Essay Drop #1 Introduction to Essays and Entry 28: Romans 3:23-26
An essay from the 1 Phrases on God and Religion
Introduction to Essays
Of all the essays to start sharing on this Substack, I felt it was best to start with a few about God and religion as it was God and my return to religion that brought me to a point where I could share poetry and such on this Substack in the first place. Not every essay will be about God or religion, most of the essays I’ve written are about other things, but the first two will be thoughts on Bible verses. The obvious question to ask is “Why God and the Bible and not something else first?” and my reply would be, “Why do I write? Why do I share things on this Substack?” As stated up front, the goal of this Substack was ‘at least one of the works I have finished will make the world a more thoughtful and better place for future generations.’ How does one make the world a better place without considering the source of much of Western Culture’s wisdom? I start at the source, or the closest thing to it.”
Almost all of my essays, or what I call essays, come from my collection that I call “1 Phrase Entries”. Each entry is spurred on from a random thought I wanted to explore, an idea, a verse or quote, or a conversation that I was able to copy information from. The original idea was that each entry would start with a phrase that made me want to write in prose for longer than a few sentences or paragraphs, usually in a philosophical manner or simply by writing all my thoughts down on each phrase for later review and deep diving. It has morphed into something else, something I believe is better. As with all things I do. I cannot start at the beginning. I will move through the entries based on what feels right.
Introduction to Entry 28
The following entry, as mentioned above, is about religion. In particular, it is about some verses from Romans that discuss sin and grace. I share my thoughts on the verses and what they mean to me, and how I see their application in everyday life. One does not need to be a Christian or religious to find value in Bible verses, it is foolish to reject them entirely as there is wisdom to be found everywhere. As I have said many times to my family and friends, if taken as solely a book, a book of fictitious stories, the Bible is still full of wisdom worth knowing. Without further delay, here is the first essay.
Entry 28: Romans 3:23-26
One of my pastors said back during Easter time of 2022 that we should read Romans during Lent (something I have not done before mind you), and I decided to take it upon myself to give it a try in my own way. So, I decided to Google the Romans verse of the day and expanded it a bit to encompass enough to discuss. The following are the verses and wherever my thoughts took me as a result of reading them.
“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 Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
The summary of these verses, as I see it, is that all who have sinned have fallen short of the glory of God, but have been given the gift that all Christians cherish and generally take for granted, myself included. That gift is grace which is given to all by Christ Jesus and received by faith. This was God’s way of showing just how great he is and that he can, and will be, just. He knows what we go through, and he wants us to ask for forgiveness, but ultimately, knows we are human and fallible.
It is important here to note that it is not through faith, or because of faith, but by faith. You must have faith in Jesus to receive the redemption. Once one has the faith, that is to say, once someone has belief and trust in and loyalty to said beliefs, that person is redeemed and their sins have been washed away by God’s grace. Therefore, so long as you have faith, you have been redeemed (in a way). Honestly, the most curious part of this was not the original 23rd and 24th verses, but the two I added.
Verses 25 and 26 discuss how we can find grace (by faith) and why it is there. And this is what is even more interesting to me. Grace, as Paul often reminds us in his letters, was given through Christ Jesus to show that God is righteous, his divinity can look over our sins, and that it did not before (or was not explicit before). This would mean that every time one has sinned, it has been wiped away so long as one has faith. This is unlike the Old Testament and how things worked before, where sin had to be washed away through the blood of sacrificial offerings and other means along with faith, all of which had to be reaffirmed by asking for the grace and redemption.
This brings us to communion, the replacement ritual for sacrificial offerings. Communion is designed to remember and to ask for that forgiveness, for that grace by which we are all redeemed. To remember our faith, and what our faith is in, and what that faith means; to consciously ask for that covenant with God to continue even though it would perceivably continue until one no longer has faith. However, it is seemingly unnecessary to have the sins removed, as the grace given by God to those who believe in him wipes away past sin by faith. So, the only requirement is to have faith in Christ Jesus. Yet to engage with the church, the community and its members, and communion all serve to reaffirm, remember, and sustain a healthy faith in God. Participating in these things, community and rituals of faith and remembrance, pushes us to take time to listen for God and to listen to God; all while learning how to live without sinning alongside those who seek the same goals.
But the question is why? Why does God need to do this? I believe it is to show righteousness in the new age, in the time after the Old Testament. To show that he is not only still there, but he is divine, righteous, and full of grace; grace that was not properly accounted for in his eyes before then. Grace that did not reach his children as intended. That is to say grace was always there, but simple faith was not the only requirement. God’s grace was restrained by rules that humans could not perceivably follow in a mass manner, as shown by the stories of the Old Testament where time after time humans fell short of God’s expectation.
It is wrong to say that God lowered his expectation in the New Testament though. That is not what happened. God allowed grace to flow as he saw fit, unrestrained. He did this by giving his only son to us (which ties perfectly into the time of Easter and the crucifixion) and in doing so, God proved his righteousness and his divinity once again, in the present era (present meaning the Common Era, the last two thousand years).
God showed his ability to perform miracles, and through them he gave us all something we could use to build a relationship and faith with him. It is through that faith and that relationship, that we must grow closer to God and what God intends for us. It is designed to make us all disciples, to make us all prophets, to make us all carriers of his message, if only we might listen.
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