Tag: QT

Romans 5:6-8 (ESV)
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I am a weak vessel. I feel this everyday as I strive to be more like my Savior. If it were up to me to EARN my way to heaven, I would miserably fail! In fact, by the time I became aware of what the purity of God demands in His presence, I had already failed and sinned; reaping the wrath of God I so justly deserve.

This is not popular —- The world tells us that we are inherently good and that if we just focused on ourselves and respect who we are, we would be so much better off. This is simply not true…through Adam, we have been born into a sinful body and existence we cannot escape. BUT then, at just the right time for Jesus to enter the world, He came and lived a perfect life, taught us what our position is relative to the Father, and then sacrificially gave Himself as a ransom for us! He didn’t die for the good Ben Bourland, He died for the wretched, sinful, and weak Ben Bourland. The Ben Bourland and I am.

BUT NOW, because of that ransom that has been paid for me by Jesus, I stand in God’s amazing grace. God, because of His Son, has literally transformed my heart into one who out of a desperate love and gratitude, lives to honor, glorify, and praise God for all that He has completed. That love God displayed in sending His Son and God the Son enduring the cross for my Salvation, is not comprehendible. I only live Justified, because He lives…not only lives, but lives IN me.

APPLICATION

The truths of this passage are overwhelming! Some of this is so overwhelming that it is hard to comprehend how I, a lowly sinner, can receive such a gift. It is this heart condition that drives me into God’s Word everyday seeking to know God’s character and attributes so that the life I live here on this earth is one that points to the Savior Who rescued me. It is this mindset that has me seeking every opportunity to build relationships with hurting people, share the love of God as well as what He has done for us, and finally taking every opening I can to share the Gospel of this God Who has created a way, a way that is outside of any capability we have, to have everlasting life in the presence of the One Who ransomed us from our depravity.

Romans 5:3-5 (ESV)
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Looking back to yesterday, Paul begins Romans 5 by declaring that justification by faith brings peace with God through Jesus Christ. Because of this, we as believers now stand in grace and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

So the flow is:

Faith → Justification → Peace with God

Access to Grace → Hope in God’s Glory

This sets the foundation for verses 3–5, which shift the focus from future hope to present pain.

Paul makes a bold and counterintuitive claim: I rejoice in our sufferings. Why? Because suffering is not meaningless—it initiates and continues my spiritual growth process (Sanctification):

Suffering → Endurance Trials teach me to persevere, to keep going even when it’s hard.

Endurance → Character Perseverance shapes who I am. It refines me, showing me Who God is, and finally proving and strengthening my faith.

Character → Hope A tested and proven character leads to a deeper, more confident hope in God.

Hope → No Shame This hope is secure—it won’t disappoint me—because it’s anchored in God’s love, poured into my heart by the Holy Spirit.

APPLICATION

This passage teaches that suffering is not a detour from spiritual growth—it’s part of the journey. It’s not something to merely endure, but something that God uses to shape me.

I Need to Rejoice in Trials: Not because they’re pleasant, but because they’re purposeful. God is doing something in me through each one of them.

Trust the Process: Endurance builds character, and character strengthens hope. I can’t rush it—I need to let God work; God’s timing is perfect.

Lean on the Holy Spirit: I’m not alone. God’s Holy Spirit (the Helper) is actively present in my heart.

Live with Hope: This hope isn’t wishful thinking—it’s a confident expectation rooted in God’s love and faithfulness.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:2

Told you! One verse at a time. 🙂

This verse brings such comfort and at the same time directs our focus to exactly where it should be -> in hope of the glory of God.

I love the sentiment that Paul uses here in the term ‘Stand’. This refers to the permanent, secure position we as believers enjoy in God’s grace. The new creature in us strives to be more like God’s Son but in these fleshly bodies and on this sin cursed earth, we will falter…and when we do, we stand in this grace Paul talks about. Let that sink in for a moment. Once reconciled, always reconciled.

I want to address this “access”…this is something the OT Jews could never have fathomed. While it may be true that God showed Himself through awesome miracles and deliverance in the OT, this grace we have been given access to is something they never had. They needed to look to blood sacrifices to temporarily atone for their sin until that forbearance was completed in the shed blood of the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ.

