Day 143 – March 7, 2024: Job 1-3 and Romans 1-3

Two of my favorite books of the Bible, but each for a very different reason. Job I love because his defense of who he is and what he will continue to believe takes place even in the most severe of circumstances. As soon as he is overcome with trials his tells him the route he should take which ultimately his three friends subscribe to: Why don’t you just curse God and die? Things would be so much easier if you just come to terms that you are a sinner and that you did something wrong to deserve this. The answer is one that we should all be able to say: Yes, I know that I am a sinner, and yet this current state of mine is not the direct result of any one action, but rather it is a season in which I find myself that will pass. God is faithful and just, abounding in steadfast love and slow to anger. While these aren’t Job’s words, they could be in his current state. He remains faithful in the most horrific of situations.

Romans gives us the meat of our theology. If you wanted to know anything about anything that we believe all you have to do is look at Romans. The problem with Romans in this context, however, is that there are so many verses to lift up that we could be here all day, but let’s at least do a few. Look at 1:16, this is a strong reminder of who we should be: never ashamed of the Gospel. In that statement we find the confidence to preach Christ crucified even while all around us we have a Christ who is serving the wishes and the desires of powerful people who use his words, or at least his name and sometimes his name alone, to justify horrific policies and actions of which Jesus would be ashamed. “The one who is righteous (who acts according to the will of God) will live by faith”

Romans 1 gives us a laundry list of perversions that we should not support, but they seemed to have been forgotten in our culture. There are other lists, but this is one that is fairly significant. If you look at vs.20 and that section you see that God reveals himself to those who would not self-identify as Christian just by the creation of God around them. There is no one on earth who has an excuse that God never revealed himself to me. That simply is not true. And while nature is a strong convincer of the presence of God, the life and resurrection of Jesus is the full revelation that changes peoples’ hearts. I could go on, I didn’t even get to chapter 2. There is so much here.