have never met, Paul writes them to you. The message is fundamental to the Christian faith. “God loves you so much that He made a way … in Jesus there is forgiveness!”

We pray: Father, I have a problem with sin. Yet, in the midst of it–You show me the full extent of Your love. You forgive me in Jesus. Your love is overwhelming, and I praise You for it! Amen.