April 17, 2018

The Bad News and the Much Better Good News

Romans 5:19

Luke Schlenker
Tuesday's Devo

April 17, 2018

Tuesday's Devo

April 17, 2018

Central Truth

Since the Garden of Eden, man was separated from God because of sin. That sin required atonement through a perfect sacrifice. That perfect sacrifice came through the obedience of Jesus coming down from heaven and dying the perfect death on a cross so that our sins might be forgiven.

Romans 5:19

19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Dive Deeper | Romans 5:19

The worst part about basketball practice when I was younger was running sprints. I remember being a freshman in high school and running over and over because we could not finish the sprint in the time our coach required. The more we ran, the more tired we got. The more tired we got, the farther we got from the goal. We quickly realized that the times were always going to be too hard for us to reach.

As human beings, we inherited a sin nature from the fall in the Garden of Eden. Since the day we were born, we began sinning against the Lord. There was nothing we could do to save us from the separation from God that sin created in our lives. For the sake of the example, we were given an impossible time for finishing our sprint.

But there is good news!

God never intended for man to groan in our sin forever. Instead, God sent His Son Jesus Christ in human form (Philippians 2:7-8) to live a perfect life so that He could become the perfect sacrifice (John 10:10; Ephesians 2:1-10). We are saved through grace because of the perfect obedience of Christ, who took our sins on the cross.

I used to spend so much time trying to be perfect. I was always trying to "make a time" that was out of my reach because of my fallen human nature. It wasn't until I stopped looking in the mirror at my imperfections and started looking at the perfect sacrifice of Jesus that my life began to change. So, stop trying to be fast enough, smart enough, kind enough, or perfect enough to be accepted by God because you never will be. When you rest in the knowledge that Jesus already lived the perfect life so we don't have to, you will be able to experience the freedom found in the cross.

This month's memory verse

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

– Romans 5:3–5

Discussion Questions

1. Are you trying to finish an impossible sprint by being "good enough"?

2. What area of your life do you need to surrender to the Lord, knowing that His obedience offers freedom from our disobedience?