Romans 4:7-12
New International Version
7 “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”[a] 9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.12 And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Thursday - May 27
Luther: “O fools, O pig-theologians (sautheologen in German)! By your line of reasoning grace was not necessary except because of some new demand above and beyond the Law. For if the Law can be fulfilled by our powers, as they say, then grace is not necessary for the fulfilling of the Law, but only for the fulfilling of some new exaction imposed by God above the Law. (Pastor Matt: The apostle Paul makes this exact same point in Galatians 2:21. What he and Luther are pointing out is that if we, humans, can do enough - fulfill the Law - in order to please God then we don’t need the death and resurrection of Jesus, grace, mercy, or forgiveness. However, Jesus DID come and Jesus DID die, and Jesus DID rise from the dead. Therefore, we must be a lot worse than we want to admit. We are like someone has cancer, but refuses to go to the doctor because they would rather ignore the symptoms and act like nothing's wrong.)
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