Tuesday 12 Jun 2012

Tuesday Reading: Romans 9:31-33

Key Verse: Romans 9:32
32  Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;

Devotion:
One of the questions that the Apostle asks in this text is “why did the Israelites not find grace?” and the answer is given immediately to avoid others stumbling on that same question – because they did not seek that grace through Christ but rather through the ceremonial law. If we continue to try to follow a bunch of rules and regulations (it does not have to be those laid down by God for us) we will find out in the long run that it is quite hard to keep to rules. Take for instance something as simple as a diet, we try very hard to stick to the rules of the diet but we always seem to give in and take a bite of something we should not. The same is true for God’s laws that He has given to us; we try hard to follow the laws but we always seem to give in and take a bite from things we should not.

So when the Israelites continue to try to attain to those laws, they always find out that they cannot quite keep them all. If we were to try the same we would find out exactly the same answer so the only way through this shortcoming for us is to make a change so that we should not have to keep those laws. God knew that we would not be able to keep those laws because that is the way we have been right from the beginning; that is why He gave us His Son to pay the debt for those sins.

We may then turn round and ask why God gave us those laws in the first place. If we did not have the laws in the first place then we would not be able to know that we are doing things wrong and we would not know that we are going against God’s will.

In order to find direction in our lives we have to find a need which will give us a goal to aim for and hence give us direction. God has given us a very long history lesson to try and show us exactly what we need, where we should be aiming and what we should expect all along the way. We are the ones that continue to ignore the teacher and lose track of that lesson. We need to keep up with the lesson in order to make sure that we do do God’s will in our lives; one sure way to do that is to keep close to His Word and find out what God wants in our lives. If we get stuck on old rules and regulations we may well lose track of what God wants from us now. If we ignore the old rules and regulations we will find it hard to know what it is all about now. We need the whole truth and we need to keep up to date with God continually.

Points to Ponder:
Are you stuck on rules and regulations?

Are you seeking God through Christ?