Righteousness by faith

Monday, March 23, 2015
Devotions: Ps 31, 35; Jer 24:1-10; Rom 9:19-33; Jn 9:1-17

YHWH, I take refuge in You; do not let me be put to shame.  Deliver me into Your reign, Your righteousness, my Rock and Protector.  Into Your hands I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, faithful God!  I will rejoice and be glad in Your steadfast love.  I am weak, but You Are my strength.  I trust You alone, my God.  Deliver me from my enemies and all who oppose me.  My God answers prayer.  So: be strong and courageous of heart, all who wait upon YHWH.  Let Him content with those who oppose me; let Almighty God pronounce judgment and sentence upon them; let them be chaff in His hurricane; let God's angel pursue them.  And I will rejoice in God my Savior.  I praise You, Lord, before Your people.  Vindicate me for Your name's sake, and for Your praise and glory.  And let those who love You and who love me also--let them shout for you.  Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of His servants.  I am a voice to tell of Your righteousness as long as I have breath and will.  Amen.

Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, took captive Jeconiah, king of Judah, and all his princes and skilled workers, and removed them in exile to Babylon.  Then Jeremiah received this vision from YHWH: two baskets of figs placed before God's temple in Jerusalem.  And God said to Jeremiah, 'What do you see?'  The prophet answered, 'Two baskets of figs: one very good and the other so bad they are inedible.'  And God said, 'Just so I regard as good the exiles from Judah whom I have sent away into exile in the land of the Chaldeans.  I will watch over them and will bring them back to this land.  I will build them up; I will plant them, and not uproot them.  I will give them a heart to know that I Am the Lord, and they will be My people and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.'  And YHWH said, 'But like the inedible figs, I will detest Zedekiah and his princes and the remnant who fled to Egypt; I will make them a horror, a reproach, a byword, a taunt and curse everywhere they flee for refuge.  I will send sword, famine and pestilence upon them, until they are utterly destroyed and permanently banished from the land I gave to them and their ancestors.'
Amen.

Paul to the Romans:  Is God unjust in casting out unfaithful Jews, or in choosing Jacob over Esau?  No, He chooses those on whom He will bestow His mercy; it depends not upon human will or exertion, but upon God's mercy.  He saves or hardens as He sees fit.  Don't argue with God; we have no standing to do so: the Potter can mold the clay as He chooses.  It may be that God has endured with much patience those people made for wrath and destruction so that He may announced the riches of His glory to those He has prepared to receive His mercy--from among both Jews and Gentiles.  He said as much through the prophet Hosea: 'Those who were not My people, I have called "My people."  And her who was not beloved, I have named, "My beloved."  In the very place where it was said to them, "You are not My people," they will be called "sons of the living God."  Likewise, Isaiah declared, 'Though the sons of Israel number like the grains of sea sand, only a remnant among them will be saved; for YHWH will execute His sentence upon the earth with rigor and dispatch.'  And Isaiah predicted, "If YHWH Sabaoth had not given us offspring, we'd have fared like Sodom and Gomorrah.'  So what should we say, then?  Gentiles have found righteousness by God's grace, through faith; and Israelites, who pursued righteousness by keeping the law have failed to fulfill it, because they did so on the basis of works, not by faith.  They have stumbled over the Stone, as Isaiah also wrote: 'Look!  I Am laying in Zion a Stone that will make mortals stumble; a Rock that will make them fall; and those who believe in Him will not be put to shame.'  Amen.

As Jesus went His way, he came upon a man born blind.  His disciples asked Jesus: 'Who sinned--this man or his parents--that he was born blind?'  Jesus replied, 'Not this man nor his parents; instead, his blindness allows the works of God to be made manifest in him.  We must work the works of Him Who sent Me while we have the daylight; for  night is coming, when no one can work.  As long as I Am in the world, I Am the Light of the world.'  As He was speaking, Jesus spat on the ground; He made clay with the saliva and anointed the man's eyes with the clay.  And He told the man, 'God, and wash in the pool of Siloam.'  (The name means 'sent'.)  The man did as Jesus directed, and came back with perfect vision!  All who had seen him as a blind beggar conferred:  'Isn't this the guy who used to sit and beg here?'  Some said, 'Yes, that's the man.'  Others disagreed: 'No, but he's like that man.'  The fellow himself declared, 'Yes, I am that man.'  They asked how his eyes were opened.  And He told them: 'The man called Jesus made clay, anointed my eyes, and told me to go and wash them in the pool of Siloam.  So I did, and that's how I received my sight.'  They asked the man where to find Jesus, and he told them, 'I don't know.'  People took the man to the Pharisees; they repeated the questions, and gave them the same answers.  Some Pharisees said, 'This Jesus is not from God; he doesn't keep the Sabbath properly.'  Others said, 'How could a sinner do things like this?'  They asked the man himself his opinion of Jesus, and he said, 'He is a prophet.'