Why I Believe in Christ, Day 12 Give it all the God. Read Romans chapter 12. As we’ve gone through the book of Romans, we’ve seen Paul explain how we are not perfect. God is the only one who is perfect. We cannot be made right on our own, it requires God to bridge the gap for us to be made right. As Paul has explained in the previous chapters, we now know that the only possible response that we could have is to give God everything. That’s what this verse is talking about today in chapter 12. We are to come to God and bring him a sacrifice of…

Why I Believe in Christ, Day 11 Who can know or understand the mind of Christ? Read Romans chapter 11. Paul spends much of this chapter explaining how people can become part of the family of God. He wants people to understand that they can be grafted into the family, just the same is a plant can be grafted into another plant. When people make a decision to accept Jesus Christ as their savior they become part of the family of God. While Paul says this is possible, he does not explain exactly how this happens. He indicates that process is part of the mystery and amazement of God. We…

Why I Believe in Christ, Day 10 What do we pray for? Read Romans chapter 10. Paul has been talking about the importance of Christ and how we need him in our lives. It’s interesting that he moves from that realization to the reminder that we should be praying for everyone else to come to that realization. Once we have come to the place that we understand our need for Christ, there should be a burning desire in all of us to ensure that everyone else understands their need for Christ as well. What are we praying for? What do we passionately and earnestly desire to see God do. Does…

Why I Believe in Christ, Day 9 God did all the work. Read Romans chapter 9. I have a really hard time with this statement. I have grown up my whole life under the idea that we are to work hard and that work ethic is an important characteristic and trait in our lives. However, when it comes to righteousness before God, I have to accept that there is absolutely nothing that I can do to earn that. I cannot just work harder, and God is not impressed by my work ethic. The deeds that I do are not going to make him forgive me more. Paul painstakingly is building…

Why I Believe in Christ, Day 8 In spite of everything we have done against him, God still wants us. Read Romans chapter 8. God goes to tremendous lengths to repair the relationship between us and God. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice makes it possible for us to come to him. When we accept that, God wants to be very clear that he has claimed as his own. There is nothing that is able to separate us from God’s love. God is working behind the scenes in every situation we go in. God is moving in our lives even when we don’t see it and don’t understand it. It is such a…

Why I Believe in Christ, Day 7 What we want to do and what we actually do are often not the same thing. Read Romans chapter 7. Paul has explained that we are all sinful and that we need Christ’s perfect sacrifice in order to be made right with God. In chapter 7, Paul goes even deeper to explain that we really can’t do anything good on our own. We have the best of intentions, and we may even want to do the right thing. We often want to be better. However, the sin nature in all of us is so strong that we simply do not do what we…

Why I Believe in Christ, Day 6 We were crucified with Christ. Read Romans chapter 6. Paul has been slowly building his argument. Paul begins the book by explaining just how lost and sinful we are. He works painstakingly to make sure everyone understands the depth of their depravity. There is absolutely nothing that can save them. Paul then starts to build on that understanding. Christ was perfect. Christ was able to do everything we were not. Christ was able to fulfill everything that we were not. Here in chapter 6, we see that Christ’s crucifixion was truly on our behalf, because we were in essence crucified with him. We…

Why I Believe in Christ, Day 5 The sacrifice. Read Romans chapter 5. We can’t possibly do anything to save ourselves. As we have seen from the previous chapters, everything is designed to make us understand that we can’t be holy on our own. God is holy and just, and we are sinful. We desperately needed an intervention. God provided that through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ became the sacrifice on our behalf. He was perfect and lived the perfect life that God was demanding through the law. He was killed as payment for the sins that we have committed. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was not required, and he certainly didn’t have…

Why I Believe in Christ, Day 4 Faith, not the Law. Read Romans chapter 4. Paul continues explaining the importance of the law, and yet the inadequacy of the law to actually save us. He goes back and gives an example that all the Jewish people would know: Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. He was the man that they would have considered as righteous as righteous could be. However, Paul wants the people to understand that it was not Abraham following the law that made him righteous. Abraham didn’t even have the law. That was given to Moses centuries later. But Abraham was still considered righteous because of…

Why I Believe in Christ, Day 3 The Law is not in our favor. Read Romans chapter 3. In chapter 3 of Romans, we see Paul spend a lot of time discussing the law from the Old Testament. The Jewish people were taught the importance of keeping the law. They understood the law to be the way into God’s good graces. Keeping the law was how you make God happy. So, Jews would spend every waking moment of their life doing their best to follow every single commandment in the law. However, that’s not possible. Paul says in verse 23 that we’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.…