URC Daily Devotion 25 July 2023

Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith.  For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.  Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,  since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.  Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Reflection
The court room is silent, expectant.  You are standing accused in the dock, facing the bench, awaiting judgement.  You are guilty and you know it.  You have no defence, you are in the wrong, there are no mitigating circumstances, your behaviour has been inexcusable.  The judge has considered the case and looked at the evidence.  He is said to be just.  You wish he’d get on with it.  Then the words ring out – not guilty!  You’re stunned, you take a deep breath, step down from the dock and stumble out of the court.  You don’t understand.  The judge is aware that you are culpable, but he acquits you, sets you free?  This is ludicrous.  A judgment like this turns the law on its head.  But this is precisely the point that Paul is making.  God can and does act apart from the law.  In Jesus he reconciles all people to himself, sweeping away by sheer grace and goodness all that stands between a holy God and a sinful people.  Not a grim balancing of accounts but life, grace, self-giving, love.  So we are set free from the guilt of sin to start a new life in God’s grace.  God acquits the guilty; we are set free.
 
This love of God is totally unconditional.   It shows an abiding commitment to the liberation of all people. It is, quoting Martin Luther King, “the love that does justice.” That doesn’t give us any easy answers to deep rooted economic or social problems but it provides different motivations from which alternatives can grow.  If in our inner lives we cultivate loving-kindness and compassion, then we are making it possible for society to be radically transformed.  A renewed human dignity flows from the self-giving of Christ.  God’s justice transforms and reconciles.  We no longer have to live in a sin-ridden, death afflicted world.  We have a project for a better future.  God is creating a new heaven and a new earth and in the end, love prevails. 
 
Prayer
Gracious God,
turn us and all people to yourself,
that by the power of your Spirit,
the peace which is founded on justice
may be established throughout the world,
through Jesus Christ your son our saviour.  Amen.