something for my own keepsake...

so we cover Romans 3:21-26 in bible study last night. 6 verses with so much meaning. so much intent. so much hope.

"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." - Romans 3:21-25a

everyone was consumed with the text. the definition of "righteousness"... the definition of "faith"... the definition of "fall short"... the definition of "propitation"... and the definition of "glory of God".

after we concluded the study over an hour, I had to interrupt. I couldn't walk away with everyone thinking, "oh, I understand what the words now mean."

so I asked them if they understood the beauty of what they read. if they saw the heart of the passage behind all the strange words of "redemption" and "justified".

SY asked if it was fair because surely, it would be unfair for a pure and blameless man to be punished on behalf of the rest of the sinful world.

i smiled.

of course not. of course it's not fair. of course it's brutal and unkind to Jesus. he shouldn't have to bear God's anger if he was always obedient.

i then asked if the sacrificial system was fair. if it was fair to the lambs, the ram, the sheep, the pigeons, that were all sacrifice in an attempt to appease God's anger. if that's not fair, what more a man's life for another, and even more, a innocent blameless man?

suddenly people started to look away from me and back at the verses in the bible. I had to push the envelope.

I asked them that if they felt it was unfair for the animals, what more Jesus? So why Jesus? We were the ones who sinned. We were the ones who rejected him. We were the ones to turn away.

I asked them if they saw how utterly useless and helpless and worthless we were in God's eyes. Then I asked them if they saw how much God loved us by not only sending His Son as a teacher, but as a blood sacrifice. I asked if they realized that our state with God was so dire and so hopeless that God had to send his own flesh, Jesus, who was in very nature God himself, to take on our sins and bear God's wrath.

That God provided Himself as a solution to our problem.

There was silence in the room as it slowly sank in.

Then I piped up with one last question.

" No one had a solution and no one deserved a solution. Do you see how absolutely necessary and humbling God's solution for us is?"

People kept their eyes on the passage and honestly, that was all I wanted to see. I didn't want them to look at others and think about how others were. I didn't want them to stare at the sky and only think of what I said. I wanted them to look at the passage and realise that it was not humanly possible to comprehend the power of the gospel.

Later during the application discussions, my group shared our struggles in remembering that we are God's redeemed. we were all broken. we were all in despair. we were all in a rut of helplessness. I overheard another group sharing their struggles with attending our church at the start. how they didn't understand why so much of our sermons evolved around understanding God, Jesus, and the salvation plan, and not around what we should do because we are Christians.

different people with different struggles. but all with one conclusion. whether broken or succeeding in a million and one things, all we need to stand in front of God to call ourselves His is simply knowing that He had sent his Son to shed blood on our behalf and to take our place in facing God's wrath. not our works. not our achievements. not the numerous things that fill up our career resume or church resume.

as I mentioned to C after that, it's really not easy and yet so easy to be a Christian. all I can do is to keep praying that I hold fast to this assurance I have.