Romans 4:1-12 Response

Without at doubt, the best gift I ever got was an original Nintendo video game system when I was ten years old.  It is not the most valuable or enduring gift I have ever received, but from the standpoint of sheer unexpected excitement and vocalized joy, that gift on Christmas morning takes first place.  Picture a wide-eyed boy jumping all over the living room, screaming effusive thanks to his parents.  I know my parents were really glad that I was so excited–that was why they gave it.

But imagine: what if–after opening the gift–I simply closed the lid and said: “I am not worthy of this gift. Please let me pay you for it.” An absurd idea indeed, considering my net worth had recently climbed to $4.

I had this image in my mind as I listened to Pastor David’s message from Rom 4.  While he contrasted those who work and receive a wage and those whose faith is reckoned a gift, the words gift and wage really jumped out at me.  To be honest, I find myself so easily falling into a pattern of relating to God in a wage-based relationship.  Whether it’s the frequency or intensity of my quiet times, ministry involvement, comments in a Sunday school class, amount of my Faith promise pledge, or even my own analysis of the quality of my faith in Christ, I am astounded at how easily my heart takes good things and turns them into self-justifying currency with which I try to pay-off God.  Paul’s clear teaching cuts through this: “And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness”  (Rom 4:5).

God’s gift to us is meant to opened, rejoiced over and “used.”  It is not meant to be put on a shelf while we work to pay for the right to experience its benefits.  The gift of reckoned-righteousness is too much for our sin-warped hearts; yet the glorious reality is that it is ours!  And as Pastor David pointed out, the freedom of confessing our specific sins is deeply connected to the degree in which we have received and opened this gift from God.  Since we know we are forgiven, we can “approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Heb 4:16) knowing our sins cannot separate us from God.  Nor will he take away his gift.  Confession is a daily act that reinforces our gift-based relationship with God.

Have you put God’s gift on a shelf?  Do you know about the extent of the forgiveness that is yours in Christ yet are striving to be worthy of that gift before enjoying it?  Let us this week, by the grace of God, take this gift of declared righteousness off the shelf and allow the joy of the gift to be the strong foundation of our lives. Let it create a joyful exuberance like a Nintendo on Christmas morning.

~ Nate Blosser