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8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. 9 For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, 10 asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift so that you may be strengthened— 12 or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as I have among the rest of the gentiles. 14 I am obligated both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, 15 hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

66 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is God’s saving power for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”

 

I like to use terms correctly, probably because teachers hammered in the importance of vocabulary words as a student. The word righteousness has always been a struggle for me to understand. I always had a vague understanding of its meaning, but it irked me to not fully grasp it. As I was reading in preparation for this devotion, I gained an insight which helped me better understand this concept of righteousness a little (step by step I will get there). In my Lutheran Study Bible it says, “To be “righteous” means to meet the conditions of a covenant or agreement”. This set off a light bulb in my head.

I understand covenants. God made numerous covenants with His people throughout the Bible. God always keeps up His end, but His people have been less than perfect about following through. But the beauty of a covenant over a contract is that even if one side fails to keep their end, the other side still must abide. No matter what we do to break a covenant, God is faithful in His adherence to all that He has promised. God is righteous because He always keeps His covenants with His children. We ask for God’s righteousness so that we TOO can keep up our side. By faith, we seek to live as God’s Children, knowing that we are broken and only through God’s righteousness can we too be humble, righteous servants of the Lord

Chad Ryberg

Cryberg@livinglord.org

 

Prayer Concern: Guide our hearts to serve humbly all of creation