Sun 4 Jun

How is one right with God? How does one have peace with God? How is one saved from the wrath of God? If you don't care or are apathetic towards these questions then you of all people need to be taking seriously the answers to these questions. While we may display apathy toward these questions in life, when we enter through death's door it will be too late to work out what the answers might be? If I live a good life (according to my standards of goodness) will that be sufficient to be right with God? The apostle Paul in writing to Christians in Rome sets out to show that trying to work your way into God's good books is woefully deficient. To prove his point he shines the spotlight on two Old Testament characters - Abraham and David. Two figures who were consistently looked up to as models of people being right with God. But suprise, suprise they were declared right with God not on the basis of their good works (of which there were many) nor on the basis of their bad works (of which there were also many). They were right with God because God credited to them righteousness. They had no righteousness of their own. "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."What did Abraham believe? He believed God would honour the promises He had made to His people, even though it appeared impossible for those promises to be kept. As Jesus would remind His followers many centuries later, with God all things are possible. When do you find it challenging to believe that God would keep His promises?