Today's Devotional

Part of my daily walk with God is to do a quick devotional outside of my biblical text I am currently studying. Currently my quick devotional is taking me through Romans. Though meant to be personal I wanted to share today's for those who might benefit.

Romans 4:6-8 Likewise, David also speaks of the blessing of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

How happy those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered! How
happy the man whom the Lord will never charge with sin!

Of interest is the way this text is translated. ESV makes verse seven past tense, but verse eight future tense. NASB, HCSB, NIV, NET all make verse seven present and eight future. The Greek is actually aorist in both verses. However, the future sense in verse eight reveals how it should be translated. The forgiveness happens in the past but has ongoing effects even into the future. And the there is a wonderful promise here in verse eight. The Lord will never charge those who have faith credited to their account with sin. The Greek has the double emphatic negative ensuring us that in “no way, no how” is this going to happen.

And here we are confronted with another truth of Scripture. Those who are children of God are happy. We may not be happy every second of every day, but the overarching theme is a great theme of joy and happiness. It should be of great concern if, as Christians, we walk around sulky or depressed. So not only do we have places in Scripture that demand our happiness (i.e. Delight yourselves in the Lord – Psalm 37:4) but we also have places in Scripture that promise our happiness. Here is a gut check. Do we get the immense forgiveness that has been given to us? Do we understand that by justification we are declared innocent? Do we recognize that we are indeed the great inheritors of the most prized possession ever offered to humanity? Here we hold in our possession the greatest of all treasures – a righted relationship with our Lord and Savior – the Almighty, Invisible God and Creator of the Universe.

Praise be to the glory of His Name
May His People praise His Acclaim
High above His creation is His throne
His creatures he does not leave alone
For mankind’s inheritance is shame
Preserving righteousness God’s aim
God credited faith to call our own
By Jesus’ death for our sins to atone
Declared innocent our hearts aflame
Praise be to the glory of His Name