Read:
When Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, there were two kinds of believers—believers who were ethnically Jewish, and believers who were not, called Gentiles. As Israel was conquered by other nations – Assyria, Babylon, and Rome – the Jewish people were scattered around the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Some in the church in Rome were ethnically Jewish, but most were not. Paul wanted this diverse group of believers to all understand the same thing about faith:
We are all—Jewish or not—saved by grace through faith, just as Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians.
The Jews considered Abraham to be the father of their nation. They had always been called God’s chosen people, and God blessed them with the Law of Moses when he led them out of slavery in Egypt. The Law told them how to worship God, how to treat other Jews, and how to treat everyone else. Over time, some began to feel superior to the Gentiles because they kept the law. In this section of the letter, Paul reminded the Jewish Christians—and introduced the Gentiles, perhaps for the first time—to the truth that God’s plan for salvation has always been based on faith.
If you’ve ever felt like you can never measure up, that all your effort gets you nowhere, or that you’ll never be good enough, the Good News of Jesus Christ is this: faith in him is all it takes! His death on the cross has accomplished what our best effort never could. Just like Abraham, we are saved by faith.
Pray: Dear God, I believe that what Jesus did on the cross was enough to pay for my sins! You are faithful to forgive, and I am blessed. Amen.