Devotional Romans 3: God's Faithfulness and Salvation by Faith Reflection on Romans 3: God's unwavering faithfulness, the reality that no one is righteous, and how faith in Jesus grants us salvation. Topics: Devotional, New Testament.

Devotional Romans 3: God’s Faithfulness and Salvation by Faith

Today’s devotional is found in the book of Romans, chapter 3, and this is what happened.

Synopsis: In this chapter, Paul wrote a letter to answer the objections of the Romans. In this letter, he speaks about the following 3 topics: the faithfulness of God, the non-existence of a single righteous person, and salvation through faith.

Observations

1. The faithfulness of God. God is faithful and always fulfills His promises—this is the primary belief we must hold. He is eternally good, merciful, compassionate, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. That is to say, He is the only entity in the world in which we can place our hopes with the certainty that He will fulfill His promises. Nothing else in the universe possesses these attributes. Therefore, nothing except God is worthy of our faith and praise. Praising things of this world that are finite and do not possess all the attributes of God is foolish. I know that sometimes it is difficult to believe that everything will turn out well, especially when everything seems to go from bad to worse. However, God may take His time (according to our flawed perspective), but He will never fail. The Holy Scriptures demonstrate this. All the promises God has made up to this point have been fulfilled: that Abraham would be the father of great nations (Genesis 12:2), that his descendants would be numerous (Genesis 13:16), that all nations would be saved through his offspring because of his obedience to God (Genesis 22:18), etc. This is what Paul highlighted to the Jewish Romans who had objections about the importance of being Jewish. For they claimed that if circumcision or adhering to the law is not necessary to achieve salvation, what is the advantage of being Jewish? But Paul told them that Jews are important because the Words of God were entrusted to them (Romans 3:1–2). And it was through them that Jesus Christ came into the world to save us (John 4:22 and Romans 1:3).
2. There is not a single righteous person. According to God’s standard of perfect justice, no one on earth can satisfy Him. Therefore, no one is righteous or good in the eyes of God (Ecclesiastes 7:20). We are all sinners and descendants of sinners. It is precisely for this reason that God sent His only begotten Son to save us from our sins and give us eternal life (John 3:16). Because of this, the belief we see today where people proclaim themselves as good is a great trap. This belief blinds their spiritual vision, leads them to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, and causes them to forget that they need God’s forgiveness to gain salvation. Therefore, we must never think that we are good and that only others who are sinners need to repent of their sins and believe in God. For this will certainly lead us to condemnation (Luke 18:9–14).
3. Salvation through faith. This point is the most important aspect of Christianity. Therefore, we must all understand its full consequences and implications well. Furthermore, this is the belief that sets Christianity apart from all other religions in the world. In all other religions, one can reach salvation through works alone: Garden of Eden (Judaism), Jannah (Islam), Swarga (Hinduism), Nirvana (Buddhism), etc. But in Christianity, one does not gain salvation exclusively through works. One obtains salvation by faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9 and Romans 3:28). In other words, one cannot simply obey the Law, disbelieve in Jesus Christ, and assume that salvation can be reached. Hence, the importance of spreading the gospel to all nations. There are still people who do not know the gospel of Jesus Christ and may lose their salvation as a result, since no one is good in the eyes of God. If a person does not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they will be judged by God exclusively according to the law (John 12:47–48). That is, God will not apply the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in the judgment of that person. Therefore, that person is already condemned (John 3:18). However, this does not mean that one can simply accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and continue without changing their bad conduct. For it is through our conduct that it is revealed whether we have truly accepted Jesus and been changed by the Holy Spirit. If our conduct does not begin to resemble even a little bit that of Jesus, it means we have not yet truly accepted Him. Therefore, our conduct will truly reveal what we believe and in whom or what we place our hopes (Matthew 7:16–20).