Romans Devo for Sandals Romans 3:21-31

Week 4: (Days 16-20)

Day 16: For Everyone Who Believes

Intro: Which of these statements do you tend to lean toward? God and I are good or, God could never accept me as I am. We can error on either side of the coin. The truth is, we have all sinned against God, but there is a way for you to be made right before him.

Read: Romans 3:21-22 (NLT)

Explore the Theme: It is not about what you have done, it is about where you put your faith. Do you believe that Christ came for you?

The law showed us that we are sinners. None of us have lived without breaking God’s law. Your family cannot save you, your culture cannot save you, your good deeds cannot save you. But it is also important to recognize that these things can’t keep you from God either. We read here that being made right with God is available to you! God wants a relationship with you. He wants you to believe!

Ask God: God loves you more than you know! Ask God to show you how he sees you. Ask God to show you both your beauty and your brokenness.

Live it Out: What would change in your life today if you fully trusted Jesus Christ? What compromises are you making in your life because of a lack of trust in God? If your actions aligned with what you say you believe, how would things be different?

Day 17: We don’t deserve it!

Intro: Have you ever narrowly escaped a punishment. You know you were wrong, and you knew the consequences. For some reason, you were not punished. You know what you deserved, and you did not get it. This is what God offers us!

Read: Romans 3:23-24 (NLT)

Explore the Theme: Grace is not just avoiding the penalty, it is getting a gift that we do not deserve. God set a standard of holiness that we cannot attain, but he made a way for us to be in relationship with him. From the beginning he knew we would need another way to get to him. That is the gift of Jesus. There is a penalty for sin, but because of Jesus we don’t have to pay. He paid it for us!

Ask God: Take a minute and think about the areas you fall short. Not to feel guilt, but to feel thankful for what Christ has done. Ask God to help you see the grace that he has offered you.

Live it Out: Take some time this week to give thanks to Christ for what he has done for you. Not only has he released you from the penalty of sin, but he has given you an amazing gift of eternal life with him. Share that gift with someone else this week.

Day 18: Jesus Paid the Price

Intro: God does not just exist in this present time. He is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega. This means he sees all things, including who you were, and who you will someday be. He has always had a plan for you. Keep that in mind as you read todays passage.

Read: Romans 3:25-26 (NLT)

Explore the Theme: Forgiveness of your sins was offered before you even knew what sin was. He longed for the day that you would turn to him and receive the forgiveness that he offered you. God was patient for you to believe in Jesus so that he could enter into relationship with you.

As you look back you may see times in your life where God gave you grace before you even knew him. Our God is fair and just, and because of Jesus we can be right in his sight.

Ask God: This verse reminds us of what it cost to forgive us our sins. The sacrifice that was made was not easy or light. Ask God to show you areas of your life where you might be taking advantage of that forgiveness, forgetting what it cost.

Live it Out: What would change in your life if you had to pay the penalty for your sin. Christ has paid the price, but that comes with a call to obedience. Are there areas in your life where you need to step into a deeper obedience with Christ?

Day 19: We Are Not Good Enough!

Intro: Throughout the Old Testament the Israelites attempted to live up to a law that they could not keep. No matter how good you are, you can never compare to the holiness of God. There is something freeing in acknowledging that we cannot work our way into heaven.

Read: Romans 3:27-28 (NLT)

Explore the Theme: The Christian life is not a competition. We cannot earn our way into heaven. The world has told us that our good deeds must out weigh our bad, but the reality is that does not work. It does not matter how many good things you have done, if you break the law you are a criminal. None of us can boast about being accepted by God because none of us deserved it. Everyone one of us living under his grace and his forgiveness. Only through faith can we be accepted into the presence of God.

Ask God: The bible says that we are saved by faith. Each of us has opportunity to increase our faith through reading God’s word. Ask God to show you his goodness and faithfulness to you so that in return your faith will increase.

Live it Out: If I am accepted because of how good I am, then I can keep you out based on how bad you are. Sadly there are too many people that think this way. Even in the church. God has given you amazing amounts of grace. Is there anyone in your life to whom you need to offer some grace?

Day 20: Obedience

Intro: If we are saved by faith does this mean we can forget about the law. God gave us the law and he gave us faith, why both? It takes one to show us our need for the other.

Read: Romans 3:29-31 (NLT)

Explore the Theme: We follow the law because we are part of the family, not to get into the family. Christ gave everything for us, our response is love, and a loving response is an obedient response. In the book of Matthew Jesus said the whole law can be summed up in this “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind… and Love your neighbor as yourself.’

It all starts with a love of God and others. The more you love God, the more God will help you love others and the easier it will be to love and obey God’s law. In the end, faith, love and law all go hand in hand.

Ask God: The law was always about the heart of God’s people. Legalism focuses on what we do, God worries about why we do it. Ask God to show you the motivations of your heart and then let him adjust those motivations toward him and others.

Live it Out: James tells us that “Faith without works is dead.” As we see here in Romans 3 our faith and the law go hand in hand. Only through your faith can you live out God’s law. This is not about forced obedience, but a desire to draw close to God. How can you, through faith, align your heart to God’s law today.

Not what you deserve, but what you need!

21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

We are sinners and we don’t deserve this

Not only do we escape punishment, we get invited into a relationship with God. This is Grace, we not only escape what we deserve, but we get what we don’t deserve!

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

Jesus Took our Penalty - Don’t take that lightly.

Cheap Grace

25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

Our righteousness is useless!

If I got in because of how good I am, then I can keep you out because of how bad you are. But, if we realize that we are not accepted because of our righteousness, then who I am to turn anyone away. It is only our belief that God is who he says he is, and that he will do what he says he will do, that is faith.

27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

Our Response to Grace is Obedience

29 After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. 30 There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. 31 Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Ro 3:21–31.

When Paul says that ‘God justifies the ungodly’, he means that God treats the ungodly as if they had been good men and women.

William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans, 3rd ed. fully rev. & updated., The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 67.

The Letter to the Romans The Only Way to Be Right with God (Romans 3:19–26)

The basic difference is this: the way of obedience to the law is concerned with what we can do for ourselves; the way of grace is concerned with what God can do, and has done, for us.

The Letter to the Romans The End of the Way of Human Achievement (Romans 3:27–31)

people often came to a frame of mind in which they rather held that God was in their debt.

The Letter to the Romans The End of the Way of Human Achievement (Romans 3:27–31)

Paul’s position was that we are all sinners and God’s debtors, that we could never put ourselves back into a right relationship with God through our own efforts and that grounds for self-satisfaction and boasting in one’s own achievement no longer exist.

The Letter to the Romans The End of the Way of Human Achievement (Romans 3:27–31)

They strive for goodness, not because they are afraid of God, but because they love him. They know now that sin is not so much breaking God’s law as it is breaking God’s heart, and, therefore, it is doubly terrible.

The Epistle to the Romans a. The Death of Christ, 3:21–26

He speaks of the righteousness of God, the sin of man, and the salvation of Christ. He views this salvation in three ways: as justification (imagery from the law court), as redemption (imagery from the slave market), and as propitiation (imagery from the averting of wrath).

The Epistle to the Romans a. The Death of Christ, 3:21–26

Paul is making the point that the gospel is no afterthought. God had always planned to save people by the way of grace. It is the making of this known that is recent.