7 day plan

God’s Unending Love

Day 4 of 7

CEV

Romans 5:17-18

17Death ruled like a king because Adam had sinned. But that cannot compare with what Jesus Christ has done. God has treated us with undeserved grace, and he has accepted us because of Jesus. And so we will live and rule like kings.

18 Everyone was going to be punished because Adam sinned. But because of the good thing that Christ has done, God accepts us and gives us the gift of life.

Reflection: God’s Righteousness as a Gift  

Today we will reflect on how we became righteous in Christ and how righteousness is a gift to humanity. This gift of God helps us to walk according to the revelation of Christ in us.

In today’s passage, God’s word is reminding us of the gift of righteousness he gave us through Jesus Christ. We become the righteousness of God through our faith in Christ, believing that he died for our sins.

God showed us how much he loved us by becoming sin that we might be guiltless. We received our inheritance in God when Jesus died for us.

When I was much younger, I felt that I was not important to God or anyone. I kept asking myself the question, “Does God really know and care about me?” If you have felt that way before, do not worry, because the good news is that God knows you by name. No matter who you are, he knows you by name and he loves you. That’s why he sent his son to die and give you eternal life, that you might be righteous in him.

You do not need to do anything spectacular to receive this gift of righteousness. All you need to do is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, and righteousness and its inheritance will become yours in Jesus Christ.

Prayer:  Dear Lord, thank you for paying the price of salvation for us. We ask that you help us to be conscious of your gift of righteousness in us that we might walk in the inheritance you have installed for us, in Jesus’ name.

Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®) © 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.

Days

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7

Romans 5:1-21

What It Means To Be Acceptable to God

1By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God. 2Christ has also introduced us to God's gift of undeserved grace on which we now take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God. 3But that's not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. 4And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope 5that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love.

6Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful. 7No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person. 8But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.

9But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life's blood, we will also be kept safe from God's anger. 10Even when we were God's enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by the life of his Son. 11And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us.

Adam and Christ

12 Adam sinned, and that sin brought death into the world. Now everyone has sinned, and so everyone must die. 13Sin was in the world before the Law came. But no record of sin was kept, because there was no Law. 14Yet death still had power over all who lived from the time of Adam to the time of Moses. This happened, though not everyone disobeyed a direct command from God, as Adam did.

In some ways Adam is like Christ who came later. 15But the gift of God's undeserved grace was very different from Adam's sin. That one sin brought death to many others. Yet in an even greater way, Jesus Christ alone brought God's gift of undeserved grace to many people.

16There is a lot of difference between Adam's sin and God's gift. That one sin led to punishment. But God's gift made it possible for us to be acceptable to him, even though we have sinned many times. 17Death ruled like a king because Adam had sinned. But that cannot compare with what Jesus Christ has done. God has treated us with undeserved grace, and he has accepted us because of Jesus. And so we will live and rule like kings.

18 Everyone was going to be punished because Adam sinned. But because of the good thing that Christ has done, God accepts us and gives us the gift of life. 19Adam disobeyed God and caused many others to be sinners. But Jesus obeyed him and will make many people acceptable to God.

20The Law came, so that the full power of sin could be seen. Yet where sin was powerful, God's gift of undeserved grace was even more powerful. 21Sin ruled by means of death. But God's gift of grace now rules, and God has accepted us because of Jesus Christ our Lord. This means that we will have eternal life.

Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®) © 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.