Distracted

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday: Romans 1

Tuesday: Romans 2

Wednesday: Romans 3:1-21

Thursday: Romans 3:21-31

Friday: Romans 4:1-8

Saturday: Romans 4:9-12

Sunday: Romans 4:13-25

Opening Prayer

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

DEVOTION:

This Devotion entitled, “The Man On The Middle Cross Said I Could Come”, is taken from The Seedbed Daily Text, May 10th, 2023 By J.D. Walt:

So what does this have to do with Abraham and circumcision and all that in today’s text? The eleven most powerful words in the fourth chapter of Romans, if not in the whole letter, and maybe the whole Bible (there I go again) are these:

“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 

Circumcision is not required. Law is not required. Good works are not required. So far so good. Let’s take it a step further. Sinner’s prayer is not required. Baptism is not required. Going to church is not required. The only thing required: believing God.

Truth #1. We bring nothing. Truth #2. God brings everything. And when we can finally get our minds wrapped around Truth #1 and #2 then we will have something. It is through that something we become the kind of people through whom God can do anything.

So what is that something? It is faith. It is not believing in God, or believing in a set of doctrines about God—true as they may be—but believing God. 

Alistair Begg, senior pastor of Cleveland’s Parkside Church preached a rousing sermon on the thief on the cross. He remembered the interchange between the two thieves on either side of Jesus at Calvary. Then he recalled the one thief’s plea to Jesus to “Remember me when you come into your kingdom,” and Jesus’s merciful response, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Beg imagines the wild interchange in heaven when the thief arrives:

Think about the thief on the cross. What an immense . . . I can’t wait to find that fellow one day to ask him, “How did that shake out for you? Because you were cussing the guy out with your friend. You’d never been in a Bible study. You’d never got baptized. You didn’t know a thing about church membership. And yet—and yet, you made it! You made it! How did you make it?”

That’s what the angel must have said—you know, like, “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“Well, ’cause I don’t know.”

“Well, you know . . . excuse me. Let me get my supervisor.”

They go get the supervisor angel: “So, we’ve just a few questions for you. First of all, are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith?”

The guy says, “I’ve never heard of it in my life.”

“And what about . . . Let’s just go to the doctrine of Scripture immediately.”

This guy’s just staring.

And eventually, in frustration, he says, “On what basis are you here?”

And he said, “The man on the middle cross said I could come.”

Now, that is the only answer. That is the only answer. And if I don’t preach the gospel to myself all day and every day, then I will find myself beginning to trust myself and trust my experience, which is part of my fallenness as a man. If I take my eyes off the cross, I can then give only lip service to its efficacy while at the same time living as if my salvation depends upon me. And as soon as you go there, it will lead you either to abject despair or a horrible kind of arrogance. And it is only the cross of Christ that deals both with the dreadful depths of despair and the pretentious arrogance of the pride of man that says, “You know, I can figure this out, and I’m doing wonderfully well.” No.

Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
  —Charitie L. Bancroft, “Before the Throne of God Above,” 1863

The man on the middle cross said I could come. 

Prayer:

Abba Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Blessed Holy Spirit, have mercy on us sinners. We pray with Charles Wesley, “Depth of mercy! Can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God His wrath forbear? Me, the chief of sinners, spare?” We confess we bring nothing to the cross, while you bring everything. Today, we, no I receive your everything in exchange for my nothing. I receive the gift of your grace by my whole-hearted faith. Indeed, we say with the thief, “The man on the middle cross said I could come.” Thank you for receiving my faith and crediting it to me as righteousness. 

Question: Do you struggle with adding requirements to the grace of God—for yourself, for others? Why? Is it enough that the man on the middle cross said you could come? Do you believe God?