A Great Bible Reading Day Today

If you follow the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan like I do then you will note that today's reading is a wonderful selection of chapters. Today is highlighted by Romans 3 and Psalm 51. I don't know of two chapters in the Bible that have made a bigger difference in my life than these two.

Romans 3 Summary: We are all sinners, Jews and Greeks alike. There is none righteous, no one. No one can be justified by works, because God is perfect and we cannot meet his expectation for holiness (perfection). But, through our faith we have been justified (made just as if I'd never sinned) through Jesus Christ because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Christ's saving grace is a gift from God and not something we can earn on our own.

Psalm 51 Summary: This Psalm was written after David had taken Bathsheba and had relations with her. She became pregnant and David had her husband Uriah murdered on the battlefield. Psalm 51 says, Be gracious to me, O God. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know what I have done and it has separated me from my relationship with You. I am a sinner from birth and will continue to be one until the day I go to be with You. But, You desire what is in a person's heart and now what a person does. Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew my spirit. Please give me more of Your Holy Spirit and restore to me the joy of my salvation. Then I can be more effective in my ability to lead others to You. What You really want is a broken spirit and a repentant heart.

These two chapters tell us that we are not alone. We are all sinners, but for some reason that I don't fully understand, God sent Christ to earth to restore our relationship with Him. Jesus was that sacrifice that God took on our behalf. It all comes back to God's wrath being taken out on Christ instead of us. If you have seen The Passion of the Christ, If you are a believer in Christ, you probably have some idea what God's wrath looks like. But as graphic and brutal as some of the scenes in the movie are it can never depict the incredible pain and agony that Christ suffered for both you and I. It wasn't a movie. It wasn't some actor portraying pain, it was the wrath of the Creator of the Universe being poured out on His Son, all for us. It was so bad that before Christ was taken he was sweating blood (Luke 22:44)and have received Him as your personal Lord and Savior then God sees you as justified (pure, innocent, and clean) and can let you enter his presence any time.

Anyhow, it was a great Bible reading day today. Good luck and God be with you.