Finally, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. This kind of hope is different than the normal English word “hope”. This New Testament word comes with no uncertainty; it speaks of something that is certain, but not yet realized. Our destiny as believers is to share in the very glory of God and that Hope will be realized because Jesus has secured it!

APPLICATION

These promises are everything! Without these clear and certain promises of The Word of God, we would have no basis for hope. Knowing I STAND in this place of Grace, forever embraced by God to an eternity with Him, I can rejoice while I am here on earth. As we will see tomorrow, that rejoicing does not take condition on my circumstances or situations.

Peace with God Through Faith
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1

Expect my speed to slow down over the next week or so because there is so much in every verse here in Chapter 5. These next 4 chapters are just packed full of goodness and theology about our faith in the Lord Jesus and what we reap through that faith.

Justification is a one time occurrence – At the moment of Salvation we are “Justified” and as we have learned in the preceding chapters, this by faith in Christ alone.

The title of this devotion is “Peace with God” because this is what Justification does. God has declared Himself to be at war with every human being because of humanity’s rebellion against Him and His laws. BUT, the first great result of justification is that the sinner’s war with God is ended forever. As we learned in church today, scripture refers to the end of this conflict as a person being reconciled to God.

APPLICATION

This peace with God is not some internal sense of calm and serenity, no, this peace is a real peace; an objective reality. Because of this, I have an eternal hope that is connected to this peace with God that goes beyond good relations with God…He sees me like He sees His own Son. In this peace, I have an inheritance that is unimaginable. Lord God, first, thank You for Your Word that you have given us that is Your voice, Your message, and Your truth. Resting on passages just like this one gives a level of gratefulness and hope in my future that is secured by the most powerful being in the entirety of what there is to know (Space, Cosmos, etc).

But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Romans 4:23-25

A little shorter QT today but no less impactful. Sometimes people struggle to see the gift of Easter. We get Good Friday, and we love that the Father raised Jesus from the dead…but the gravity of the implication sometimes escapes us. Here is something right here in Romans 4:25 you can hang your hat on. The Father resurrected Jesus from the dead to provide proof that He had ACCEPTED THE SACRIFICE of His Son and would be able to be just and yet justify the ungodly. Jesus is living proof of that promise and His resurrection directly impacted our ability to be Justified!

APPLICATION

My King and Justifier of my soul lives as proof of the powerful promise of God! This reading through Romans 4 has landed on me in very new ways this time around. That my friends is the Living Word of God. In my previous times through this chapter of the Bible, I may not have been read to fully consume what the Lord wanted to reveal to me. I am so grateful to my Lord and Savior for speaking to me through this letter from Paul. I do not deserve His grace, love, and provision. It once again invigorates me to live even more deliberately for Him while I am here under the sun.

as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or  when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:17-22

This is a quote from Genesis 17:5. Here is some crazy awesome insight coming -> When Paul talks about giving live to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist, he is talking about justification again. God can declare believing sinners to be righteous even though they are not…by imputing His righteousness to them. Likewise, God made or declared Jesus to be “sin” and punished Him, even though He was not a sinner. Those whom He justifies, He will conform to the image of His Son (This again is a great way of stating these truths by the great John MacArthur).

Hope against hope is simply a reckoning of the human perspective that it seemed impossible to Abraham but he believed anyway. God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation and this promise was given when Abraham was of great age (100 years old) and not only that, his wife Sarah was well beyond child bearing age as just 10 years younger than Abraham…meaning that Abraham believed what God had said even though it seemed impossible!

APPLICATION

Oh how I want the faith of Abraham! I can sometimes become weak…entertaining a doubt that erodes my confidence. BUT, through God’s power of sanctification, He has grown my faith in not only His presence but also in the promise He has given me that He is always working things out for His good, glory, and honor…when I believe that, then I also must believe that what God is doing is also for my good because I live IN His Son. When the pressures of life fall on me or the worldly culture and cursed earth sit present in front of me, I can rest in the faith that the Lord is in control. It does not mean He removes my suffering…not at all…in fact, it has been in that suffering that He grown my faith the most when I have leaned into Him for my strength that rests nestled in His promises. It is a freeing thing when you let go of the present and realize the good that God has planned beyond your suffering maybe something you don’t see in your lifetime.

