Saturday 5 Oct 2013

Saturday Reading: Romans 2:12-16

Key Verse: Romans 2:16
16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

Devotion:
One of the things people often say is that they will not get into trouble if they don’t know the law; maybe they like speeding at a particular place and they pretend they don’t know the local law, or they like parking somewhere they are not supposed to (just picking on drivers because I am waiting in my car at the moment). But just because we don’t know the actual law of the area we are in, or because we don’t bother to find out, does not mean that we can get away with things because the law is the law and it is our responsibility to obey the local laws – which means we should be finding out what the local law is!

God’s law is a bit different because we do know right from wrong in our consciences because God placed that information in our hearts. So when we do something wrong, we do actually have a definite feeling that it is wrong as God speaks to us in our hearts; we cannot ignore that information because we are ignoring God!

If we do sin and we know it is wrong then we are wilfully doing something against what God has set in our hearts; we are showing contempt to God and His law! If we think we are going to get away with that just because we are different or because we know how we can bend the law or we know someone else will not mind, then we are sadly mistaken. God is Just in all His ways and will not ignore sin! When we do sin we must bring it to Christ and ask Him to forgive us of that sin. Only then can He show His love and separate us from that sin, presenting us as sinless before God. If we wilfully sin we are showing God that we do not have any remorse – we do not care that we are acting against His law!

How do you think your parents (or your boss) would react if you wilfully went against their rules? I’m pretty sure they would not be too pleased that you ignored their rules and even less pleased that you did so knowing that they did not approve of what you were about to do! So how do you think you can get away with doing the same to God who cannot and will not ignore sin? Never forget that God is Holy and cannot abide sin!

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you can bend the law?

Do you really think you can change God?