Verse of the Day 8/2

Through the Bible - Psalms 70-72, Romans 5

 

Good morning,

The other day we considered personal vs. collective salvation.  Donald Barnhouse speaks of a salvation that is personal yet for the nations, for the world when he writes that Romans the story of this great book is "salvation for individual souls from any stage of sin, and ultimate salvation for the nations through the intervention of God in Christ."

 

For today's verse we'll go to Romans 5 for a verse that I recall memorizing in AWANA Clubs when I was probably 9 years old.  Whether we are 5 years old or 90, this verse applies.  We have all sinned but that doesn't mean that we must clean up our lives on our own before we can approach Him.  He calls us to come just as we are, but He wont leave us there.

 

Rom 5: 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.    NIV

 Paul, who had previously been a persecutor of the church wrote these words from personal experience.  While he was on a mission to arrest followers of Jesus, Jesus appeared to him and called him.

 

Donald Barnhouse writes, "Paul could never forget the pit from which he had been digged.  The Lord had taken him out of the miry clay and put his feet upon the rock, and for him all things were new.  He could never forget it.  It is impossible to understand the epistle without remembering this."

 

 Read the passage below.  Notice the words grace, faith, hope and love which are all found in this passage.  They are "hallmarks" to Paul's letters and the gospel of Christ.  Paul couldn't help but realize how much God loved him, we should realize how much he loves us.

 

If He has set your feet on the rock, perhaps He's given you the view that He gave to Jonathan Edwards in one of my favorite quotes from him.

"As grace increases the field opens more and more to a distant view, until the soul is swallowed up with the vastness of the object, and the person is astonished to think how much it becomes him to love his God and this glorious Redeemer that has so loved man."  - Jonathan Edwards

Blessings,
Mike

mikevw@bellsouth.net
mikesvotd.blogspot.com

Romans 5

Peace and Joy

 ¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

 ⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.