The Promise Realized Through Faith
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, Romans 4:13-16

As we’ve been reading, God’s promise to Abraham was not based on the law, but on the righteousness that comes through faith. What does this mean? It means that all who believe—by being united with Christ—become heirs of that promise.

I love how John MacArthur explains it:

“If only those who perfectly keep the law—an impossible standard—could receive the promise, then faith would be worthless and the promise meaningless. A promise that depends on an unattainable condition is no promise at all.”

Justification is through faith alone! BUT the power of justification is God’s great grace, not a person’s faith. The promise rests entirely on this Grace!

APPLICATION

I received justification by my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but the justification itself is a gift of grace from God bestowed through my belief. What is belief? It is not just knowing and agreeing that Jesus lived, died, and rose again…no, it is a belied AND trust in Jesus to be Lord of my life because it is now His. That belief is more of a continuous action demonstrated in how I live my life IN BELIEF IN JESUS. This is born out in fruit I produce out of my life…that fruit is an indicator and evidence of my Salvation. Saying some words as an insurance policy and then not living it out, is not a genuine belief in God.

9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. Romans 4:9-12

This is such an awesome point that Paul is making here in Romans 4 and can be applied to our own lives today. I can call myself a Christian and even have the title of elder or even Follower of Jesus…but that does not make me righteous.

Abraham was declared righteous by faith before he was circumcised. This means his right standing with God wasn’t based on a physical act or religious identity. Circumcision was a sign, a seal of the righteousness he already had by faith. Therefore, Abraham is the spiritual father of:

• The uncircumcised who believe (Gentiles),
• And the circumcised who not only bear the sign but who also follow Abraham’s example of faith – faith in the Lord Jesus now that the He as the Messiah, has come to bear sin.

Faith, not ritual, title, or heritage, is the basis for being made right with God. This opens the door for everyone—Jew and Gentile alike—to be part of God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

APPLICATION

I need to be careful of the Pharisaical propensities that I might have as a serving follower of Jesus. I must preach the gospel to myself every morning and live a life that is not my own. I have been purchased at the highest price. I still live in this earthly carcass that is bent on responding to the world’s pleasures and enticement of sin. I am reminded of Hebrews 12:1&2a. “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud witnesses, let us through off everything that hinders, the sin that so easily entangles…let us run with perseverance, the race that has been set before us, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…” This is one of my memorized passages of scripture and one that is so wonderful to pray through to remind myself Who matters.

5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” Romans 4:5-8

Just as a someone has their monetary debts covered by a gift of mercy, Jesus bore our sin, and the Father does not count them against us! How crazy is that?!?

When Jesus secured our freedom from sin, God forgave our lawless deeds. God’s plan for us is so perfect. When we accept the truth of Jesus and His blood poured out for us, our sin is covered. We still did them, the old man in us did live, and our new man remembers what we have been saved from. It is this heart condition that David is talking about above from Psalm 31:1&2. This passage continues with “I acknowledged my sin to You, and I did not cover my iniquity!” I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

David was a man after God’s own heart yet as we know, David was no saint. He committed some of the most heinous sins, yet in his grief and shame, he humbled himself before the LORD of Hosts and cast all his sin at the foot of God. His faith produced a bestowing of righteousness and the moniker of a “man after God’s own heart”. David’s story, from his earliest years, was a man who knew God was real, saw the hand of God so deliberately in his own life, yet also fell in so many yucky ways. In the end it was his brokenness and contrite heart before the Lord that captured God’s favor on him.

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
    You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

Psalm 51:17 (NLT)

APPLICATION

Psalm 51:17 is such a beautiful capture of the type of heart God is looking for. He is not looking for the righteous pious servant, no, God is looking for a broken and contrite heart that stands before a mighty and holy God. A heart that recognizes the depravity it contains relative to pure and just God. This must be my state in all that I do – whether that is at work or serving as an elder at church. He is everything, I am nothing…if anything good comes from His life in me, it is only Him Who deserves all the glory. In short, my life IS HIS. It is He Who lives in me.