Today's Passage - Romans 4:1-5

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 4 1-5   "What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about-but not before God. What does Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.' Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness."    Is there really free lunch in the world? Once on my short-term mission trip to Northern Thailand, we took the bus to return to Chiang Mai. When the attendant offered us cold drinks, my team member and I both turned down the offer. So he went on and distributed the drinks to other passengers. Later on we found out the drinks were free, so we went back to the attendant to ask for some. What an embarrassing experience! We are used to "No free lunch in the world" in our daily life. So my first reaction was to turn down the offer of cold drink. I didn't realize there was complementary cold drink in the bus service.    What keeps us from receiving God's grace is often our false impression. We would think grace is to be earned by our spirituality. That makes us prone to judge others, and feel we are more spiritual than others, and think we are more worthy of the grace than others. In fact, we receive the grace freely. No one can boast before God. In verse 4 the Bible says: "Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift." If you think you are worthy of God's grace simply because you are more spiritual than others, you haven't even received that grace. All you possess is merely your feeling of self-righteousness, because you only get the complacency from self-discipline, which is not the grace. Grace is something you receive but you are unworthy of, something you haven't earned for, something you receive freely, something you and I can only receive freely. In verse 5 the Bible says: "However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness." Even though it is something hard to understand, it is an extremely precious gift that we can approach our Heavenly Father with confidence to receive His abundant riches, love, grace and power. All we need to do is just to receive. How precious it is!                            Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, we thank you for your free grace and for your willingness to bless us with grace in our daily life. May the Lord remove any self-righteousness inside us so we may receive all of your grace. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!